The Dining Room
Sermon
Day Full Of Grace
Twenty-Five Funeral Messages
Death of a gracious hostess
Doubtless everyone one of us here has a place at a special table in our home's kitchen or dining room. It's a "reserved seat" in a way, a place that is natural and right for us. Occasionally. when company comes, we may have to shift our seat a little, and when we do, it feels funny. The food is just as good, maybe better, but "our place" looks strange with someone else sitting in it.
Jesus has promised to prepare a place for us, and so often we've interpreted that to mean "space in heaven." It may also mean a place at his table as comfortable as your place at home. All of this is merely introduction to the place that reminds me of _____________. It's the room most easily visualized in which we can imagine her busy and active again. It sort of puts us in "the waiting room," but that's okay. We have each other to talk to and to be with as she works and readies all things for an announcement that goes something like this: "Ok. Come and get it. Supper's ready." Her room is the kitchen or dining room, and it is the place where we eat almost as much as we talk. It is the place where we've shared so many meals, and taken on so much nourishment. Sometimes we even ate a bit too much, but that was part of the fun.
When our Lord tells us, "In my Father's house are many ruoms," where do you see ___________? Where do you expect to see her later? Is it not gathered around the heavenly table, where our God reunites us through the power of Christ? Aren't all our dinner tables miniature altar tables? Isn't the church building nothing but one great big dining room? We sit gathered around a table called an altar and worship.
When Jesus began his ministry on this earth he did it in the kitchen of a bride's home in Cana of Galilee, where he turned water into wine. When he neared the end of his ministry, he ate with Simon the Leper, and there, in the dining room, a woman broke a costly bottle of ointment and annointed his feet. When it was time to say goodby, he gathered his friends and disciples around the table of another dining room and said, "This is my body. This is my blood." Then he promised something strange. We seldom talk about it, because we don't know what to say about it. He said, "Truly, I say to you, I shall not drink again of the fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new in the kingdom of God."
Jesus might just as well have meant this: "Truly, I say to you, in my Father's house are many rooms, and I shall not eat again, nor drink again, until that day we are renewed, resurrected, and restored. We will eat and drink reunited as a heavenly family, and everyone of us will have "our place" at the table.
The invitation that was spoken so often to many of us, "Come on over for supper tonight" is the invitation that God gives to all the people of the world: "Come to the banquet prepared for those who love my Father." He compels us to find people to attend, that all may have a foretaste of the feast to come with all those we've loved and lost. All the meals we've shared together have been little more than an appetizer of the feast to come.
Until the day of feasting, we give thanks to Almighty God for his gift of life to each of us, and for our place at his holy table. We give thanks that Christ has gone to prepare a place for us, our place, at his holy table.
Doubtless everyone one of us here has a place at a special table in our home's kitchen or dining room. It's a "reserved seat" in a way, a place that is natural and right for us. Occasionally. when company comes, we may have to shift our seat a little, and when we do, it feels funny. The food is just as good, maybe better, but "our place" looks strange with someone else sitting in it.
Jesus has promised to prepare a place for us, and so often we've interpreted that to mean "space in heaven." It may also mean a place at his table as comfortable as your place at home. All of this is merely introduction to the place that reminds me of _____________. It's the room most easily visualized in which we can imagine her busy and active again. It sort of puts us in "the waiting room," but that's okay. We have each other to talk to and to be with as she works and readies all things for an announcement that goes something like this: "Ok. Come and get it. Supper's ready." Her room is the kitchen or dining room, and it is the place where we eat almost as much as we talk. It is the place where we've shared so many meals, and taken on so much nourishment. Sometimes we even ate a bit too much, but that was part of the fun.
When our Lord tells us, "In my Father's house are many ruoms," where do you see ___________? Where do you expect to see her later? Is it not gathered around the heavenly table, where our God reunites us through the power of Christ? Aren't all our dinner tables miniature altar tables? Isn't the church building nothing but one great big dining room? We sit gathered around a table called an altar and worship.
When Jesus began his ministry on this earth he did it in the kitchen of a bride's home in Cana of Galilee, where he turned water into wine. When he neared the end of his ministry, he ate with Simon the Leper, and there, in the dining room, a woman broke a costly bottle of ointment and annointed his feet. When it was time to say goodby, he gathered his friends and disciples around the table of another dining room and said, "This is my body. This is my blood." Then he promised something strange. We seldom talk about it, because we don't know what to say about it. He said, "Truly, I say to you, I shall not drink again of the fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new in the kingdom of God."
Jesus might just as well have meant this: "Truly, I say to you, in my Father's house are many rooms, and I shall not eat again, nor drink again, until that day we are renewed, resurrected, and restored. We will eat and drink reunited as a heavenly family, and everyone of us will have "our place" at the table.
The invitation that was spoken so often to many of us, "Come on over for supper tonight" is the invitation that God gives to all the people of the world: "Come to the banquet prepared for those who love my Father." He compels us to find people to attend, that all may have a foretaste of the feast to come with all those we've loved and lost. All the meals we've shared together have been little more than an appetizer of the feast to come.
Until the day of feasting, we give thanks to Almighty God for his gift of life to each of us, and for our place at his holy table. We give thanks that Christ has gone to prepare a place for us, our place, at his holy table.
