Who is at Your Table?
For all I know, this semester might be my last semester at Weimar depending on whether I make it to the PT program or not. As I thought about that, I decided to make some goals on how I can enjoy my last semester here if it were to be my last semester. One of my goals is to be able to cook and eat dinner with all or at least the majority of the guys here in the college. There are two reasons for this goal. First of all, every college student enjoys a formal dinner in which they are able to relax and enjoy a meal as if they were at home. You can only eat chips and hummus for dinner every night for so long right? The second reason is I seriously need to learn how to cook. Cereal and spaghetti can get quite tedious after a while. However, in a more solemn note, I want to ask you a question. If Jesus held a dinner sometime throughout the week, who would be at his table?
1) Jesus' Table was filled with the people you don't want to talk with
Now it happened, as He was dining in Levi’s house, that many tax collectors and sinners also sat together with Jesus and His disciples; for there were many, and they followed Him. 16 And when the scribes and Pharisees saw Him eating with the tax collectors and sinners, they said to His disciples, “How is it that He eats and drinks with tax collectors and sinners?” Mark 2:15-16
Do you realize that Jesus sat at the table that your parents probably told you to avoid? I understand that He probably spent a lot of time with his disciples as well, but I'm confident that Jesus was more than willing to sit where no one wanted to sit. I realize that the majority of us have a group of friends that we always look for to sit with at lunch, but what about those folks that don't have that group. Are we willing to go there?
2) Since when was reaching out comfortable?
The excuse we use is that it can be awkward. Well you don't say! Sometimes there is a reason why an individual is always sitting alone. They are probably not the most social being, but that gives us no excuse to leave them there. Since when was reaching out easy and convenient? Imagine Jesus sitting at a table with tax collectors and prostitutes. He probably did not laugh at the jokes they said. To me that is pretty awkward, when I don't understand your jokes and cringe when you tell them, mercy. But Jesus looked past that and saw the individual as a soul in need. Maybe we should do the same.
He shall see the labor of His soul, and be satisfied.
By His knowledge My righteous Servant shall justify many,
For He shall bear their iniquities. Isaiah 53:11
Isaiah prophecied the coming of Jesus and he writes that Christ realized that it was going to be hard. But what made it worth it was seeing us on the other side! The same goes with reaching out to those who are in need. It's hard and awkward. But it's worth it because you may see them on the other side!
3) Fill your table with strangers
So I want to ask you a question, Who is at your table? Is it the same familiar faces you see day by day. If it is, that's fine, because there are people you resonate with better than others. You need people who will support you as an individual. However, I want to challenge you as well as myself. Fill your table with strangers. Fill it with those who you normally don't spend time to invest in. May it be so filled with strangers that no one can ever use that cliche word "clique" against the table you sit in.
Last Thanksgiving I had the opportunity to go to Vancouver, Washington to visit my brother and some of his friends. When it was Thanksgiving day, pastor Roger Walter from the Vancouver SDA church invited us to his house for Thanksgiving dinner. I personally don't know pastor Roger or his family that well, but if you guys (pastor Roger and the fam) somehow run into this blog, I just want to say thank you for opening up my eyes to what ministry really looks like. As we were there, I noticed that maybe a little more then half of the people were direct family and the other half were either people from the community, or college students that had nowhere to go. Though we were strangers, we felt at home partaking in this dinner, because we were cordially invited and treated as if we have been family friends for years. I don't know about you, but I hope that God will change my heart, so one day I will be willing to have a table full of strangers.
