Neighboring Behind a Table
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Intro
Reflect on what we’ve been speaking on.
Whose my neighbor
How to love and serve my eighbbor
Why?
We live in a post-christian culture
People are more hostile to the faith
People are more disinterested
Apathy
Sunday isn’t considered a day where you dress the kids and attend church.
Now its if there isn’t a football game
A Childs sportig evet
A brunch with my gals or dudes.
Or Sunday is my day off.
In such a culture.. how do we show the relevance of the gospel??
More ans more, we see the methods of the past aren’t working a well.
Street evangelism
Large gatherings where you invite a dynamic speaker
Entertainment at church
Is there a way
A practice
An ancient resource
Of meeting people where they’re at.
Connecting
Valuing them
I believe there is and its somewhat simplistic
It involves a table and a meal.
We all are familiar with the universal appeal of food.
It’s a deep human instinct that we mark significant moments with significant meals.
Holidays
Gatherings
birthdays
Reunion
They bind us together
It shapes us
Binds us
The laughs and jokes stay with us
There is something disarming about a meal behind a table.
Discussing theology in Greece over a meal.
We believed different but food united us.
Discussing trinitarian theology over a meal is much more enjoyable.
Jesus
John talks about the word becoming flesh and moving into the neighborhood.
How would Jesus react, respond, reach people??
How would you act if you moved into a new neighborhood?
Lock yourself up so no-one knows if anyone moved in.
Invite people over but only your friends.
Now, out of all the ways that Jesus could reach out and connect… what do you think it would be the approach of God?
What was Jesus method for connecting with the marginalized, broken and outcast??
It was a meal and a table.
He's a drunkard and glutton.
At one point, people started to accuse him for excess partying. He's a drunkard and glutton.
Now these were accusations. We dont think that Jesus was either.
But nobody calls me a drunkard.. why, because I haven’t drank or been around places where people drink.
Glutton thats another story. I live a few min from in-n- out.
First miracle — water to wine at a wedding feast.
Another miracle is feeding over 20000 people
Eating with …
• In Jesus eats with tax collectors and sinners at the home of Levi.
• In Jesus is anointed at the home of Simon the Pharisee during a meal.
• In Jesus feeds the five thousand.
• In Jesus eats in the home of Martha and Mary.
• In Jesus condemns the Pharisees and teachers of the law at a meal.
• In Jesus is at a meal when he urges people to invite the poor to their meals rather than their friends.
• In Jesus invites himself to dinner with Zacchaeus.
Chester, T. (2011). A meal with jesus: discovering grace, community, and mission around the table. Wheaton, IL: Crossway.
For instance, Robert Karris has identified as many as fifty-one passages in Luke’s gospel alone in which Jesus is linked with food.
He gives this memorable line that in Luke’s gospel, “Jesus is either going to a meal, at a meal, or coming from a meal”
Now many of you aren’t fazed by that.
Jesus enjoyed eating. Great.
Its much more than that.
Table fellowship
Peter and Cornelius
thus social boundaries could be more or less defined in terms of inclusion or exclusion
-ethnicty
Economical
Purity
Gender
Cultural
Religious
To eat together created a special bond (cf. ), and whom you ate with, or whom you invited to eat with you, defined your place in society. In a society where shame and honor were central motivating factors, this mattered. Jesus’s willingness to eat with and to accept invitations from both the respectable and the disreputable, the influential and the marginalized, was one of his most striking traits
The distinctiveness of Jesus’ vision of the kingdom was nowhere clearer than in his protest against discriminatory meal practices. Jesus and the Pharisees ate differently.
The son of man came eating and drinking.
Jesus method for connecting with outsiders and insiders.
"The Son OF Man came..."
1. To Serve
2. To seek and save the Lost
3. Eating and Drinking
.
1st two depict his mission and purpose.
The last one is the method and means.
He did it behind a table,
Sharing a meal
Noticeing the marginalized.
Welcoming the stranger.
