Merry Christmas!

I've just finished my traditional Christmas morning breakfast of a cinnamon roll and coffee. While eating I could not help reflecting on the many blessings that God has bestowed on my wife and I this year. I'll forgo the long list of things God has done, as I'm sure you have lists of your own.

My posts have been rather sparse in the last week as Cheryl and I have been visiting with old friends and making new ones. Our calendar has been full as the Christmas season always brings out the social nature in people. We open up our homes, invite people over, and celebrate the goodness of life.

It is this attitude of goodwill and brotherhood that I appreciate most at Christmas time. At this time of year we come closer to embodying the teaching in 1 John more than any other time of year. Unfortunately, we do not sustain this attitude and lapse back into our petty self-absorption in the New Year.

I guess that is why I'm drawn to home churches. It is a more intimate setting to express our lives in. We are not a nameless face in some large crowd of an institutionalized church. By participating in each other's lives we become the family of God in the truest sense.

Church becomes more than a mere ritual observance in this setting. It becomes a celebration of life as we share ourselves with other believers in the fellowship of a common meal. The dinner table becomes an altar where we participate in the sharing of a divine meal.

In antiquity, the solid stone altar was used for the sacrifice of animals that were burned in an offering to God. The burning the food symbolically represented God's eating of the offering. It is the place of presence, as the altar became God's dinner table.

If we truly believe that God is in us then the communion meal is an extension of this symbol. We eat an offering of food with our God. Rather than burn it in an external fire, we burn it in the internal fire of our bodies. The offering is turned into energy that brings us life and nourishment. Eating is a symbolic act of participation in the divine offering of life.

Our communal meal binds us together as we realize our shared dependence upon God who gives all of us life. The dinner table in a home church is the touch point of celebration, fellowship and mutual interdependence. Just like the family table on Christmas day. The spirit of Christmas is never more alive than when we give our lives to others in relationship.

What do we celebrate on Christmas day if not the gift of Christ who came into the world to reconcile us to God? It is only because of this gift that we can participate in communion with God and freely share our lives together in Him.

Table fellowship, love and caring are my Christmas.