And he said to them, “I have earnestly desired to eat with you…”
Luke 22:15
Jesus, in obedience to his Father’s will, went about teaching (Luke 4:15), and proclaiming the advent of the kingdom of God (Mark 1:15). But, when the Lord expressed his deepest personal desire it wasn’t about preaching or teaching, but about sharing a meal, and his deep hunger to share in the sacramental life with his disciples, with those he loved. Jesus longed for table fellowship (Luke 22:15).
The story of the early Church, as recorded in the Book of the Acts of the Apostles, shows that back in the First Century they got it/Him, for “they devoted themselves to fellowship, and the breaking of bread together in their homes.” (Acts 2:42,46) As a result “the Lord added to their number day by day.” (Acts 2:47) I’m not saying it’s the only reason that most congregations have trouble adding any converts, as opposed to stray sheep, to their number year by year, much less day by day, but I think most Christians, and most churches, have really little or no clue about what was perhaps the Lord’s strongest longing in this world (as opposed to the next)—table fellowship. Think about it. Just about the last thing Jesus did with his friends was recline at table and share a very special meal. No preaching. No miracles. Just deep, intimate, incarnational fellowship.
Now, as a Presbyterian/Reformed believer I know I’m supposed to hold to the centrality of the Word. Go into a Presbyterian/Reformed Church and the pulpit is front and center, and elevated. Why? Because the preaching of the Word is of more or less supreme importance. But if God ever gives me another crack at pastoring I believe I will avoid the pulpit as much as possible. The thought of being separated, even by just a few feet, from the table where Jesus is host troubles me. And I am even more disturbed to picture myself in a pulpit elevated over the Lord’s place at his table. No, I believe if I have the opportunity to be a pastor again I will spend a lot more time at the table, where Jesus alone presides, while I merely wait and serve those he loves.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not about to say the proclamation of the Word is not very important. In fact, I think that when I get to remove the pulpit I will put the Bible on the table, next to the other gifts God has given us. After all, man does not live by… And every Sunday all would be invited to the table to worship and to fellowship with the risen and living Lord. As a matter of fact, I think I might even establish a time of daily communion for any who would care to come and “sup” with Jesus. But I would not want to constrict table fellowship to a sanctuary. The early Church made fellowship at table, and celebration of the meal Christ instituted and gave to us “until he comes,” part of the day to day life of the home. And Christian homes were routinely a place not just for a family to gather, but his family to meet, to study, to pray, to break bread. I know, all of us can come up with dozens of reasons why we don’t or can’t follow the example of the Church in apostolic times, but I think what it comes down to is that we simply won’t even entertain being that Church, it’s so, hmm, inconvenient in the 21st Century. But…
If we did, if we received as prescriptive for all time what most of us write off as merely descriptive for a time, and, among other things, got back to the table, and did so often, I believe there is every reason to expect that very soon the Lord would once again add day by day to the number being saved.
In a drive-thru, microwave, who has time to even sit down and eat, age, don’t you long for table fellowship? I do. And longing for table fellowship is what Jesus did. Rather than a tall steeple, stained glass, row upon row of pews, and a pulpit from which to look down on people, I rather imagine Jesus in the midst of a church that might look more like this--
S.D.G.
Jim
www.jimwilkenministries.org
Marion, NC
PS 37.4
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