The Table with Pastor Ryan Braley

Right.

Father, we give you thanks this morning for your grace and mercy.

And uh God, we do ask you to come and meet us this morning.

And uh later as we gather around the table, would we meet you there?

May we recognize your table as a gift of grace and life and salvation, and may we uh yeah, may we receive it and may we give it to others and share it with others.

Would you bless our time this morning in Jesus' name?

Amen.

How many of you be seated?

Morning, everyone.

So we're in the uh the gospel of Mark.

I've been journeying through Mark for a few weeks now.

And uh we're getting towards the end.

We've got two more weeks, and now we're kind of coming down to the final moments where Jesus is headed to the cross.

And this morning, what I wanted to do is something a little bit different.

Well, not that all that different, but there are occasions where I want to sort of get up here as the preacher and sort of just declare to you out loud and say out loud that these are the things that we believe in.

These is this is kind of who we are as a people.

Uh, one, probably as Lutherans and our Lutheran heritage and that stream of uh Lutheranism that we sort of live in, but also as central here in Elk River, there are things that we value that kind of make us who we are.

And every now and again, I want to I want to just get up in front of you and say, hey, here's who we are, here's what we believe in, how these ideas and theologies shape our practice and the things that we do here at Central, because a lot of times the things we do kind of become maybe a bit rote, or you just do them, which is fine.

But but I want you to know the reasoning behind them and kind of what sort of uh Bible stories or theologies sort of bolster these things that we do.

And so I was just for example, I mean, just you know, I mean, our our mission here at Central is to follow belong love.

We want to follow Jesus together.

That's like sort of the the idea that we're trying to we're aiming at is to follow Jesus and his life and teachings.

And so follow, we want to create a place where people can belong.

We believe that in today's world, many of us are disconnected.

We don't really have real authentic community.

So we're trying to build that with each other and allow space for folks to come and meet new friends and and sort of, as Peter mentioned in this video, to kind of do life together.

It's sort of a Christian buzz, you know, or colloquial term, but really we want to kind of as a defense against loneliness and isolation, we want to build lives together and then love our neighbors as an outpouring of those two things, love our neighbors across the street and around the world.

Um, also, just so you know, you know, we we really value so Gospel of Mark, oh by the way, my my sermon is titled The Table.

And uh, but we value also here at Central, we value things like the Bible.

We want to teach out of the scripture and want to just sort of, when we give sermons, we want to just unpack it with you and sort of hopefully help us explore what it means.

We believe the Bible is like a gem.

We talk about turning the gem a lot.

Like how do we examine, explore, and wrestle with the text?

That's what we do.

We also value hospitality and community.

So when people come into our doors, we want to be hospitable, say hello, welcome them.

And when you're in these pews, say hi to your neighbor.

That's why we share the piece.

I know it's awkward and weird, but we want to do that because it helps us to be people who are hospitable.

And welcome in the stranger, the outsider, those who are first-time guests.

We want to go out of our way to make sure they feel welcome here, as you might in your own home.

And we want to value that.

It's also why we serve coffee here, because many of you are not very friendly until you have your cup of coffee.

And so you can't really, you can't be hospitable like me.

You can't be hospitable until you have your coffee.

So fair enough.

That's why we do that too.

Uh also we value generosity.

You know, this is undoubtedly, no doubt, what we leave the first pews open.

We want those are the most valued seats in the church.

So we want to leave them open for the guests and the stranger.

And so I know that's why you do that.

Um, but we also we give away 10% of all the money that we that we take in here at Central.

Um, we give away 10% of that to local organizations doing wonderful work in the world and local, uh, locally.

And so we want to we value generosity with our time, our energy, our resources, our um, you know, everything.

We want to be just generous people who who give.

And then uh we also value questions and wrestling.

You know, I know that when you come in these doors, you're gonna have questions and maybe you have some doubts, and that's a part of the faith journey.

So we know that your questions and your wrestling are welcome here at Central.

Lastly, uh, we value an open table.

And I'll explain what that means, but I want to give you a quick talk on why we have an open table here at Central.

And it comes from this story in Mark, what we call the Last Supper.

So in Mark, and where Jesus is heading to the cross, he knows that.

