Before we receive Holy Communion, we pray the Lord’s Prayer, asking God to “give us this day our daily bread.” We open our hands to receive Christ, who is the bread of life. Christ’s gift of Holy Communion invites us to imaginatively re-frame how we think about our common, ordinary meals. Rejoicing in the gifts we have received from God, we respond by giving ourselves away in love and service to God in this world.
Holy Communion is a meal where the portions are equal, where status doesn’t matter, and where there are no particular guests of honor.
How might we be transformed through an awareness that everything we eat comes to us as a gift from God?
This message is adapted from “A Joyful Exchange” written by Julie A. Kanarr in the July/August 2011 issue of Lutheran Woman Today (now Gather magazine.