On Earth as in Heaven

Every Sunday, I invite you to share in Holy Communion with these words: “Wherever you are in your spiritual journey, you are welcome here, in this place and at this table. There is food enough for all. Come and be fed.” Several people mentioned this offertory invitation in our Discovery Process interviews and at the Discovery Process Summit we held in early May.

When I speak this invitation, it is completely true. In the context of our worship, for the people gathered in our sanctuary, for the ritual meal we are about to share, everyone is welcome and there is food enough for all. As soon as we walk out the doors of our church that welcome and abundance ends. It is just not true that everyone is welcome in our cities and neighborhoods today, and it is certainly not true that there is food enough for all.

We are drawn to the radical hospitality of God that is expressed in the invitation to Holy Communion we hear each week. Our ministries, from the work of St. Agnes to our feeding ministries, are an expression of our hope that someday this invitation will be true throughout the world.

Jesus is the place where heaven and earth meet, and Jesus calls us to be a part of that new reality. We are called to be the Body of Christ by coming together as the Church. We are called, communally, to be the place where the new earth, transformed by the presence of heaven, is known. We pray for this every week in the Lord’s Prayer, “Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven…” This is our prayer and our hope and our purpose. We are called to be the place where all are welcome, all are fed, and all are loved.