Table Blessing #3 – Bruce G.

Gracious God: Bless this meal and all who are invited to it. May this experience bring all to the understanding that the needs of all, those present and those absent, are most important. The conversations, the service to others, the meal itself are given to us by You in order that we share all with our sisters and brothers; their needs are thus met with this gracious gift of hospitality. Awesome God, please continue to give us the gift of lively conversation, endless service, satisfying food. For us and all Your children, we pray in Your name. Amen.

When I read Dennis E. Smith’s article “Dinner with Jesus & Paul,” I realized that meals were not just for sustenance of the body but they were to be taken as food for the mind and soul, as well. Yes, there was a certain hierarchical nature to these meals, but there was so much more. There was conversation including all participants of the meal. There was a serving quality (foot-washing, for example) that added to the “personalness” of the event. There was a sharing of each other as the participants got better acquainted with each other. To a certain degree, this is missing today. Yes, we still talk over a meal, but the closeness of strangers is seen, today, contradictorily. How often do we invite a stranger to sit with us as we dine? I’m not just referring to a new member of the seminary/church family, I’m referring to those outside, those “outsiders” that normally wouldn’t “seem to fit in.” Have we welcomed these members in; have we offered a “position of honor” to those who are not in our same perceived social class? This prayer, I believe addresses this. Jesus welcomed the tax collector, the stranger, the sinner just as Jesus would welcome the emperor, the Pharisee, the elite. May we do the same.