His disciples may or may not know it.

You can kind of can't tell.

Um, but he knows, and you look, he just came out of the temple where he turns over a bunch of tables, causes a huge scene, which is you know the social, economic, religious hub for the Jewish people.

For for him to do that is incredibly scandalous and controversial.

He makes a scene in there and turns, he rebukes the the some of the leadership in there.

And you don't do that with and come out unscathed.

He then leaves, he curses a fig tree, which seems kind of weird.

I know Ben talked about it last week, Pastor Ben.

Um, but did you know that the Hebrew word for a fig is the word ta'anim?

Everyone say ta'anim.

That word is means fig.

It also can be a symbol or a word as a cinnamon synonym for the Jewish wise elders and leadership.

So when he announces like a sort of a curse on the fig tree and like, hey, it's not producing fruit, if you're a Jewish sage, like oh, it's he's sort of burning the flag when he walks out of the temple and curses the fig tree.

So there's no doubt that he's raising eyebrows and causing people to feel this great deal of unrest.

And of course, and in John's gospel, it leads him right to the cross.

You don't do these things without getting in a bit of trouble.

And then, of course, Jesus leaves there and he takes his closest followers to this upper room in this sort of clandestine meeting, it feels like, and he gathers them around this table for a meal.

And it's this meal, the Last Supper, and Jesus' table practices throughout the Gospels that have shaped how I think about communion and how we practice communion.

Are you with me so far?

In the Gospels, if anyone wanted to meet Jesus around a table for a meal, and I mean anyone, he welcomed them.

He invited all of them.

Yeah, you want to meet with me at a table?

Let's let's go ahead and do it.

The only ones who were disqualified for meeting with Jesus at the table were those who sort of disqualified themselves or didn't come and receive and didn't take and eat and drink, but everyone else was welcome there.

And I love this story about uh Jesus and the and the disciples in this uh in this gospel here.

And so here at Central, we practice what we call an open table.

And in church language, that means that we will serve the meal, and we're gonna take it here later on, to anyone.

And we say this line we always say, all are welcome at the Lord's table here this morning.

And it's the story and Jesus' table practices that have influenced this.

So we'll serve anybody.

That means, and pay attention to this, if you're a member or not a member, if you're a faithful person who's attends worship and gives and serves, or you're you barely have any faith and you're holding on for dear life, maybe you've been backsliding a little bit.

Yeah, whether you've tried to follow Jesus and just failed, anyone, and I mean anyone, is welcome at the table this morning.

And the reason is mostly because it's Jesus' table and he's the one who invites it.

It's not my table, that's not my table, it's not Central's table, it's not the LCMC's table, it's nobody's table, it's Jesus' table, and he's the one who invites us.

So I need you to hear that.

And I believe it's God's will that those who want to meet Jesus can meet him here at the table.

Sometimes we're asked, why don't you do altar calls at the end of your services?

And I always say, We do.

We have an altar call around the table, and anyone can come and receive and take and eat and take and drink.

So when we say that, all are welcome at the Lord's table.

This is what we mean.

So Jesus takes his get his followers that gather around the table, and it's during the Passover.

You might have heard Mark say that.

It's around this, it's this Jewish festival that celebrates back during the days of Moses when God delivers the people of Israel out of slavery in Egypt.

They were enslaved for 400 years or so, about there, somewhere in there.

And they've been living lives of slaves.

And Jesus delivers them and saves them and rescues them.

And they call this the Passover.

Uh or it's also there's the feast of unleavened bread.

It's like an eight or nine-day ceremony.

They're all kind of combined, and modern folks will kind of combine them.

And that's what they're celebrating.

And so remember, in the Passover as well, the Passover wasn't so much about the forgiveness of sins.

This meal wasn't so much, gee, uh, you sinned, Jesus died, you're forgiven.

Of course, the Passover wasn't.

But even when modern folks celebrate the Eucharist or the communion table, um, it's not just that you sinned, Jesus died, and you're forgiven.

If it's the Passover meal that was the inauguration of it, it also includes this Jewish story, which means it's also including like, hey, you were enslaved, God has moved, and now you're being set free.

So it's both of these.

