The Table Is A Splendid Pulpit
Famed father of the Reformation, Martin Luther, considered hospitality to be of central importance to the growth and health of the Body of Christ and its members. He and his wife, Katie, were legendary for their open door hospitality. “For the great house was always full to the brim,” cites Luther historians, Preserved Smith, Ph.D and Herbert Percival Gallinger, Ph.D.
Many of the conversations held in his home and around his table were recorded in Luther’s work Table Talk. Of that volume, The Christian Classics Ethereal Library notes:
In 1517, Martin Luther's 95 Theses sparked the Protestant Reformation by challenging the practices of the Roman Catholic Church and the authority of the pope. Many of Luther's books were ordered to be burned as a result of Luther's dissent. Despite this fact, a copy of Martin Luther's Table Talk (then entitledDivine Discourses) was found preserved under the foundations of a German citizen's home in 1626. Table Talk contains a series of informal conversations Luther shared with his students and colleagues in his home. The topics of these conversations range from religious doctrine and history to instructions regarding government, church, and the academic university.
In his book The Hospitality Commands, Alexander Strauch concludes of Luther’s hospitable efforts:
Martin Luther proved that the table is a splendid pulpit from which to teach God’s truths and disciple God’s people. … If you want new Christians to grow, open your home and share your love and knowledge with them. Your home is the best tool you have to enhance loving Christian community. Your local church can become a friendlier, more loving community if you—and others you know—consistently open your homes to one another.
So, who are YOU inviting to your table?!
“And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another--and all the more as you see the Day approaching” (Hebrews 10:24-25).
“They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer” (Acts 2:42).
The Return Customer
A guest of the Marriott hotel discovered that her sister had just died. She was upset and share her sadness with a hotel employee. The employee, named Charles, took a sympathy card to the staff and had them all sign it. He gave it to her with a piece of hot apple pie.
The guest wrote a letter of thanks to the President of the hotel chain. She wrote, "Mr. Marriott, I'll never meet you. And I don't need to meet you. Because I met Charles. I know what you stand for. I want to assure you that as long as I live, I will stay at your hotels."
Christian hospitality is more than a passing kindness. It's an incarnation of God's love.
"In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven" (Matthew 5:16).
Scribbled Prayers
One of the great privileges of serving as a deacon is the opportunity to be one of the first to pray over needs shared at the beginning of the worship service. Our congregation is invited to fill out prayer request cards which are available in each pew. They simply say, "Let us pray with you," leaving a blank space, with the prompt, "My request is ..."
A particular prayer request stood out to me. It was the scribblings of a young child filling out the blank prayer card as he sat in the pew. Just a squiggly line — up, down, and back and forth on the card.
I love the heart of a child eager to participate and share their scribbles for prayer. “Let the little children come to me, and don’t stop them, because the kingdom of God belongs to such as these” (Luke 18:16, NIV).
It also reminded me that this is how a lot of my prayers must sound before the sovereign God. My praying must often be not much more than scribbles of unintelligible ideas and whinings when presented to Him. But I am glad that he knows them better than I do.
“Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words” (Romans 8:26, ESV).