Sermon: "Table Talk"

5th in the "Making Room For Life" series.
Delivered October 5, 2008 by Rev. George Antonakos.
Other sermons in this series - 1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5

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Well, we've come to the end of our Making Room For Life series, and I think we should give Kathy Smith a few props for all the... I've just been told she's looking for actors to serve on her drama team as well so keep that in mind. Thank you, Kathy, for all the hard work and emphasizing how difficult it is many times to make room for life.

By way of review, let me just cover the weeks, in case you haven't been here every week. The first week, Pastor John shared about the importance of relationships, how God has created us for relationships. Secondly, we talked about Sabbath time, how important keeping the Sabbath is and making sure there is time in our week where we stop work and commerce, and we focus on God and each other. Two weeks ago, we talked about avoiding the accumulation addiction which often gets in the way of life. The fourth week, last week, we talked about teaching our children well, teaching them all about this so that they can have a fruitful and fulfilled life as well.

Today, we come to a topic we can all relate to, and that's food. We are talking about being a family at the table, and the sketch was trying to show how easy it is for us not to have time around the table. The Scriptures teach that food is much more than just some means of survival. Job, in one of his reflections said that God gives us food to make our hearts glad, and the implication is that with one another, as we gather around, we can experience the presence of Jesus at the communion table, but also at the dinner table. But as with all the prior topics, this takes intentionality. It's not just going to happen. Actually, what is just going to happen is usually letting other things get in the way of having this kind of time together.

So I ask you, do your mealtimes resemble this picture... you remember this from Norman Rockwell, right? All the happy, smiling faces and everything just perfect. Or does it resemble this animated movie clip we are about to show you from The Incredibles? Let me give you a quick setup. If you've seen the movie; you're already laughing. These family members have super powers (for those of you who haven't seen the movie), and they have been socially ostracized from using them. So here is how dinner can look like at their house.

[Video clip from The Incredibles]

DASH: Mom. You're making weird faces again.

HELEN: No, I'm not.

BOB: You make weird faces, honey.

HELEN: Do you have to read at the table?

BOB: Uh-huh. Yeah.

HELEN: Smaller bites, Dash. Yikes! Bob, could you help the carnivore cut his meat?

DASH: Ow.

HELEN: Dash, you have something you wanna tell your father about school?

DASH: Well, we dissected a frog.

HELEN: Dash got sent to the office again.

BOB: Good. Good.

HELEN: No, Bob, that's bad.

BOB: What?

HELEN: Dash got sent to the office again.

BOB: What?! What for?

DASH: Nothing.

HELEN: He put a tack on the teacher's chair...during class.

DASH: Nobody saw me. You could barely see it on the tape.

BOB: They caught you on tape and you still got away with it? Whoa! You must have been booking. How fast did you think were you going?

HELEN: Bob! We are not encouraging this.

BOB: I'm not encouraging, I'm just asking how fast...

HELEN: Honey!

BOB: Great. First the car, now I gotta pay to fix the table...

HELEN: The car? What happened to the car?

BOB: Here. I'm getting a new plate.

HELEN: So, how about you, Vi? How was school?

VIOLET: Nothing to report.

HELEN: You've hardly touched your food.

VIOLET: I'm not hungry for meatloaf.

HELEN: Well, it is leftover night. We have steak, pasta. What are you hungry for?

DASH: Tony Rydinger.

VIOLET: Shut up!

DASH: Well, you are.

VIOLET: I said, shut up, you little insect!

DASH: Well, she is.

HELEN: Do not shout at the table. Honey!

BOB: Kids! Listen to your mother.

DASH: She'd eat if we were having Tony loaf.

VIOLET: That's it!

HELEN: Stop it!

DASH: You're gonna be toast!

HELEN: Stop running in the house. Sit down!

DASH: Ow! Hey, no force fields!

VIOLET: You started it.

HELEN: You sit down! You sit down! Violet!

BOB: "Simon J. Paladino, longtime advocate of superhero rights, is missing?" Gazerbeam.

HELEN: Bob! It's time to engage. Do something! Don't just stand there! I need you to intervene!

BOB: You want me to intervene? Okay. I'm intervening. I'm intervening!

HELEN: Violet, let go of your brother!

JACK-JACK: Hello?

BOB: Get the door.

Do you ever have to do one of those quick changes from what's going on to when people visit?

So, what's closer to your reality, the Cleavers or the Incredibles? I grew up Greek and that meant being in the restaurant business. I don't remember too many unhurried times around the meal table, also because the way things went with my parents' divorce, but I do remember bringing a lot of food home from the diner or eating in the diner. One Thanksgiving, I thought it was the coolest thing as a kid, we actually had Thanksgiving in the diner, together as an extended family, but no matter what our varied experiences, there is an importance to the place of eating together slowly with deliberate focus if we are going to make room for life and grow spiritually, but getting there is not easy if we are not used to it.

