God is love - a Lenten series 32 Love includes

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DaVinci's Ultima Cena

At the last supper, recognized today during the Holy Week before Easter, Jesus ate with a dozen friends. He knew 10 would flee into hiding after his arrest, one would betray him for money, one would deny him for safety, and only one would follow him all the way to the cross, where his women friends would not abandon him. Anticipating all of this, he not only dined with them, he took on the role of a house slave and washed each of their feet, saying this is what leadership looks like in the kingdom of love.

The church has an unloving history of table fellowship. It continually tries to keep "bad" people away from the table. Some of the bad people it tries to keep away are those churches who keep adding another leaf and pulling up another chair. If Jesus welcomes to the table two cowards who denied him for profit or for fear, abandoning him to a torture then a lynching, who is worse than Peter or Judas? Are you not-white? Neither were the disciples, let me get you a chair. Are you not a man? Welcome to the meal, let us serve you for a change? Are you gay or transgender? Welcome, did you know one of the church's first converts and missionary to another culture was a gay man from the Ethiopian court? The church that grew out of his witness continues today. Are you a murderer? Welcome, so was the church's greatest early theologian, St. Paul.

Love includes. There is always room for more.
For a great book on this topic, see my recent book review of John Pavlovitz's book A Bigger Table.

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