Reflection from Danny & Linda Mellon -- April 5, 2012
We remember with a sense of awe our first experience of Holy Thursday ( Maundy Thursday to the Protestant tradition) at Mission of the Atonement. We had only been joining this community for worship for a few weeks and were literally brought to our knees by the experience. We walked into a candlelit room where the community gathered around the table. Oscar Olson made us welcome with a flower and a heartfelt greeting. It was the first time we’d experienced the shared table and it changed us in a fundamental way. Never again could we keep our God within the box of one tradition.
That Holy Thursday table experience was so much more than the ritual of the meal. It was the invitation, the welcome, the environment and the profoundly intimate experience of washing the feet. The journey to the table moved us through and with community to participate in addressing that most basic need--hunger.
Our hunger has been sharpened this Lenten season. Yes, it seeks nourishment but it also longs to savor that journey to the table. To smell, to hear, to feel and to touch with those that journey with us.
Answering the call to sit at the table of the Lord with all of God’s people reminds us of just how huge that table is. How Inclusive. Not limited in time or space. When we say yes to Christ’s invitation to wash each other’s feet and to partake in the banquet, we join with millions who respond to that same invitation. We are part of the communion of saints that includes those who’ve gone before, and those yet to come. In every tradition, we are included. Even those of us wandering the desert of Arizona are present. We just need to be open to the invitation to be fed and to serve.
With you at table,
Dan and Linda Mellon
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