The Open Table

Neal Kentch

The news coming from Indianapolis these days is enough to make a person wonder. First come the rumors and reports of unsteadiness and uncertainty in our church’s General structures. These rumors and reports might cause a person to wonder darkly if there is anything holding us Disciples together and what, if anything, the Body of Christ at large would lose should our little ship suddenly shudder and sink into it. But hard on the heels of these reports comes what is to my mind the astonishing word that new Disciples congregations are being established at a rate not seen in some fifty years. With heart hopeful, a person might wonder what it is about these new congregations that will make them Disciples congregations and not some other type. I wonder about this, anyway.

Those rumors and reports of unsteadiness and uncertainty should cause concern among us, but not because the General structures are what hold us together. The General and Regional structures of our church are expressions of our unity, not that unity’s guarantors. We create these structures; the church creates and constitutes them. They do not create and constitute the church. We would never say that the authenticity of a Disciples congregation depends upon its communion with, and fidelity to, a bishop, or, in our case, a Regional Minister. Insofar as the General church is an expression of our unity and a reflection of the health of our congregations, whatever unsteadiness and uncertainty exists in the structures of the General church is cause for concern. But the General church is not what holds us together.

Some churches do find their unity in an ecclesiastical hierarchy. Our church does not. Still other churches look to a common confession or dogma to define who they are. But we Disciples do not find the ties that bind there either. Proudly and defiantly we announce that we have no book but the Bible and no creed but Christ.

A Disciples congregation is one that has some ecclesiastical relationship with other Disciples congregations and with our church’s broader structures, even if it is only a line in the Yearbook and Directory. And a Disciples congregation does share with others of its kind certain broad patterns of thought. But this relationship and these patterns are of secondary importance. What truly makes a congregation a Disciples congregation, what gives it shape and form, is a practice, a liturgical practice. Sunday after Sunday, from congregation to congregation, Disciples gather about the Lord’s Table and in a somewhat peculiar fashion. It is this practice that characterizes a Disciples congregation more than anything else. It is this practice that holds us together. And it is this practice that the Body of Christ at large would lose should we disappear.

We Disciples gather about the Lord’s Table each Sunday morning. While weekly communion is unusual among Protestant churches, it is certainly not unique among Christians. The Eucharist is celebrated at least weekly in Roman Catholic churches, but that Eucharist is only for those Christians in communion with the local bishop, at least officially. Other Protestant churches have communion and some of them may even have weekly communion, but it is usually intended only for the faithful, those identified as faithful to that particular church’s creed or confession.

The table around which we Disciples gather (and it is a table, not an altar) is an open table. It must necessarily be an open table in a Disciples church for we have no basis upon which we may define the faithful, those worthy to partake. We have no bishop or hierarchy to which one could pledge fidelity. Neither have we any creed or confession that would permit one or the other of us to separate the sheep from the goats. By necessity, the table around which we gather is an open table. But this is a happy necessity. Happily (some would say recklessly) we announce on Sunday mornings that all are welcome, or all Christians are welcome, or all those baptized are welcome. Happily we announce the unity of the church, of the Body of Christ. This witness to the unity of all Christians, this witness to that hope, this foretaste of what is to come, is what the Body of Christ at large would lose should the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) disappear.

I believe that we Disciples would do well to pay more attention when we gather around the Lord’s Table. More might be going on there than even we realize and acknowledge. We Disciples are accustomed to remembering the upper room, the night of betrayal, and the events of the following day when we gather around the table. But the upper room was not the only place and the night of betrayal was not the only occasion that Jesus took, blessed, broke, and gave the bread of which we partake. He did so also beside the sea. At least one account of Jesus’ feeding the multitude, or his multiplication of the loaves, can be found in all four gospels, the only one of Jesus’ miracles appearing in all four. Indeed, Matthew and Mark both recount the story twice. Maybe we should take a hint. Maybe we ought to be remembering these stories, as well. Maybe they can also tell us what is happening when we gather.

When Jesus broke the loaves beside the sea, he did not ask for a show of hands of those who had been baptized. He did not distinguish between faithful and apostate, saint and sinner. Making no distinctions whatsoever, he took five or seven loaves of bread and two or a few fish, gave thanks, broke (except in John), and gave the bread and fish to a multitude numbering either 4,000 or 5,000 (Luke does not bother with a number). All ate and were filled. There were either seven or twelve baskets of leftovers. What is this? What is this but a feast of rich food for all peoples? And what could this mean? Could it be the destruction of the shroud that is cast over all peoples, the sheet spread over all nations? Could it be the wiping away of all tears from all faces? Might this be the Lord for whom we have waited? (See Isaiah 25.6-10.) This bread is the goodness and generosity of God—the righteousness of God being revealed, Paul would say—a goodness and generosity far exceeding any other, a perfect goodness and generosity overpowering and shining like the sun and falling like the rain on the just and the unjust alike and overwhelming both without distinction. And blessed are the poor, the hungry, those weeping.

Can this be possible? Can the news really be this good? These are questions I constantly pose to my Disciples of Christ congregation. And having finished the sermon with a prayer, I walk to and stand behind the table. I hold my breath. I then say that that table is our Lord’s Table, not our own. Our Lord is the host and we, all of us alike and without distinction, are all welcome guests. No distinction is made between the baptized and the unbaptized, not even between Christian and not. The table is as open as wide as the heart of God. The bread that we eat is the goodness and generosity of God. And we receive this bread from the hand of Jesus Christ, risen from the dead, the fullness of God filling us.

At this point, a person might well ask if this is any way to run a church. And I suppose it isn’t. With boundaries so fluid and fuzzy, how can one say that one has a church at all? How can we say that one is inside and another outside such that we can say that a human community even exists? And, after all, doesn’t Paul say that we have this treasure in earthen vessels? Maybe we ought to tighten up the structures and speak a more authoritative word of some sort. And, of course, we must be responsible. But tighten things up as much as we want and speak as many authoritative words as we can, there is still the treasure. At the center, at the very heart of our church, is the goodness and generosity of God in all of God’s, yes, trinitarian fullness.

Next time, stop. Pay attention. Hold your breath. In our congregations, old and new, there might be something more going on than we realize. There might be something more around the Lord’s Table than even we usually acknowledge. Something more might be holding us together.

The above has been submitted for publication to DisciplesWorld and will hopefully be published in that magazine sometime next year.