THE QUICK SUMMARY
What if the Bible were seen less as a tablet of ink than as a table of food? From Tablet to Table invites readers to explore the importance of The Table in biblical theology, and what it might mean for us to bring back the table to our homes, our churches, and our neighborhoods.
The table pictures the grace of God’s provision for all aspects of our lives, a place of safe gathering, of finding identity in shared stories, of imparting food and faith, of playing host and finding satisfaction as a guest.
In From Tablet to Table, Leonard Sweet explores how our failure to understand and appreciate “the most sacred item of furniture in every home” has created such a deficit in our fast food, take-what-you-like-smorgasbord, together-but-separate society.
A SIMPLE SOLUTION
According to author Leonard Sweet, there is one thing that would dramatically change the world we live in and help return us to our rootedness in Christ: Bring back the table!
If we were to make the table the most sacred object of furniture in every home, in every church, in every community, or faith would quickly regain its power, and our world would quickly become a better place.
The table is the place where identity is born – the place where the story of our lives is retold, re-minded, and relived.
If we really want to learn someone’s story, sitting down at the table and breaking bread together is the best way to start.
Jesus ate all kinds of food around all kinds of places with all kinds of people. To be a disciple of Jesus (then and now) is to love to eat, no matter what Jesus cooks and no matter where he sets the table.
Jesus redefined what it means to “be family,” just as he redefined what it means to “break bread” together at table. When Jesus fed five thousand people on a hillside, all of them became his “family” and the hillside became his “table.” When he cooked along the shore after his resurrection, Jesus’ disciples became his family, and some stones around a fire his table. Jesus ate the Passover meal in the Upper Room not with his biological family but with his new family: his male and female disciples. When Jesus said, “Do this in remembrance of me,” he was really saying, “Do table in remembrance of me.” Whoever “does table” where the Jesus story is remembered is part of the Jesus family.
Whether in church, home, or community, the table you set defines your “family” identity, as long as Jesus is present. For Jesus the home is not what defines the table; the table is what defines the home.
In every culture, the best theater of faith is the table. But this is especially true in Christianity. Jesus did some of his greatest theological teaching at the table. It is where he served his best food for life. Of the twenty-three parables in Luke’s Gospel, more than fifteen (or almost 70 percent) of them feature food.
Food is the building block of our Christian faith. We are part of a gourmet gospel that defines itself in terms of food and table. Yet we find ourselves at a juncture in history where we have lost the table and reduced our “food” to non-food.
It’s time to bring back the table to our homes, to our churches, and to our neighborhoods and the world. You don’t grow as a disciple of Jesus by setting in a church building soaking up the ink of a tablet, with its static statutes and impersonal instructions. You grow as a disciple by eating at a table.
Leonard Sweet, From Tablet to Table
A NEXT STEP
In “From Tablet to Table,” author Len Sweet describes three tables we should have in our lives. Reflect on Sweet’s thoughts below and how you might apply them in your life.
Setting the Table at Home
Home can have various connotations. Home to one person will not be home to another. And many in your community may be homeless. What does it mean to set the table in your home? It means that wherever we are present with those close to us, whether our “home” is the home of another, on a street corner, in a tiny apartment, or in a mansion, we set the table in our home when we invite Jesus to our personal space and share that space together with those we call family.
Setting the Table at Church
The church can set a table for anyone anywhere because the church is not a building, but a body – relationships around a table, headed up and hosted by Christ. The ministry of food bridges the Communion table in our sanctuaries with the table of communion in the world. It is our unique offering to a world that has lost sight of the table as a source of quiet, of healing, of wholeness. When we sit at the table together in our churches, what will be on your table?
Setting the Table in the World
The gospel is God’s hospitality; God invites strangers to enjoy a meal and treats us as honored guests. We are guests at God’s table, just as the world we seek to reach are God’s guests. Our focus of convincing and “evangelizing” along the lines of propositions, teaching didactically rather than through relations and love and hospitality, shows how much we have systematize what is to be relationally mediated. What does it mean for us to be a good table host, especially when we share table with people outside the faith?
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