The most moving moment in Sunday worship for me is when my people come forward, at Holy Communion, streaming down toward the altar, and there they hold out empty hands like little children, like the famished folk they really are, empty, needing a gift in the worst sort of way. I think that is one of the most difficult, countercultural gestures of Christian worship—outstretched empty hands. What’s normal, and natural, is the clinched fist, the hands grabbing and holding tight to what they can get. What’s strange, from the world’s point of view, is the openhanded, needy, empty request for grace.
– Sinning Like a Christian, William Willimon
