The scene of our Lord’s Last Supper is intriguing. Disciples are there, each with their own thoughts, perceptions, viewpoints, visions for their future, and much more. Each think that the movement Jesus has initiated should be run in a particular way, with a certain leadership style, embodying a certain hierarchy, and certainly with specific outcomes. One of them is so frustrated with how Jesus is leading that he is willing to betray him. While two brothers are wondering if they will get to have the closest seats to Jesus in heaven, there is another who is really excited to do whatever needs to be done to keep moving with strength; his passion ends up being named the rock on which Jesus will build his church. They were all at the table with Jesus.
What strikes me most about that scene is that while Jesus shows his disappointment in the one who betrays, has told the one who is too excited to see a worldly outcome to get behind him Satan, and has given a long teaching on who is greatest to the brothers and their mom, Jesus invites everyone at that Table to do THIS in his remembrance. What is that THIS? What was going on at that table that Jesus wanted everyone to remember and keep doing in his remembrance? Was the bread changing into his real body at that table – the body of flesh and blood?
We know that Jesus washed the feet of his disciples. Jesus showed them how to serve one another. More than that, he invited, respected, and made room for every opinion at his table. Even the opinion that was frustrated with him and willing to betray him. He wanted everyone to offer their full selves at the table, the good, the bad, and the ugly, all of it. He wanted everyone around the table to accept the good, the bad, and the ugly, of everyone around the table, and still continue to gather around the table and keep practicing this gathering of differences in his memory. Jesus did not seek to eliminate difference and then say, ah now we can have peace, feel joy, and feel loved. His vision for his people was not to create common grounds or uniformity, it was to encourage people to gather not despite, but because of their differences. The only way we can begin to live the love of God on earth is to learn to live with differences and not seek to eliminate them, in fact, to create room for them at the table.
Two things I feel are important in our work. First, the only way we can have difference at the table is if we make room for it. That can only happen when we exercise servant leadership and instead of asserting our own view, create room for a plethora of views. This Sunday we talked about denying ourselves to follow Jesus. Second, while we do not assert, we do participate. The first point is not an invitation to be submissive and/or disconnected and passive. In fact, it is quite the opposite. It is an invitation to actively participate with our entire self in making the Body of Christ what it truly is – diverse. It is in our participation with the entire uniqueness of who we are which transforms our gathering into the real Body of Christ.
For that reason, segregated gatherings, be it by age, gender, race, national origin, languages, or whatever way we can find to segregate, are not places where the gathering of the faithful transforms into the real Body of Christ. Similarly, gatherings in which only a select few have active roles and the rest only function as spectators or audiences, are not where the experience of the real Body of Christ is felt.
At The Table we believe that Christ calls us to be His real body in the world. For that we need to find ways to make room for everyone around the table through servant leadership and then be active in bringing our own whole selves to the Lord’s Table, so that, not just the bread and wine, but the whole gathered body transforms into Christ’s real body. For instance, sermons are not monologues, they are dialogues with all those gathered; dances are an organic invitation to allow our body to praise God; music is to allow all our senses to be in harmony with God. None of these activities is only for the specialists. Yes, those who have knowledge will lead us. For instance, you do not want to hand me a guitar and expect me to lead people in worship, but you can trust that my training and decades of experience as pastor will have something of value to offer in our sermon dialogues. Again, we don’t give up the talents God has given us, we bring them to the fullest around the Table as we make room for everyone else’s participation with their own unique gifts.
I am filled with gratitude that the community we are building in Jesus’ memory is a community that seeks to be his real body in the world. And that real body is full of life, active, participatory, and yes diverse. So, I look forward to your participation and your unique and diverse viewpoints in the comments section below! You will need to login to make the comment.