Liminality & the Lord's Supper

It is hard to be caught between two worlds. This week I finally went to exchange my Texas driver’s license for a Michigan license. As I left the Offices of the Secretary of State, I was struck with the fact that in my wallet I had a Texas license, invalidated by the big hole punched through the middle, and a temporary piece of paper promising that my official Michigan license will come.

It is hard to be caught between two worlds, to find ourselves in a liminal existence. As Christians we find that our lives are a lot like Alice’s when she was caught in the rabbit hole, living in a world that was fantasy but strangely real. Yet, that is our calling as Christians. As members of the body of Christ, we live in the Kingdom of God, a kingdom that broke into this world through Jesus Christ, but that will not be fully realized until he returns. We live in the in between time, in a kingdom that is both now and not yet. In a way, we are caught on a bridge between the comings of God. He is continually breaking into our midst through his Spirit and yet we still anticipate the final coming of his kingdom.

That is really the beauty of gathering together as the body of Christ. When we gather to worship and fellowship we embrace the fact that we are caught between these two worlds, and we bridge our present with the past and with the future. Nowhere is this realized more than in the sharing of the Lord’s Supper.

When we gather together as the people of God, we are ushered into the past, where we share the communion meal with Christ. We find ourselves seated around a table in an upper room. As we pass bread and wine, we hear Jesus say again, “This is my body.” We join the two travelers as they sit with the risen Christ around a table in Emmaus. When the bread is broken, their vision becomes clear, and they see Jesus for who he really is.

When we share the Lord’s Supper, we not only relive the past but are transformed in the present. We realize that the communion is a meal that we share together as the body of Christ, a meal that unites us and reminds us that we are bound together in the fellowship of the Holy Spirit with everyone around us who partakes of the bread and the wine. Then our eyes are opened as we realize that we do not only share it with those in the room. We share it with all people across the globe who gather in the name of Christ and take of the Lord’s Supper together.

But not only does the Lord’s Supper usher us into the past and transform our present, it also transports us into the future. As we pass the bread and the wine, we catch just a glimpse of what it will be like at the great heavenly feast, when the kingdom of God has finally been fulfilled. We share with all of those who have gone before us and with all of those who will come after us in the welcome feast of the Lamb of God. It is around the communion table that I am able to commune again with my grandfather and with my cousin, Brian, as I did before they went to their eternal home. I share the bread and the wine with my children and grandchildren who are yet to be born. I share with them all in the heavenly feast of God.

So, as we pass the Lord’s Supper today, may God grant us the grace of liminality, of being caught between worlds. May we truly commune with those around us, with those who have gone before us, and with those who will come after us. May we usher in the coming kingdom of God.