Table

      In the Fall of my second year of seminary my group of friends hosted a dinner party in honor of a classmate who had recently married. Another classmate volunteered to host the dinner in her very small apartment. We rearranged the furniture in her tiny living room and borrowed tables enough for all. Next we raided our respective apartments for any hand-me-down china or silver, crystal glasses or serving dishes. Who cares that nothing really matched. Throw in the table cloths, including mismatched cloth napkins and napkin rings, some flowers in odd sized vases, and we had ourselves an exquisitely eclectic and elegant setting. The food, lovingly prepared by various members of the group was great and the conversation flowed as easily and prodigally as did the wine. There was no doubt, we had ourselves a lovely and loving little dinner party. For someone looking from the outside in it may not have appeared to be anything special at all, but to us poor students it was a rich feast,…a tangible, visible sign (sacrament) of God’s beloved community.

     Have you ever noticed that many of the stories concerning Jesus take place around table fellowship? Clearly it happened enough that his critics called him a “glutton and a drunkard” and the Pharisees and the scribes complained that he welcomed sinners and ate with them. (Luke 7:34,15:2 respectively).

     It seems like Jesus simply loved being with people at their table enjoying good food and good conversation. He enjoyed it so much he spent part of his last night at a table enjoying a meal with his disciples. Maybe it was a Passover Seder, maybe not.  But, it was a borrowed table in a borrowed space which from the outside looking in may not have appeared to be anything special at all. Yet, Jesus took the occasion of that meal and enriched it with the promise of his ongoing presence and love for his disciples and friends.

     He still does. Yes, at our communion tables. But, not only there.

     Here’s a question. Could not every meal at every table be enriched with the promise of Christ’s ongoing presence? From kitchen table to communion table every simple meal ripe with promises, a lovely and loving little dinner party, a rich feast, a tangible, visible sign (sacrament) of God’s beloved community?

rejoice

around the table

hold hands

all round

like a ring circling a finger

placed there as a promise

holding the universe together

nothing into something

into joy and love

rejoice

and celebrate!

(from “Rejoice” by Madeleine L’Engle)

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What might it look like if every meal around ever table were an occasion of communion, of seeing Christ in the breaking of the bread, and an occasion to rejoice and celebrate with gratitude the joy and love we have in Christ and Christ’s beloved community?

How might a table practice such as this change our world?

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Photo by Eric Murray

Poem excerpt from Rejoice! by Madeleine L'Engle from The Ordering of Love: The New and Collected Poems of Madeleine L'Engle.  Harmony/Rodale/Convergent, Copyright © Madeleine L'Engle, 2005

Scripture quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition (NRSVue), © 2021 National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.