Table Fellowship and Peacemaking

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Scripture: Luke 15:1–2 (NRSV)
15 Now all the tax collectors and sinners were coming near to listen to him. 2 And the Pharisees and the scribes were grumbling and saying, “This fellow welcomes sinners and eats with them.”

Meditation:
            I hear a lot of grumbling in the church today. I read complaints in my inbox daily about how this Christian leader or that Christian leader is eating with sinners of one type or another. It is enough to make me break down into tears. Table fellowship and peacemaking fit together like a hand in a glove. Jesus knew this that is why he invited himself to dinner with tax collectors like Zacchaeus and Matthew. Because Jesus wanted intimate relationships with those who were not religious he deliberately chose to eat with them.
            So who today are the tax collectors and sinners that Jesus would have us eat with. Well we should start by considering that Sunday mornings are the most segregated time in all the week. We could start my eating with people whose skin is a different color than our own. Sharing this meal could be the start of racial reconciliation in our own neighborhoods and cities. I think that would make Jesus very happy indeed.
            Next we could invite the poor, the marginalized, the sick in mind and body to our table. These folks might never be able to repay us but that is the point. Demonstrating Christ’s love for these folks might be just the spark they need to receive the healing that the Church can offer them through Jesus Christ. I can see Jesus smiling down on our efforts in this area.
            Finally we could invite the sexually broken and the sexually other to our table. This is the place where today’s Pharisee’s will give us the most trouble. As we meet our neighbors who have been injured by sexual violence and those who have grown up loving in different ways we may be the first people in the church to hear their stories. And therefore are in a unique position to share the story of Jesus in our own lives.
            It all starts with a table and with the desire to share the table with others. When Jesus came and ate with social outcasts I don’t think he was doing that just because that was his way of evangelizing. I am certain that this form of table fellowship was meant to be practiced by those who would claim to follow him. So let us open up our tables today and see who comes!

Prayer: Thank you Lord, that we have plenty and to spare at our tables. Help us to share our bounty with our neighbors. Give us courage to invite into our tables all those we find regardless of their condition. Help us to feed them not only with food but with the warmth of Good News that Jesus Christ loves them and desires to enter into a relationship with them and that we desire the same. Let us all learn to live together in the peace you have promised Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.  

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