The Eucharist: the meal that should be?

'The Grammar of Meals and the '"Bread of Life",' Scripture in Church 45, n.179(2015)117-128.

The Sacred Christian Meal and the Grace of God: The Lord’s Supper in the First-Century Body of Christ, 2023

The Sacred Meal is an investigation of the Lord's Supper in the context of the first-century that will provoke both Protestant and Liturgical traditions alike. This text presents fresh insights and perspectives on the Eucharist that bridge the horizons of the first-century world and ours today. I intentionally wrote this material in a topical format intending to give quick access to subjects of critical interest to the reader. It is written for scholars, pastors, and students of the New Testament.

Christianity is a religion of memory. We look to the future — indeed to beyond the future — and so we live today in such a way as to build that future, but we do so while recalling our past. Our past is significant because it identifies us, affirms that we are a community in a covenant with God, and provides us with a key to that is significant in that relationship. It is with this perspective we should approach Eucharistic praxis and theology

2020

One of the typical settings in which Jesus is presented, in all four of the canonical gospels, is at a meal. And, the highpoint of his presence among his followers is portrayed in context of the Passover meal we call 'the Last Supper.' Let us begin with the John's gospel. There the narrative begins with a marriage meal in Cana and ends it with an equally wondrous meal after the resurrection, at daybreak on the shore of the Sea of Galilee, preceded by Jesus' invitation: 'come and have breakfast' (Jn 21:12). 1 Meal scenes account for around a quarter of this gospel. 2 When we turn to the Synoptics we find the same interest. Apart from the final Passover meal, there are meals in houses, meals in the open air, stories focussed on meals such as that of the Parable of the Prodigal Son (Lk 15:2-32-and note that the meal-scene of the parable is a response to an objection to the commensality of Jesus) and information about meals (e.g. Lk 14:9). Besides the report of Jesus' manner of blessing the Father and then sharing a loaf and cup with those with him at table (Mk 14:22 and parallels), 3 there were scandal-giving occasions where Jesus ate with sinners and tax-collectors (e.g. Mt 9:10-3), and the postresurrection meal at Emmaus (Lk 24:13-35). In all four gospels, Jesus is portrayed as present at meals and engaged in this ministry by teaching at meals. 4 This ubiquity of meals compels us 1 The question as to whether Jn 21 is an addition to the gospel is irrelevant here because we have no evidence that the gospel ever circulated without this chapter; and, equally, if this was not part of the original performances by a traveling evangelist named John, the material must come from a similar early situation and so furnish additional evidence for the importance of meals within the earliest churches. 2 On the role of meals in Jn see E. Kobel, Dining with John: Communal Meals and Identity Formation in the Fourth Gospel and its Historical and Cultural Context (Leiden 2011). 3 On the problems within our eucharistic memory of these texts, see T. O'Loughlin, The "Eucharistic Words of Jesus": An Unnoticed Silence in our Earliest Sources,' Anaphora 8/1(2014)1-12. 4 This theme has been explored by many New Testament and early church scholars in the last two decades, the work of D.E. Smith,

Crucible Journal, 2020

Throughout its scriptural witness and ecclesial reception, the Eucharist has been strongly associated with Christian understandings of the mercifully expansive Kingdom of God and the Missio Dei. However, in its historical and contemporary expressions, the Eucharist has also been associated with absolutized visions of institutional authority, exclusivity, ecclesial division, and contentious theological questions around the nature and manner of Christ's presence. While these are important ecclesial, theological, and ethical matters, this paper will explore how the variegated meanings of what the Eucharist does show how it is not merely centripetal but also a centrifugal force amidst contemporary divisions. By exploring how the Eucharist continually reveals and reforms Christian ecclesial identities; initiates and reforms practices of hospitality; and catalyses a sacramental approach to creation care and stewardship, this paper seeks to offer an integrative approach to the Eucharist's meaning and significance beyond well-trodden theological topoi.

Developed from the 2002 Barry Marshall Memorial Lecture at Trinity College, Melbourne, this paper considers traditions concerning Jesus as inclusive eater and their use or misuse in contemporary debates about eucharistic inclusion. It suggests that views of Jesus as breaking boundaries of religious tradition unwittingly repeat anti-Judaic assumptions about legalism - and are unsustainable when the texts and traditions are examined more closely.

We would like to observe the link or the connection between the Eucharist and the Church, very specially the tradition and the evolution and the importance and the role of the Eucharist in the life of the Church. St. John Paul II in his apostolic letter, “The mystery and worship of the Holy Eucharist” clearly mentioned that the Church makes the Eucharist. So, the Eucharist builds up the Church. So, say that they are inseparably linked and closely bound up with the paschal mystery of Jesus Christ. Thus, let us try to elucidate the role of the Eucharist in the life of the Church as a whole.

Journal of Early Christian Studies, 2000