TC @ YG 2 Report

Our second evening with the young people was as enjoyable as the first. I tried to be a little more intentional about the material that was the focus of our discussion. However I feel that I probably veered too much in the other direction which had the affect of inhibiting the natural flow of conversation just a tad. Still the food was good - especially the pancakes - and the group seemed to enjoy the meeting and so all was not lost.

We thought about journeying with Jesus based on John 14:1-7 with some ideas from a book by Paula Gooder called Lentwise. We agreed that journeys were better when undertaken with others and that Jesus would make a good companion.

TC2 Report

Last night our TC group met for the second time. Meeting at the home of Stuart and Joni we were treated to good food and were forced to have pancakes - me and my big mouth - lol. Again the presence of the table - specially bought from IKEA for the purpose seems to allow the conversation to flow naturally. It does seem as though there is something fundamental different about eating and meeting.

This was a better meeting from the point of content and structure. The last gathering was a little meandering particularly as I was unsure of how it would go. This time we began with an icebreaker activity (From whom would you accept a dinner invitation?). This produced some interesting responses and made us think about Jesus eating with all sorts of people. We then watched the short film 'The Parable of the Sea' (http://www.ilovepinatas.com/#/sea/4532834375) which tells of the work of the little life saving hut. It is an excellent critique of the church and what happens when our vision disappears. This again provoked some interesting points of discussion - especially as to where is our 'life saving hut' at Mead Vale? Is it Messy Church and what is the missional value of Table Church? If there is no missional activity then there is a danger that perhaps we might become just a social club leaving the rescuing to others.

Life Group Social

Last night our Life Groups went out for a meal at a local pub/restaurant. There were sixteen people all sharing together and enjoying the delights of the table. The evening went with a swing as can be seen in the photograph.

(There are more pictures to be found on our Facebook page - Mead Vale Church.)

The principle of the groups meeting together for social occasions usually including food was one of the founding principles from their inception. Not only does it give people from different groups the opportunity to meet together but it is also a place where partners and visitors can come and see Christians close to without being set upon with a tract.

TC @ YG 2

Tonight sees our second TC evening with the youth group (YG). The last meeting was a great success and we have high hopes for tonight especially in the organisational stakes. Unfortunately some of the members of YG have pressing appointments with college work and family matters so we will be somewhat smaller than last time - still this means more pancakes for those who are there - yeh!

Table Church 2

Our second meeting of the Table Church will happen this evening. I hope that one or two more people will be able to make it this time. We will be thinking about who we would be prepared to eat with and how the Bible can be God's word. Let's hope it leads to a lively evening. The people who came to the first one were eager to meet again and one of them offered to host us this time.

Where is Church in Luke 10?

Where is community? Is this church?

"1After this the Lord appointed seventy-two others and sent them two by two ahead of him to every town and place where he was about to go. 2He told them, “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field. 3Go! I am sending you out like lambs among wolves. 4Do not take a purse or bag or sandals; and do not greet anyone on the road.

5″When you enter a house, first say, ‘Peace to this house.’ 6If a man of peace is there, your peace will rest on him; if not, it will return to you. 7Stay in that house, eating and drinking whatever they give you, for the worker deserves his wages. Do not move around from house to house.

8″When you enter a town and are welcomed, eat what is set before you. 9Heal the sick who are there and tell them, ‘The kingdom of God is near you.’ 10But when you enter a town and are not welcomed, go into its streets and say, 11′Even the dust of your town that sticks to our feet we wipe off against you. Yet be sure of this: The kingdom of God is near.’ 12I tell you, it will be more bearable on that day for Sodom than for that town." (Luke 10:1-12)

Think about the question in relation to the text and then feel free to add your comments and insights to these reflections…

Where is community? Is this church? Community was identified in two places;

Firstly, in the dialogue between the Lord of the harvest and Jesus, which ushers in the missio dei of being sent out to where Jesus intends to go (verse 2).

Secondly in “table fellowship” in the practices of dwelling, eating and drinking among cultural networks. The gathered include the strangers (or Others in postmodern discourse).

The gathering allows the practices of gift-giving; as the visitor shares their gifts of “peace” and “healing” and the locals share their food and hospitality

The “table talk” includes the intentionality of an agenda of peace (holistic shalom); given and (potentially) received, and the Kingdom proclaimed in word and deed.

The “table talk” of the house (v. 5-7), is related and in dialogue to the talk of the town (v. 8-12); for there is a textual echo between house and town.

The “table talk” is caught in the tension between grace and judgement. Will peace be received or returned?

The “table fellowship” is not isolated, because they are linked to “sending” community. Thus we are offered a vision of church as local yet with a global horizon. Equally, they are a table with an eschatological view, for the “table fellowship” is waiting in anticipation for the coming of Jesus.

Conclusion: Luke 10:1-12 is a fascinating text within which to reflect on missional ecclesiology.

With thanks to the Tall Skinny Kiwi.

