Meditation Monday - Break the Rules, Expand the Table.

Richard Rohr on open table fellowship

On Saturday many of us watched and cheered as hundreds of thousands of people across the U.S. gathered to protest the current administration’s destructive policies. From Seattle to New York, Maine to Texas, as well as Canada, Mexico and even in London, people came together in “Hands off” demonstrations concerned about everything from high tariffs, to immigration crackdowns, government cuts, reversal of DEI and increasing restrictions on trans people. They didn’t all march for the same reasons but they all seemed to have this in common: they were concerned that the pool of those who are seen as acceptable continues to grow smaller and smaller.

What is happening currently seems to stand in stark contrast to how Jesus lived and asked us to live. He was always challenging the religious leaders and stretching the boundaries of who was acceptable to God and at the centre of all of this was his willingness to sit down and share a meal with everyone, most frequently it seems with those the religious leaders regarded as unacceptable.

In his book Jesus Alternative Plan - The Sermon on the Mount Richard Rohr talks about how Jesus constantly used table fellowship to challenge the entire religious system. He modeled for us an open table fellowship at which he sat down not with the saved and but with the unsaved, the marginalized and excluded. Rohr points out that “Jesus continually interprets the law of Holiness in terms of the God he has met” (87) - and God, he affirms is always compassion and mercy. “When the law gets in the way of human compassion Jesus simply disregards the law” (88). Such radical but important statements.

Rohr points out that there are two traditions of table fellowship in the gospels. One of bread and wine, the other of bread and fish. The bread and fish open fellowship as shown not just in the feeding of 5,000 but also in the many occasions on which Jesus sat down at table with unacceptable people speaks of open table fellowship that emphasize surplus and outside guests. We see this most starkly in his banquet feast parable where the invited guests don’t come but people from the streets do.

Rohr likens this open fellowship to potluck dinners, or the agape feasts that seem to have been a tradition of the early church where all ate together and there was still food left over to give to the poorer members Unfortunately what had been a time of eating together in a potluck agape meal that symbolized unity, giving and sharing, became instead the bread and wine ritual of communion that not only demanded little of those who participated but in many traditions also defined who was acceptable at the table.

Eating together in one another’s homes radically changes the nature of social relationship. Once we rearrange life around the table we begin to change our notion of social life. It makes me wonder if one of the most powerful tools used against followers of Jesus is fast food and meals on the run. When families and communities don’t sit down to meals together, they lose not just cohesiveness as family and community but trust and compassion for each other.

Rohr contends that this tradition of eating together, if retained within the church community would have contributed to issues of justice, community and social reordering. It would also bring healing and reconciliation as we see when Jesus confronts Peter on the beach after his resurrection. Jesus main form of interaction with his followers after his death seems to be table fellowship. The sharing of bread and fish on the beach not just with Peter but with other disciples, of a meal with two other disciples at Emmaus and of his appearance to the 11 disciples while they were eating don’t seem to focus on the symbols of bread and wine but rather the generous provision of bread and fish.

Rohr suggests that the Last Supper was a Passover meal of open table fellowship that unfortunately evolved into a ritualized offering of bread and wine. In early Christian life it is probable that the Eucharist was part of a shared meal.

Food is still a way to stand in solidarity with people. Eating together, growing food together, making decisions about what we eat and who we buy from all have implications for the future of the world in which we live.

Can you imagine how different our churches would be if we all practiced open table fellowship together inviting not just family and friends to our table but strangers as well. In fact if we invited strangers to eat at our table on a regular basis maybe there would be no strangers, only friends.