*4.1. Description of the Liturgical Context, Theme, and Uniqueness of a Sample Liturgy*

The early Christian love feast, or agape meal, was conjoined to the Eucharistic celebration. The early Eucharistic meal was celebrated in the context of a common meal through to the fourth century. Nowadays we could see churches that practice various services in which the meal is the main part of the service and is accompanied by testimonies, praises, prayer, teaching, and Eucharist. The intergenerational worship retains the universal practice of having the Eucharist when all generations meet, and it tries to bring back the love feast into the Eucharistic celebration, but the sample liturgy does not indicate that all international worship should include a meal.

The liturgical context for intergenerational worship can come to life in any congregation where it is possible to prepare a meal or to have a meal provided.<sup>8</sup> One must refrain from assuming that one can receive God's revelation only in certain places and times. It need not take place on Sunday morning or in the church building. The purpose of intergenerational worship is to remember that God is with us always and everywhere.9 Worship that includes a meal has no boundaries between the sacred and the secular. Thus, by celebrating the Eucharist or any meal at an ordinary table, all generations can encounter Christ, whether or not they have been baptized.<sup>10</sup> In intergenerational worship with a meal, people of all ages tell stories about Jesus from the past and explain how Jesus is currently present in the ordinary aspects of their lives, not just those marked as sacred or holy (Elkins 2006, pp. 11–16, 103–12).

The theme is intended to do justice and heal conflict. All generations today hope to live in a world of healing, peace, and reconciliation. The Bible calls this whole value "justice" (Allen et al. 2011, p. ix). The biblical concepts of healing, peace, and reconciliation embrace personal relationships with God, in human relations, among nations, and with God's creation. Justice, healing, peace, and reconciliation belong together since the right relationship involves them. That is a reason for the special concern for the poor and the oppressed that is evident in the Bible (Deut. 24:10–22; Matt. 20:1–16; James 2:5).

The heart of the Bible and Christian tradition embodies God's desire and vision. The key in intergenerational worship, combined with a meal, is to design and experience acts of worship and preaching that participate in God's vision, that can be expressed as justice: as we are fed by God, so we feed others. God's vision, not only for the church community, but for the whole of the national community, and, indeed, the world is that all communities and individuals heal each other, reconcile, and live together in love and peace (Allen et al. 2011, pp. ix–xxv).

This justice-oriented direction can be the purpose of intergenerational worship and preaching. If this justice-centered goal is clear, the worshipping community of the local church can design intergenerational worship and preaching in creative ways and methods. The role of all generations is to help construct an entire life lived in harmony with each other. Loving, healing, reconciling, and living with each other represent the core and central

direction of intergenerational preaching and worship. Preaching and worship convey what it means to love one another, heal, and bless each other.

As James F. White articulates in his book *The Sacraments in Protestant Practice and Faith*, the Eucharist, that is, "remembering the death and resurrection of Jesus in the context of a ritual meal, sharing communion or fellowship in the body of Christ as a sign of unity, and saying grace, have been recognized as one of the primary liturgies of Christianity and as the Sacrament of the Church's life" (White 1999, pp. 97–118). The church has practiced the Eucharist using various expressions, such as Holy Communion, the Great Thanksgiving, the Lord's Supper, and the Sacred Meal, for two millennia.

Christians in the early church gathered around a meal. A meal is sacramental in nature. A meal reminds us of remembrance, celebration, fellowship, and thanksgiving. The table, set with food and drink, is filled with the story of God, the story of Jesus, the story of the Holy Spirit, as well as all generations' life stories and faith. All ages' stories are about human suffering, joy, and celebration.

The natural rhythms of life and the crises which each age-group is going through will meet the story of the gospel in intergenerational worship combined with a meal around the table (Evans 2004). Don Saliers posits that there is "an encounter between human story and God's story" (Saliers 1994, pp. 21–38). For instance, although human sufferings (pathos) do not go away, human story meets God' story, which is God's ethos, which brings hope to overcome sufferings through the story of the gospel at the table. There are various seasons of the life cycle as well as during times of personal and community crisis. The expected or unexpected stories about different seasons of life and the different times of crisis of each age-group will encounter God's story around the table.

However, worship often lacks expressions of lament, including stories of suffering and conflict. Human suffering and conflict, individual and collective suffering and conflict today, and the memories of the past, have an important part in worship. The suffering and conflict that took place in history and that take place in life today can be the beginning of worship and preaching with a meal. For example, Jesus began to lament at the Last Supper when Judas betrayed him, and then later Peter denied him. He finally experienced his suffering on the cross. One can connect the Last Supper as a meal of the disciples when a story of betrayal/suffering is shared, stories around family dinner tables, where the joys and struggles of the day are shared, and how it is appropriate for those stories of suffering and conflict to have a formative place in intergenerational worship that is combined with a meal. When stories of suffering and conflict meet the story of the gospel, there will be a better chance that human beings can experience joy, celebration, hope, courage, healing, recovery, reconciliation, unity, and transformation.

As Andrea Bieler notes, "the body is at the heart of the Eucharistic celebration" (Bieler and Schottroff 2007, p. 131). Participants come to the table with bodies of persons who are of multiple ages and generations. They cannot separate themselves, their minds, or their spiritual lives from their bodily existence. In the intergenerational worship combined with a meal, these aspects of life can be all immersed in the narrative of Christ's body, and they can be united in the body of Christ.

*4.2. The Full Manuscript of the Liturgy with Annotations That Call Attention to Distinctive Liturgical Characteristics*
