Again and again, he will come to surprise, comfort, and commission his puzzled and anxious followers through the opening of the scriptures and the breaking of the bread.

To be in his presence is not only to be challenged and comforted; it is to celebrate at table.

He has said to me time and time again that in his tradition the people have too often been “sacramentalized” but not “evangelized.” That is, they’ve gone through baptism and some even attend church but may not have made a personal commitment to Jesus Christ.

in the Lutheran, Zwinglian, and Calvinist reconceptions of communion, the power of the meal was shifted from the transubstantiating thing-ness to its representation (so that God could be seen more clearly as a free actor).