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One of my favorite things in our house is our dining room table. It was hand crafted and built by my brother-in-law Mike. Mike lives in Seattle, Washington, and so the table arrived a few summers ago in several boxes. Dave and the girls spent the afternoon carefully and gently piecing it together. The table stands 2 ½ feet high on tapered legs, And measures 39 inches wide and about six feet long. It is a beautiful piece of furniture: cherry with walnut inlay in the center of each half of the table and around the edges. Because we don’t have a kitchen table, it is the place that we eat most every meal, where we say – or more often, in our family sing – grace together. It’s the place where Rose often does her homework, And I’ve written more than one sermon at our table – Including this one today! We’ve planned out many of our summer vacations, and it’s where we reviewed all of Kathryn’s college options. We turn the table the opposite way and open it up with two leaves and welcome family and friends for Thanksgiving dinner. We’ve had a few family arguments and known moments of reconciliation at this table. A few years ago, When Dave’s father died, a few years ago, We sat around the table and to write Ken’s obituary and plan his memorial service. Our table is a place of gathering and blessing: A place to laugh, to cry, to hope, to dream, to pray, to sing, to be a family. Do you have a table – Or tables - like that at your house or in your life? Tables that hold sacred moments and important memories of friends and family – Some still alive, Some now passed onto eternal life – A place of gathering and blessing? Maybe some of you thought of the tables in Chapin Hall, tables that have been the source of so many times of gathering and blessing for our community of faith. They are the place we sit at for coffee hour and catch up on the news of the day or week. We gather around them for a Lenten series program, or the roast beef dinner or pasta supper. We eat pancakes at them on Shrove Tuesday, and wait our turn during Christmas pageant practice. It’s around the tables in Chapin Hall that we share stories of life and faith: at a reception after a memorial service, during a church visioning session, at a confirmation class. The tables in Chapin Hall a place for gathering and blessing for others in the community, some of whom we’ll never meet: Alcoholic Anonymous Groups, Girl Scout troops and leaders, administrators and recipients of the WIC program. Today as we rededicate Chapin Hall to the glory of God and with the hope and prayer that we will continue to grow in faith, We remember the tables of gathering and blessing, The times God has been present with and among us and all others who gather there. Our gospel lesson today is about gathering and blessing, About being together and hearing God’s words of grace. Jesus goes up the mountain and his friends follow right up after him. Taking the posture of a teacher, Jesus sits down and instructs them about blessings. But Jesus doesn’t tell them about the blessings they will receive sometime in the future; He tells them about the blessings they are right now! You are blessed, Jesus says to the disciples, You are blessed. Many of those in the crowd that day were struggling in life – financially and spiritually - and Jesus gave them a word of hope. It is such a word that all of us – Young and old – need to hear as well, so that we will can be reminded that we are blessed and the promises of God belong to us. These blessings, these beatitudes, are known to many of us. I could see several of you closing your eyes or mouthing the words as I proclaimed the word this morning. These words have deep meaning for us and for Christians throughout the centuries. I’ve studied and preached on the beatitudes before, but this time I came across a great translation in The Message, An interpretation of the bible by a minister and teacher named Eugene Peterson. Here’s how they are translated. See if you can find a word of hope and challenge in these new words of the beatitudes. “You’re blessed when you’re at the end of your rope.That is who we are friends, as we gather today: Some of us at the end of our ropes, Some of us grieving over the losses in our lives, Some of us hungering and thirsting for God’s presence and touch, But the beatitudes are not just about who we are, they are about who we want to become as disciples, as a community of disciples: Content with how God made us and the gifts we have been given, Caring for others without considering the cost, And creating hearts and lives of peace in our neighborhoods and in our world. Jesus tells his friends – Jesus tells us – That it’s not always easy to live in this way of blessing. Sometimes others will make fun of us, Even tell lies about us. But Jesus also tells us that, too, is a blessing. God’s grace will go with us as we seek to follow in the footsteps of our Savior. And so, friends, we move from table to table to table in our lives: From our kitchen dining room tables, To the tables in Chapin Hall and the Fiorelli Room, Or the tables in the church school classrooms. And then we come to the central table in our lives as followers of Jesus, The communion table. Here at the table of feasting for God’s family, we bring all that we are and all that we have experienced around our other table gatherings. We remember that we are God’s children and Jesus’ disciples. It is here that we remember that Jesus came to us and for us, and has promised not to leave us alone. It is here that we remember and receive the grace to know that we are blessed and that we are called to be a blessing to others. Let us then prepare to come to this table of gathering and blessing. Amen and Amen. |