A Place Setting at the Lord’s Table

A meditation entitled "Setting the Table:"

As I lay the fork near the plate,
let me remember this is Your table, not mine.
As I set the water glasses down
and fold the napkins, let me be reminded
that every setting at this table
is Yours, not mine.

Each one who will partake of this meal
is a particular someone You love, a someone
You have made and whom You sustain.
In You nothing and no one is forgotten.
How vast and providential is the memory
with which You keep us all.

It is only we who forget You
and then one another.
It is we who starve each other
and exclude each other.
Give me new eyes.
When the glass is raised by my friend
let me see You drinking.
When the fork is lifted by my child,
let me recognize You eating.
You are the hidden joy which feeds
and keeps everything. You are the table,
the guest, the meal, and the commemoration.

Make in my person a place setting for You.
Remind me of my true nature
which is recalled only in You.

Today is Maundy Thursday, and our focus is on the table and the meal that is before us—the Lord’s table, the Lord’s last supper, the Lord’s first communion feast. Some of you know that throughout this Holy Week, I have been sharing some meditations from Gunilla Norris’ book of meditations entitled Being Home. I think you could say that the overall theme of her meditations is that, as we go about our daily lives at home, we may discover and celebrate our true home that is with God… that "being home" means "being with God."

Her meditation on Setting the Table is rich in images and metaphors. Some are more familiar than others. The image of Christ as both the host and the feast at the Communion table is a common one. And other authors have reminded us to look for the face of Christ in those with whom we share a holy meal. God’s unimaginably generous love shared in this Holy Communion has been trenchantly described by Frederick Buechner. "The next time you walk down the street," he writes, "take a good look at every face you pass and in your mind say Christ died for thee. That girl. That slob. That phony. That crook. That saint. That damned fool. Christ died for thee. Take and eat this in remembrance that Christ died for thee."

Norris joins with other writers to portray these images of the Lord’s Supper. They are all good images to remember as we commemorate Jesus’ Last Supper tonight.

But Norris also gives us an image that is new for me. Until I read this meditation, I had never thought of myself as a "place setting" at the Lord’s Table. I had imagined myself seated in my place at the Table. But that’s different. Can you see yourself as the place setting… the plate, the water glass, the silverware? I can certainly picture myself in the action of setting the table. Like most children, I was often given that job as I was growing up. And, as an ordained person, I often set the Lord’s Table. But the image here is not of a person setting the table; it is the setting on the table and the chair at the table. Yes, as I think about it, the chair is definitely part of the place setting. We are the plate, the goblet, the knife and spoon, and the chair, waiting empty and drawn back. The place setting at the Lord’s Table.

In this image, I am not sure who is supposed to sit in that chair. If I am the chair, the plate, the "place" at the Lord’s Table, I do not know whose place I am holding. Maybe it is not for me to know or to choose whose place setting I am. Maybe I am the place setting for the phony or the crook Buechner talks about. Maybe I am to be the place where they may come to the Lord’s Table. Or maybe I am the place for a child; maybe I am a chair with a booster seat, a rainbow colored plastic plate and a sippy cup. Me—a celestial sippy cup by which a child might first taste the mystery and joy of God’s embracing love. Maybe I am the place setting where you will find your place at the Lord’s Table. Maybe you are mine. Perhaps the place I hold is to welcome a stranger, someone whom I have never seen or met who is lost and confused, but hungry for God. Maybe you or I am to be the place setting for the Lord. He does have a place at this table, of course, and all of us share the role of being the Lord’s place at the holy table.

A place setting is what makes it possible for folk to participate in a meal. At the very least a place setting is space at a table. A good place setting goes further and provides everything an individual needs to participate in the meal. For an elaborate meal, a good place setting is elaborate, with Queen Anne chairs, and more pieces of bone china, sterling silver and crystal than I know the names of. For a family dinner a good place setting is a chair for everyone and dishwasher safe plates and cutlery. For another meal, the appropriate setting might be a lobster bib, picks, and lots of napkins. A place setting provides everything a person needs to partake in any meal. To be a place setting at the Lord’s table is to provide, to be, whatever is needed so that all may gather and partake of the Lord’s Supper.

A place setting at the Lord’s Table. It is an image more for meditation than explication. So consider in your mind’s eye, within the urging of your heart… consider the faces around you and the faces that people our streets and neighborhoods, consider your own hunger deep within, consider the face of the Lord himself… And then consider how you may be the invitation, the waiting chair, the place, the space, the implements, the vessels… through which the world may gather in communion and partake of the Body and Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ.

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