In the church, the little place that the bread of the Lord's Supper is served on is called a paten. They are usually sold in sets with a chalice and make a lovely set. Such is the vocabulary lesson for today.
Our chalice and paten set is pottery created by an artist from Eureka Springs named Terry Russell. When the original set was in the kiln, the paten cracked. It cracked all of the way though, but not all of the way across the plate. There is also a slight warp in the piece.
Now, this happened long before I came to the church, so I do not know this story first hand, but I share it with you. When the potter saw the crack, immediately the Russell's apologized for the broken piece and said they would replace it. One of the members of the congregation said that that was unnecessary. The broken paten is a constant reminder that we are broken people and Christ himself was broken for us.
Well, the Russell's replaced the paten, but we still use the broken one every year during Lent. Lent is truly the season to remember that we are a broken people, and Easter, the season that follows, shows us that we are redeemed in new life by Jesus Christ. Like the paten, we are made whole.
Amen.
