God’s table

 

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HOSPITALITY lies very near the heart of who we are as Christians and what we should be about as the followers of Jesus. Hospitality is the heart of God’s love for each one of us, and God wants us to be with Him.

The theologian William Willimon writes that Christianity’s default position is hospitality. We are prejudiced towards hospitality, because that’s the way God treated us, and how we are supposed to treat others. At God’s table all are welcome.

Psalm 23 is known as the Shepherd Psalm. It is about presence, and guidance, and protection, and nurture. It is the kind of Psalm that sits up with us in the sleepless nights, and through the anxious days.

Beyond the image of the shepherd, and the guiding, and the dark valley, and the protection, comes the image of the prepared table. After a year of lockdown, I wonder how many of us long for a prepared table, set out with food, with drink, surrounded by loved ones and friends. Not simply to enjoy the meal, but to enjoy the fellowship that so many of us have been denied.

The table in Psalm 23 has been prepared by God. God is the host. God is the One Who provides for our needs. The Psalm underlines the generosity and the thoughtfulness of our God Who understands our need not only for physical sustenance, but for social nourishment too. God at the prepared table models presence and compassion through provision.

The prepared table, and the banquet upon it, is in God’s house, and we who are invited come as honoured guests. We are anointed with oil, a sign of joy to mark the special occasion. The cup of God’s kindness overflows. Commentators draw attention to another Psalm where God brings food from the earth, wine to gladden the heart, oil to make the face shine, and bread to give strength (Psalm 104:15). Any ‘enemies’, those who have found fault, or made accusation, or posed a threat, are also at this prepared table, because here harmony and reconciliation are found. Accused and accuser are brought together and transformed by God’s inclusion and welcome and provision. This prepared table is a place of celebration and reunion. It is a table that God has planned, and continues to plan.

Though we often associate this Psalm with funerals, where it has something comforting to say, the Psalm does not leave us in the valley of the shadow of death.

The Psalm moves us gently onwards to God’s home, where we are invited to live, and find the goodness and the mercy that God is intentionally preparing for us. We find, maybe to our surprise, that at God’s table there is a place for us. We are expected and welcome.

In the isolation of these days one of the things I have heard repeatedly from members of my congregation is how much they miss worship, but also the teas and coffees and fellowship around the tables after the service. “You’ll have had your tea” is banned! At the table there is welcome and laughter, tears and remembering, catching up. The tables where we are simply being human, social and faithful creatures, and finding that God’s table has been prepared. Just for us. ¤

The Very Rev Dr Derek Browning Is minister at Edinburgh: Morningside