It's you've sinned, Jesus forgives you from your He died, you're forgiven.

It's also the table, like, hey, you were enslaved, God has moved, and you're being set free.

So they gather around this table.

I love it.

And uh it says, When evening came, Jesus arrives with 12.

While they were eating and at the table, he said, Truly I tell you, one of you will betray me.

One of you who is sitting around this table right now, right here, eating with me.

Yeah, one of you.

Which means that uh Jesus knows already.

He already knows who's gonna betray him.

Also, one of them knows, whatever one is gonna do it.

We know because we run this side of history, but the rest of them don't know.

Imagine they're all on the table, and Jesus, like at this beautiful Passover feast, and he says, Hey, one of you is gonna betray me.

They don't know, except for one of them and Jesus.

So they all reply like this Hey, they were saddened, of course, and and one by one they say to him, Surely you don't mean me.

I love this.

In the Greek, it's a genuine question.

Now, in the Greek, the way it's sort of formatted in the grammar, it's sort of like it's it's it's a hopeful, no, not you.

That's how they it's sort of phrased, but they're genuinely asking.

Like, is it me?

Like, it's surely it's not surely not me, Lord.

Like, there's no obvious suspect in the room thus far.

Nobody's like, oh yeah, it's Judas.

They don't know.

They're genuinely asking, they're not asserting, oh, not me.

They don't know.

In other words, each of them is recognizing perhaps in their own heart their capacity to fail and to betray their close friend.

They're they're each asking, maybe I maybe I could do that.

Maybe somewhere deep in the recesses of my own soul, I'm capable of doing something like this.

I mean, I don't I don't think it's me, but maybe it is maybe I am capable of doing this.

Maybe.

And each one is left to wonder about their own heart and where they are.

And like the darkness perhaps that lives down in there.

And they have to ask the honest question could I do this?

Is it me?

Did I is it is it me?

Could it possibly be me that betrays my dear friend and fails him on this night?

And I do wonder, like, it might do us some good if we also ask that same question.

Look, I know that most of us in this room think of ourselves as the good guys.

We we all think I could never do that.

I'm the I'm one of the good guys.

I would never do that.

But reality is maybe it's not so clear.

They do these studies where they ask drivers, hey, how would you rank yourself amongst all the drivers in the world?

Now, if you're like me and like everybody else, you'd say, Well, I'm better than average, I'm better than most drivers.

And that was the top result.

Most drivers said that they are better than most other drivers.

Yeah, yeah.

You know where this is going.

Mathematically, that's impossible.

Nobody thinks that they're the bad driver.

But in many cases, um, they are the bad driver.

No, it was not me, not me.

There was this study they did in the 60s.

It's called uh Stanley Milgram, was a Yale psychologist, and they called this Milgram's Obedience Experiment.

And they tested folks to see how much pain and misery they would uh they would inflict on other people.

So they had a whole thing, it was all fake, but they rigged this up where the person being researched, they didn't know it wasn't fake, that was real.

They were told when the person across from you gets the question wrong, they were gonna ask them a series of questions.

When they get it wrong, shock them with electric shock.

You might have heard of this study.

And they do it, and they kept upping the ampage or wattage or whatever it was, like the power of the shock.

And they thought, oh, when it gets to the highest level of shock and they were gonna inflict the most like serious pain, these people will certainly bail out and out of moral obligation, say, I can't do this.

No, they didn't.

65% of them shocked the other person for getting a question wrong with the highest level of shock that they could uh administer.

And they're like, I can't believe it.

They were stunned by these results.

It's like, not me.

I would I love the story about David and Nathan.

David uh sees another man's wife on the roof across the street.

He takes her for his own, because that's sometimes what kings and leaders of nations do.

I want that, I'll take that.

And he does it.

Then he has her husband killed, and like it's this horrible scene.

Well, Nathan, the prophet, goes to David to correct him, and he has to be savvy about it.

He can't just tell him, David, you're wrong, because the king would cut his head off.

That's what kings do, also.

So Nathan tells him this parable, uh, and he's like, Hey, this one guy had one sheep, his neighbor had a bunch of sheep, the guy with a bunch of sheep stole that one guy's sheep for his own.

