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Broken bread, broken plates, broken table. Mosaic was the natural medium to explore the idea of holy communion gone wrong. This pair may be the first of a series of mosaic tables, as I begin to explore the rich imagery of tables, and the enigma of Biblical passages such as Psalm 23: 5, “Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of my enemies.”

Not that I believe that television per se is the enemy. I’m a big fan of several shows, and I have fond memories of special TV nights as a child. That’s when our family cranked open the Campbell’s tomato soup, set up a matched set of tinny TV tables and gorged ourselves with Bonanza, Petticoat Junction, and Andy Griffith, or even worse, beauty pageants.

That was the heyday of the 1950’s and ‘60’s, when the widespread use of television revolutionized our culture. During the same period Christianity became enmeshed with the culture. According to some church historians, Christianity in the 1950’s was an aberration.  I wonder how TV helped shape faith back then? These were the days before the gross distortions of television evangelists. Perhaps the influence was more one of morals and manners. Many Americans adapted their lifestyles according to TV ads and took on the dimwitted dialogue of sit-coms. All this on-the-surface behavior was probably a reaction to World War II. There had been enough of these war atrocities and personal sacrifices; perhaps Americans just needed to numb out and focus on what was pleasurable. TV programming drilled that in, but the church sanctioned this emphasis on morals and manners above all else. Going to church—in proper attire-- became more important than being the church, doing the tough prophetic work of compassion. Over the years we’ve become passive rather than passionate, and I expect that both TV and bad theology contribute to that. Most of contemporary TV worship, uh, worship via TV, is unimaginably kitschy. There’s preaching and singing and praying, even vibes of the Holy Spirit are claimed to be transmitted. But how on earth are we to take communion via TV? Surely there is a do-it-yourself communion kit you can order from some TV ad. Better get two, since communion implies more than one.

That’s why I did mosaic on two of these tray tables (the companion one is blue, with a blue-eyed blonde Jesus). Perhaps I was reveling when I bashed up these kitschy adaptations of Leonardo’s Last Supper and Warner Sallman’s Head of Christ . Shards from plates with wheat and grapes complete the bread plate and the wine goblet, shattered into mosaic form. The Last Supper plates are circled with wobbly raised circles of gold shards, which makes the tray tops difficult to use. These pieces are like gold teeth, standing upright as if to fence the table from undesirables.

Hospitality, in the deepest sense of who is in and who is out, is one thing Holy Communion always brings up. It is similar to the familial antics around the Thanksgiving table. Once I went home with a college boyfriend for the holiday. When we arrived at his parents’ home, all was well. His mother had labored hours to prepare a savory meal. I helped her dish up the food into pretty china bowls. The table was set in the dining room, sparkling with silver and crystal. She arranged flowers, I lit the candles. In the adjacent room my friend, his father and brother were loudly following the ubiquitous Thanksgiving day football game on TV. When they were called to dinner, they responded with, “We wanna eat in here!” They hollered at us to pop out the TV tray tables, and like good little women in aprons, we did. During the next commercial, they rushed to fill their plates, said a happy-hasty blessing to the god of football and pilgrims, and dug in. We were parked there for the rest of the afternoon, staring straight ahead but not at each other. That was not the first nor the last time TV trays were involved in a break-up.