In his book, "The Fast Food Nation," the subtitle is called "The Dark Side of the American Fast Food Meal," the author paints some rather revealing statistics about how challenging it is for North Americans to do this. If we're going to slow down, we've got to try to think about how to overcome all of this. In 1970, Americans spent about $6 billion on fast food; in 2001, $110 billion. I'm not sure what it is in 2008, but I'm pretty sure it's more. Americans spend more money on fast food than on all the things listed there, including new cars, next.

On any given day in the US about 25% of the 300 million people that live in this country visit a fast food restaurant. This is amazing. It is estimated that 1 in 3 workers in the US has at some point been employed by McDonald's. What we eat has changed more in the last 40 years than in the previous 40,000, and the golden arches are now more widely recognized than the Christian cross.

I was thinking about these statistics this past Thursday, and even though this was not the norm... I mean we have times of unhurried meals, there will be times when we'll sit out on our back porch and watch the sunset and have a leisurely time, but this past Thursday, we had to babysit grandkids. It was a long day at church. I'd met my wife over at our daughter's at 4:30. Both grandkids, 2 1/2 years old, give or take a few months.

Well there it was an oil and water kind of day, something similar to the movie clip, (not quite that bad) but I said, "What are we going to do for dinner?" We hadn't even thought about dinner, and there was a 7:00 meeting at church on Thursday. Ellen grabs Hannah, she goes to the Chick-fil-A drive thru, and she brings back food. I'm staying home with Luke. We sit around, probably a 10-minute meal... maybe, and then they're playing while we're trying to finish up, and they're pinching each other, and it's crazy.

I share all that for 2 reasons. One, I am really glad that those parenting days are behind us, and two, it makes me empathize with those of you with who that's not behind you. It makes me be sensitive, while I talk about this subject. Some days, that's the best you can do, especially with little ones. But our hope is that after hearing this and thinking about this, and taking away the handout today that we're going to give you, that you'll try at least one time in this next week, and maybe one time a week thereafter, to put into practice what we're talking about.

With planning and prayer, we can anticipate dinner to be a sacred time that makes space at the end of our day, to check in with each other, to enjoy wholesome food, and to experience God's presence around the table. Jesus didn't use the metaphor "I am the bread of life" for no reason. There's a sense in which dining and being in His presence are connected, that He is the one who fills our hungers.

In our text today, there are 2 people that are not having a very good day. They are, in fact, probably the most disappointed they have ever been in their lives. There is also, in the text today, a meal setting where that disappointment evaporates in the presence of the risen Christ. Actually, 2 days earlier, all their hopes and dreams were nailed to a cross. Now they find themselves on a road back to the town probably that they lived in, thinking that the promise that they had heard about was now gone. So they were just going back to their old life, hoping against hope that maybe there was another answer to life.

As they walk along this road, they are joined in a conversation by a stranger. In fact, the Bible says that they are kept, their eyes were kept, from recognizing Him. As they speak, they are amazed that the stranger doesn't understand what's going on. It would be like somebody coming up to us today and being surprised that there was a presidential election in 1 month. You would say, "What's up with you?" So, that's the way it was, as they walk along with this stranger who pretends not to know what's going on.

They say, "Don't you hear about the crucifixion of Jesus of Nazareth, don't you know what has gone on?" They related something about an empty tomb, but the meaning of it escaped them. They weren't sure what it all meant. With that, the stranger chastises them and reviews many, many scriptures that prophesy the suffering of the Messiah, and that's where we pick up the story in our text today, Luke 24:28-35... Before we look at it on the screen, or perhaps you follow in the scriptures, let's pray.

Our Lord, we thank You again that we come around this table again today; and in fact we are experiencing together, around Your Word, the hope of Your presence, and the hope of Your revealing Spirit, to speak to every person here. Lord, people have come from all kinds of places. Some are disappointed and discouraged like the two in this passage. Others, Lord, are looking for hope. As we read this text, and hear it preached and see it made visible, we ask that You would speak to each of us, so that we might be transformed more to Your image. In Christ's name we pray, Amen.

As they approached the village to which they were going, Jesus acted as if He were going farther. But they urged Him strongly, "Stay with us, for it is nearly evening; the day is almost over." So He went in to stay with them. When He was at the table with them, He took bread, gave thanks, broke it, and began to give it to them. Then their eyes were opened, and they recognized Him, and He disappeared from their sight. They asked each other, "Were not our hearts burning within us while He talked with us on the road and opened the Scriptures to us?" They got up and returned at once to Jerusalem. There they found the Eleven, and those with them, assembled together and saying, "It is true! The Lord has risen and has appeared to Simon." Then the two told what had happened on the way, and how Jesus was recognized by them when He broke the bread.

