Means of Grace: The family table

Scripture: Exodus 24:3-11; Mark 14:17-26Title: Family mealThis past week Sarah and I enjoyed our first official "Meet the McCoys" event. We had a wonderful time. On Thursday we were taken to McDonald’s Restaurant in Fairbury. We had some very good broiled chicken and soup and then went to someone’s home for some delicious cookies and coffee. The food was good. We were both stuffed after lunch, and the cookies and sherbert that we had for desert were all homemade - and you could tell. It was a great meal, but the best part about it was not the quality of the food. The best part about it was the chance to sit down and get to know some women from the church a little better. And I think my favorite part was when we went back to one of the ladies’ homes. We sat around her dining room table and shared much more than cookies. We shared stories, we shared memories, and we shared a lot of laughter. There’s just something about gathering at a family table that is special.The family table is a special place. That is why we wanted to have the Meet the McCoys parties. We wanted the chance to get to know some people. We wanted a chance to develop real relationships with people. It is impossible to really get to know somebody in this hour at church. You may feel like you know me from a few weeks of preaching, but I don’t get to know you any better. But I feel having personal relationships with as many people from the church as possible is extremely important. So we want to gather together in fairly small groups, preferably at a family table. And I cannot tell you how excited we are that we have several meals planned.To me, the family table is one of the most important pieces of furniture in a home. Our table is a pretty simple table. It is fairly dark brown wood. It is oblong, and has one leaf. It seats six, but we only have five chairs. I still call it the kitchen table, even though it has not been in a kitchen in years. It’s in our dining room, and looks kind of small in that big room.Most people have a kitchen table. It is really the most basic furniture possible. I’m no anthropologist, but I would imagine that most every culture, going back very far in the history of humanity, has had some form of table. Think of your own table. What’s on it right now? On ours is some mail, the newspaper, two candlesticks, a napkin holder. It has a little bit of a mess on it, but nothing that couldn’t be picked up quickly. What are some things that you do at your table? In the last week, we have paid bills, played cards, written notes.I said that I call our table the kitchen table even though it has not been in a kitchen in years. That is because for many years before it came to our apartment in Saint Louis, it was the kitchen table at my house. It was the place we shared many meals, but it was much more than that.It was the place that we made candy every Christmas. It was where we colored eggs every Easter. It was where I did the really important homework - the research papers and the projects. It was where I sat to talk to my Mom as she did dishes. It was where my brother and I would play board games sometimes. It was where my sister saved my life when I was choking on a hot dog when I was three years old.The kitchen table, the family table - is much more than a table. It is the center of the home. Every home has levels, and when you visit a home, you get closer and closer to the heart of the home with each level you pass. The first level is the simple property line. A talk out in the yard is a friendly talk, but it is not particularly intimate. No one sits down. No refreshments are offered. It is a temporary relationship, and both parties know it. The front porch is the next level. Here there might be seats. A drink may be offered. Still though, there has been no real breach of privacy. The next level is inside the door. This might bring you to a more comfortable seat like the couch. Here a snack may be offered. This visit might last a little longer. The relationship is a little more permanent. But once you reach the table, this is a higher level of intimacy. This is really the highest level of intimacy you can expect when you visit someone’s house. Here a whole meal may be shared. Here time is going to be spent. This is the heart of the home - the place where so many memories have been created, and now the visitor is a part of those memories.Having someone into your home is a special event. It is a chance to show hospitality. It is a chance to share a place that is special to you with someone else. When we share our family table with others, we cannot help but leave that time a little closer. Having a meal together at a restaurant is nice, but being in someone’s home -- you can feel the spirit of that home. There is no greater place to build a relationship with someone than at a family table.And I think Jesus knew it. Jesus was desperate to share a closer relationship with his disciples. The whole purpose of his life was to bring people together. People have a knack for dividing each other. We divide by gender. We divide by class. We divide by nationality. We divide by the way we look. We divide by the way we dress. We divide and we divide and we divide, and all