For most of us, tables have played an important role in our lives. We’ve sat down with family and friends to share a meal and talk. We’ve played games around a table, laughed, cried, maybe even cursed a time or two. Shh! We’ve eaten some of the best meals of our lives, celebrated milestones, and wept over the loss of loved ones while sitting at a table. We’ve done our homework, made budgets and menus, written blog posts and sermons and books, and written some of our best tweets sitting at a table. Whether it was a dinner table, a card table, a coffee table, or an end table, tables have been the center of many, many parts of our lives. Each of us, given only a couple of minutes to think, could probably name several life-changing events in our lives that occurred around a table. If we were to create a book of all the important conversations, surprising revelations, painful confessions, and joyous celebrations that we remember taking place at a table, we could probably cover most of this lawn with all the paper. Tables play an important role in our lives.

This morning, as we continue our series on questions of the faith, we are looking at the question, “What really happens in the Lord’s Supper?” And I believe that the answer to that question centers around the table. So, let’s start there…at the table. The gospel of Luke tells us the story on which the celebration of the Lord’s Supper was formed. Luke writes, “When the hour came, [Jesus] took his place at the table, and the apostles with him.” This begs a couple of questions, what hour was it that came? And where was Jesus’ place at the table? Regarding the first question, the hour was the hour on which the Jews celebrated the feast of the Passover. Passover was one of the three main feast days in the Jewish year. On that day, they would celebrate the exodus of the people of God out of Egypt. If you remember that story, God told Pharaoh that a plague was coming that would wipe out all the firstborn sons of the Egyptians. But God wanted to save the Isrealites, so he told them to put the blood of a lamb on the doorposts of their homes and God would then pass them over. And then in the morning, the people were to make their bread and go, without giving it time to rise. Passover was then established as a feast day on which the Israelites ate unleavened bread in remembrance of their salvation from slavery in Egypt.

So, Jesus and his disciples were preparing to celebrate this common feast as Luke’s story begins in the section we read for today. But this is where everything changes. After briefly talking about his coming suffering, Jesus takes the bread of the Passover and he gives it a new meaning. This bread that symbolized the salvation of the Israelites from slavery is given a new significance with Jesus’ words. Luke writes, “Then [Jesus] took a loaf of bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to them…” All of that is still typical for a Passover meal. But Jesus continues, “saying, ‘This is my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me.’” Now, I imagine those who were with Jesus in that moment didn’t really understand what they were hearing. Jesus was standing there in front of them. But we, knowing the rest of the story, understand that Jesus knew he was soon to die and he wanted this meal (one they’d celebrated together many times) to become a way for his followers to remember him.

Maybe we have our answer then. The Lord’s Supper is about remembering Jesus and his death and resurrection. There was a theologian by the name of Ulrich Zwingli (try saying that ten times fast). And Zwingli said exactly that. The Lord’s Supper is a feast of remembrance and nothing more. We come to the table and eat the bread and drink from the cup in order to remember Jesus and how he saved us. I would wager that this is the most prominent theology of the Lord’s Supper in the United States. Most baptist and non-denominational churches, among others, follow Zwingli’s stance on the Lord’s Supper. But if that’s the case, then what’s the point of doing it regularly? Can’t we remember Jesus in other ways? In fact, isn’t our whole worship about remembering Jesus?

The Roman Catholic Church has long taken a very different stance on what happens in the Lord’s Supper. The Catholics believe in something called ‘transubstantiation.’ Anyone familiar with that theology? Or can anyone deduce from the name what it might mean? It utilizes the prefix ‘trans’ meaning ‘across’ or ‘the movement from one place to another’ and the suffix ‘ation’ meaning ‘process.’ And in the middle we have ‘substance.’ So, transubstantiation means ‘the process of moving from one substance to another.’ This theology proposes that in the consecration of the bread and the wine, the bread literally transforms into Jesus’ body and the wine into Jesus’ blood. So, when we eat and drink the elements, we are eating and drinking the actual physical body and blood of Christ. Now, that doesn’t mean it changes in taste or anything, but simply that a mysterious transformation happens that makes the bread and wine become in some real way the actual body and blood of Christ while still remaining in the form of bread and wine.

