The Cup of Blessing

1 Corinthians 10:16-17
https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1%20Corinthians%2010%3A16-17&version=NRSVUE
 
In my early twenties, I moved out-of-state and away from my family. When I went back to visit over the holidays, it became very difficult for me. I had three separate sets of family to visit: my mother’s family, my father’s family, and my stepmother’s family. After my mother died, my father remarried, which created three separate families. As a young adult in the workforce, my vacation time was limited, and my time with my family left me more exhausted than before my vacation. Instead of having a time of refreshment and rest over my vacation time, I spent the time driving to three separate family gatherings.
 
One year, I decided to limit my time at home, so I could actually have some rest time after the holiday gatherings before I returned to work. I jampacked all three into just a few days as well as make time to see my friends. I tried to organize a visit with my maternal grandmother one afternoon before sharing a meal with my father’s family. She asked, “We don’t get to eat together?” I explained that we didn’t have to eat every time we spent time together, that being together was most important. She understood and asked if we could have a meal together the next time I came for a visit. To me, it seemed that she felt if we didn’t eat together then our visit didn’t count. What I didn’t understand then was what actually happens when people sit down at a table and share a meal together.  
 
When we sit down at the table and share food together, we are becoming one. We don’t eat separate food or have separate lives. In this moment, we all share in the same food and our lives become blended together as one. I also did not understand at the time that when my grandmother cooked for me it was a gift that she was giving to me. And, her food was definitely a blessing! She was a wonderful cook.
 
However, the three separate families did not seem like a blessing. It was quite difficult that the three families could not come together, or at least two of the families could not come together, at least for a holiday meal. Each family seemed to hold on to their tradition that they ate together for Thanksgiving lunch, or Thanksgiving dinner, or Christmas dinner. No one wanted to alter their tradition for the sake of unity.
 
Jesus altered tradition for the sake of unity. When tradition becomes a point of separation, it is time to be open to changing for the sake of unity. We were never meant to be fragmented and separated as the body of Christ. What happens is that the separateness fragments us away from one another. In my own life, the three separate families became just too difficult, and I stopped returning home as often. When I did visit, I did not attend all of the gatherings. I chose the ones that made efforts to be connected to me.
 
Being together is supposed to be a blessing. Sharing time and food together connects us. Sharing the bread and the cup is a blessing because we share it Christ and with one another in that moment together. It IS a blessing to share the cup that connects us as one. May we drink from the cup of blessing often and always!   
 
Reflection Questions:
Have you ever experienced a true coming together when you sat down at a table and shared a meal with someone? Did you feel a special connection?

Have you experienced a time when the separateness was just too difficult to find a place of unity?

What does sharing Christ mean to you?
 
Pray:
Pray for a difficult situation to resolve and become a blessing.
 
Action:
Be willing to alter a tradition for the sake of unity.
 
*New Revised Standard Version, Updated Edition. Copyright © 2021 National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America.