The Eucharist And Wirzba's

The Eucharist is central to both Wesley’s and Wirzba’s theological and ethical formulations. Long argues that, “Wesley’s ethics can only be understood in terms of a common ecclesial life based on practices such as the Eucharist, a common doctrinal confession, and the General Rules. It is no surprise that Wesley’s work disappears when “ethics” becomes the essence of Methodism.” Wesley maintains that the introduction of “ethics” into a society that has suffered “the death of God” has caused a disappearance of communal pietistic practices such as “creedal profession, church membership, sacramental symbols, ascetic practices, emotional experiences, modes of worship, sabbath observance,” and so on. That is to say, Long recognizes that Wesley’s framework
Faith necessitates and produces proper action. As such Long notes that, for Wesley, the Eucharist was never to be an optional activity. As Long writes, “Prudence is the name for the virtue that fulfills well Aristotle’s practical reasoning. Wesley seems to assume that if the syllogism works, the Christian only has one response: attend the Lord’s supper as often as possible.” Wesley himself writes, in his sermon “The Duty of Constant Communion,” that “it is the duty of every Christian to receive the Lord’s Supper as often as he can.” Consequently, the Eucharist becomes for the Christian, and by extension the community, the formational practice that embodies the way Christians are to live. Just as Christ broken body and shed blood celebrated in the Eucharist create space in the life of the Triune God for creation, so the call for the Christian is to extend hospitality and create space for the other in their own life. This extension of hospitality (grace) at the Table to creation and the embodiment of such a grace in the practice of the Christian community is the bridge from Wesley to
Each seeks to make theological formulations based on an ontology centered around the Eucharist. So the question becomes how do Wesleyans live sacramental lives. Much can be said of Wirzba’s further of Wesley’s emphasis upon the Eucharist in claiming that every meal shared in the name of God has Eucharist overtones. A modern day sacramentality is an extension of hospitality in its most extreme forms. Following in the example of the Word who became embodied flesh to extend the hospitality of God to a fallen creation, the Church as the Body of Christ can now by the presence of the Holy Spirit be that same extension of God’s hospitality around our common tables. When Christians intentional create spaces in their lives for the other they practice the same love that Christ did on the cross creating space for creation in the life of the Triune God. Christian can become intimately connected with their food and the environments they inhabit. Each meal can be received with gratitude, each table opened for the other, and so the cycle of hospitality continues as Christians died to themselves so that they can participate in the life giving actions of a Savior who was broken open and poured out for the sake of the life of the