The Table

 Last week I read these two quotes on the same day:

"When you give a dinner, don't invite your friends, brother, sisters, relatives or rich neighbours; if you do, they may invite you back and so you will be repaid.  But when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the disabled and the blind, and you will be blessed.  Although they cannot repay you, you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous."     Jesus

"This is what God's kingdom is like; a bunch of outcasts and oddballs gathered at a table, not because they are rich or worthy or good but because they are hungry, because they said yes.  And there is always room for more."  Rachel Held Evans

And all of a sudden my brain exploded into imagining this table.  And now I'm inviting you to imagine it too.

There's no pretense at this table.  We don't have to use matching plates, bowls, cutlery and napkins.  We come because we are hungry.

Hungry for belonging.

Hungry for friendship.

Hungry for healing.

Hungry for wholeness.

Hungry for understanding.

Hungry for acceptance.

Hungry to be in a group where you can ask any question without eyebrows being raised.  

You can even drop the odd swear.

You can nip out for a smoke and come back in, wafting the stench of acceptance into the group.  

We can eat and be satiated.  Satiated by the food but also by the wonder of belonging.

For we are all outcasts and oddballs and misfits really.  Who says we 'fit' more than anyone else?  Who says we are the healthy ones?  Who decides those things?

Jesus invites us all.  Whether we can repay or not.  Whether we can bring a whole home-cooked casserole or half an open pack of doritos grabbed from the cupboard.

All are welcome and there's always space for more.  We can scoot up and bit and squeeze in another chair.  No need to sit on the outside.  No need to look in through the window and feel alone.

So, what?

What if, instead of home-groups and lifegroups and organised groups of same-type people, we all had gatherings at the table for ones different to us?

What if we made space at our table for the ones who bring the doritos or the chippy-chips?

What if our table gathered the oddballs and the misfits and we all met Jesus together?

What if those of us who think we're all good, meet Jesus in the supposed misfit at our table?

What if the ones who smell are actually bringing precious incense into our home?

What if our table gathers the hungry instead of the feeders?  The ones who want to be fed instead of the ones needing to feed.

What if we can be fed by the hungry?

What if we were never meant to sit in rows in church but instead church is really one enormous table, welcoming new ones into the family?  Laughing, eating, reminiscing, listening, weeping, telling stories, challenging thinking, asking questions.