Table Talk - The Way, the Truth, & the Life

The Good News of Jesus Christ according to the Evangelist, John (14:1-14):


Jesus said, "Do not let your hearts be troubled. Believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father's house there are many dwelling places. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, so that where I am, there you may be also. And you know the way to the place where I am going." Thomas said to him, "Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?" Jesus said to him, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you know me, you will know my Father also. From now on you do know him and have seen him."

Philip said to him, "Lord, show us the Father, and we will be satisfied." Jesus said to him, "Have I been with you all this time, Philip, and you still do not know me? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, `Show us the Father'? Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own; but the Father who dwells in me does his works. Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; but if you do not, then believe me because of the works themselves. Very truly, I tell you, the one who believes in me will also do the works that I do and, in fact, will do greater works than these, because I am going to the Father. I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If in my name you ask me for anything, I will do it."

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The Questions for Discussion over Dinner Were:

In your personal life, in this community, or in another community - 

where have you experienced Jesus as the Way?

Where have you experienced Jesus as the Truth?

Where have you experienced Jesus as Life?

One person answered that they experience Jesus as Life in the gathering of family. 

Another said that they hear Jesus as Truth in music. 

A few of our youngest members said that they experience Jesus as the Way in Church – which got an “amen” from some of the adults.

Concluding Reflection:

People these days often come across this verse in which Jesus says that he is the Way, the Truth, and the Life, and they tend to interpret it in one of two ways.  People who tend to hold more “conservative” views, on the one hand, will say that this verse means that Christianity is the only true religion – this verse means that Christianity is the only Way; Christianity is the only Truth; Christianity alone offers real Life.  And “liberals” on the other hand react to that saying, “No, no, you’ve got it wrong; that can’t be right.”  They say that this verse means that Christianity is a Way – a way to the Truth, a way to abundant Life.

A plague on both your houses! 

Both interpretations overlook one simple point.  In this verse, Jesus doesn’t say that Christianity is the Way, the Truth, and the Life.  Rather, Jesus says, “I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life.”  This verse isn’t talking about your “religion.”  It’s not talking about your personal beliefs.  It’s not talking about your opinions on spirituality. 

In this verse, Jesus is saying that when you encounter the Truth, you encounter him.  When you really encounter Truth – the kind of truth that draws you to it, that transforms the way you see, that convicts you of the life you’ve been living, and sets you free – you encounter Jesus.  And where Jesus is, there the Father is also.

Jesus is saying that when you participate in Life in all its abundance, you participate in him.  When you realize that your own life is not your property but a gracious gift from God freely given in Christ, then you realize that Jesus is as close to you as the air your breathe and the thoughts you think.  And when you live more fully into the gift of abundant Life, then you find that you’re participating in the very life of Jesus.  And where Jesus is, there the Father is also.

Jesus is not saying that Christianity is the Way.  Jesus is telling us that he is the Way.  He is the Way because he and the Father are one.  He is the Way because he is the love of God made manifest in a person.  He is the Way because we participate in his life when we live into the gift of abundant life God has graciously given to us.  He is the Way because we encounter him whenever we encounter the Truth.  He is the Way because he is the Father’s way of showing us how much he loves and cares for us.  

 

What is Table Talk, Anyway?

I would not have preachers torment their hearers, and detain them with long and tedious preaching, for the delight of hearing vanishes therewith, and the preachers hurt themselves.

-Martin Luther

At one of my first Friday evenings with Southside Abbey last July, I overheard a conversation between a Friday regular and a gentleman from the neighborhood who was joining us for worship and dinner for the very first time.  After the initial introductions and welcoming sentiments, the SA regular described our worship and our work and our relationships in the community.

            “Well, I’m looking for a church to join,” the gentleman said.

            “Every Friday evening,” she explained, “we gather here at the hArt Gallery around 6:11 for fellowship and prayer and dinner.”

            “So, this is a church?”

            “Yeah – we’re a worshiping community.”

            “Like a real church . . . with preaching?”

For this gentleman, a mark of a real worshiping community is preaching.  And he wasn’t wrong about that.  The proclamation of the good news about Jesus and his peaceable kingdom has always been present when and where followers of Jesus have gathered for worship, fellowship, and a shared meal.  But this proclamation – sometimes called preaching – has taken as many different forms as the worship and fellowship of the many different communities of Jesus followers. 

In some worshiping communities, the preaching is a forty-five minute sermon delivered by the pastor as the central piece of the worship. 

In some worshiping communities, the preaching is a ten-to-twelve minute homily that is more of a meditative reflection as only one part of the first half of the worship.

In our worshiping community at Southside Abbey, the preaching is a little different than in other worshiping communities . . . .

