Gathering around the Table- Day 26 in the Wilderness

I am on a roll, three meals in a row with with friends in faith at church. We had a wonderful meal prepared by Roger and the men on Wednesday evening. We gathered for breakfast and Bible study and prayer at the Riverside Cafe for the Men's Prayer Breakfast Thursday morning and I just got back from the Karl Barth Study lunch at LaGalette. Is all this eating necessary in the Kingdom of God? Luke 13:29 says: "Then people will come from east and west, from north and south, and will eat in the kingdom of God." When we gather together at table there is a certain fellowship that happens. We find ourselves in fellowship even as we are fed. So it is good and biblical to gather at table with brothers and sisters in Christ. "When he was at table with his disciples, Jesus said 'This is my Body broken for you". Our communion meal is a time of being with God and with each other in Christ.

But what about the wilderness? The Psalmist asks: "Can God spread a table in the wilderness?"(Psalm 78:19) When I was growing up my family used to go out for breakfast in the park. We weren't a camping family but there was something about eating outside that was appealing to my mom and dad. It was kind of like the story of Jesus after the resurrection eating breakfast with his disciples on the sea of Galilee. We somehow felt nearer to nature and to God when we broke our evening fast and ate breakfast in the midst of nature. Of course when I went hiking with the youth in the mountains of Sonlight Camp in Colorado our meals were a time of respite from the strenuous hiking. And when we gathered one evening, fished at a lake, and ate the fish we had caught and cleaned ourselves, we felt particularly close to God and to God's creation and to each other. And so even and especially in the wilderness, we need to take time to break bread with each other and fellowship at Christ's table.

Psalm 23 speaks of a God who feeds and comforts us in the wilderness: "The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures; he leads me beside still waters; he restores my soul. He leads me in right paths for his name's sake. Even though I walk through the darkest valley, I fear no evil; for you are with me; your rod and your staff- they comfort me. You prepare a table in the presence of my enemies; you anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord my whole life long."