An Infinite Number of Occasional Tables

"An Infinite Number of Occasional Tables"

I've got an occasional table
There it is over there
You can tell it's an occasional table
Today's its day off, it's a chair

I've got an occasional table
I can't seem to get it to settle
It's all been a bit unexpected
I thought I was buying a kettle

I took it upstairs on the bus
I always get the bus back from town
It was then it turned into a wardrobe
Took six of us to get it back down

I've got an occasional table
But some of the time I've not
I always rush me dinner
You never know how long you've got

I think I might have another
It skews the element of doubt
It's the kind of occasional table
That's only in when you're out

I thought if I had two they might breed
I'd really quite fancy a set
But with them both being occasional
I don't think they've actually met

I've got some occasional tables
I'm never quite sure where they are
I'd quite like to have a settee
But so far they've not gone so far

I think therefore I am
All we believe stems from this
Except my occasional table
Which only occasionally is

Perhaps there's a parallel universe
Where they all go to live quite a lot
Where they're called usual tables
And only occasionally not

An infinite number of occasional tables
Well then sure there was always one there
I've got an occasional table
Look, here it is, it's a chair

Les Barker

Something lighthearted to add a little leaven to the lump!

Spurgeon on Christ's Table Companions

Now note that, on the night before His Passion, our Lord led His friends a step beyond ordinary friendship. The mere follower does not sit at table with his leader; the disciple does not claim to be a fellow-commoner with his master; the servant is seldom entertained at the same table with his lord; the befriended one is not always invited to be a guest; but here the Lord Jesus made His chosen ones to be His table-companions; He lifted them up to sit with Him at the same table, to eat of the same bread, and drink of the same cup with Himself. From that position He has never degraded them; they were representative men, and where the Lord placed them, He has placed all His saints permanently. All the Lord's believing people are sitting, by sacred privilege and calling, at the same table with Jesus, for truly, our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ. He has come into our hearts, and He sups with us, and we with Him; we are His table-companions, and shall eat bread with Him in the kingdom of God.

Christ's Banquet Table

Imagine that you have been invited to dinner at the home of the richest man in the world. You pull up a chair at a table two football fields long that's piled high with so much turkey, dressing, potatoes, bread, carrot cake, pumpkin pie, mixed vegetables, milk, and anything else you can think of that the table is about to break under the load. Your host tells you to take your fill of anything you see.

Thank you very much,' you say. 'Might I please have half a cranberry?'

Your astonished friend nearly chokes on a candied yam and replies,
'Please have all you would like. That's why I invited you! You're hungry, and here is everything you need to get full.'

'Thank you so very much,' you say. 'Perhaps I will have a sip of water.'

Ridiculous, we say. Who would ever act like that? If it were us, we'd gobble up so much food they'd have to use a bulldozer to move us out. Why is it, then, that when it comes to getting full spiritually, we settle for a half a cranberry? Paul doesn't want that for us, and in this passage he reminds us that in Christ we have all we need to be all that God wants us to be.

Not infrequently you'll come across people who say either in word or deed that their lives are impoverished. Sometimes, remarkably, you'll find a believer who for some reason is looking for something else. He is not satisfied. She is not filled full.

Remember: The extent to which you need something else to fill you full is the extent to which you find Christ deficient. If you find Christ deficient, then you have found something in contradiction of Scripture, which says that in Christ all the fullness of Deity resides in bodily form.

We've got to decide, Is it true that in Christ we have all that we need?

You'll find in the church today many people propagating all kinds of things that believers 'need.' Not infrequently these things that Christians 'need' have exceedingly tenuous connections to Christ, 'in whom all fullness dwells.' As soon as someone tells you that you need this, that, and the other thing, ask yourself, Is this in any way diverting my attention from Christ? Is there any sense in which this is perverting the gospel of Christ, which tells me all fullness is in him? If I get into this particular thing, will it in any way subvert the authority of Christ in my life?

Beware! Scripture declares that in Christ is all fullness, and if you are related to him, you have been given all fullness. We don't need something super-added, extra-plus to Christ. What we need is to daily discover all that we already have in him.

How much have you eaten off of Christ's banquet table? How full are you?"

John Calvin on Wine

This quote which I found in a book called the 'Spirituality of Wine' by Tom Harpur came as something of a surprise to me as I expected Calvin to be less in favour of alcohol than it appears he was. A good lesson in being careful not to read 21st century sensibilities into the events of the past.

"Wine is God's special drink. The purpose of good wine is to inspire us to a livier sense of gratitude to God."

John Calvin

Stations of the Banquet

"Food is at the heart of human culture. It is a part of all our lives. We each eat every day and hopefully more than once a day. It is a part of our material life as day six creatures yet it also opens us up to the Sacred... Our food ways reflect our relationships: with the earth, with each other and with God."