The meal was so central, this is largely why the first 5 centuries of the christian movement was largely revolved around a table.
But before looking at the early church, I wanna take a few min and look at us.
Genesis is about a year old.
We have some strengths \
We have some weaknesses.
One thing from the beginning is we don't wanna be a church just for ourselves.
Put on our christianize outfits and our proper talk… Im blessed brother.
We wanna be a church for the city..
People that are broken and discouraged would find healing and restoration.
One of the central ways this is done is through small groups.
Over the next 2 weeks, we are having small groups launch all across the city.
They will be reflective of our vision.
Know God— alpha- if you are struggling with your faith. Find it hard to believe.
Find freedom — financial, identity.
Discover your purpose — context of mens, women, young adults, teens. Some guys are doing off-roading.
We want this to be a way for us to make a difference as we gather weekly.
Different backgrounds and demographics.
We gather over a meal.
Doesnt have to be 5 course.
But maybe a vegetable platter.
Meals are the sacred places where god does a work in us.
In the words of cultural icon Anthony bourdein
"You learn a lot about someone when you share a meal together.” Anthony Burdain
Where you are open and vulnerable/
Where you find people that can pray and care for you.
Community groups are where
We wanna serve you guys at the table
This requires that you sign up and show up.
iF you can, assist in contributing. At least brining something.
Early Church
They gathered daily.
Paul criticized the corinithian church.
You guys gather to eat and drink and its doing more harm than good.
Division between rich and poor
The rich were having the box seats.. the poor are situated to the bleachers.
The filet mignon from Mortons, poor are given Applebees left overs,
Two centuries after Jesus, Tertullian wrote a treaties titled "The Apology."
He defends Christianity from the accusations of the pagans.
"For you abuse also our humble feasts, on the ground that they are extravagant as well as infamously wicked."
How did these feast go..
They opened up with thanksgiving and then Tertullian writes... "As much is eaten as satisfies the cravings of hunger; as much is drunk as befits the chaste/prudent."
Us
Eating and drinking has been a central theme in the life of Jesus and the early church.
I believe this is something that we as a church need to recapture the spirit of.
We are followers of the way of Jesus.
How would it look for us to start neighboring behind a table?
With community groups we wanna invite you to the table
But when we talk about neighboring behind a table, this is each of our callings. Specifially if you’re a Jesus follower.
2 thoughts from the ministry of Jesus
One is an example
The other is a command
1.Eating with Sinners and Pharisees
Prositutes and tax- collectors.
2 most hated groups of people.
Trump supporters, or Hillary depending which side of the political landscape you fall on.
The need for both
Its easy to gravitate towards one or the other.
Tweet
Only eating with sinners can turn you into an anti-religious pharisee
Never eating with sinners can turn you into an anti- missional pharisee.
The temptation for us is to associate only with people that are like us.
People we feel comfortable with,
Many of us are willing to greet someone at church and say hello.
Imagine Jesus just standing at a corner. Hello zachaees. He risks ridicule and gossip circulating.
The removal of insider/outsider.
Everyone is an insider. The meal places everyone on equal footing.
Rich vs Poor
In other words, be careful who you invite
- you can invite wealthy, elite, the respected.
You’ll get invited in turn, but thats it.
Charles Simeon
Inviting the rich is a great cost to entertain. There is a pleasure there. You get invited In return.
[All the benefit that the feasting of the rich brings with it, is, the getting a good name among them, and the being invited to their feasts in return
Simeon, C. (1832). Horae Homileticae: Mark-Luke (Vol. 12, p. 525). London: Holdsworth and Ball.
Amongst the many considerations which tend to perpetuate his comfort, one in particular is, that, in administering to the poor, he has ministered to the Lord Jesus Christ himself. Christ has condescended to identify himself with his poor members, and to regard every thing which is done for them, not only as done for him, but as done personally to himk
They cant repay you.
Look at it from another angle.
When you invite the rich… you’re showing off
Inviting the poor, god shows off.
