Conflict & Communion: Reconciliation at the Table

CONFLICT AND COMMUNION:RECONCILIATION AND RESTORATIVE JUSTICE AT THE TABLE

The Table of Holy Communion can provide the place, the time, the ritual and the spiritual power for transforming our conflicts, healing our relationships and doing the work ofreconciliation in the world.

The liturgy itself is about the spiritual formation of ministers of reconciliation.

• The liturgy opens us up to the One who reconciles and heals.
• The invitation is to those who “seek to live in peace with one another.”
• The message is of God’s forgiveness and steadfast love in spite of our failure to love God and neighbor
• We are asked to “offer one another signs of reconciliation and love.”
• Through the Great Thanksgiving we enter into God’s salvation history of formation in God’s image, liberation and reconciliation – in order to be “one with Christ, one with each other, and one in ministry to all the world.”
• Finally, we are dismissed to “Go forth in peace.”

Each time we commune, we are reminded that the only way out of the cycles of woundedness, retribution and violence is through the path of forgiveness.  At the Table, we find higher ground, transcendent ground where we are invited to stand together regardless of our differences.

The Last Supper, the meal we are alled to remember, is set in the midst of conflict.

• The Last Supper is related in some way to Passover and the remembrance of slavery and exodus from Egypt.  Significant conflict!
• The meal takes place in Jerusalem, where Jesus knows that there are religious and political forces that want to kill him.  He does not head for the hills, nor does he join the Zealots to fight.  In fact, he courageously enters the eye of the storm on a donkey.

At the Last Supper Jesus reframes our world, the world of conflict, by naming the conflicts in the room and giving bread, not a stone, punishment or retribution.

• The first thing that Jesus does is name the conflicts in the room.  He names the elephant in the room when he says, “One of you is going to betray me, one who is eating with me.”  He also names the whole conflicted system of his day by moving from the head of the table to the foot of the table and washing everyone’s feet.  Finally, he notes that the rest of the disciples will desert him.  The naming is important.  Justice requires the naming.  Truth requires the naming.  As importantly, transformation requires the naming.  The naming also helps us see the significance of the bread and wine.  In the naming, we begin to see our need.  We experience our hunger.  We feel our thirst.  We know we need God and each other.   We need to be reconciled and to be a reconciler.
• What Jesus does next is remarkable, radical and transforming!  He does not give a stone, or retribution or punishment.  He gives bread and wine to Judas, to Peter, to everyone.  Here Jesus reframed the reality of our world.  Reality is not about retributive justice, but restorative justice, new life.

We are called to do the same.  If we engage our conflicts at the Table in the context of Holy Communion, we will e present with Jesus and the Holy Communion will become the powerful, healing ritual known to human kind, especially when we bring to the table the lessons we have learned on conflict transformation.

• A family comes around the Table on a Wednesday night with members of the community who are ready to help them deal with their son and his problem with drugs.
• The members of a local church threatening to leave the denomination come together at the Table with the Bishop and other church leaders to deal with their differences.
• A worshiping community gets together every Wednesday night around the Table – a round communion table – to feast at the Table and to reflect on the Word in the context of an issue of importance to the community.

These are just examples of experiences where the conflict was brought to the Table.  Ultimately, it does offer the place, the time, the ritual and the spiritual power for healing relationships and doing the work of reconciliation in this world.