December 6, 2024 – A Bigger Table: Building Messy, Authentic, and Hopeful Spiritual Community

“When the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together, and one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him. “Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?” He said to him, “ ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the greatest and first commandment. And a second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.” Matthew 22:34 – 40

“Ask people about their exodus from the Church, and many will tell you stories of their forced estrangement, of becoming reluctant prodigals wanting desperately to return home and no longer welcomed back. They will talk about being shunned, disconnected, silenced—made persona non grata in the place where they were once told they were welcomed as they were, and had felt as much. They’ll share how quickly they were made to feel dead to a group of people who had given them so much life, and the way their faith had nearly been killed along with it.” (Pavlovitz, John. A Bigger Table, Expanded Edition with Study Guide: Building Messy, Authentic, and Hopeful Spiritual Community (pp. 45-46). Presbyterian Publishing Corporation. Kindle Edition.)

Life can really be hard. Church life is no different. Life can be hard because of what we have lost: like the loss of a job, the loss of a spouse or parent, and yes even the loss of our church family. Church life can be a difficult path to trod. Living in a community with so many diverse people with diverse experiences means we will encounter many people who do not think like us, do not believe like us, and do not agree with us. Many people have wandered away from the church because either they believe the church has lost its mission and its soul or the people in the pews no longer share their religious, political, or moral values.  

The ironic part of this reality is that church life can become difficult when we are asked to love the unlovable, or love people we don’t think deserve our love, or we are forced to live with and sit next to those who refuse to love without boundaries. Jesus takes the Ten Commandments or the Law and reduces the Ten Commandments to the Two most important – and they both involve love: Love the Lord your G-d – and Love your Neighbor as Yourself.

It is plain and simple – and yet it isn’t. There are no distinctions – no caveats. Jesus says love your neighbor. If we can use the metaphor of a table, Jesus wants as many seats at his table of love as possible. Jesus is trying to teach his disciples and the religious leaders that their rules and distinctions are reducing or limiting access to the chairs of G-d’s table of love. If we are to be true to Jesus’ teachings, we should be in the business of inviting and welcoming all people to G-d’s table. Anything else goes against Jesus’ teachings – plain and simple.

Pastor Dave