Come To The Table

Come Just As You Are

You are invited to “Come to the Table”!  This is not a ‘lukewarm invite’, a come if you can, if you can find time in your day or you are in the mood.  No.  This is God’s invitation to You!  It is an invite that has been offered to you since the beginning of time.  

If you're asking how or why, turn to John 1:1-4. “ In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God......"  For the moment, travel back in time to the Genesis stories...to the Word of God's creation of life and humankind.  Now journey forward into the time of Christ, and see how the Word became flesh. 

Come, today, to the table. Jesus is inviting you. The Holy Spirit is waiting for you, and God is hoping you will come.  'Can you hear My voice calling out to you, you are My beloved child.  There is an empty seat waiting for you. Come and be bathed in My love as you drink from this cup and share this bread.'

Are you distracted?  Has it been a strange week with news of wars, natural disasters and front page headlines?  Or perhaps your own week has been overcrowded with things to do and life’s knots to iron out?

Can you recall from long ago how God commanded the Hebrews to set aside this week and prepare a Remembrance Feast, and how God freed them from the bonds of Egyptian slavery? In those days leading to this Passover meal, the Hebrews were to clean their houses, slaughter a lamb, bake unleavened bread, make wine, and invite into their home anyone unable to prepare their own table. The week's focus then was on this feast. This was God’s command and invitation for the Hebrews to 'come to the table' and dine with God....and to invite other community members to do the same. This was/is the Passover Feast. 

During the week following what is now called Palm Sunday, folks throughout Jerusalem and elsewhere were busy preparing for this Passover Feast. This was the meal which would become Jesus' Last Supper. Yet, it was during those same days that Jesus overturned the money changing tables at the Temple, because people had lost sight of God calling out to them. Today, what might you and I ‘turn over’? What keeps us from preparing our own selves for God’s invitation to sit at the table with Jesus?

As they sat in the Upper Room, Jesus invited his disciples to break and eat the bread, to drink from this cup of wine in remembrance of Him. On this very day, you and I can sit at the table with Jesus and partake of this meal.  This is no casual invite.  It’s not a ‘come for as long as you want’ until you’re ready to go home.  It is an invitation to ‘come just as you are’…..and bring others with you if you can.

Come to the table, leaving all distractions, expectations, and diversions at the door. Allow the Spirit to help you break the bread and drink from the cup. Sit at the table with Jesus as you dine with your brothers and sisters. During the next two days, as you journey once again (or for the first time) remembering the Life that was shed for you so long ago, you are invited to enter into this everlasting Gift of God's Grace. It will change your life.....forever.

Come to the table and see

Shalom,

Susan