Do you think it is coincidental that Jesus chose a mealtime to reveal Himself? Do you think it's coincidental that Jesus chose the Last Supper, a table meal, as a place where we're told to remember Him? That word 'remember' doesn't mean to just intellectually recall the facts. It means to reflect, self-assess, self-rededicate, and remember... reconnect to Him as the source of life.

It is not coincidental that it happens at a table because in the kingdom of Heaven, Jesus said, there is going to be a huge banqueting table. Remember, He said, "I won't eat of this meal or drink of the fruit of the vine until I eat it anew with you in the kingdom of Heaven." The table is the center of life and the universe.

Making Room For Life author, Randy Frazee, tells us that the Latin word for feast is 'convivium.' Con... with or the same. Viv... root for live or revive. We know the word 'convivial.' To be convivial is to be agreeable around food, out around M&T Bank stadium, as we speak today, people are being convivial around their tailgating. They add a little more than food, I understand some get really primed for the game, but we don't need that. In fact, do you remember in the Book of Acts how people thought that the joy and the experience of the risen Christ, thought they were drunk? That is the presence of God that revives us and renews us around food.

I remember, we went to Europe back in the end of May, early June, and if you've ever been there, you know how food and the table is very, very different. Two or 3 hours you can spend around, just being with each other. I said to myself, when we get back, we have got to do this. We have got to take more time. We are not doing too well at that, but the point is, there was something about that time that made sense. It made sense to us to be with family around those mealtimes.

So a convivium for Christians encourages good food shared in God's presence together. That's what makes our hearts glad. What is the focus at most of your mealtimes? Really, what are you thinking about when you sit down at your mealtimes? If you are a man, most of you are thinking about what is right there in front of you, right? Hopefully, you think about more than that... who you are sharing it with.

The question here today, is what do we think about when we come around this table? We aren't thinking about the content of the food. I mean, we do, but we are really thinking about what it represents, the Lord's presence with us. So the more we blend those 2 focuses of what we do here and what we do at the dinner table at home, the more that gets moved together, the more we will experience God's presence every single day as a family. I confess, I have a lot of learning to do here. We have not done it well, but there are times when we really have done it well, and we feel like, "Boy, that's the right end to the day."

So I want to look beyond tactics, because again, we are going to give you a handout as you leave today to give you an understanding of exactly what to do to set this up, but it has to be about more than just the physical techniques of what you do. I want to look at this text briefly and just look at 3 characteristics of families of people that make the convivium... this kind of sense of God's presence around food... happen. I want you to look with me.

The first thing is that families that make the convivium happen are hungry for the Lord's presence as well as for a meal. Notice how they, "urge him strongly." Why does He seem to want to go farther? What is it about that... as though Jesus acted as though He were going to go farther? It is the same thing that we do when we say, "Well, we have to go now (if we are at somebody's house). No, no, you stay, stay..." Or again, in Greek families, there are things noted as the Greek good-byes, where you say good-bye about 3 or 4 times, and people sit there and talk again for another 15 minutes.

We want to know that we're invited to be present there with people. It's the same with Jesus. He won't press His presence on anyone. He wants to be invited. Notice what happens when He is invited. It says, "He went in to stay with them." You know when Christ is in the home, He knows everything that is going on. He understands every need, every pain, every struggle. He's there to stay with you, to remain (this word actually is remain) with you. They are the same words that are used in Revelation 3:20 when Jesus says, "Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come into them and stay with them, sup with them," (actually have dinner. He uses that word "and sup with them," have table fellowship with them) "and they with Me."

I have a plumber friend in Pennsylvania, and sometimes we would get to talking about our jobs and the struggles of this job or that job, and he says, "You know one of the great things about my job? People are so glad to see me come to their house. Whenever there's an emergency, and I come, they say, 'Please come in, come in. We want you here so much.'" He says, "That makes me feel really good." Well, that's the way the Lord is. People are hungry for His presence as they sit down to a meal.

Secondly, families that make the convivium happen do not need to control outcomes. They don't need to worry about whether it will go okay. One of the great anxieties of a host or a hostess or a parent is that it will go the way that we plan for it to go. But notice, when the focus is on Jesus that He becomes the host. I think it fascinating that one of the terms for the Lord's Supper that the Catholic Church uses is "The Host." All of a sudden, you think He is going to be the guest, and He turns out to be the host. He's at the table. He takes bread. He gives thanks. He breaks it. He distributes it. "Then their eyes were opened, and they recognized Him." That's when that veil was lifted, when they saw Christ around the table and were reminded of His presence at the Lord's Supper.

Notice what happens. Right there, it says "When they recognized Him, He disappeared from their sight." You see, when Christ is really a part of our life, He doesn't need to be there visibly present. We know that He is spiritually sensed and understood.

