How Big Is The Table?

John 13: 33-35 & Acts 11: 1-18

Roger Lynn

May 6, 2018

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I remember a dream I had several years ago. It was a table – a really big table. It was, in fact, a communion table. And as I came awake the phrase which lingered in my mind was, “How big is the table?” And the answer filled the dream. It is big enough for everyone. The cup we find on this table is vast. It holds nothing less than the love of God. There is enough and more for all who thirst to come and drink their fill. Around the table there is enough room for all who hunger to come and eat together.

Peter had a similar dream. God offers him a feast and tells him to eat. But Peter objects. Because of the cultural values with which he was raised, and the isolating limitations found in some of the scriptures he held sacred, Peter’s table was small. There was no room for those who were different. There was no room for those who did not fit. So Peter objected to the feast God offered. And Peter objected to the other guests whom God invited to the feast. But God insisted. God’s table is vast. God’s feast is abundant. God’s guest list is without limit. Peter’s cultural values and sacred scriptures would either need to expand or be set aside to make room for God’s all-encompassing love.

In my parent’s house there was a picture of a table. I was aware of it for as long as I can remember and it always captured my imagination. I don’t know who created it, but for me it represented a powerful illustration of the truth of Peter’s dream and my dream. The table is elegantly set with fine china, beautiful glassware, elegant silver, elaborately carved chairs. It is a banquet table prepared for a feast. But what stands out for me about this table is the sense that it just keeps going. It seems to stretch on into infinity. How big is the table? As big as it needs to be for everyone to come and eat. No one need be excluded, shut out, or left behind. There is always room for one more.

For Peter the line was drawn at the Gentiles (those who were not Jewish). That particular issue no longer matters to us (largely because we are the Gentiles). But the larger question still remains. Who is it for us today that are being cut off from the table? Who is it today that our society seeks to isolate or ignore? Who is it today that we don’t want to share a meal with (figuratively or literally)? During WWII it was people of Japanese and Asian descent. For many it is people of color. For others it is the LGBTQ community. For some it is Muslims and refugees and immigrants. Maybe it is poor people, or rich people. Maybe it is Republicans, or Democrats. Maybe it is religious conservatives, or liberals. But wherever it is in any given moment that we seek to draw the line, God erases the line. “What God makes clean you shall not make profane.” It doesn’t matter what you thought the rules were before. It doesn’t even matter if you think you have scripture on your side. If it comes down to a choice between welcoming people to God’s table and following the letter of the law, God’s table wins out every time. 

In the 13th chapter of John’s Gospel, Jesus is saying good-bye to his disciples. The end is at hand and there are some important things he wants to make sure they hear. “I’m leaving and you can’t come with me,” he tells them. “It’s not going to be like it has been, when we walked and talked and figured life out together. You will need to be open to God’s presence on your own. And you will need to be open to each other. There is only one thing you really need to do, and if you do it, everyone will know who you are. Love one another. If you love one another in the way I have tried to show you that God loves you, then I won’t really be gone.” Love one another! It is as simple and as complicated as that. It is as easy and as difficult as that. There is a sign on the door to my office that says, “Which part of ‘Love One Another’ don’t we understand?” I guess the part where we actually have to do more than just talk about it. The part where we have to join Peter and set aside our restrictive beliefs and go have dinner with Cornelius. The part where we have to stop thinking in terms of “us” and “them” and start thinking only in terms of an all-inclusive “us.” The part where love (the desire for the well-being of the other) actually causes us to take a risk and take a stand on behalf of “the other.”

It isn’t always easy, this life to which God is calling us. It seems that there are always new insights which challenge us to recognize yet another line that needs erasing or barrier that needs to be knocked down. Just when we think we have it figured out, we come to see yet another layer that needs to be peeled away. It means always extending ourselves beyond our comfort zone as we continue to discover what it means to welcome the stranger, what it means to eat with the Gentile, what it means to love one another.

How big is the table? It is big enough for Peter and Cornelius, big enough for Jesus and Judas, big enough for blacks and whites, big enough for gays and straights, big enough for citizens and immigrants, big enough for you and me and us and them, big enough for all who will come.