an early gathering of Open Table
Friends,
I thank Linda T. for being willing to facilitate
tonight’s Festive Fifth Sunday gathering and lead you in sharing stories. Even missing one gathering time with you
means I’ll miss something important—an insight someone shares, a story that
helps us understand one another better, a joke that loses some of its humor
when it’s retold in another setting, the light of your dear faces. I will miss being with you tonight, but I am thankful for a few days to be with my family.
I told a somewhat silly story in my sermon last week. Your stories for tonight might be funny or tender
or both. Sharing stories and a meal, which you'll do tonight, are two of the most powerful of
spiritual disciplines in all cultures—and are at the root of Christianity’s
central ritual. Holy Communion is all about retelling the story of Jesus and recommitting
to his ways of loving union through a common meal. A faith community called Open Table knows
well the hows and whys of this communal practice.
According to the liturgical calendar, this is the
sixth day of Christmas, so although the larger culture thinks Christmas is
over, the Church continues celebrating the coming of God in the very unexpected
form of a human child. Although the
“after Christmas sales” have started, we’re still mining the story of the incarnation,
the “enfleshment” of the sacred. We
recall that the incarnation is a story that shows God being revealed to us in
ordinary physicality, God coming to us as vulnerable love.
Next Sunday I’ll share with you some themes we’ll
explore in the new year. But our
year-round and life-long theme is vulnerable love, which we picture best in a
manger and on a cross—and that you, my friends, represent in the ways you care
for others, listen to another’s heart, lay aside ego for the greater good,
forgive generously, communicate honestly but humbly, and pursue Jesus’s
peaceful ways with passion without taking yourselves too seriously. I see the Light of God in each of you.
YOU are the best sermons anyone ever hears
at Open Table.
With love and thankfulness,
Ellen
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