[Suggested Opening Reading: The Table will be Wide by Jan Richardson]

[voice one] Great Creator, Artist of all things, source of all love, from the very beginning

you built no barriers; You were fully present with us, close enough to touch.

[voice two] But we have been a wandering people, and so often we have wandered

away from your love, breaking our communion with You and with one another.

[voice three] But every time we closed a door, you threw it wide with radical grace.

[voice four ] When we were enslaved, you opened the seas and led us to freedom.

[voice five ] When we were starving, you set a feast in the desert.

[voice six] When we were hopeless, you opened a new future through the visions of the

prophets.

[voice seven] When we were sinners, you reached out to us in forgiveness, renewing

your covenant of love.

[voice eight] Again and again, we wandered, and again and again you welcomed us

back into your wide embrace.

[voice one] Through your Son Jesus, your Word of Love was made flesh,

and came to live and walk among us. He came to preach good news to the poor,

proclaim freedom to the captives, recovery of sight to the blind, and bring liberation to

those who were oppressed.

[voice two] He lived with a wild grace and at the table of your love, he healed the

hurting, fed the hungry, and welcomed sinners.

[voice three] Through his death and resurrection, Christ revealed that nothing—even

death, can separate us from your love. And the resurrected Christ is still alive and at

work, gathering us to the table, feasting with the weary and the broken.

[voice four] Christ is there in sanctuaries, as congregations sing and pray and come to

the altar Sunday after Sunday, to taste of your grace.

[voice five] Christ is there in basements and fellowship halls as anonymous strangers sit

in folding chairs, drink cheap coffee, share their struggles, and find new beginnings.

[voice six] Christ is there in restaurants, or bars, or coffee shops where people gather to

have honest conversations about doubt and faith, despair and hope, and where hearts

are being opened.

[voice seven] At kitchen tables, restaurant tables, picnic tables, coffee tables, Christ is

there, welcoming the stumblers, feeding the hungry, healing the broken hearted, and

stirring new life,

[voice eight] And Christ is here, this day, this moment, as we come to the table weary,

angry, or exhausted. He is here as we come, hungry for grace, hungry for healing,

hungry for hope.

[voice one] Jesus gathered his disciples around an ordinary table, as he had done for so many shared meals before.

He looked at them with his eyes gleaming with love, then he took the bread,

and giving thanks to God for it, he blessed it and passed it around the table to his friends, saying, “This is my body, broken for you.”

[voice two] Then he took a cup poured generously with wine,

and giving thanks to God for it, he blessed it, and passed it to his friends,

saying, “This is the cup of the new covenant— my blood, my love— poured out for you, and for the forgiveness of sins for many.

[voice three] In this way, he opened the table of love where we still dine.

Prayer of Consecration

God of Love, through the power of the Holy Spirit throw the doors of our hearts wide open. Pour Your Spirit on these gifts and we who are gather at your table, that they may be for us the presence of Christ, so that in feasting at his table, we might be inspired set the table wide for others, until every heart is opened and every belly fed. Amen.

[voice one] God of Love, you didn’t just open the door, you became the door.

You didn’t just speak words of comfort; you became the balm.

You didn’t just set the table; you became the feast.

Post Communion Blessing

We have been fed at the great table of grace. Out of this abundance, may

we open doors for others to receive the feast of Christ’s love. Amen.