What should we do?

And David has no idea, surely not me.

I would never do that.

David's like, kill that guy.

And Nathan famously says, You're the guy.

No, none of us think that we're the bad guy.

We think we're the good guys.

I would never do that.

And the disciples in this moment, they think they ask, Is it me?

It's easy to avoid the question.

It's just easier to avoid it.

Than to look deep in our own souls and ask, man, is it me?

Am I am I capable of that?

Surely somebody else is the bad guy, not me.

But here's the problem: those of us who fail to realize our own capacity for darkness and sin and wickedness and don't realize how on the razor's edge we really live.

Uh it's those of us who are most in danger of becoming a wicked person.

Do you understand what I'm saying?

Those of us who block it out, like I would never, they're the ones in most danger of becoming someone like that, of succumbing to the darkness.

Yeah, it's like I have friends who say how self-aware they are.

They brag about how self-aware they are.

And they're the least self-aware people I know.

You know what I'm talking about?

Like, okay, okay, yeah.

So they ask it.

And with Judas and Judas, of course, we know we know it's Judas.

Judas is there.

Uh, we don't read in this gospel that he gets up and leaves right away.

We don't know when he leaves.

In John's gospel, he gets up, he leaves and flees into the darkness.

In Mark, we don't know what happens to him.

He's sort of hanging out, but we know it's him because earlier in Mark it says this.

It says, uh, Judas, one of the twelve, goes to the chief priest to betray Jesus.

This is before the meal.

And they were delighted to hear this, and they promised to give him money.

So they watched for an opportunity to hand him over.

So Judas has already betrayed Jesus.

And Jesus knows it.

He says as much.

He knows it.

And Mark, it's interesting how Mark compiles these stories.

Mark puts the betrayal of Judas right in front of the meal.

So here you read it.

He says, Hey, look, one of you will betray me.

And then just a few lines later, you can read in your gospel.

Uh, it says, Jesus says, Hey, take and eat, this is my body, it's given for you.

And take and drink, this is my blood given for you.

Do this.

He puts them right side by side, which is scandalous.

Yeah.

In other words, Jesus gives himself in the presence of people who are actively failing him.

Does he not care?

He knows, but he gives it anyway.

He gives himself in the presence of those who are actively failing him.

This is a big deal because meals in the ancient Near East were a huge deal.

When you you maybe know this, when you share a meal with someone in the ancient Near East, you're indicating there's like a mutual trust, there's a friendship, a mutual loyalty.

You're part of the same group, the same clan, the same tribe.

You have this common sort of uh this commonality in many, many ways.

And in Jesus' story, they're sharing from the same dishes.

So it's like they're they're eating out of the same plates and bowls.

It's like shares this intimate relationship, it shows this intimacy at the table.

And when you would eat with somebody in the ancient world, it's sort of saying, hey, this is a fit companion for community with me.

I trust them.

They're ritually acceptable, they're a part of my circle.

Um, when we gather, especially as Jewish people, we're celebrating the kingdom of God that will come one day.

And so when we eat this meal, we're gonna indicate that each of us are a part of the kingdom of God, which is a big statement to make.

We're a part of the, it's a boundary marker.

So you didn't just eat with anybody.

In fact, if there was a sinner in the community, it was regular that you would have them actually go and uh uh apologize, make recompense for their sin, to confess their sin, make restitution.

Then they'd be invited back into the community.

So you wouldn't be invited back to the table until you confessed your sins and made restitution.

Do you catch that?

Like Jesus inverts it.

He's like, No, I'm gonna invite him to the table, I guess, is what he's doing.

And then we'll we'll deal with the sin and the corruption after.

This is why so many people got mad at Jesus for who he ate with.

You you can't indicate that that person's involved in the kingdom of God or included, or they're ritually pure, they're not, and they didn't even ask for forgiveness.

They're sinners.

How can you eat with these people?

They're not a part of the in-group, they're not a part of us, Jesus.

What are you doing?

It's radical what he's doing.

It's why he gets himself killed.

Then Jesus says at the table, hey, the one who dips their hand into the or their bread in the bowl with me.

