Let us Break Bread Together, ELW 471 & LBW 212
1 Let us break bread together on our knees;
Let us break bread together on our knees.
Refrain
When I fall on my knees,
With my face to the rising sun,
O Lord, have mercy on me.
2 Let us drink wine together on our knees;
Let us drink wine together on our knees.
Refrain
3 Let us praise God together on our knees;
Let us praise God together on our knees.
Refrain
Devotion
We sang "let us break bread together on our knees" in a small, white church that stood amid wheat and barley fields which shone golden in the Sunday morning sun. We were a community of country folk and farmers living closely to the earth. From fields, work and home, we gathered together at the round altar rail - the banker and the farmer, the housewife and the car dealer, the old bachelor and the newborn infant - face to face. For a moment, no person was any higher than the other. We were all on our knees, tired and in need of rest, hoping that God's mercy really could be given, even to me, once again. The lofty promise of the Divine feast to come, hidden in a papery wafer and cheap wine, seemed only believable for us ordinary folk in the company of other longing and needy souls.
Prayer
Ever-Living God, we give thanks for the gifts of the earth that nourish our bodies, for those who labor in the field, for the faithful before and among us who help us to hope, and for the sun that shines warm upon our faces. Amen.