Take Eat

Blessings to you all in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.

“You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; you anoint my head with oil my cup overflows” Psalm 23:5.

As we approach the cross this Lenten season, our sin and brokenness is exposed. Called to repent, we receive our inheritance in the meal that our Lord instituted on the night in which He was betrayed. In Guatemala many do to receive the Lord’s Supper because they were told before they became Lutherans that one with sin was not welcome at the table. Dona Odilia was one of these people.

Somehow Dona Odilia found a way to dress her two girls and the neighbor she mothers in beautiful identical white dresses, veils, and matching gloves. The day of their first communion had arrived. While the white candle each girl held was bent from the warmth of their nervous and excited little hands, the day could not have been more perfect. As they each recited the passages, prayers and creed that they had learned over the previous year, the congregation sat on the edges of their seats taking pictures with antique cameras (at least by US standards).

When it was time to receive their First Communion, the girls formed a line in front of Padre and opened their mouths to accept the host dipped in the wine. Then I received a welcome surprise, Dona Odilia herself went forward to receive communion.

She had not come forward for at least 10 years to receive the Body and Blood of our Lord. She had not come forward because in her mind her sin made her unacceptable. She had married the father of her oldest child but after he died she got together with the father of her two daughters and they never married. Now he has left them, but for Dona Odilia the sin remained.

As her pastors, we asked her to confess and we used the office of the keys to pronounce forgiveness upon her. We asked her to come forward and receive the forgiveness of her Lord in the Body and Blood. At the church council meeting before she came forward to receive, Padre Horacio announced to the rest of the church that she would be receiving communion. They reacted not with joy… rather with anger. They did not want her to receive communion because in their minds she did not deserve.

She went forward on the day her daughters received their first communion and received the promises herself. She was willing to face the scorn of the other members because she trusted her pastors and the word that they had given that our Lord was calling her to His table. My surprise came from the fact that she chose the day of her daughters’ first communion to have hers.

After the worship service, Horacio, Esther and I went to her house… one room in the back of someone’s garage… and had a feast at the card table they had set up in the garage with the permission of the landlord. The other members of the church did not accept the invitation but the table was still full.

“Drink from it, all of you, for this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins” Matthew 26:27-28.

May your cup overflow with the forgiveness that is yours in Christ.

The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all.