If that’s not quite your thing, Martin Luther had a different idea of what happens at the Lord’s table. Luther proposed a theology often called ‘consubstantiation.’ You’re learning a lot of new words today. Can you guess what this word might mean? We’ve still on the suffix of ‘ation’ meaning ‘process’ and the noun substance in the middle. But what does the prefix ‘con’ mean? ‘Con’ means ‘with’ or ‘together with.’ So, consubstantiation is the belief that in the consecration of the elements, the body and blood of Christ come together with the bread and the wine. The bread and wine don’t physically become the body and blood, but somehow the substances are linked to one another. It’s not a huge deviation from the Catholic view, but significant enough to cause arguments and division.

This means we have three different views of what happens at the Lord’s Supper: remembrance, transubstantiation, consubstantiation. But there is yet another idea. And this is the one that Presbyterians usually follow. This view is often called the ‘Spiritual Presence.’ John Calvin’s theology of the Lord’s Supper is the basis for this theology. Calvin did not agree with Zwingli that Communion was just a remembrance of Christ and his death. But he also did not agree with the Catholics and Lutherans regarding the physical presence of the body and blood of Christ. Calvin argued that Christ is physically in heaven with God the Father and would not then descend to enter the elements of Communion. But Calvin did believe that Christ was still somehow present in the meal. For Calvin, Christ was present to us through the Holy Spirit. In fact, Calvin had what I think is a beautiful image of the Lord’s table. He described it as a launching pad to heaven. For Calvin, Christ does not descend to us in the meal, but we ascend and join in the heavenly worship.

There are two reasons why I love this idea. First, it reminds us that the worship of God is far bigger than just our church worshiping on a Sunday morning. We are joining with a host of other believers and with the angels in heaven in praising God. And that is a humbling and awe-inspiring realization. It is also a reminder that just as Christ welcomes us just as we are, so should we too welcome others just as they are. If, as Calvin believes, the Lord’s table draws us up into the worship of heaven, then there is an important significance in participating in that celebration as often as possible.

The second reason why I love this idea of the table as a launching pad to the heavenly worship is that it reminds us that we are not alone and all of the saints of yesterday, today, and tomorrow are supporting us. April showed me a video this week of singer Lewis Capaldi. Are you familiar with him? Capaldi is a Scottish recording artist who recently shared with the public that he has Tourette’s Syndrome, which causes him to sometimes make involuntary sounds and movements. At a recent concert at the Glastonbury Festival in England, Capaldi was in the middle of his song “Someone You Loved” when his shoulders began to twitch and he was clearly struggling to continue singing the song. But then something pretty amazing happened. The crowd of probably 10s of thousands of people began to sing the song in his place. If you can, I would encourage you to look up the video. It is truly moving. And as I watched that taking place, it reminded me of the experience of coming to the Lord’s Table. We come and are united with God, with one another, and will all the saints of yesterday, today, and tomorrow.

And true unity in Christ means lifting one another up when we struggle. It means welcoming the stranger and the oppressed. It means loving one another without judgment or prejudice. It means accepting our brothers and sisters as they are, just as Christ has accepted us as we are.

I want to share a part of the lyrics to the song that Lewis Capaldi was singing at the concert I referred to, because I think they have something important to say to us. The chorus says this:

Now the day bleeds into nightfall

And you’re not here to get me through it all

I let my guard down, and then you pulled the rug

I was getting kinda used to being someone you loved

As humans we are inherently lonely and feel unloved. When we come to the table of the Lord and join the heavenly worship of God, we are reminded that we are united to God and one another. And that means we should always try to be there for one another to help them get through whatever it is they are going through. When we come to the table, we are reminded that we are loved…by Christ and by one another. I want to close with this. In the chapter of 1 Corinthians just prior to the one we read from this morning, the Apostle Paul discusses the Lord’s Supper and about some of the Jewish laws concerning meals. And he ends by saying this: “So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do everything for the glory of God.” May we come to the table in thankfulness for what God has done for us in Christ Jesus and may we be lifted up into the heavenly worship and be united with one another and with all the saints. And may we do everything for the glory of God, seeking to love as we have been loved. Amen!