“Come to the table of mercy, prepared with the wine and the bread.
All who are hungry and thirsty, come, and your souls will be fed.”— Claire Cloninger, from Come to the Table, Evangelical Lutheran Worship #481
Several children of our congregation are currently preparing for their First Communion. I love meeting with our young people as they learn more about God’s love for them and their friends, and family, and neighbors, and strangers. I love learning from them as they share their insights and perspectives. From the oldest to the youngest, they open my eyes to new insights and I thank God for them!
They’re learning that God has prepared a place for them at the table Jesus has set. God wants all to be fed, and when God feeds us we receive God’s love, God’s forgiveness, God’s mercy. Because God loves everyone.
That’s everyone. No asterisk to note the exception down at the bottom of the page in small print. No grading system. No special favor for those who’ve been there the longest. In fact, Jesus holds out a particular invitation to the least and the last. C.S. Lewis notes in his book The Problem of Pain that God loves us not because we are lovable, but because God is love. When Jesus instituted Holy Communion on the night in which he was betrayed, the heart of that meal was love and inclusion. Everyone was welcome, even the one who was about to betray him. Jesus holds out his love to everyone.
God invites all to the table, everyone has a place.
When we gather around the table for Holy Communion, we create a visible sign that everyone has a place there at God’s invitation. And so, for this coming season of Lent, our theme is “Around the Table.”
When you come to worship, come and find a place around the table. A place that will offer you a new perspective. An opportunity for new insight. Who will you see across the table from you? While your eyes are turned to Jesus, who will you see also? To whom does Jesus turn your gaze, to see with the same compassion with which Jesus sees you? Who is not at the table that you can invite to come and receive God’s love and mercy? Who in our wider community can you bring God’s love to, feeding their soul with love, with compassion, with hope? How can we, together, extend God’s table of mercy into our wider community?
Ash Wednesday is next week on March 2 and Lent begins. Come to the table. There is a place for you.
God’s peace and grace to you this day,
–Pastor Annemarie
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