Now it wasn't just an indicator, like, okay, let's watch who does it, then we'll know who's the betrayer.

This is actually when you would dip your bread into a bowl with somebody else, you're actually sharing friendship, like an intimacy with this person.

You're so close we can share the same bowl.

It's a true and trusted friend who dips their bread into the same bowl as you do.

Many scholars believe that Jesus is quoting from Psalms, and actually in John's gospel, he does quote from this same Psalm.

There's a psalm, Psalm 41, it says, David writes, even my close friend, someone I trusted, one who shared my bread with me, has turned against me.

It's the most devastating uh uh uh betrayal that there is.

The one who shares the bowl with you.

How could you do this to me?

And Jesus says, Hey, the one who does that's the one who's going to betray me.

Yeah, it's an intimate, it's a painful moment.

And isn't it just like Jesus to offer them bread anyway?

And to share the table with them anyway.

And so Jesus takes the bread and he blesses it and he breaks it and he gives it to those at the table.

You might recognize those same verbs from earlier parts of Mark if you've been reading along with us.

In many places, Jesus takes bread and he blesses it and he breaks it and he gives it to those in his presence.

In Mark 6, he feeds the thousands.

He takes five loaves and then the two fish, looks to the heavens, he gives thanks, breaks it, and gives it to his disciples.

Later in Mark 8, almost the same story.

It's not the same, but it's it's uh but it's similar.

He takes bread, he breaks it, he blesses it, gives thanks, and he gives it to his disciples and those around the around the uh in the area.

And now at the Last Supper, he feeds them again.

But this time he's the food.

Yeah, this is my body taking me giving for you.

And I love this.

And they leave, they leave out of this room and they sing hymns.

When they had sung a hymn, they went out to the Mount of Oz.

So before they leave, they sing a hymn.

Now no one knows what they sang, but it was probably one of the uh the Halel psalms, like one of the praise psalms.

Some scholars believe.

Others scholars think it might have been um the BGs staying alive, staying alive, stay alive, stay alive.

They don't know, they don't know.

Others think it was no, it was probably maybe um journeys, don't stop believing.

Don't stop believing.

I didn't know if you'd laugh at those jokes.

I don't know if it was sacrilegious to joke about that or not, but I at least we all know it's okay to, you know.

No, it's probably one of the the praise psalms from the Psalms, Psalm 118.

There's a couple of them.

Uh this is the tradition during the Passover, and they sing some songs and they go out to the Mount of Olives, which is beautiful.

I love it.

Yeah.

And then there's this moment where they're out there and Jesus drops another bomb on them, and he says, Hey, Jesus.

Just so you all know, in case we weren't clear in there, all of you are gonna fail me.

Read it.

I don't think I have a slide for it.

No, I don't.

Okay, but you can look it up.

He tells him, oh, just so, just so you know, I mean, you all know about Judas probably now, maybe.

Um Peter's gonna, his will come in a minute, but all of you are gonna betray me.

All of you will fail me.

Peter, my man, I love Peter, he's the best, dude.

He's like, no, no, no, no, no.

Now earlier they had asked, surely not me.

They were asking.

Now he's like, now he's asserting, not me, dude.

No way.

Peter's like, no, I I know earlier you said that, and I searched my soul, my soul, my heart, and I I was, I'm, I'm not gonna betray you.

Again, the sometimes the most self-aware people are the least self-aware, or the ones that say they're the most self-aware.

Jesus said, Well, listen, uh, just so you know, before the rooster crows, you will deny me three times.

Sorry, Peter, uh, you including.

Yeah, look who's at the table with Jesus.

This is what shapes my view of communion and how I serve it today.

I was at Luther doing seminary, and and I told my, I told God, I said, God, I will never turn someone away from the table.

And if I'm wrong, and I say it to this day, and knowing that I will stand before God one day, I said, God, if I'm wrong, please forgive me, but we can hash it out later.

But I just I can't do it.

I cannot turn someone away from the table.

Certain instances I might, like if someone came up drunk, certainly, or high, or like, I don't know, doing something, you know.

But those who genuinely want to come forward, I will serve them.

Because look at who's at the table, look who's at the table.

