When There Is No Bread And There Is No Wine

It was Good Friday, the 31st  day of our quarantine, late in the afternoon and I was working in my studio.  My youngest daughter, Blessing, called from inside the house wondering if I was going to join them for the Good Friday service broadcast from her home church in Knoxville.  We had agreed earlier that we would do this but I will confess I was slightly put off by this interruption but I hurried in any way so as to be present with her and my lover, her mother, for this service.  It was anointed, a message from God’s own heart about His most beloved Son in Whom He is so pleased.  We were prepped to host the Last Supper, the Lord’s Supper with whatever we had, it was His body, His blood, His supper and the remembrance were what mattered.  We spent the better part of an hour worshiping as His church, the three of us, three gathered together and lo He was with us.  We listened to Ricky Skaggs daughter sing “Ain't no Grave”, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nGncW_ueyHA

 and the Brooklyn Tabernacle choir sing “Thou O Lord” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y284YvkYrZo

We had The Supper together, a Ritz cracker and a glass of water, it was meager and as I prepared it I was hurt and humbled.  No time before had I so wanted the bread, the grape, the tradition, the way it is supposed to be, the way it was, the way it always was…. but it was not the round cracker, it was not the water from an aquifer deep under Jackson served in a simple homemade cup.  No, it was His Body, His Blood, weeping out all over humanity, the three of us included, washing all sins away for the accepting, those that will and those that He longs to will.  The deed is almost done, it is 6:50 p.m. and sunset is in 34 minutes and He will be closed in the grave and then comes Saturday, long Saturday, as we await Sunday.  And a child led me, Blessing, aptly named.  And it wasn’t a cracker, it wasn’t a sip of water, it was Him, broken and dead, for us!