Beginning at the Table
For my money, no piece of furniture is more important to the home than the table. By that I mean the table around which the family gathers every day. Maybe it's not the dining room table, since that table might be used only on special occasions. And I am not thinking of the coffee table where we gather to watch TV, though there is nothing like a good puzzle or a game of Scrabble to bring the family together. I am thinking of the table which centers a home and a family. It is probably in the kitchen, the table where the family gathers everyday. I'm a firm believer in families sitting down together to eat, even if there are only two people or maybe even just one in the family. My boys are old enough now they won't mind me saying that there were times when our family table was surrounded by as much conflict as comfort, when sibling rivalry and bickering was as much a part of the meal as prayer and laughter. But they will also tell you we hung in there. We kept meeting at the table, even when we couldn't get along and didn't like each other very much and it paid off. Today it is a joy to go to David's home and find his family gathering around the table (it happens to be the SAME table) for their meals every day, growing together as a family.
In the church, our life revolves around the table. The table of fellowship is crucial and our Lord's Table is central. We find bread for life and wine for the journey at the Table where we gather with the rest of the family in faith. Just like any other family, the table is not always a place of complete harmony. And just like a family, in the church we will not always agree. There will be times when tensions will strain the conversation and stretch the patience of everyone, but we will hang in there. We will continue to meet at the Table where we find our common center. That's where we discover that the things that hold us together are more important than the things that push us apart because we are bound together by blood, the blood of Christ.
This week we begin our Lenten journey at the Table. On Ash Wednesday we will offer communion every hour on the hour from 7:00am to 7:00pm. In the evening we will share our annual "Empty Bowls" meal in support of our hunger ministries. The Sunday sermons will follow the chapters of Adam Hamilton's book "24 Hours Which Changed the World". Chapter one draws us to the Upper Room and the last supper table where bickering disciples break bread and share a common cup and around the Table we become one. We too will gather at the Table as the family of God, becoming one in Him.
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