When We Come Together

This song was adopted as a focus song to celebrate the amalgamation of my congregation with another church, although it had been written two years earlier (though perhaps with some foreshadowing!). The words of the first verse of this song were written on the back of a napkin at a church potluck dinner while waiting for our table to be called. Food always seems to be a joyous occasion to come together, and what is nourished is not just our stomachs, but also our sense of community. No wonder the most important ritual of the Christian faith - communion (called the eucharist in other traditions) – centres around food, and often goes by the name "the Lord's Supper". Yet that first communion was followed soon after by denial, betrayal and abandonment. Christ's "inner circle" often missed the point of his parables and squabbled over who was the top disciple. But just as Christ didn’t wait until his imperfect disciples had improved themselves, neither should we expect that any who attend worship are somehow "better people". In worship we seek to reconcile ourselves to God’s vision for us, from which we all have fallen short. In community, even if only two or three, we can re-imagine that vision, and then work together to bring that vision to life.