TABLES
Psalm
34:8; Matthew 11:16-19
O taste and see that the Lord is good.
The Son of Man came eating and drinking
People often ask me what I talk about when
I meet with student groups who come to Volmoed.
The answer, in short, is many things.
Usually the format for our time together is an ongoing conversation
about things that matter to them, and things that matter in life. The topics cover much ground, some to do with
the church, some with politics or theology or art, and so it goes, backwards
and forwards. We go where the
conversation takes us. And sometimes it
takes us into interesting places as it did last week when the final year
theological students from Stellenbosch came to Volmoed and we ended up talking
about coffee shops, shebeens and the smell of baking bread.
Why is it, asked one student from Delft, a
tough township on the Cape Flats, that young people prefer to spend their time
in shebeens and taverns rather than church?
Is it the booze, or maybe drugs, or is there something deeper, something
about being human? We humans might like
solitude on occasion, and we might make much use of social media, but most of
us hanker after community, being together with others. We are social creatures.
Being on line is not the same as being
together, laughing and crying together, seeing each other face to face rather
than on Facebook.
Understandably, many people, young and old,
find a greater sense of community outside the church and even on the internet than
they do sitting in pews and listening to sermons. Which is also why pubs play such a central
role in every village and suburb in England and elsewhere. Of course, there are many churches and youth
fellowships that do provide community, churches whose worship builds and
sustain community, and there are many people who find friendship and a sense of
belonging in the church. But too often building
community is not regarded as an integral part of worship, or as important as
preaching the Word. There is, in fact,
little appreciation that our deep desire for community is part of our hunger
for God, part of our hunger for an authentic Word.
In August 2007 we had a visitor on Volmoed
by the name of Barbara Glasson who, while here, wrote the prayer that is now on
the back cover of our prayer book. At
that time Barbara was a Methodist minister in England. One morning she shared her story with us. She had been sent by the Methodist Church to
start a new congregation in the centre of Liverpool where the old Methodist
church had closed after its membership
had dwindled. When she got to there, she
had to start from scratch. She rented an
apartment in the city centre above a store and each Sunday began to bake bread
in the kitchen. But she left the windows
open so that the smell of the fresh bread drifted down into the street
below. Soon people began to arrive
attracted by the smell, some of them homeless and most of them
down-and-out. As the weeks passed, a
community began to form around the kitchen table, attracted first by the smell and
taste of bread, and then by becoming a community of caring people. So the church was born. "O taste and see, the Lord is
good!" Thank you, God, she wrote in
her prayer, "for writing us into your story!"
And how much of that story of our
journey into the mystery of God has to
do with tables around which we meet others.
The kitchen, dining room and coffee tables around which we gather with
family and friends, or on which we play games.
All these are important in shaping our lives and in meeting our hunger for
both bread and the bread of life. But for
us, at the centre is the Lord's table where everyone should be welcome, where
there should be no winners and losers, but where we all should be reconciled as
friends, the table around which we gather each week and Jesus becomes known in the "breaking of
bread." Every table should, in
fact, be an extension of the Lord's Table, every meal, every meeting over
coffee, can become a Eucharist, an
occasion when we experience the presence of Christ in a way that binds us both
to him and to each other. Indeed,
according to the Psalmist, God prepares tables for us to gather around as we
journey in the wilderness (Ps. 78:19), even in the presence of our enemies (Ps.
23:5). Table fellowship is at the heart
of Christian community. Breaking bread
together binds us together.
The gospels tell us that Jesus was as often
at table sharing meals with his friends as he was in the synagogue, and even
ate with sinners, publicans and those who challenged him!
Jesus' ministry often occurred in the equivalent of our coffee shops and
pizzerias. Jesus was infamous among
religious people because, unlike John the Baptist, "he came eating and
drinking!" So it is not surprising
that on the night before he died, he had his last supper with his friends and
told them to keep on doing that till he came back. And every time we do that we become the body
of Christ, members of one another.
But every table can become the Lord's
Table, a place of meeting where the body of Christ becomes a reality; the focal
point where community is formed, where we "taste and see that the Lord is
good!" No matter how big or small,
how splendid or crude, whether round, square or oblong, no matter whether it is
in the sanctuary or the restaurant, the kitchen or the wilderness, every table can be the Lord's where meals become
celebrations, where conversation builds community, where enemies become
friends, where Jesus is known in the breaking of bread and the sharing of a
glass of wine or a cup of coffee. Every table
can become an altar, every meal a Eucharist, every room a sanctuary where
Christ is truly present to feed our hunger for genuine community, our human
hunger for God. The church is being the
church of Jesus who came eating and drinking when it helps people hungry for
food, hungry for community, and hungry for God, to sit at table and taste and
see that the Lord is good.
John
de Gruchy
Volmoed
29 January 2015
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