Jim

“The Eucharist is our model of the eschatological order, a microcosm of the way things really ought to be.”[105] Thus it is a normative meal: by showing us a foretaste of how things ought to be, the practice of the Lord’s Supper carries norms in it, and these norms constitute both a basis of critique for the present order, as well as hints as to how the church should order itself as a polis that is”
― James K.A. Smith, Desiring the Kingdom (Cultural Liturgies): Worship, Worldview, and Cultural Formation

“These are not naturally occurring phenomena; they are the fruit of culture, the products of human making. In blessing the bread and giving thanks for it, Jesus not only hallows the stuff of the earth, but he also hallows the stuff of our hands.”
― James K.A. Smith, Desiring the Kingdom (Cultural Liturgies): Worship, Worldview, and Cultural Formation

“Rather, the offering is an expression of gratitude. It is a symbolic but concrete indication that the “commerce” between God and humanity is not a contract but a covenant, which traffics not in commodities but gifts.”
― James K.A. Smith, Desiring the Kingdom (Cultural Liturgies): Worship, Worldview, and Cultural Formation

“First, lest we pass too quickly over the mundane and obvious, we should appreciate that the stuff of the Lord’s Supper—the “elements” as they’re sometimes called—are rather ho-hum stuff: bread and wine, staples of any daily diet in many parts of the world and across history.”
― James K.A. Smith, Desiring the Kingdom (Cultural Liturgies): Worship, Worldview, and Cultural Formation