January 11, 2009
Rev. Kip Gilts

          There is a wonderful anticipation that goes along with the preparation of a meal.  It is experienced most profoundly in those that have the least to do with the preparation.  A child may be playing in her room and catch a whiff of meat browning in a skillet, or a husband planted firmly on the sofa notices the smell of a rhubarb pie in the air.  The sights of a table made up for dinner, with spaces reserved for dishes that are just being completed, causes the taste senses to activate and hunger to get noticed.  The sounds of ice dropping in glasses, the oven door opening with its unique squeak, or a sizzling skillet all awaken the anticipation that something good is about to happen.  Sometimes the anticipation is heightened with hors d’oeuvres; just in case the sights, sounds, and smells were not enough to awaken your appetite.  Finally, we hear those words for which we have been waiting, “It’s time to get ready for dinner,” and we make our way to the kitchen table.  Now I know in fancier settings, only the dining room table will do, but I want to call your attention to the everyday kitchen table where so much life happens.

Turning a house into a home is our emphasis for the first few weeks of this New Year.  Just how do we do that? Last week I mentioned that we generally start by getting some furniture.  An empty house just does not feel that homey.  There are three pieces of furniture that have produced a sense of home for me - a sofa, a kitchen table, and a bed.  Last week we talked about the sofa as the place where the mitzvah and the torah are received - the expectations of our fathers and teachings of our mothers.  Today I want to invite you to the kitchen table, where both the body and soul are fed.  The table is an important piece of furniture in the Bible.  There is much written about the tables in the tabernacle and the temple.  Elijah had a small room in Shunnem, but a table was one of the pieces of furniture mentioned.  Psalm 23 declares to God, “You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies”, David assured Jonathan that there would always be a place at his table for Jonathan and his family, Jesus was at table with Pharisees, lepers, disciples, women, and tax collectors.  Tables are a big deal.

Isaiah the Prophet pointed to a table that was amazing.  It is an eschatological table, a table that awaits us and is being prepared for us, but one at which we have yet to be seated.  His promise was given to a people who were threatened with being overrun by one empire after another.  It was to them that he pointed to Zion, the mountain of the Lord, and wrote these words found in Isaiah 25:6-8.  Hear now the Word of the Lord:

⁶On this mountain the Lord of hosts will make for all peoples a feast of rich food, a feast of well-aged wines, of rich food filled with marrow, of well-aged wines strained clear. ⁷And he will destroy on this mountain the shroud that is cast over all peoples, the sheet that is spread over all nations; he will swallow up death forever. ⁸Then the Lord God will wipe away the tears from all faces, and the disgrace of his people he will take away from all the earth, for the Lord has spoken. 

This is the word of God for the people of God.  In this passage the prophet Isaiah promised his people an extraordinary feast.  Let us pray.

This morning I invite to join me at the kitchen table, not as a guest, but as a family member.  We can all fit around the table; there is a place for everyone here.  It’s time to get ready for dinner.
 

At the Kitchen Table we are nourished

Isaiah called his people to get ready for dinner.  It is a call for which many of them longed to hear.  It was customary for invading empires to begin their invasion with a siege, blocking all food, water, and other necessary supplies from entering the city.  Sennacherib and his Assyrian army had done that very thing to Jerusalem.  The city and its nation were opposed by most of the people that surrounded them in the 8^th century B.C.  In the midst of all the worry and want that they were experiencing, they heard Isaiah’s call, “It’s time to get ready for dinner.”  He described the dinner in terms of community and contents.  The community would include all peoples, which John Oswalt pointed out in his commentary on Isaiah was both affirming and humbling.  It was affirming in that he justified Israel’s faith in the Lord God.  They were right.  It was humbling in that they were not the only ones invited to the table.  God cared for the entire world.  Now let me put this in contemporary perspective.  There are a lot of people who for one reason or another seek to wreak havoc on the world.  They enlist terrorists, import mercenaries, and imagine violence.  We have discovered them in India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran, and even in the United States.  It is easy to forget that surrounding these thousands of evil doers are billions of people who simply want to live out their lives in peace.  They do not want to hate, they do not want to kill, they do not even want to fight.  I was visiting with a friend who just returned from Afghanistan and he reported that in Afghanistan he discovered the same thing he did in Iraq – most people want to live in peace.  My guess is the same thing is true in Israel today.  The table promised in Isaiah offers that, “The Lord of Hosts will make for all peoples a feast.”  Here there is community.

We get that, don’t we?  Every morning I sit at the kitchen table with a bowl of cereal, a cup of coffee, and a computer.  It is an alright experience to ease into the day, but it is not community.  That happened the other day when we were all up at the same time.  Without warning we joined each other at the table, prayed over the meal and the day, and began to share some time together.  I will admit, the two bowls of cereal and a biscuit that were on the table that morning was not a feast, but at least there was the hint of community.

