Article by Andrew Cunning
At the centre of the Christian faith sits a table.
The diners are the guests of Jesus, gathered to laugh, drink, eat and remember. They are there to build community, to give and receive hospitality which may, after all, be the same thing. Those who are not permitted to gather at the table are effectively barred from that Christian community, but thankfully, as above, the host at this table is Jesus, a guy not exactly known for losing invitations in the post.
Imagine for a moment the audacity it would take for you to step in and uninvite people from your friend’s party. You wouldn’t even consider it, no matter how much you didn’t like the guests! And, if you did take it upon yourself to uninvite the people he wanted at his table, people might well start to wonder just how well you knew your friend after all.
As much of a social faux pas as this would be, it is, in the context of the Christian communion, a total rejection of the sort of hospitality Jesus demonstrated during his ministry. In 2018 the Presbyterian Church in Ireland banned same sex couples and their families from communicant membership. Their faith, if indeed they professed one, could not be ‘credible’, the Church judged. But as shocking and obviously non-Christian as this decision was, it is not the central story here. What we ought to be focusing on is what Jesus might be doing beyond the confines of institutions. We look, then, as always, outside of the walls. We look to the communion table offering universal hospitality.
The most damning critique of mainline churches in Ireland is that the above photo is seen to be radical. Our religious culture here makes a free offering of communion feel like heresy. Many observers who have little interest in faith could be forgiven for thinking that the churches are always at least a few decades behind the cultural curve. Gender equality within the majority of denominations has been — is — a slow, slow march, for example. But the take away from this is not simply to conclude that the churches are slow because they are ‘catching up.’ The truth is more tragic than that. Churches are, in many cases, following when they should be leading. And for those not taking the lead from cultural change, staunchly not moving at all may well feel like prophetic witness.
But what if the churches, like Jesus, were on the cutting edge of change? Rather than turning inward away from the world, what if churches were instruments of blessing and affirmation. What if we heard from churches a chorus of “Very Goods”, echoing all the way down from the Very Good of Creation? The Church ought to be a custodian of the grace revealed at Calvary. It ought to make space for welcome, drawing people from everywhere to sit, rest and eat.
The Church, called back to its own again, would lead from the margins. It would demonstrate how a radical love and embrace of difference can build a kingdom worth celebrating. One of the beliefs that holds Christians together is the conviction that God is, in some sense, the Creator. In other words, we, us, all belong here. We have all come from the same place. Exclusion is the denial of the image of God in others, so we should let no person, or church, separate what God has joined together.
But something else is happening, and a different story is being written.
Across Ireland there are pockets of people rising to the implications of Jesus’ gospel for our time. We often forget just how radical Jesus was in eating with those who others thought he shouldn’t. The challenge for those of us who see communion and the Christian faith as a place for everyone is to pull up seats for those who were once prepared to bar us from the table. Rowan Williams, the former Archbishop of Canterbury, says that Jesus reveals that genuine hospitality breeds hospitality. He says, ‘By his [Jesus’] welcome, he makes other people capable of welcome.’ For those who feel they cannot welcome everyone to the table, come to ours. It may well change your heart. Hospitality is contagious.
We have gone to prepare a place for you.
You are welcome at the Lord’s table.