You may be going through a time when God may seem absent, when He doesn't seem very present to you at all. I'm not sure all the reasons why that is, and I know that happens for me sometimes, but sometimes God is waiting and withholding because we're the ones trying to control everything. He waits for a letting go and allowing Him the willingness to be the host, the one in control. Not to be in control on our turf, but to let Him have control of our turf, to create space for Him to lead and take care of the outcome.

I was at a pastors' gathering where we were having a Sabbath-reading retreat. We had read 3 or 4 books, and we were talking about the implications of them. One of the women pastors there who had read all these books and was talking about the whole issue of Sabbath just offered this. I think we were just talking about, "What was it like when you were growing up. Did you have time to observe Sabbath?" She said, "My mother was a very anxious kind of person, and she seemed to always be moving, always on the go, but I have this memory of her putting on water for tea and sitting at the kitchen table quietly for about 5 or 10 or 15 minutes, and it was the most still and peaceful that I remember her being." She said, "Because you can't drink a hot, boiling cup of tea in a rush." She said, You know, that's what kind of helped me to think about the rhythm of life, making sure that there is times that we do that."

Of course, the convivium is a more extended time around food. So that is the second thing. We don't need to control outcomes. God will control the outcome. And you know what? That is a great tip for small group leaders. If you are a small group leader, or if you've thought about being a small group leader, and you've said, "No, I couldn't do that," that's because you are probably too worried about the outcome. Let Jesus control the outcome; you just create the space.

Thirdly, families that make the convivium happen discover that the effects of this ritual will ripple far beyond the moment. Look at what happens after Jesus disappears from their sight. "They asked each other, 'Were not our hearts burning within us?'" See, this Scripture starts with a heartache and moves to a heart hunger and then it goes to heartburn, but it's a good kind of heartburn, like the kicking of a baby in the womb, an indicator that something marvelous is about to happen. You don't even have to have that experience. You can just put your hand on a woman's tummy and feel it. Something marvelous is going to happen.

When do you experience the inward warmth, the inward movement of God? Have you experienced the inward movement of God? I'm sure it's different for all of us, but there are a couple of times when I feel that God is really present. One is when in church or around the Scriptures that I just get emotional. I get teared up. I feel like God is touching me right then, that it is a visit from God. Also, either in small group or around the dinner table or even here in this space, when I feel like I can just be me. I don't have to be anybody else. When I feel like the real me is there present and the real you is there present, and we don't have to do any masking or hiding. When that freedom to just be together in a safe space... I really feel a peace that indicates the presence of the Prince of Peace.

So these two in the story recount how they recognized Him in the breaking of the bread. Not only did they feel His internal presence, externally, they are moved to go and report what has happened. How about it? How much reporting is going on for you these days? How much sharing of where God is intersecting your life is going on with others? That's what they did. It's almost like they had to jump up, run from the table, and go back to Jerusalem to tell their friends what they experienced.

If we are not reporting what God is doing, if there is no desire, there's no urge to tell other people, we need to be revived. We need the Word of God again to be broken for us so that we might be renewed and brought back to first things. The convivium creates an opportunity to combine a meal and fellowship and sharing around the Word that revives our faith. See, the goal of today, at the table, whether it's at church or at the home, is that we would be prompted to share with others who are in need.

Tom Blair, pastor of the Second Presbyterian Church down the road, made this connection for me when he sent one of his poems. He is a poet, and he likes to share his poetry with others who are willing to receive it, and I said, "Yeah, put me on your email list." He sent this poem, and he titled it for all of us, As We Prepare For World Communion Sunday. That's what today is, for those of you who may not be aware. All over the world, we are remembering that we share this Sacrament together as the Body of Christ.

Here is his poem:

Come to us, Lord, not to fill us to excess but to keep us hungry, yearning for mercy, thirsty for equity, listening for a lasting promise of hope. We receive a tiny cup and a morsel, a fitting and necessary meal in this world of need.

I've never had the connection made for me of the smallness of what we experience on Communion Sunday, and its challenge to help us identify with the smallness of food and things that many, many people have in this world. It's a challenging reminder that this table is not just for us; it is for us to move outward into the world and share the Good News so that others might come and join us here.

Let's pray: Lord, we thank You that You have risen from the dead, that You are the hope of this world, that to know You, the only true God and Jesus Christ who has been sent, is eternal life indeed. So Lord, help us, as we offer ourselves to You again as we gather around these tables together to experience Your presence in our hearts and our minds and our spirits, and that that experience would bind us to one another, would break down walls, and help us to be who You've truly designed us to be in Your loving care. We ask it in Your name, Amen.

© 2008, Rev. George Antonakos
Central Presbyterian Church, Baltimore, MD 21204 410/823-6145
www.centralpc.org