EVERY BELIEVER A PRIEST.
One of our fondest memories of living in Ireland was the number of people who gathered around our table to share a meal. Some nights, we would cram as many as eight or ten around our table. Serving over twenty people for special occasions was commonplace. We loved the buzz of conversation and the shared experiences that come with eating together. Although we no longer pack out our Irish table, we welcome those nights when a small group gathers in our dining room in Denver.
I've joked in the past about how the denomination I grew up in should be known as the "people of the table". We love the table! Fellowship and community are often expressed by gathering for shared meals, whether at the church building or in our homes. I am convinced that's the way it has always been. There are countless stories in the New Testament of Jesus visiting with people in their homes while sharing a meal. The early church met in homes and shared everything they had in common (including meals, I assume). The theme of eating together seems to run throughout Scripture.
I think there's something that really connects us when we eat together. Feeding is one of those most basic and primitive things we require. We all need food: rich and poor, young and old, white and hispanic. We share the need of food in common, and if we are starved of it, we die. When we eat together, we are emersed in each other's company and benefit from what other people "bring to the table". We need food, but sharing a meal together also reminds us that we need each other.
I have seen my wife on many occasions prepare and offer a truly awesome meal to those who gathered at our table as if she was bringing a gift. She presents her meals with pride, and I know she feels satisfied with having given so much of herself to those she is serving. That is obvious to anyone who eats with us in our home! To her, the table is a place where she offers her best to satisfy the needs of those gathered around it.
While we are on this subject, I can't help but think of another table as well. Jesus sat around a table with his followers on the night he was arrested. He was eating the Passover meal with his friends, breaking bread and drinking wine while sharing conversation with them about what was to come. At one point, he took off some of his clothes, wrapped a towel around his waist, and washed his followers' feet. Their meal together, rooted in tradition, celebrated the faithfulness of God to His people. In the breaking of bread that night, Jesus offered himself as the ultimate expression of the faithfulness of God.
I would love to have been a fly on the wall that night, because what they experienced together that night must have been truly wonderful.
What Jesus and his followers experienced that night is what we experience everytime we gather to share a meal. Our tables become altars as we break bread together, acknowledge that we belong to one another, and celebrate our common need for Christ. Even Jesus himself said that remembering him was as simple (and sacred) as breaking a loaf of bread and drinking a cup of wine -- the symbols of his sacrifice.
And because He is present wherever two or more are gathered, the family table takes on an entirely different (and special) meaning as the place we celebrate the faithfulness of God and belonging to each other.
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