Distracted
When you picture the perfect meal and setting, what comes to your mind? We all would describe something just a little bit different, I would guess. Maybe some of us would describe eating cheeseburgers and slices of watermelon around a picnic table at a campground. Others might envision themselves as part of a couple dressed to the hilt savoring fondue in a revolving restaurant at the top of a hotel. Warren shares her vision of an ideal meal: “friends and family gathered around a homegrown, local, organic feast with candles and laughter and well-behaved children. A lot of beauty and a lot of butter.” (62) I too have idealistic moments of how I imagine our mealtime environment. But we fall far short quite often - A family member may be missing because he/she has basketball practice… or soccer practice… or ballet class… or youth group… or work.
The table might be cluttered in one corner with a project - Mom paying bills, older sister working on American Literature assignments, younger sister painting a picture of a butterfly, older brother leaving behind a novel or two, younger brother emptying his pockets of treasures gathered at an event or parade. I have realized dozens of times over the past few years how we have really outgrown our living space in many ways. Tidbits of our lives get interspersed into the routine of gathering to eat.
My mom used to read to our family from a devotional book at my childhood dinner table at the end of our dinner meals; my brother and sister and I would exchange smirks and giggles sometimes at the absurdity of this particular author’s eyebrow-raising anecdotes. The book was entitled something like What do you say when…, and the author bravely directed every encounter she had with someone into spiritual territory. The one I remember best was about a young mother on an airplane with a fussy baby who needed a diaper change.
The author engaged in conversation with this woman about the pervasive nature of sin in all of human nature - similar to the plight we all have of needing to rid ourselves of waste products. If I remember correctly, even my mom was shaking her head slightly a bit doubtfully after this particular connection of the ordinary to the Gospel.
So at the risk of bordering on the absurd, I found myself doing that same type of thinking as this author: chaotic mealtimes become a metaphor for how we sometimes come to the Communion table. We’re distracted, we’re in the middle of other things, and we have a mess of commitments and plans tugging us in other directions. If only we could push a button that allows us to reset and completely focus on the elements at hand, wouldn’t we want to push that?
Do we allow ourselves to be numbed to the miracle of the incarnation represented at the communion table in the body and blood of Jesus by the distractions going on in our heads and hearts? How can we silence those voices whispering in our heads or ignore those nagging To Do lists interrupting our ability to be fully present? Perhaps sometimes it has to be in the same way that we surrender to the messiness of our kitchen table; we push aside the clutter to make room for our appetites to be satisfied in that moment of need.
Colossians 3:2 reminds us of this command: “Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things.” Paul was very aware of our habit of struggling with these two trajectories of thoughts. When we find ourselves distracted, perhaps the best thing that we can do is be honest with ourselves and openly acknowledge our human nature’s tendency to want to multi-task - and then to make a conscious decision to NOT do that in the moments surrounding the holy and significant sacrament of the Lord’s Supper.
Be fully present and breathe in and out with the remembrance of Maundy Thursday and Jesus’ precious and meaningful conversation with his disciples. Just like we have learned to ignore the Discover card bill near our spoon or the Robert Frost poem by our glass of milk so that we can eat our mashed potatoes or swallow our pork tenderloin, we need to turn our eyes and hearts to that upper room and the revolutionary words Jesus commanded His disciples to remember in his final hours before His crucifixion. Challenge yourself to do that the next time Communion Sunday rolls around at your church!