I find myself surrounded by hunger, and surrounded by food, my hall at hone is often stocked with cans of beans, meat pies, Pot Noodles, ginger biscuits and packs of tea, hardly a day passes when I am not given something for the Comfort Zone, and I am grateful. Lynn our Chaplain brings more food, she is given more food than I am, we are always being given food, we are always sharing food, we are reminded again and again how we are all in need of basic provision, and how this basic need joins us to one another.
The Comfort Zone is a drop in for vulnerable, needy and homeless people in Blackpool, we open on a Monday night for a hot meal, and on Wednesday morning for breakfast and sandwiches. At both sessions we distribute food bags...
People are hungry, hungry for food, hungry for companionship and hungry for God...
Not a week goes by without a request for communion/ The Eucharist/Mass, I am asked for all of these because we draw folk from a variety of backgrounds, and all are served equally, we have an open table, and we meet God together, for he is in the midst of us.
There are times when we draw together in peace and calm, and times when we need God to break into our turmoil and angst and so we come to the table, we come in need, we come in desire, and we come because we are hungry. We are hungry for bread and wine that feeds our souls with the remembrance that God IS with us, here in the midst of us knowing our hurts and pains, knowing our vulnerability and frailty, God IS with us, here to draw us, here to feed us.
We gather in our need, members of a community, volunteers, staff, and "clients" ( we need a better word), and around the table we are one, there are no barriers or boundaries here for Jesus himself is our host. He is with us as we approach his table, with us in and through his story, tangibly present as we become aware of the move of the Spirit, and then wonderfully, miraculously, mysteriously we feed on him. Together we become what we eat, and God is in our hands and in our mouths feeding our souls, we cannot leave unmoved or unchanged. If we do I suspect we leave unfed, we will be hungry...
I find that my own hunger for God has been awoken in this community, here I am able to be vulnerable for vulnerability is all around me, that does not mean that I spill my soul but that I own it, I own my light and my darkness, I own my joys and my sorrows, and I own my hunger for more and more of God. I need this bread and this wine, I need the prayers of invocation and consecration and I am finding myself changed for I am meeting God not only in the mystery but in the very bread that I break and the very wine that I offer. I can no longer dispose of the elements without thought I must consume them. There was a time when my pragmatic thinking ( very Methodist) would have allowed me to simply dispose of the elements without thinking, but that is no longer true, food is important, a gift, and this food has become sacred, holy, a touching place and must be treated as such, I am hungry for God, so I cannot throw God away, I must partake of him in the fullest way that I can... there can be no crumbs at this table, not baskets left over, yet he always offers more...
I finish with a poem and a couple of links, the poem I have shared before:
Eucharistic thoughts
.
I want to meet you
in chewable chunks of grace,
to savour the flavour
of your gift…
.
I want to spend time
contemplating the wonder
of your givenness,
I want to be
nourished, challenged
and transformed!
.
I want to gulp down
deep draughts
of your love,
to feel it’s fire
filling my heart and soul
warming my bones!
.
I want to be cleansed
and restored
as I meet you
in the brokenness of bread,
and in the cup freely offered.
.
I want to go different,
to be different!
Will you meet me here?
.
Is it right that
I should leave your table
still hungry?
Both of these reflect my developing thinking.
