The Table

Last month as my family settled in to Jones we received the gift of food from many of you. Thank you for your kindness and generosity, our pantry is full! It reminds me that there are moments when we get together to eat- when someone is grieving, at Thanksgiving, and when there is someone new to the neighborhood. Eating together is an intimate act of friendship, giving us time to tell our stories and remember our human need to be fed, body and soul. This month we will begin a new sermon series The Table where we will Find Identity, Form Community, and Experience Joy.

Over the next few weeks we could dramatically change the world we live in and help return us to our rootedness in Christ if we could bring back the table! If we were to make the table the most sacred object of furniture in every home, in our church, in this community, then our faith would regain its power, and our world would become a better place. The table is the place where identity is born— the place where the story of our lives is retold, reminded, and re-lived.

My grandfather was a great storyteller, both history and fiction. As a child I yearned to walk through his peanut patch as he told me stories about how things grow and how he was going to be a peanut vendor with a shiny red cart. He would tell me about who I was and was going to be someday; I could feel my confidence being molded. When he passed in 2003, I realized that he had rendered his storytelling gift to his daughter, my mom, and that she too knew how to spin a yarn and make a story come alive. They garnished my growing up years with imagination and creativity which helped me become the storyteller I am now.

We know that families are defined by the stories they generate, by the stories they remember together over and over. Christian families are defined by the Story of Jesus and God’s relationship to humanity throughout history. The story of our identity as a Christian people is replayed as we tell ourselves, our children, and our grandchildren around the table generation after generation. From our dinner table to the Lord’s Table we Find Identity, Form Community, and Experience Joy. See you at The Table...

Sweet, Leonard (2015-01-01). From Tablet to Table: Where Community Is Found and Identity Is Formed (pp. 2-4). NavPress. Kindle Edition.