At the Table of Peace

Acts 16:9-15; John 14:23-29May 5, 2013The convergence of communion and Cinco de Mayo was too much to resist this morning, so, as you have already noticed, we have a slight “Latin” flavor to worship today. I’m always concerned in these moments that in trying to honor the authentic gifts of cultural differences we don’t slip into appropriation and, worse, into caricature.On the other hand, we gather at this table to express here our core conviction that this table belongs to one for all. The table belongs to Christ and he and his table belong to us all. Moreover, we believe that good news is for everyone.

That’s the conviction that emerges for Paul, over time and experience, through the stories collected in Acts. He starts out, famously, as the great persecutor of the followers of Jesus, and becomes over time the one called to share the story of Jesus far, far beyond the confines within which that story initially unfolded.

Paul is the one who first understands the implications of the story: if in Jesus God is demonstrating love for the world then that love is, indeed, for the whole world and not just for one small tribe. It’s Paul who first understands, in effect, John 3:16 – “for God so loved the kosmos” – and the Greek there is instructive. God’s love is for the cosmos, for the whole of creation and all who dwell therein.

That’s how Paul finds himself crossing over to Macedonia and traveling on the Philippi where he meets Lydia.

Let’s stop for a moment, before we follow Lydia’s example and gather at a table for shared hospitality, and consider what Paul has done. Or, perhaps more to the point, what God has asked Paul to do, what the Spirit has inspired Paul to do, and then, how Paul has responded to that call.

I don’t think Paul imagined that things would ever come to this. Even when he had the amazing conversion experience on the road to Damascus, I’d bet he figured on doing a little bit of work to support this small group of followers of Jesus pretty close to home. Bit by bit, his circle of concern has widened, but even so, Paul’s first journey was landlocked and when he set out on the next trip he wasn’t, according to the texts, planning on going beyond the edge of Asia.

But the Spirit speaks and beckons him across the sea to an entirely new continent. God, it seems, makes no small plans. We, it seems, only serve God and God’s world, when our response is a generous and expansive as God’s plans.

The spirit, that gift that Jesus promises to his followers in our reading from John, speaks to Paul and says, “go.” That same spirit speaks to Lydia, and she also responds in giving of herself. She is the first convert in Europe, and the whole of Christendom would be much better for it had it always followed her example.

She hears the good news that Paul proclaims, and her simple response is the one that we recall this morning: “come, join me at table, let us break bread together.”

At this table, we who were once strangers shall become friends; we who were many shall become one in the spirit of Christ’s peace. Come and see. Amen.