After nearly three months my Sabbatical Journey is almost to an end. I've been working this week collecting my thoughts about the experiences of the past few months. I've reveiwed the books I've read, looked at notes I took while traveling, viewed the many pictures I've taken and tried to put this experience in perspective. It won't fully happen right now. There is just too much to put my arms around. And there are things I still need to think about and digest.
Our church will have a celebration on Sunday, August 22. Some say it is a welcome back for my wife and me. I think of it more as a time to celebrate the renewal of our life together in the setting of a marvelous church. There will only be one worship service that morning at 10 a.m. I will be preaching if I still remember how. Following the service there will be a catered meal which is paid for by the Lilly grant that has allowed so many wonderful experiences this summer. I'll have some pictures and a whole table of items collected during my travels. They will include some prints of frescos from the catacombs in Rome and a communion token from Campbelton, Scotland dated 1823. We hope to have a booklet for those who want it containing the sermons preached this summer, the communion stories collected and a report on some of the things I've learned this summer. We also hope to have this booklet online in a few days.
Last week I spent a day at the Christian Church Historical Society in Nashville, reading some old documents written by Barton Stone. I also took pictures of two communion tables on display this summer at the Society. One is from the 1909 gathering of the Christian Church in Pittsburg. The other table, one familiar to us because it was designed and built by Mark Whitley, was used at the 2009 Assembly of the Christian Church in Indianapolis. One table is very plain, a table that might sit in our homes and be used as a desk. The other is designed like the trunk of a tree and has a glass top. If you look inside you can see the names of hundreds of people who wrote a prayer on a small piece of wood and had it glued to the inside of the table. The tables are light years apart in design. They speak to two groups of people separated by 100 years. A lot has changed in that period of time. I can only imagine what has changed in 2000 years.
But as much as things have changed I hope the meal is still at the center of who we are as a people, reminding us of God's presence among us through the spirit, reminding us of the need to show the same hospitality and love that Jesus showed when he sat at table so many years ago. It is right that our interpretations change as the world changes. The gospel must always become a new and fresh thing. But the change can never take us too far from the welcoming center of the Lord's Supper. It is there that we continue to be molded and shaped into cups capable of sharing the wine of life with the world.
