"The Welcome Table"

Summer is a time for picnics and barbecues, for family reunions and outdoor weddings. A grilled hot dog, hamburger, or chicken skewer never tastes better than when it is eaten outdoors. I don't know what grilled tofu tastes like, but I suspect even my vegan friends will say it is better grilled and enjoyed in the summer sun. Outdoor meals are meant to be shared. Invite the neighbors; share a hot dog and make a friend.

Which is why I think this week's gospel reading in the common lectionary is perfectly timed: it is the story of Jesus feeding the five thousand. You know the story - Jesus tries to take a little summer vacation.  He wants to get away from the crowds and spend some time on the lake with his disciples, maybe even camp by the lakeshore a few days, but the crowds get there ahead of him. So he cures the sick and preaches late into the day.

I used to read this text and imagine a giant church service, maybe a Billy Graham type of revival meeting. But my daughter Jenny, a seminarian who is preaching on this text this week, helped me imagine it differently. It is less a church service and more of a spectacle; less Billy Graham and more Coachella (maybe even Burning Man). Five thousand men, plus unnumbered women and children, no doubt, camped out on the green grass while Jesus does his thing. They watch him cure the sick. They take in the provocative, inspiring, and entertaining stories of the latest religious superstar. Were this today, the disciples would likely be using T-shirt guns to whip up the crowd.

But unlike our modern festivals, there was no food court, no vendors of nachos supreme or deep-fried Twinkies to feed the hungry crowd. Just five rounds of pita bread, two small fish, and one big problem.  So Jesus divides the crown into groups of 50 and 100, takes the meager resources, looks to heaven, blesses and breaks the loaves, and just like that, there is food enough and to spare. My daughter compares it to her childhood experience of winning free pizza for the entire section of a stadium at a football game.

We can parse the fine points of the text, debate the significance for sacramental theology, or even try to explain what "really" happened. But I like to think Jesus decide to turn the gathering into a block party, turned up the grill, and made sure there were fish tacos for everyone.

There's an African-American spiritual that proclaims, "I'm gonna eat at the welcome table, alleluia!" Just like our summer picnics, the Table of the Lord is a place for all to come and be fed. It is a welcome table - where the sick and the hungry can feast alongside the healthy and well-fed. And whether it is bread and juice, fish tacos, or a grilled burger - if Jesus is our host, all will be welcome, all will be fed.