This morning at our 7:30AM Weekday call I was asked if we reflected on the story of Jonah this Sunday. Then the next question was, what was your reflection? I summarized it as God loving the people who did not even see themselves as the chosen and who Jonah certainly did not appreciate. I shared how I was fascinated by the fact that the city was a three day walk long, but it took only a day’s walk for Jonah and the whole city repented; this is to say, the message of God’s love travels faster than the message of God’s wrath.
This very short summary got us into the discussion of sin and goodness. Another participant in this conversation said to me, “so what do you think sin is and what is good?” I responded, “anything that makes you focus on yourself and turns you inward is sin and everything that takes the focus away from you and towards others is God’s goodness.”
How does this apply to our gathering around the Lord’s Table? I believe that the whole point of gathering around a table is to take the focus away from “me” and place it on others sitting around the table. That is the only way to accept the difference God has created. We don’t accept someone else’s difference by asserting our own difference. At the root of all conflict is this notion that my difference is more important than yours or more normative than yours. If the table is only an invitation for me to feel good about myself, or to promote myself, or for me to find a way to put myself in the center of the universe, then, I am missing the whole point of being with others. The whole point is to listen to others, share their pain, find ways to be present in someone else’s pain as the balm in Gilead, and to put the needs of others ahead of your own. Christ’s way is to give life for someone else, not to save one’s own life. I admit that life around the Table is hard, for it asks of me to create a space where others’ differences are equally valued as mine, and it begins by me valuing others more than me asserting my difference. That is the struggle with sin!
How is your Christian journey bringing you around the Lord’s Table? How may it be helping you to shift the focus away from self to others? How may it be moving you away from sin and towards God’s goodness?
Amjad