Around the Table
One of my favorite things to do annoys the daylights out of a lot of people. In most of the coffee shops in Arlington, in the middle of the dining area, there stands a common table. The finishing touches of the table vary from shop to shop but the design is the same: a long, narrow table with enough seats for 8-20 people. And here’s what I do that so many people find annoying: I sit next to strangers at the common table and I work.
I sit down to begin writing a sermon (like this one) or to read a book. The person next to or across from me may be working on a laptop or reading and when I sit down I can guarantee one of two reactions. The first, indifference, or a kind gesture, perhaps moving their copy of the New York Times that has crept across the table. The second, a deep and frustrated sigh.
Now I should clear something up. I don’t want you to think I am a psychopath. Whenever possible I leave a chair between me and the person next to me. I love my personal space and want to respect the boundaries of others.
Photo by Priscilla Du Preez on Unsplash
At the common tables and common spaces throughout our community, the boundaries we try to establish between one another begin to fade away and we notice there is a common, shared life we live with one another. I may leave an empty seat between me and the person next to me but someone else will come along and sit down, joining us at the table.
In a scene similar to Moses climbing Mt. Sinai and then delivering the Ten Commandments, Jesus has traveled up a mountain, followed by his disciples, and then sitting, Jesus begins what is known as the Sermon on the Mount:
“Blessed are the poor in spirit… those who mourn… the meek… those who hunger and thirst for righteousness… the merciful… the pure in heart… the peacemakers… and those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”
Without a Macbook, access to study Bibles, or a commentary, without a witty opening joke or a story to draw his audience in, Jesus began the flip that will be the hallmark of his ministry. This sermon is what became the basis for the Good News proclaimed by his disciples. This is the Good News we proclaim today.
Those who will find their blessing in his kingdom, the kingdom he proclaimed had come, the Kingdom of Heaven, are those who may have felt as though or been told they were not within the reach of G-d’s blessing.
These were people who may have asked tough questions of the Pharisees and other religious leaders.
The ones who sought peace while living under the peace of Caesar - peace guaranteed by the sword.
Those who were soft-spoken or not given a voice and seat at the table.
Those who suffered because of their commitment to following G-d’s laws, with justice and mercy, as best they could and were unwilling to cave when pressure from the political or religious establishment leaned on them.
Jesus’ sermon, this first section, is an invitation to a community coming out of exile but now living under occupation, a community oppressed, a community suffering the effects of a corrupt political system to begin living a new ethic.
The words and blessings spoken by Jesus cannot be lived out and fulfilled by any one person. Instead, Jesus’ words of blessing will be realized, fully, when the entire community begins to “live, move, and exist” within the G-d’s kingdom of grace.
Often we hear these ancient words spoken by Jesus and think that first before we can consider the blessing of G-d to be ours we must fit into one the blessed categories listed by Jesus. Before we are blessed we must be poor in spirit, meek, or persecuted.
Jesus was not listing a series of requirements to receive G-d’s blessing. G-d’s blessing of grace is yours.
Enjoy it.
Hold onto it.
Instead, Jesus is putting us on alert, those of us who have felt the blessing of G-d’s grace and give thanks, that while we indeed are blessed, so too are those who have felt outside or apart from the saving work of G-d.
The blessing of G-d we share with our neighbors pulls us out of the siloed lives we create with neatly organized neighborhoods and privacy fences. Jesus’ promise of blessing to the poor, meek, and persecuted, the peacemakers, the hungry and thirsty, is an invitation to us to realize that the Kingdom of Heaven is wider, more expansive than we can ever imagine.
Jesus has turned the common tables in our community into entry points to experience more than overpriced coffee and avocado toast. Jesus’ invitation is to experience a shared life with those we’ve been told we cannot join at share spaces in our neighborhood. Joining one another at common tables is an invitation to experience the difference a life together, held in G-d’s blessing, can make.
One of the most iconic scenes from Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood took place outside of the Neighborhood of Make-believe. In the spring of 1969, five years after black and white protestors jumped into a whites’ only hotel swimming pool and the hotel owner poured acid into the water, Mister Rogers invited Officer Clemmons, a regular character in the neighborhood, to share a kiddie pool on a hot summers day. Mister Rogers and Officer Clemmons, sitting in lawn chairs they placed their feet into the water. Then the camera focused in on two sets of feet, one set white and the other set black.
At that moment, in a blue plastic swimming pool, the blessing and grace of the common table were shared on televisions and with families in a time when blessing and equality were being determined along racial lines.
Jesus described this moment in his sermon. He was not prescribing a list of tasks but instead told his disciples, and tells us today, exactly what the Kingdom of Heaven will look like.
Blessed are the poor, the meek, and the persecuted.
Blessed are those who are kept out of the temple, kept out of the church.
Blessed are those without the ability to speak for themselves.
Blessed are those abused, harmed for no reason more than they look or live differently than we think they should.
We experience this blessing and grace every time we gather around common tables and in common places. We experience this, receiving a preview of the realization of the Kingdom of Heaven every time we gather around Jesus’ table of grace and share a meal. This invitation extends into coffee shops, bars, smoothie cafes, and playgrounds.
Every time we hear Jesus’ invitation to his table and we share bread and wine, taking seriously his invitation to all people - the poor and the rich, the meek and the powerful, the hungry and those with plenty - we are experiencing the grace and promise of the Kingdom of Heaven.
Jesus’ table is a table of blessing, a common table where the excluded are welcomed and blessed. What we do here this morning, breaking bread, sharing the cup, extends outward to all of the other places we do not want it to happen, where we are told it cannot happen. The grace extended to us by G-d, at this table is a call to extend grace at the tables of our own making. A place setting has been prepared for you and no expense has been spared by the host. Jesus is the host of this feast and he has invited us to join him those whose we have neglected to invite.