You got Judas the betrayer, you've got uh Peter the denier, you've got a bunch of deserters and failures around the table and he serves them anyway.

Man, that's radical grace if I ever saw it before in my life.

I love the story.

He just serves them anyway.

I love it.

Jesus knows before he gives them the meal that this is the case.

He knows it.

He knows their hearts.

Now, I want to say a quick caveat.

This does not mean that we don't take sin seriously.

We do.

We do take sin seriously.

It destroys life.

Look what happens because of their sin.

It wrecks a lot of things in Jesus' life, in your life, in my life.

Sin destroys community, it wrecks friendships, it leads to death.

It does at every level.

We know this.

So take that seriously.

And also, like Luther said, then take the grace and mercy and life of God offered in the meal just as seriously.

He says, sin boldly.

And I was like, yeah, yeah.

Like, yeah, take this seriously.

This is real.

It destroys life.

But also, then when you gather at the table, take that seriously.

Here's why.

Because the table's not a reward for spiritually successful people.

It's not, it's just not.

It's something much closer to food for all those who want to try to follow Jesus and have failed again and again and again.

Yeah, this is what shapes our view of the table.

Paul writes it this way in Romans 5.

He says, Hey, look, uh, but God demonstrates his love for us in this.

Notice the direction of this, it's always God to us.

While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

He wasn't waiting for you to figure stuff out, get your junk in order.

No, he invites you to the table anyway, and we'll deal with these things because that's what that's what the meal does.

It's it's about the forgiveness of sins, the healing of all things, the restoration of community.

It's about all of that.

But you're invited.

You're already invited, just like the failures around the table.

I love it.

Uh, because the disciples' faithfulness doesn't hold the table together.

It doesn't hold it together.

That's not what that's not what made the table the table.

Their faithfulness is not what makes the table hold together.

It's Jesus' faithfulness.

It's not you, you don't do anything.

Just come, you blind beggar, and take and eat and drink.

And yes, your sin's a problem, but Jesus has and will deal with it.

So trust in his faithfulness.

He does this a ton of other times.

Quickly.

Um, this is his table practice.

He eats with tax collectors who were like betraitors of their own people.

They lied, they were thieves, they connived, they were angle men and women, they mostly men, but um, they were s he ate with sinners before he got them their lives straightened out.

He anoints, uh he's at a table eating at Simon the Pharisee's house, and he's anointed by a sinful woman at the table.

Scandalous.

That's why they got mad at him.

Um he feeds the 5,000, we already talked about that.

He dines with Zacchaeus, a tax-collecting traitor to his own people.

He invites the poor, the lame, and the blind to dinner.

You would never do this in the Jewish culture.

Most people.

Um he eats the dinner at Emmaus.

He's walking on the road.

This is after the resurrection.

And then lastly, of course, he has breakfast by the sea, where Peter is also invited, and that's where he restores Peter.

Yeah.

Jesus is always inviting people around the table, and failures and not good enough, and those who want to follow him but have failed.

And in the last supper, he does it one final time before he dies.

I love it.

Now, the early church began to celebrate this meal very almost right away.

Read Acts.

They begin to gather together and they gather together on the first day of the week.

Because that was the day that Jesus was resurrected.

So, okay, let's get together and let's celebrate the resurrection.

Life and grace and mercy and salvation has come to us.

And let's break bread like Jesus did at the Last Supper.

And we'll remember what he did for us.

So when they would break bread, they they gathered.

Um, I'll get there in a second.

They they gathered, um, and it wasn't so much like a calling to repentance or to make folks aware of the enormity of their sin.

That wasn't what they did with when they broke bread.

Now, we can do that here, that's fine.

If you want to come and you're kind of somber and you want to recognize your own darkness and you're asking, is it me?

Am I?

But when they gathered to break bread, it was a moment of joyous celebration.

Like it was happy.

Yes, we've been given life, a new start.

It was a moment of happy celebration, joyous and gratitude.

So maybe later this morning when we gather around the table, maybe you can think about or as Diana plays a song, what's one thing you're grateful for?

And come forward with that.

And maybe this morning you come forward with gratitude and hope and joy and these things.

So they would gather and they would gather and would give thanks to God for what Jesus did.

