Come to the Table
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Genesis 12:2-3
2. And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. 3. I will bless those who bless you, and him who curses you I will curse; and by you all the families of the earth shall bless themselves."
Ephesians 3:7-13
7. Of this gospel I was made a minister according to the gift of God's grace which was given me by the working of his power. 8. To me, though I am the very least of all the saints, this grace was given, to preach to the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ, 9. and to make all men see what is the plan of the mystery hidden for ages in God who created all things; 10. that through the church the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known to the principalities and powers in the heavenly places. 11. This was according to the eternal purpose which he has realized in Christ Jesus our Lord, 12. in whom we have boldness and confidence of access through our faith in him. 13. So I ask you not to lose heart over what I am suffering for you, which is your glory.
Way back in Genesis, God told Abraham how he envisioned “it” working! All of us, each and every person on this earth, is part of a family. Now that term doesn’t necessarily offer joy, hope, or a generally positive feeling for some folks. I work in foster care, and I’ve heard and read about some pretty horrific behaviors within families, and there are other varying degrees of “dysfunction” for every family! But the family God wants us to build is HIS family. He is the head of the family, the perfect, flawless, unerring father, transcending any earthly father. The family is all of mankind, inclusive of the Iraqi’s, the neighbor next door with the dog that barks relentlessly until 11 pm
every single night and the people in homeless shelters, and the garbage collector, and the teachers and police officers. You get my point. Everyone. All-inclusive.
Being a member of God’s family affords us certain remarkable privileges. Not earned. Awarded. For absolutely no reason except that He loves us that much. He lavishes us with the greatest gift imaginable. It can’t be purchased, so your father doesn’t need to be Donald Trump. It can’t be earned, so your father doesn’t need to work two jobs to buy it for you. It can’t be taken away, so you don’t need to put bars on the windows and two dead-bolt locks on the door. God’s grace is freely available to all who wish to receive it! It is truly unimaginable. It transcends the love a parent has for a child—and believe me I am
crazy about my kids!
The church offers us this big family—I have 4 siblings – that was a big family, even back in the 50’s and 60’s when we were born! We always had somebody to play with, fight with, talk to, hug, cry with, tell our secrets to, and we never felt alone. The pluses far outweighed any negatives that may come to mind! It was wonderful. And our extended family is spread out all over the country from coast to coast. Pretty remarkable to think of a legacy like that! But our legacy as Christians is bigger than that. And it carries much more responsibility.
God wants us to bring everyone into His family. He wants us to show everyone that while we are not perfect, not even perfectly gifted, perfectly loving, perfectly kind, perfectly generous, perfectly good and strong and wise and without sin, we are all a family. And that is a wonderful thing. The church Paul refers to here isn’t a building – this book – Ephesians talks about the Jews and the Gentiles being united as one family—sharing together God’s grace, revealed through Jesus Christ and made manifold by the Holy Spirit. I’m rambling this morning! I’ve just reached a deeper understanding of this concept, and it’s quite exciting—and honestly, daunting.
You may think you’re not up to the task of spreading the good news. You may think God would never use you in such an important way. But guess what?! He already is! Every person in your life is a member of God’s family! The challenge is to let them know they are welcome at the table. Paul was a flawed human being. But God used him to change the course of history, just like he used Abraham. God uses each of us, with our flaws, to demonstrate that He can do anything—everything—even with such as us. That is a remarkable, comforting, daunting truth! God uses such as me, and such as you, and gives us an unbelievably difficult, yet joyful, exciting, and rewarding job—to let Him use us.
Rambling, rambling, rambling. . . Sometimes I just get carried away at the goodness of God! There are not words to express my gratitude to Him, nor to explain the depth and breadth, and height of His love for us. We are His family. Welcome to the table of eternal life.
I hope you spend your day rejoicing in the easy burden and light yoke of living as Jesus did—inviting everyone he met to His father’s table.
Mary
