Taste and See the Grace Eternal

"All Who Hunger, Gather Gladly" is a communion hymn by Sylvia Dunstan. It's in The Faith We Sing, and I love its focus on community and grace.

All who hunger, gather gladly;
holy manna is our bread.
Come from wilderness and wandering.
Here, in truth, we will be fed.
You that yearn for days of fullness,
all around us is our food.
Taste and see the grace eternal.
Taste and see that God is good.

Manna. It is the bread from heaven that is our bread when we gather as a people seeking God. God brings us in from the places to which we have been sent or led or driven or to which we have simply wandered, losing our way, and fills us. You that yearn for days of fullness, all around us is our food. Taste and see the grace eternal. If we believe that God is at work in our lives, then we can look around and see God's grace, always present, always moving. That grace, assuring us that we are children of God, sanctifying us, sustaining us, and perfecting us, is our holy food, and it is all around. It is God's goodness.

All who hunger, never strangers;
seeker, be a welcome guest.
Come from restlessness and roaming.
Here, in joy, we keep the feast.
We that once were lost and scattered
in communion’s love have stood.
Taste and see the grace eternal.
Taste and see that God is good.

This is my favorite of the three verses. If we share a common hunger, we are not strangers. If we seek the Lord, we share one catholic spirit. We are all welcome at the Lord's table, where we keep the feast (Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us. Therefore, let us keep the feast) and proclaim the One who was and is and is to come (When we eat this bread and drink this cup, we proclaim your death, O Lord, until you come again).

We as a people have been lost and scattered. We've been divided. We've been wandering and wondering. We've been isolated. But we come together and share the sacrament, and in that means of grace is incredible love. We keep the feast and we stand in that love, not as individuals, but as a community. "Because there is one loaf, we, who are many, are one body, for we all share in the one loaf." (1 Corinthians 10:16) God's grace brings us together, God's grace is the source of the sacrifice and the feast we keep. God's grace is the source of the peace and welcome we gain.

All who hunger, sing together;
Jesus Christ is living bread.
Come from loneliness and longing.
Here, in peace, we have been led.
Blest are those who from this table
live their lives in gratitude.
Taste and see the grace eternal.
Taste and see that God is good.

Sing together. No longer lonely. No longer longing. God brings us to the table and we are no longer wandering, no longer lost and scattered. We are here, fed in truth, keeping the feast in joy, standing in love, led to this table and out from it in peace. We proclaim the Lord who is our bread and is alive, and we thank God for this grace that surrounds us always sustaining us. Blest are those who from this table live their lives in gratitude. That's the last line in this hymn before the refrain. Taste and see the grace eternal, taste and see that God is good -- and thank God for this food, for this table, for this community, for this life, and be blessed.