Because they remembered, hey, this body and bread, or this uh body which is bread and this uh blood, which is the wine of the grape juice, um, it's been given to me.

And it reminded them of the death of Jesus and what Jesus had done.

So there's this past tense element to it, but it also reminded them what Jesus was currently doing.

Like what he's doing now.

And for them, he's still inviting questionable people, questionable people to the table to eat and drink, like you and like me, which is good.

He's still forgiving sinners, he's still healing us, and he's still creating community.

I love this.

Paul writes it this way.

Paul says, Oh, by the way, he's still drawing people to the kingdom of God.

I love it.

Paul says this in 1 Corinthians.

He says, it's not the cup or is not the cup of thanksgiving for which we give thanks, a participation in the blood of Christ, and the bread that we break, a participation in the body of Christ.

He viewed the meal as us actively participating right now in the life and the resurrection of Jesus.

So the word is coronania, everyone say coronia.

It's this Greek word, which means like it means like fellowship, community, but it's like a sharing of life and joy and resources.

When we gather at the table, Paul writes, we're sharing in the life of Jesus.

And that's a call for celebration.

Amen.

So we celebrate what Jesus had done.

He died for us, but it's not just a cognitive remembering.

It's like, no, we're gonna celebrate what he's actively doing right now.

He's still inviting losers like me to the table for coin in the air.

And it's a celebration of what God promises to do, what Jesus announces, that the kingdom of God will one day come in its fullness.

So Isaiah 25, the prophet says, On this mountain, the Lord of hosts will make for all peoples a rich feast of rich food.

A feast of well-aged wine, of rich food filled with marrow and guacamole, and of well-aged wine.

Stained.

Oh, I misread that.

I'm sorry, I didn't say that.

Sorry.

Uh strain clear, and he will destroy on this mountain the shroud that's cast over all peoples, the covering that is spread over all nations.

He will swallow up death once and for all.

And the Lord will wipe away all the tears from their faces, and the disgrace of his people, he will take away from them on this earth, for the Lord has spoken.

Yeah, that's what he's gonna do.

I love this story because for the longest time, and I'll end with this, and I don't want to close with this benediction, but I have often myself felt like a person who doesn't belong, believe it or not.

Like I grew up without a father, and that you know has all kinds of ramifications and consequences because of it.

But I grew up without a father, and so I was like sort of like this uh, forgive the word, but like a like a bastard child, you know.

Um, in the truest sense of that word.

I really felt like that.

And lacked a certain level of identity and who I am, what I'm doing, these kinds of things.

And that was healed over time.

But I I got married and and uh ended up out here in Minnesota.

And I love it here.

This is home for me.

But there's a part of me that's like, you know, like home is also Colorado, but I live here now, and this is home for me.

But I don't share the same heritage that many of you share with this state.

I wasn't here when the twins won the World Series.

I know you've told me they did do that, but I wasn't here when they did.

So I paid twice, my bad, twice, thank you.

So I feel like do I belong here?

I don't know.

I didn't grow up in a Lutheran church, but here I am and I love it.

But I'm like, do I belong?

Am I and I say this not to sort of uh garner sympathy from you.

I don't need your sympathy.

I mean, I appreciate it, but I got that's not why I tell you this.

I tell you this for two reasons.

One, because I wonder if many of you feel the same way.

I'm just lost.

I don't know where I belong.

I don't know if I'm welcome anywhere.

Who are my people?

Who will accept me for who I am?

Is there anybody who will love me?

Maybe you ask those same questions.

And the second reason is because when I read these stories of Jesus, I'm overwhelmed by how open his arms are.

Like, yeah, come and eat.

Any of you, come and eat, come and drink.

I will heal you, I'll restore you, and I'll give you life.

So I want to quote my friend Brian, who says, This is the table, not of the church, but of the Lord.

It's made ready for those who love him and for those who want to love him even more.

So come.

You who have much faith, and you who have little, you who have been here before and been here long and been here often, and you who have been not here for very long, and you who've tried to follow Jesus and you who have failed, come.

Because it's the Lord who invites you.

It's his will that those who want him should meet him at this table.

So come and eat, come and drink.

Amen.