Around the table!
As a church, we have been meeting and eating more and more in one another’s homes over the last 6 months. We are generally breaking out of traditional “home groups” or cells, where certain activities had to take place with the same people in the same house on the same night of the week each and every week.
We are now encouraged, and encourage one another, to either invite people to our own home for a meal, or respond to someone else’s invitation to go and eat at their home on any night of the week and with any combination of church members. Catherine Muyeba has written an article for the web about how she and Maybin were blessed in responding to the word of the Lord to buy a bigger table. I’m hearing more and more from different people in the church, how the atmosphere is different when everyone is sat round a table for the evening, as opposed to sitting round with food on their laps. This is not surprising when you look into Scripture and see how much happened around actual tables.
We read in Scripture that a table is often a place of grace. It’s a place where you receive. The first time a table is mentioned in Scripture is where Benjamin is astounded to receive five times more than anyone else as plenty is taken from Joseph’s table to his (Genesis 43: 33-34). The Bible says that all the previously starving brothers were “merry” at the table as they enjoyed the ample provision that Joseph sent to them. Saul’s crippled grandson Mephibosheth also found grace at the table. David showed kindness to him and he always ate at the king’s table just like one of the king’s sons (2Samuel 9:11).
The Canaanite woman who Jesus initially rejected as not being one of the “lost sheep of Israel”, realised that to present her case to the Lord by saying that even dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters’ table (Matthew 15:27), would result in her daughter being instantly healed. She knew there was grace to be found at a table. As we gather in his name, so we can find the grace of God present as we sit round a table together and break bread together. Whatever our need is; whatever famine we’ve been living in; no matter how crippled we might feel; we can find fullness and provision at the table. We can leave a physical table saying that the Lord has indeed spread a table in our wilderness (cf. Psalm 78:19).
In Luke 7 we discover the table is also a place to receive forgiveness. A “sinful woman” went to Jesus while he was at a table broke open a box and anointed his feet with ointment. Pharisees watching were shocked, knowing “what sort of a woman” she was. Jesus said to her, “Your sins are forgiven”. Those who have not yet received the forgiveness of sins can find forgiveness at the table. In 1 Corinthians 11:28-29, Christians are exhorted to examine themselves before eating the bread or drinking the cup at the table and to “discern the body of the Lord”. Not only can we receive forgiveness from Christ, but also from one another as we show by our eating together that there is nothing between those gathered round the table. If we didn’t, we would be guilty of insulting and betraying the host (Psalm 41:9; Daniel 11:27; Luke 22:21). However, as we eat together at a table with right attitudes towards one another, so the Lord just has to respond by commanding blessing (Psalm 133).
It’s not surprising therefore, that the table is also a place of miracle. The aforementioned Canaanite’s daughter was instantly healed from the table. Miracles can happen as we gather together around a table in the presence of the Lord.
As we believe the Lord is present, so the table can be a prophetic place. The prophetic word came to the “old prophet” in 1 Kings 13, as they sat eating at the table (1 Kings 13:20). Prophecy isn’t just for after a few worship songs on a Sunday morning; but even as we eat around one another’s tables so we can all prophesy so that as we eat we can all learn and all be encouraged (1 Corinthians 14:31).
The table is a place of abundance. 1 Kings 4:27 tells us about the officers who had to provide for Solomon’s table. They supplied enough so that there was never any lack. David says about the table the Lord prepares for him in the presence of his enemies, that at that table, as well as having his head anointed with oil, that his cup overflows (Psalm 23:5).
The table is also a place of intimacy. John was close to Jesus at the table (John 14:23). Jesus was often eating and sharing life at a table with his disciples (Matthew 26:30). When we gather round one another’s tables let’s make sure we break bread and remember Christ. Let’s allow him to be at the centre of our time together. Let’s be prepared to break open our alabaster boxes of worship to the Lord while sat at the table.
We often say that in King’s Church we are not like a family, we are family. The table is a place for family Psalm 128:3 portrays the blessing of God as a family sat around a table. King’s Church, with over 40 nations represented among us, is a prophetic statement to the world of Kingdom harmony; where people of different cultures and ethnic origin can gather and eat around one another’s tables not just without offending each other, but actually blessing one another. In Luke 13:29 Jesus declares that “people will come from east and west, and from north and south, and recline at table in the kingdom of God”. As we meet and eat together around the same table from the different continents of the world, so we are becoming a fulfilment of that scripture.
Just as the water we are baptised into has no value without faith, just as the £10 note is only a piece of paper without a deeper understanding of its worth, so the table in your house could be seen as just a table. With more revelation from Scripture that same table can be a means of grace; a means of receiving the blessings and life of God. As members of King’s Church let’s not give up meeting together; let’s meet and eat. And as often as we can let’s do it round a table!
