Come to the Table

Last Sunday we celebrated World Wide Communion coming together around many tables, yet one, to share in the Sacred Mystery of our faith. We acknowledge there are many things that divide us as Christians and our understandings vary depending on our culture, tradition and theological thought. However, we also hold up that which unites us, namely the table set for us by Jesus our host. In this feast we open ourselves to the power of the Spirit that feeds us and refreshes us. We come with our brokenness and pray the healing hands of the Christ might hold us. We come with our question, doubts and fears knowing that we are all invited and a seat is held for us that we might find rest from our journey. At this table the dream and the vision of Jesus “ that we might be one” is held up.

There is something about coming together around a table to share in the good things of the earth that joins us in fellowship and friendship and is as old as time itself. In the book of proverbs we find these words “ Wisdom has built her house, she has her seven pillars. She has slaughtered her animals, she has mixed her wine, she has also set her table. She has sent out her servant girls, she calls from the highest places in town. “You that are simple , turn here!” To those without sense she says “ Come, eat of my bread and drink of the wine I have mixed. Lay aside immaturity, and live, and walk in the way of insight”

In her book “ In Wisdom’s Path” Jan Richardson writes about this table and being able to linger with folks who have journeyed with her. She writes ‘ where there is bread and wine and friendship, there is holy ground”

The wisdom feast is always set for us and we are invited to come, taste and see.

O God of Wisdom We Come ~ by Jan Richardson
To your table you bid us come.
You have set the places,
You have poured the wine,
And there is always room,
You say
For one more.

And so we come.
From the streets and the alleys
We come.
From the deserts and from the hills
We Come
From the ravages of poverty
And the palaces of privilege
We Come
Running, limping, carried
We come

We are bloodied with our wars
we are wearied with our wounds
We carry our dead within us
And we reckon with their ghosts

We hold the seeds of healing
We dream of a new creation
We know the things that make for peace
And we struggle to give them wings.

And yet, to your table we come
Hungering for your bread
We come
Thirsting for your wine
We come
Singing your song in every language.
Speaking your name in every tongue
In conflict and in communion,
In discord and in desire,

We come.
O God of Wisdom
We Come.

May we always come to the table, with all that we are and all that we have, good and bad. At this table may we rest awhile with wisdom and know her insight and wonder. When we rise to leave may we be renewed and empowered to walk a different path and set another table , until the seats at our table are filled and we add one more.

Blessings
Valerie