Around the Table, Part 3

To be embraced around the table is to be welcomed as part of the family. Exclusion, on the other hand, says more powerfully than words ever could that you don’t belong here. In a culture hyper focused on what divides us, Christians have the table.

Lion and the Lamb
Bethel Music

Raise a Hallelujah
Bethel Music

Tremble
Mosaic MSC

Holy is Our God
Austin Stone Worship

The Fourth Mark
A disciple is one who engages in biblical community.

–

Galatians 1:6,7,10
I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel— not that there is another one, but there are some who trouble you and want to distort the gospel of Christ. For am I now seeking the approval of man, or of God? Or am I trying to please man? If I were still trying to please man, I would not be a servant of Christ.

–

Galatians 2:11-14
But when Peter came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face, because he stood condemned. For before certain men came from James, he was eating with the Gentiles; but when they came he drew back and separated himself, fearing the circumcision party. And the rest of the Jews acted hypocritically along with him, so that even Barnabas was led astray by their hypocrisy. But when I saw that their conduct was not in step with the truth of the gospel, I said to Peter before them all, If you, though a Jew, live like a Gentile and not like a Jew, how can you force the Gentiles to live like Jews?”

–

Bill Bishop | Big Sort
“As people seek out the social settings they prefer—as they choose the group that makes them feel the most comfortable—the nation grows more politically segregated — and the benefit that ought to come with having a variety of opinions is lost to the righteousness that is the special entitlement of homogeneous groups.” Still more, “like-minded, homogeneous groups squelch dissent, grow more extreme in their thinking, and ignore evidence that their positions are wrong. As a result, we now live in a giant feedback loop, hearing our own thoughts about what’s right and wrong bounced back to us by the television shows we watch, the newspapers and books we read, the blogs we visit online, the sermons we hear, and the neighborhoods we live in.”

–

John 17:20,21
I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me.

–

Getting Around the Table
1. Invite

–

Rosaria Butterfield
“Hospitality is the lost art of loving inclusion, the lost witness of what Christian family really means.”

–

Hebrews 10:24,25
And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.

–

Getting Around the Table
2. Stay

–

People who stay grow, people who leave don’t grow.

–

Getting Around the Table
3. Forgive

–

Ephesians 4:32
Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.

–

Henry Nouwen
“The first commandment of community is forgive each other for not being God.”

–

Getting Around the Table
4. Accountability

–

Rosaria Butterfield
“Jesus dines with sinners not because sin is no big deal. Jesus dines with sinners not because he expects us to go on sinning…Jesus dines with sinners so that he can get close enough to touch us, so that he can participate in the intimacy of table fellowship as a healer and a helper.”