Front Porch Communion
Katie Harmon-McLaughlin, Spiritual Formation Ministries
And you will not have a mind to injure one another, but to live peaceably, and to render to every person according to that which is their due. -Mosiah 2:24 (adapted)
The first weekend of the pandemic, our close friends moved across the street with their two small boys. After intentional conversation and covenanting, we welcomed each other into a small COVID bubble to support each other. It gave the kids a chance to play since we had taken them out of preschool and they had no exposure to other kids. Our friendship has been a sustaining blessing in this time of distance and isolation.
On a recent Sunday morning, we were all outside and the kids were playing. Spontaneously, we decided to do Zoom church together on their front porch. We sat in lawn chairs and placed the laptop on the ledge while the kids ran in the yard. We brought the grape juice and they cut up generous chunks of wheat bread.
When it got to the portion of the worship where we were to partake of the emblems, we served each other. I realized it was the first time in a year that I had taken Communion with other people. To do so with friends who had become as family was deeply meaningful. The sacrament revealed how truly sacramental our relationship has been all along. I savored the experience, even amid the natural, joyful distractions and interruptions of three-year-olds at play.
How deep within us is the longing for communion in all its forms. I anticipate the day when I can be reunited with my community, on bended knee together, enacting a sacredness that was there all along.
Prayer Phrase
“Led by the Holy Spirit, we work with God and others to restore peace (shalom) to creation” (https://www.cofchrist.org/enduring-principles).
Spiritual Practice
Embodying God’s Shalom
Find a way to express and embody God’s shalom. Begin by prayerfully listening to your longing for peace and wholeness. Become silent and imagine you can hear the groaning of the Earth’s people, nations, and creatures. Prayerfully open yourself to God’s yearning for peace and the divine vision of shalom.
What images, feelings, and words come to you? What prayer for peace comes to you from your time of listening? Speak or write this prayer. What act of justice, kindness, healing, or peacemaking does God invite you to consider this day?
Today’s Prayer for Peace
Engage in a daily practice of praying for peace in our world. Click here to read today’s prayer and be part of this practice of peace.
