In 1971, during a sociology class on a military base in Spain, my professor asked, “What is the one thing that all Spaniards have in their home?” The answer was a round dining room table. It seems the Spanish are a very social people. If you sit at anything other than a round table, there will be those you cannot see or speak with. The professor also mentioned that children were encouraged to participate in conversation. It’s how they learn to be sociable.
All these years later, I find myself looking at where the pastor stands in our church to give his sermons. It’s behind and encircling a round table that is about forty inches in diameter and stands about four feet high. There is also a chair of appropriate height so he may sit if he so desires.
Matthew’s twenty-sixth chapter takes place at the time of the Feast of Unleavened Bread. Christ instituted the communion by breaking bread and drinking from a common vessel with the disciples. He gathered eleven friends and one enemy in a place where they spoke to each other and celebrated a feast together. He started this procedure so that, generations later, we still stop and consider what it means to remember what Christ did for us.
Today I found a new relationship between God and me. For the first time, I saw Jesus sitting in that chair at the round table. He invites everyone—man, woman, or child—to come to the table and remember that He sees each of them and desires to commune without reservation. Your pastor may stand behind a podium or walk the floor in front of the congregation, but the inference is the same. We’re invited to the table Jesus sets before us. We should gladly take, eat, and drink what is offered to us every Sunday, not just during communion.
(Photo courtesy of morguefile and Penywise.)
(For more devotions, visit us at www.christiandevotions.us.)
Warren Johnson self-published a novel years ago and works at bringing the sequel up to industry standards. He lives with his wife of forty six years, Barbara, in northwestern South Carolina. He fathered three kids and loves the ten-child descendants they bring to the table. Motorcycling and radio control airplanes use up some retirement time.