Gets at the heart of the gospel
The motivation for dining with outsiders goes to the heart of the gospel.
The grace of God is for the broken, poor, marganilzed.
Good ol fashioned hospitality.
Welcoming of the stranger
One person thats written a bunch on the value of hospitality is rosaria butterflies.
Was a lesbia tenured professor at syurucus university of English literature studying queer theory.
Now she’s a pastors wife
What changed?
A couple invited them for a meal.
Nothing about that night unfolded according to my confident script. Nothing happened in the way I expected. Not that night, or the years after, or the hundreds of meals after.
Nothing prepared me for this openness and truth.
Nothing prepared me for the unstoppable gospel and for the love of Jesus, made manifest by the daily practices of hospitality undertaken in this one simple Christian home
Rosaria Butterfield. (n.d.). The Gospel Comes with a House Key.
Gay community has much to teach the church about hospitality.
The title of her new book , which if some of you want more on this topic.
The gospel comes with a house key
Ask them to tell you how they’ve been hurt, judged, or maligned because of the color of their skin.
Listen to their hurts
Asl questions
We live in a soundbite world. Tweets and caricatures of other people.
Its when we sit down and our willing to listen to their story.
Fears
We fear that people will hurt us.
We fear that people will negatively influence our children.
We fear our meal will suck
This means learning to excel at a certain dish. Dont have to be perfect in everything.
Coming home from Thailand and buying the ingredients for pad Thai. Cooking it for every person that we had over the next 6 months.
The reason why we do it with all the fears is because
Eating brings about reconciliation
Boundaries are removed
Forgivness happens
Friendships are restored
Babettes feast
Isek Dinises famous story
Two sisters who renounce their future marriages to lead a strict religious community.
Over time, the people cant stand each other.
gossip, rumors, unforgiveness , fractured relationships.
Then barbette fleeing the civil war in Paris stumbles across their village and asks to work for
She was a famous chef in Paris and now is forced to make meager bland patotos for the residents.
She unexpectedly wins a lottery of 10000 francs and asks to cook a gourmet feast in honor of their fathers birthday,
Everyone then sat down and began to eat. They were immediately astonished at the exquisite quality and perfect preparation of the food.
The power of the feast began to break through the defenses of the people. One by one, under the influence of wonderful food and drink, former enemies began to soften toward one another. Comments and words as sweet as the food began to pass between them.
Forgiveness was sought and granted.
Two women who had not spoken with each other for many years now touched foreheads affectionately, saying, “God bless you, dear Solveig” and “God bless you, too, dear Anna.” Finally Phillipa began to sing with her pure and beautiful voice and everyone listened, and remembered.
As they eat and drink of her labors of love, their hearts are softened and a great wave of healing sweeps over them. Bitter hurts dissolve in forgiveness. Fractured relationships are mended with tenderness. The proud are brought down and the lowly lifted up. The food and wine fill empty hearts as well as stomachs with good things
If Jesus saved a seat for Judas at the table, surely, by the grace of God, we can come to the table with fellow Christians we disagree with.
The gospel’s power is in converting walls into tables.
Conclusion
Those who have wondered off
Cant believe
Too narrow
Too restrictive
The heart of the gospel is you’re welcome to the table, turn for eating crumbs.
At the return of the younger son, the elder one, still in the field, it says,
he heard loud music and dancing.
Jesus spoke about the wedding banquet
The climax of history is not a higher form of disembodied consciousness but a feast.
Today we practice
Eating in small groups
Eating with sinners and pharisees
Eating with the poor and marginalized
On on wedendsay, eating at the lords table — the eucharist — the good gift.
We are reminded that everything has been accomplished, prepared, achieved for us to have a seat at the table.
the biggest event in human history, Jesus didn’t give them a theory, a formula, or an equation; he gave them a meal.
And reminded that our future is a seat at the table, where God is host.
The son of man came eating and drinking — go out and do likewise.
Lets pray.