At the Lords Table

October 1, 1995

Luke 16:19-31

We come again this morning to the Table of the Lord. The family gathers for food and fellowship. When a family eats together, and there is love, one word that can be used to describe what happens is communion.

A lot of Jesus' teaching and miracles seemed to happen around tables. Jesus very evidently enjoyed eating with people. He loved to go to the house of Mary and Martha and Lazarus in Bethany. It was while Jesus was at table that a woman came and anointed his feet with expensive perfume. It was while Jesus was eating in a Pharisee's house that he healed a paralytic man. Jesus taught that when are invited to dinner you should not seek to push your way to the head of the table. At a table Jesus pushed back his own couch and got up and washed his disciples' feet. And so it is that Jesus has taken this most common and wonderful thing families do— eating together— and has made it the special way that he meets with his family, the church.

In this story Jesus pictures a rich man, dressed lavishly, sitting at table. It is not a table of fellowship and communion, but of selfish extravagance. Some of the scraps got snapped up by the dogs, and some few got to the beggar Jesus named Lazarus. It is certainly a story of contrast. But what Jesus is teaching may not be what we think we see at first.

We love poetic justice, and a lot of people think that in the story Dives went to hell because he was rich and wouldn't share, and Lazarus went to heaven because he was poor, and so God was making it up to him. But Jesus wasn't saying that at all. Jesus never said that all rich people go to hell, or that all beggars go to heaven. What Jesus was saying is that rich people can't buy what is really the most important in life, and that the poorest of the poor do not have to be without it. That most important thing is: Communion.

The story of the rich man going to hell lends itself to preaching about social justice, and the need for sharing our wealth with the poor. Christians ought to be leading the way in caring about people, and caring for people. But the rich man's selfishness flowed out of the poverty of his spirit; it was an indicator of his spiritual bankruptcy. Dives didn't go to hell simply because of his sins— he went to hell because he was an unrepentant sinner. His world began and ended with himself.

In the lesson from Timothy we heard a verse that is very often misquoted: "MONEY IS THE ROOT OF ALL EVIL!" Does it say that? NO! It says, "The LOVE of money is A root of ALL (kinds of) evil!" There is a world of difference in the two.

Money is not evil. Money is merely condensed life. Money is a tool with which we can help or hinder ourselves and others. But the LOVE of money is an entirely different thing! If we LOVE money we will learn to USE people! If we LOVE people we will learn to USE money to help them!

This story makes me think of the difference between the words communion and communism. The two words have similar root word meanings. Maybe some might think they are interchangeable. But one word focuses on who and what we are when we come together. The other word is primarily concerned with what we possess, what material circumstances are ours.

Human solutions to all the problems of society is all of material and outward effort: if we can just elect the right people, and if we can just mount enough protests we can right the wrongs of our society. God's solution never ignores suffering and material need- "Inasmuch as you have given to the least of the needy, you have given to Me," Jesus said. But God's solution never stops short of communion. God's solution never stops short of the family gathering around the table, in love— love for the Father- love of Christ— love in the Spirit— but also love for every other human being!

What Jesus was saying was that rich people can't buy what is really the most important in life, and that the poorest of the poor do not have to be without it. That most important thing is: Communion.

We can't tell by looking at people whether they are rich or poor as God counts true wealth. Some of the people most to be pitied are those who have more money than they need. Some people who have very little still are people who know love, love of God, and love of family and church, who care about people.

Robert Coles, the famous Harvard teacher who wrote the book, The Spirituality of Children, began his career working with understanding the moral development of children when he met a six-year-old black girl in New Orleans, named Ruby Bridges. I have preached a number of times about the faith of this remarkable Bridges family.

[A little girl stopped and prayed for the people who were shouting obscenities at her. "God, please forgive them; they don't know what they are doing!"]

I saw that incident on film last Sunday night: Last Sunday night on PBS Robert Coles was featured in a special in which he interviewed several children aged from about 9 to 11 or 12. He interviewed a true cross-section of America, racially, economically, geographically. [I hope that I can get a video of that special, and if I do and am allowed I would like to show it to you.]

Some of the children came from obviously very wealthy homes. Some were single parent homes in what we might call ghetto housing. And you might be surprised at which were truly rich and which were truly poor.

Of one wealthy home Cole said (as he looked at the crayon drawing the little girl had made of her family) "This is a house of strangers!" And the warmest sense of security and love came from a family of twin girls and a single mother with very modest surroundings, but with a well-worn Bible and love and prayer and joy and caring.

Communion is when a family comes together to eat and love each other. For us, our love begins here— at the Table of the Lord— and carries through into everything we are, and everything we do. Welcome to the Table of the Lord:

TO: THE HOLY COMMUNION