The table that Isaiah described had both community and contents.  Keil and Delitzsch described verse six in their classic commentary as, “Joyful music to the heavenly feast is the poetry of this one verse.”  John Oswalt had to remind readers of our modern world, “To a people who did not have to worry about cholesterol, the fat portions of the meat were the best.”  They were like the owner of a barbecue stand that I once went to and ordered a lean brisket sandwich.  He assured me that he would do no such thing.  If I wanted barbecue, I was going to get barbecue as it was intended to be – and it was not lean.  So the feast promised to Isaiah’s people were the best portions of meat in generous quantities.  These were the same type of portions that were offered to God in the act of sacrifice.   Oswalt wrote, “This is the principle of sacrifice, God asks that we give to him in order that he may give to us.”  The wine is the best vintage of wine, aged to perfection and strained for clarity.  This is a feast of which the beleaguered people of Jerusalem had not seen for a long time – if ever.  It was the feast of dreams.

We had such a feast on Christmas Day.  Early in the morning Tammy, Zachary, and I began our trek to New York City which included two plane rides, two train rides, two subway rides and a three or four block walk to the apartment where we were staying.  We dropped off our luggage there and then began to walk the half mile to Chelsea’s apartment.  We had not eaten much in our travels and had not slept much from midnight Christmas Eve service to the five o’clock wakeup call on Christmas morning, but we were determined to be together on Christmas.  Chelsea rewarded our diligence by working on our Christmas meal for days.  She presented acorn squash and wild rice, pork chops with cranberry sauce, green bean casserole, corn casserole, and for dessert a grape pie – which was one of my grandmother’s specialties.  It was amazing and as we were sitting at the table all of the travel and sleep deprivation had disappeared into the night.  It was the feast of dreams.

When was the last time you were at the kitchen table?  How long has it been since you have experienced the plenty and joy of life?  It is easy for us to lose sight of this in the midst of all that we experience, but we need to be nourished.  We are when we experience the community and the contents of the kitchen table.  Even if you live alone there are opportunities for community and feasting.  Seek them out.  Make them happen.  It’s time to get ready for dinner.
 

At the Kitchen Table we are Nurtured as well as Nourished

Isaiah called his people to get ready for dinner, but it was a different kind of dinner.  Here the people were not only nourished by the community and contents of the table, they were also nurtured by the promise and presence of this table.  The Hebrew word, bala‘, means to swallow up so as to leave no trace of its prior existence.  It is used twice in verses 7 and 8.  The Lord God promises to “swallow up the shroud that is cast over all peoples, the sheet that is spread over all nations”; the Lord God promises to “swallow up death forever”.  God demonstrates his Sovereignty over the nations by doing something that no nation has the power to do – conquer death.  There will be no empty places at the table, empty places that we are too accustomed to seeing at our own tables through our grief and loss.  What an amazing promise is provided at this table.

Not only is there this extraordinary promise of swallowing death, there is also the tender presence of God who is shown as the very one who himself will wipe away the tears from all faces.  He takes away not only the symptom of the tears, but also the cause of grief, pain, and loneliness.  He is there and death is not.

This is the wonder of the table – it is not only where we are nourished, but also where we are nurtured.  Where do you think the phrase “comfort food” comes from?  But comfort food is not all that comforting when eaten away from the kitchen table.  I have seen it as the typical response whenever there is a death or a birth, food is brought in, meals are shared, people are nourished and nurtured at the same time.  Remember, the promised table has no empty places.  Death and grief will be swallowed up and tear stained faces will be tenderly wiped dry by a smiling and loving Lord.

In the next two months we are going to have a series of family dinners around the tables in the Great Hall.  I hope that you will make it a priority to attend one of these.  We are having our first dinner this Wednesday and if you are interested in attending from 5:30 – 6:30 make sure you circle your name on the registration folder, e-mail me, or hand me a note on your way out this morning so we will have enough food.  We will have the chance to hear about the priorities of A&M UMC for 2009 as well as be nourished by the food and nurtured by the fellowship.  Your meal has already been paid for by other members of this church.  Their gesture was prompted by my son who treated our family to our last meal in New York a couple of weeks ago.  His generosity was called upon when we noticed two words on the menu, “Cash Only!”  He was the only one at the table with that kind of cash and was agreeable to paying for the meal.  The bill came to $90 with the tip.  He pulled out his wallet, placed $90 on the table and said, “Mere pocket change.”  I assured Zachary that I would pay him back.  He said, “Don’t worry about it.  You have bought meals for me all my life.  I want to buy this one for my family.”  I protested and said I would get the money to him.  He then said, “Do what you want.  I’ve said my piece.”  

Shortly after that I decided I wanted to buy some of my church family dinner with that $90.  Others in this church who heard about that have joined me in this effort so that your meal is already paid for.  All you need to do is to attend one of the dinners.  You will hear more about the other dinners later, but for now I want to invite you to the dinner this Wednesday at 5:30 in the Great Hall.

The Kitchen Table is a wonderful piece of furniture.  Just think of all the great moments that have been spent there, and people who have joined you for something as simple as a cup of coffee and as elaborate as a Thanksgiving Feast.  I invite you, over the next week to remember every time you see the kitchen table that God has promised to nourish and nurture at his table – a table where there will be no empty places.  It’s time to get ready for dinner.  Amen.