It was a special evening as we gathered round the Quaker table to share our haggis, neeps and tatties. For the
first time in a long while, Tony, Frances and Charlotte were all present and we were delighted to welcome Peter and Uta to their first ThirdSpace meal –
we were just sorry to miss doing the same for Liz, who couldn’t be with us. (Next time Liz!)

Between courses we used the words we have used in the past which are so thought-provoking:

On their own, the bread and wine are nothing. To become a foretaste and a promise of love made real and a world made whole, they need a story and a blessing and a people who believe.

It would not have been God’s table if they hadn’t all been gathered around it: the betrayer and the friend, the power-hungry and the justice-seeker, the faithful and the fickle…

When Jesus poured the wine ,and the bread was broken; when everyone could eat – the outcast and the beloved, the arrogant and the gracious, the wrong-doer and the wrongly done by – the table became a foretaste of love made real and of a world made whole. And the promise is, that when you are together, when you tell the story and give the blessing, when you break the bread and pour the wine, you will discover a foretaste of love made real and of a world made whole.

Word becomes flesh, flesh becomes bread, bread becomes body, body becomes word, bread is broken (we shared the bread)

Pain becomes wine, wine becomes joy, wine bursts the wineskins, God bursts the tomb, wine bursts into song (we shared the wine)

After some more words of liturgy we feasted some more – on Fi’s stunning cranachen trifle and Frances’ magnificent shortbread and for those who were not faint-hearted, a tot of Stag’s Breath (whisky and honey liqueur).

It truly was an evening of the kingdom – feasting, laughing, sharing lives, sharing Jesus… the kingdom here and now and a foretaste of what is yet to come. How easy it was to be thankful (mindful of Steve’s theme at the bandstand) for friends and all of God’s rich blessings expressed around the table! Thanks be to God!