Jesus did was go around breaking down those divisions. He broke down divisions between race and ethnicity, and class. He broke down the ways we divide each other, and he did it with a table.What was so scandalous to the leaders at the time? He ate with those people. The leaders dedicated their life to putting up dividers, and he broke down the barriers in the most powerful way he could - at the table. Jesus did his ministry at the table. He ate with people. It was such a simple thing, and yet it was enough for people to want to kill him.Jesus dedicated his life to breaking down barriersbetween people. And he did it by being relationship with others. In his life he wanted nothing more to have a relationship with people. And when it came time for him to die, when he knew it was coming to an end. When he knew he was going to be betrayed and arrested he didn’t go out and preach to thousands. He didn’t go to the crowds and seek one last audience. He didn’t go out and perform one last miracle. He wasn’t looking for a farewell tour or a grand finale. When he knew it was coming to an end, all he wanted to do was share a meal with his friends.So he and his friends gathered and shared a meal. They gathered around a table, and this wasn’t just any table - it was so much more. It was the Lord’s Table. He wanted them to remember this meal. More, he wanted them to remember their relationship. He wanted them to remember all the barriers that he broke down. He wanted them to remember what he taught them about how to love one another and how to love God. He wanted them to remember everything they had been trough, everything they had seen. So he broke bread, and he told them to remember him. And he poured out the cup, and he reminded them of the covenant they shared, and he told them to remember him. In the end, he shared a meal with his friends - but it was so much more than a meal.So now we are offered to join in this meal. We are offered the bread and the cup, and yet we are offered so much more. Some things haven’t changed. We’re still really good at dividing each other, and Jesus still wants nothing more than for us to be together. He wants more than anything for us to be in relationship with each other, and with him. So Jesus still offers us this meal. There is so much going on in this meal that I couldn’t begin to explain it all. It is rich with metaphor and symbolism, but the best way that I can explain it is that it is the family meal.Think of how special it is to be invited to someone’s home for a meal. Think of the way a relationship is changed in a real and powerful way when you eat at someone’s table. Think of the people you have eaten with, the memories that were made during those times. Above all, think of the relationships that are forged at a family table. Then remember that when we come to this meal, we are coming to the Lord’s Table.When we come to the Lord’s Table we develop our relationship. We as Methodists may not believe that the bread and wine become physically the body and blood of Jesus, but we do believe that something real and powerful happens here. We share a meal with our Lord and barriers are destroyed. We encounter God through the bread and the cup.There are a lot of questions that people have about Communion. Should children do it? Well, I cannot think of a family that gathers for a meal and does not include the children. Some argue that children can’t know what is going on in Communion, so they can’t take it seriously. Well, I wonder if any of us really know what is going on in Communion. I’ve been studying it for some time now and I cannot tell you exactly what happens. And I also know that children might not know what is going on when they are included in it, but they definitely know what is going on when they are left out of it.Others ask if anyone should be able to take Communion? The table is the Lord’s Table, this is not my table. This is not the church’s table. This is not the Methodist table. It is the Lord’s Table, and anyone who belongs to the Lord can come. And that is also why we as Methodists drink grape juice on not wine. We partake of the vine, but do not allow it to be fermented because we want all to be able to come, and the presence of alcohol could keep some away.Some wonder if they are worthy of Communion. The answer to that is easy - no. None of us are. None of us are worthy to eat at the Lord’s Table, and yet all are invited anyway. And that is grace. All are invited to come and experience God’s grace. All are invited - regardless of age or class or gender or race or "worthiness."Now we are getting close to the time when we will share in the Lord’s Supper. We will come to the table and share in the family meal. We will eat the bread and we will experience the body of Christ. We will drink of the cup and we will experience forgiveness. When we come to the table, we come to God. The Lord’s Supper is a means of grace. You can feel the grace of God in the bread and the wine. So come to the table, the Lord’s Table, the family table. Come to the feast. Come to grace. Come to Christ. Come. Oh, and after you have come, go find someone that hasn’t been home for awhile, and bring them back to the table next time - there’s plenty for everybody