Cathy Campbell - Stations of the Banquet

The Upper Room Project

The Upper Room Project meets the first Monday of each month (6-8:30pm) to engage with spirituality and justice as struggled with and fought for by the Prophets and Jesus. We meet in the S Bar (Shop 18, Village Walk, O’Sullivan Road, Glen Waverley ) with gallery space, discussion corners, opportunity for practical response and pondering space.We hope the upper room will be

• Space to rest/relax with your tribe
• Be challenged by the prophetic call of compassion
• Connect with heartbeats for living

There will be food, wine and friends plus

• a gallery space for photos and other art.
• activist space - activities, information and people deeply into that topic to meet
• conversational space - multimedia and communally led (an interview, music, texts, a place to chat)

Please bring your friends - all are welcome

This would appear to be a version of Table Church being operated under the banner of the Uniting Church of Australia. Here is their standard invitation blurb.

The Seeds Meal

Central to the emergence of the Seeds Covenant has been the spirituality of the table. It is the gathered meal that often unites our efforts in knowing the word, growing home and going to engage the problems of our world. Some queries from our covenant point to the table.

How regularly will we come together around a common meal?

Who will be invited and made to feel welcome at the meal?

How will our meal reflect the Eucharist as practiced through history?

How will our meal reflect peace, justice and joy by making reconciling connections with God, others and the earth?

What practical processes and symbolic rituals around production and consumption of our food will shape the spirit of the meal and build a sense of home? (Who’s cooking and who’s doing the dishes? How and why?)

The following is an attempt to make our spirituality of the table more explicit and to make some of the words and processes we have found helpful more accessible. To celebrate and share different food traditions that exist among our Seedy Mobs and to inspire new production and consumption.

Some of the values of these meals take their cues from the “Slow Food” Movement which arose in Italy as a response to the negative impact of multinational food companies and is spreading around the world – slowly!

Slow Food opposes the standardisation of taste, protects cultural identity tied to food and seeks to safeguard processing techniques inherited from tradition. It involves valuing time to prepare, eat and build community through food.

It is sometimes critiqued as being an elite pursuit, however Jesus himself would often seek out the best feed in town! Far from extravagant eating, Slow Food is about the celebration of the connections that food can make with sustainable production and local food traditions that are often lost in our economy.

Slow Food has helped reframe our understanding of what it means to be “church” because If we read the gospels without getting hungry we aren’t really paying attention. The how, what, where and with whom Jesus eats is a central point of gospel conflict and ”understanding about the loaves” (Mark 6:52) is presented as essential to understanding Jesus’ ministry of recon-ciliation.

This ministry is symbolised in the offer of wilderness bread and of his body and blood in the Eucharist. Our prayer is that like the followers at Emmaus, it would be in the offer of hospitality to strangers, and at the breaking of bread that our eyes will be opened and that Christ may be made known among us.

Marcus Curnow

Invitation

The table of Jesus is your place of gathering

Here you are welcomed, wanted, loved

Here there is a place set for you

So come all you who thirst,

All you who hunger for the bread of life

All you whose souls cry out for healing

Come all you who are weary

All you who are bowed down with worry

All you who ache with the tiredness of living

Come all you poor

All you who are without food or refuge

All you who go hungry in a fat land

Come all you who are lost

All you who search for meaning but cannot find it

All you who have no place of belonging

Jesus invites you

Draw near with faith

Receive the body of our Lord Jesus Christ which he gave for you and his blood which he shed for you

Eat and drink in remembrance that Christ died for you and feed on him in your hearts by faith with thanksgiving

From the 'Breakout' Liturgy by Grace.

Whose Table?

"Most conversations about new forms of church or christian community are about rethinking the table at which the disciples sit. True confession… this project doesn’t emerge from any interest in that table, or even really in the disciples. I think the really interesting stuff of the gospels is the other stories - the tables Jesus went to where the disciples weren’t invited, or where they were so absent no-one thought to mention their presence - the afternoons at Mary and Martha’s, the nameless person’s house where Jesus met the syro-phonoecian woman, dinner at Levi’s house, dinner with Peter’s mother, the ‘water into wine’ wedding table… I think they’re the fun tables."

Cheryl Lawrie

The Table in Spain

If you want to experience the soul of Spain, you need to sit at her table. Throughout the week, the people of Spain devote a lot of their leisure time visiting with one another over food. In traditional Spain, families have their main meal together during the noontime siesta. Later in the late afternoon, they gather at a café with their neighbours over delicious plates of jamón, manchego and olives. Often, the tapas bar is the same one they have gone to year after year – perhaps since they accompanied their parents as little children playing under the table.

Don Harris

A Selection of Blessings

The custom of asking a blessing on the food before eating is an ancient one, and there are prayers for every style and mood. Here is just one from this website - Table Graces/Blessings at which a huge variety have been collected by Bass Mitchell.(http://www.homiliesbyemail.com)

Lord, some people have food and no friends. Some people have friends and no food. We thank you that on this night we have both. Amen.