Good Morning. This morning, after our guest left to return back to Baltimore, our whole family sat on the couch and took a couple of long, deep breaths. Then we prayed - for our friends to travel safely and for grace to fill our day. So, in the same way, I breathe a prayer for you now that grace and goodness will fill your day as well.
If I had any doubts about whether or not the early start time for the summer would hurt our attendance, the last few Sundays have alleviated them all. We were jam packed yesterday morning and had a great service again. I wish the weather would have been more cooperative in giving us a chance to picnic and play after the service, but the sun did eventually make its way out and the few of us who stuck around got to enjoy an extremely lively game of Wiffle Ball.
We continued on this week with a second message talking about the Table, and the ways that food and spirituality seem to intersect. This time we breezed through Luke's gospel (four episodes) and a quick comment from the book of Acts to look at how Jesus invited all kinds of people into fellowship with himself through the simple act of sharing a meal. While it's a simple act, it is one with profound implications. The offer of fellowship from Jesus was an invitation for those sinners to take a step in the direction of salvation, of receiving the ultimate fellowship with God.
When the early church began to gather after Jesus' resurrection, Luke writes that a significant part of their witness was that they simply ate together, had fellowship with one another and did so with glad and sincere hearts. Worship, prayer and teaching were certainly key ingredients to their experience as followers of Jesus, but they seem to have understood that fellowship was no less important to the life of the church than those other things we come to regard as more "spiritual" and serious. It's never a bad thing to celebrate grace together at the table in the company of both sinners and saints - all of whom have been extended the offer of fellowship from our father.
Next week we'll close the series in a way that I hadn't planned for at all when I started mapping out the series. In my sermon notebook where I sketch out the ideas for series and individual sermons I had written that I would like to close with the passage in 1 Corinthians 10 where Paul writes, "whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God." As I did some more studying on the particular passage, and some others like it, I thought God was pressing on me to share some thoughts about God receiving glory in our lives through moderation at the table - both in food and drink - so that will be the focus of the message for this coming Sunday.
Until then, enjoy the fellowship of those great people God has graced your life with.
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