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● At Thanksgiving this year, I realized that good food and a comfortable setting creates space for exchange- not just of ideas, or conversation, or recipes, but of life (God’s life to us and our life to others). I was reminded that we don’t really accept another’s invitation to dinner just for the food; many would say that they like their own cooking better. ● But, our lives are actually being “formed” as we simply share with each other in the regular rhythms of life. The table represents the possibility nourishment for every dimension of our life- physical (food), emotional (as we find a ‘chair; a place to belong’), social (personal interaction), spiritual (the life in me touching the life in you). It is in this ‘formation’; this ‘hospitality’ that we catch glimpses of the welcome of the Kingdom- the way things should function with God’s desires being the order of the day. ● God’s plan was to create a new family; a diverse gathering of people who can finally all sit down together. People who could look around the table and say, ‘This is who I am’; this is where I belong’. Have you ever pushed yourself back from the table, and amidst the bustle and reverberating conversation looked and said, ‘This is my family’ or ‘That explains a lot!’ ● Paul said, “Love must be sincere.” (Romans 12:9) Hospitality is one of the ways that we accomplish that; it’s a tangible expression of love. ● There’s nothing abstract about hospitality: it involves particular persons at a specific time; you have to wash sheets and defrost chicken. It requires commitment on the part of the host to make ready for the guest. We ‘set the table’- meaning that we identify one who will occupy that space; we ‘set a place’ for them. ● Our homes are like different levels of a computer game; you have to get past one to enter the other- each level representing a progressive intimacy. When you invite someone to sit down at the table and eat with you, you are welcoming them into space that is personal and valuable to you. You are creating “sacred space” for lives to intersect. You make possible a sharing of life that does not take place standing in the entry way or at the front door. ● It’s amazing how many accounts of Jesus’ life in the gospels involve eating- with sinners, feeding the crowds, at Passover, during his post-resurrection visit and in Revelation he is pictured as standing outside waiting to come in and eat with us (Revelation 3:20). In the first century, there were rules for what you could eat, who you could eat it with, and where you should sit while you were eating. Jesus was notorious for his bad ‘table manners’; he didn’t seem too particular about who he was having dinner with (always loving all the wrong people for all the right reasons!) The meal was a way saying something (or meaning things) by doing something. ● For years, people have contemplated the use of these (4) words to describe the movements of God in our lives: ‘take’, ‘bless’, ‘break’ and ‘give’. The table provides so many metaphors for life. This is the same sequence we find in the feeding of the 5,000 (Matthew 14) in and the 4,000 (Matthew 15); also in Luke 24 at the dinner of the couple in Emmaus. ‘take’- there’s something of a sense of deliberateness to such action; the idea that you have been ‘selected/chosen’. We all know the joy of a warm-welcome by the host. As guests in our Father’s house, the first thing you will experience is the Father’s love; extravagant welcome: you get the sense that even though the house is bustling, you’re the one he’s been waiting for! As invited guests at the table, we bring only ourselves; only who we are- that’s all we have to give; that’s all Father wants. At the table, you never know who you’re going to sit by, right? We are all assembled because we have all been chosen; it’s the ‘invitation’ that celebrates our choseness. ● (2) things seem to happen as we are gathered: ‘gratitude’- we are thankful that our host has made room for us and, in doing so, has demonstrated their desire to be close to us. ‘companionship’ (Latin ‘cum’ + ‘panis’ = “breading together”)- the willingness to celebrate the chosenness of the other ‘bless’- to envision what it may become as we offer it to God; as we ask him to make it more than it really is (more than just bread): more than just pain, more than abuse, more than existence. In Hebrew means ‘to praise’, ‘to adore’’; it’s used as a synonym for ‘giving thanks’. ● We all need to hear someone speak well of us; to affirm our chosenness, call out the ‘goodness’ in us, because words of blessing actually help to create the reality to which we are called. Not only do you need to hear others say it, but you need to hear God say it. Our desire to experience ‘choseness’ has caused us to look for blessing (affirmation) in all the wrong places. It will take a hearing with our heart. ‘break’- the effects of our brokenness are evident and the range of our brokenness is overwhelming; it’s hard not to notice, and, it’s even harder not to dwell on it; to have it ‘define’ who we are. ● “Pain is our mother, she makes us recognize each other” (OVT). There seems to be a ‘customization’ to brokenness; that although pain is common, it’s also unique to us (varying experiences, levels, etc.) But, it’s my conviction of chosenness that allows me to share my brokenness. And as I do, I create a space for you to not only share your brokenness, but the atmosphere which might lend itself to your healing. ● The invitation of God says you don’t have to fake it anymore; you don’t have to masquerade it or medicate it, because only in humility will you find grace as a resource of restoration. Remember… “no one eats plastic fruit”. No one has ever found the sustenance that they need for survival in plastic fruit. ● Our admission of brokenness is not a tactic we use to get God to love us, but the confident response to the fact that he already does! Pride is not only about over-estimating yourself, but under-estimating God! Every time that we readily admit our brokenness it seems to arouse the hope that we can really be made whole! Remember: you don’t have to understand blessing to be blessed; you don’t have to understand healing to be healed! ‘give’- the loaf represented the unity of our common lives. We can’t properly celebrate our chosenness apart from our call to give. ● One of the real paradoxes of our faith is that those who realize the fullest experience of life (God)- who truly find themselves- are the ones who give themselves away. ● At the table, none of us owns anything: we say ‘grace’ and we ‘pass the grace’. Our brokenness allows us to be given to others; the breaking is expressly for the giving; it’s the intent of the breaking! It’s the only way that we experience the ‘shared life’ (of God and with others). It was in the breaking of the bread that the masses were fed. It’s believing that in the little that we have to offer, God can multiply its effectiveness. ● Our response? Jesus said, “Do this to remember me”. We remember all the time; we can’t help it- you can’t stop it (it’s like trying to go to sleep). In one sense, the past is gone, never to be repeated; in another sense, it’s not done with us yet. It doesn’t take much to bring it back (a song, a letter, a photo, a stretch of road, etc.); and it’s not just a token of remembrance to look at, it’s still very much a part of us- we feel its original intensity. The kind of “remembering” that Jesus calls us to is a more ‘deliberate act’; it’s the slow process of searching the depths of who we are. The kind of remembering that has the potential to subvert the memories.
● It’s not the uncontrollable
reminders of what’s been done to us; but the intentional calling to mind of
what’s been done for us! |
