December 7, 2024 – A Bigger Table: Building Messy, Authentic, and Hopeful Spiritual Community

“One of the biggest, most damaging mistakes too many Christians so willingly make is assuming that God is as much of a judgmental jerk as we are. But what if we could make room for difference and space for disagreement in our spiritual communities? What if we could give permission for moral failure and freedom to not be certain, and the chance to gloriously fail without needing those things to become black marks against people or death-penalty offenses? What if we made space for people who are as screwed up as we are?”  (Pavlovitz, John. A Bigger Table, Expanded Edition with Study Guide: Building Messy, Authentic, and Hopeful Spiritual Community (p. 51). Presbyterian Publishing Corporation. Kindle Edition.)

“As Jesus was walking along, he saw a man called Matthew sitting at the tax-collection station, and he said to him, “Follow me.” And he got up and followed him. And as he sat at dinner in the house, many tax collectors and sinners came and were sitting with Jesus and his disciples. When the Pharisees saw this, they said to his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?” But when he heard this, he said, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. Go and learn what this means, ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’ For I have not come to call the righteous but sinners.” Matthew 9:9-13

If Jesus came to many churches today looking for people to be a part of his “team of ministers”, I am not so sure he would stick around too long. If Jesus stayed around long enough to listen to the way they talk about outsiders, or witnessed how they refuse to allow certain people to the communion table, or how their mission support goes more to keeping their lights on rather than feeding the hungry and serving the last, least, lost and little of this world, I believe Jesus would be sick to his stomach. Instead of people hungry to embrace the world in the love of G-d and the name of Jesus, Jesus would find people who were no different from the Pharisees and the Sadducees of his day, people who have the same haughty and diminishing approach to whom we are supposed to be loving and offering ministry.

How are we doing with expanding the table of Jesus’ love, mercy and grace? As a congregation and as individuals within that community, are we seeking ways to invite people in, or setting rules that keep people out?

Pastor Dave