How do you describe the indescribable, that is what I was trying to do with the poem above, trying to capture of something of the amazing experience of standing in a circle of those who know something of the heights and deths of what grace is.
We gathered together this evening as one, the folk who come to the Comfort Zone for food and friendship, and those of us who cherish the honour of being called friends. The Comfort Zone met as usual to provide food and clothes to those in need, and as usual we who give receive more than we give, but when we gather at the table all differentiations are gone, we are one in Christ and the singing and prayers revealed that powerfully.
As we shared the bread and wine the desire to serve one another broke through any so called order and with the wine and bread blessed and the appropriate prayers said the sharing began. Once again we sand Amazing grace, our chains were gone, our hearts set free as heaven touched earth afresh, we left one another with hugs and prayer and and assurance that God truly is with us.
One of the highlights of Greenbelt for me was the Silent Eucharist on Sunday afternoon, it was made more special by one little boy and his family. The children entered in to this silent act of worship with a real sense of awe and wonder, they shared the peace beaming at the people around them and lighting us all up, they loved being able to cast their prayers as incense on charcoal, but the whole thing was made for me as the youngest took the bread that was broken and offered to him, his eyes were like saucers and his wole face lit up. Surely God was with us.
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:
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