One of the distinguishing marks of our worship is that we look to the Holy Spirit’s movement among each and every one of us gathered in leading our common prayers.  I call this the one-and-all principle of worship.  The Spirit may and does call on anyone gathered to lead the different prayers of common worship . . . or on all gathered to pray together.  So also, we try to remain open to the Spirit in our proclamation by applying the one-and-all principle to our preaching at Southside Abbey.  Therefore, we ask everyone gathered, as we eat our common meal (nestled within the prayers of our worship), to reflect on the Good News in conversation with one another.  We believe that it is in the relationships we cultivate and in the conversations we share that we hear what the Spirit is saying to us through each other’s words and lives.

Because our preaching takes the form of discussions around the dinner table – (usually wrapped up with a short summation of the themes uncovered through our conversation) – we have taken to calling it “table talk.”  History buffs - especially church history buffs - might recognize this name that we’ve affectionately given to the preaching at Southside Abbey.  The sixteenth-century Jesus follower and church reformer, Martin Luther was known for his lively discussions at the dinner table in his home.  Students, travelers, and other guests in his home often jotted down Luther’s conversations and witticisms, and these notes were eventually collected after his death and published as Table Talk.  Luther’s guests felt the need to take note of his words because they heard the proclamation of the good news of Jesus and his peaceable kingdom in Luther’s dinner table discussions.  Similarly, because we at Southside Abbey hear the proclamation of the good news of Jesus and his peaceable kingdom in our own preaching as one-and-all discussion at the dinner table of our Friday evening worship, we are now noting, collecting, and posting those conversations as our own Table Talk.  Like a real church . . . with preaching.       

Table Talk - The Baptism of Jesus

The Good News of Jesus Christ according to the evangelist Matthew, chapter 3, verses 13 to 17:

Jesus came from Galilee to John at the Jordan, to be baptized by him. John would have prevented him, saying, "I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?" But Jesus answered him, "Let it be so now; for it is proper for us in this way to fulfill all righteousness." Then he consented. And when Jesus had been baptized, just as he came up from the water, suddenly the heavens were opened to him and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting on him. And a voice from heaven said, "This is my Son, the Beloved, with whom I am well pleased."

The discussion over dinner reflected on these questions:

1.  Why did Jesus go to John the baptizer at the Jordan River to be baptized?

2.  By asking John to baptize him, Jesus overturned John’s expectations for him.  What expectations do we have for Jesus, and how has he overturned them?

When Jesus, and folks from Galilee, Judea, and all the region along the Jordan made their way out to the river, they weren’t making the pilgrimage to take a ritual bath or have a spiritual pool party with John the baptizer.  John was calling God’s chosen people, Israel, back into the wilderness – the wilderness that formed them over forty-years of wandering after God raised them from slavery in Egypt.  And then John was sending them back across the Jordan River – just as their forefathers had crossed the Jordan River after their wilderness wandering – back into the Promised Land.  Back to Judea and Galilee.  Back to their homes and their day-to-day lives.  But sent back different – now sent back prepared.  By leading God’s chosen people through the baptismal waters of the River Jordan as an embodied retelling of their formative, foundational story as a Covenant people, John the baptizer was preparing them to recognize God’s coming Kingdom – a kingdom embodied in the Jewish peasant from Nazareth, Jesus.  John was preparing them to recognize Jesus as the Kingdom come, as the Christ, the messiah, the anointed.

You see, John the baptizer had been especially set aside for the task of recognizing the Christ.  The evangelist Luke tells the story of when Jesus’ mother, Mary, early in her pregnancy, visited her cousin, Elizabeth, who was pregnant with John.  And Elizabeth said that as soon as Mary approached and greeted her, her unborn baby leapt for joy.  This is because John had been set apart by the grace of God to proclaim and recognize the coming of God’s Kingdom in the person of Jesus Christ.  So, when Jesus finally came out to John at the River Jordan, John recognized him right away.  So, also, each of us who have passed through the baptismal waters, whether we did so as infants or adults, have been prepared to recognize the coming of God’s Kingdom in Jesus of Nazareth.  This is because baptism is a gift from God and not a work of our own, individual faith.  By baptism, God’s grace begins to work within us to prepare us to see and recognize Christ and his kingdom – in the person in need; in a meal shared; in the helping hand of a friend; in the still small voice within that assures us that though it appears that violence, sin, and death still reign, the truth is that peace, justice, and resurrection are far more real and abiding.  By God’s grace we have been prepared, through the waters of baptism, to recognize a Christ who overturns expectations – John’s expectation that Jesus should baptize him, the word’s expectation that in the end power must be violent, and our own fearful expectation that death is the final word.