This week I really did have the final visit to Northampton - not that I can never return, obviously I am free to do so any time, but it really was the last time it had any direct family link with my childhood.  And I very consciously chose where I had my lunch or breakfast or tea, becuase each was knowingly a 'last'.

A last pot of tea in BHS cafe was a last in more ways than one, of course, because in a short time it will be no more, and never will be again.  A last trip to what was once the first branch of MacDonalds outside a major city in the UK!  A last coffee in the new Starbucks.  And one last lunch at Debenhams (photo above).

When Jesus knew that the end of his life was nearing, there seems to have been a week of meals at various homes, meals that would become permanently significant for those who were there.  "Do you remember..." they would say in later years, and the stirred memories would evoke something precious that time and distance could not destroy.  The "Last Supper" with it's "whenever you do this, remember me" is one such, in fact it is "The" one such, a meal shared precisely to evoke memories and retell stories of what it is that holds this extended family/community together.  Bread and wine; memory and mystery (and sacrament for those who must); old story, new story and continuing story; then and now and still to come.

As my train drew out of Northampton station, I found myself waving and saying (quietly) "bye, bye"... and then the tears fell.  Not many, I'm not a crying kind of a girl, but in that moment an era ended.  I have another post in mind that arises from that moment, and a photo I took form the window of the train, but for now, it is "final repasts" that occupy my thoughts.

Whenever you do this, remember me:

In broken bread and poured out wine -

Or pots of tea and strawberry flans -

Take a moment to pause

Deliberately call to mind this moment

And what it meant

Live the memory

Re-live the memory

Remember the meaning

Re-member the meaning

Because every time you do

You restore the moment,

Renew the promise

Recreate the meaning

Until the day when all things are made anew in God's Kindgom of Shalom.