DOES THE TABLE REVIVE YOUR SOUL?
Psalm 121
JOHN 3: 1-17
March 1, 2026 – Second Sunday in Lent
We come to the Table of the Lord this morning … in truly difficult times and divisive times when friends and family and neighbors clearly are rejecting the teachings of Jesus Christ with an energetic vehemence that has them celebrating moments in which we, the faithful, weep. The world has always offered choices to every living human being … God has always called out to each person offering something more than the world, but choices always remain. Love God and Love all of our neighbors or embrace hate and prejudice. Choices … as we leave Black History month, we remember how some cheered and defended the segregationist separation of humans … white only drinking fountains and then the lesser ones for humans many despairingly called “colored.” Choosing God or choosing; the other power. Holding God as supreme or putting the world’s gods first.
We come to the Table of the Lord this morning … in his book, ‘Reaching Out,’ Henri Nouwen writes how people of faith should hear God’s call to make space for strangers. He writes to any who have [1]“taken to heart the words of Jesus Christ.” He then quotes Jesus from Matthew’s Gospel, “Your Heavenly Father knows all that you need. Set your hearts on His Kingdom FIRST, AND ON HIS RIGHTEOUSNESS and all these things will be given to you. So do not worry about tomorrow, tomorrow will take care of itself.” Nowen continues by reflecting on our challenge … a challenge that pulls all too many away from God away from Jesus and deflects the Table of the Lord into nothing of value, he writes, “Creating space for God is far from easy in our occupied and preoccupied society. And, still if we expect salvation, redemption, healing, and new life … the first thing we need is to have an open receptive place where something can happen to us.”
SET YOUR HEARTS ON HIS KINGDOM FIRST … Do you hear Jesus? Are you willing to follow the psalmist’s call … “I RAISE MY eyes towards the mountains. Where will my help come from? My help comes from the LORD, the maker of heaven and earth.”
WE COME TO THE TABLE of the LORD and last week I shared some of my recent frustrations as a witness of individuals who were at services where we were called to remember Jesus Christ by taking the bread and the cup. I told you that I had even written a poem out of frustration … I shared that I had watched people laughing and joking and almost treating the moment like the words spoken were ISH KIBBIBBLE and that the Lord’s Cup was a dipsy doodle cup. I watched as folks didn’t consider God worth their momentary pause … their momentary escape from the world not letting God embrace them. Do you let God embrace you? Do you do all you can to embrace God?
Remember the Command … the first law that Jesus shared. LOVE GOD – this morning WE COME TO THE TABLE of THE LORD … are you loving God in your life?
This morning, I want to remind us all … perhaps a moment where I again teach myself, remind myself, push myself because Holy Communion does matter. I need to be moved towards the Bread and the Cup because after the events of this week … after the deaths and harm that have occurred this week … after the suffering and bludgeoning of humans this week … THE TABLE of the LORD might be the only place to go. A sanctuary for the faithful. An open and receptive place where something might happen … if we let God in.
I wonder … are you challenged to be a person of faith as you walk and breathe on this planet? To be known as a child of God … I am so tempted to ask for a show of hands asking how many of you truly- truly believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God … the Messiah … your personal Savior and Lord and Master? That temptation is there because I then need to have a follow-up question … do you agree to follow Jesus’ teaching or do you have no problem whatsoever rejecting Christ so that you can get all giggly like teenage-minded hockey players ready to laugh when women or others are put down, mocked or even worse arrested or beaten or shot to death just so you and your friends can be made to feel superior?
It is the Lenten Season … have you started to read the Gospels of Jesus Christ? Have you reached the Sermon on the Mount from Matthew’s Gospel because if you did then you were deeply pained when you woke up yesterday morning because Jesus the Christ, the Son of God declared … BLESSED ARE THE PEACEMAKERS for they will be called the CHILDREN of GOD … or did you laugh, giggle and cheer when the nation you live in started an unprovoked war … when our bombs killed innocent children just because and then were you quick with excuses about collateral damage because you thought there were lots of Iranians who should die deserved to die because we say so and after all you don’t want to be identified to your close friends as a CHILD OF GOD or a PEACEMAKER do you because you like your politics too much … you like your worldly positioning far more than walking as a person of faith. The Table of the Lord is a time extender to you not a moment of faithful connection for you that Jesus intends it to be.
Yet, our schedule says that this morning we COME TO THE TABLE of the LORD.
Yesterday I was reaching for several books … trying to sort out my personal struggles. There was Bishop N.T. Wright’s ‘After You Believe’ that offers concise challenges for the faithful … “[2]Transition” he writes. When we discover our faith … discover Jesus Christ, remember … we are to seriously become changed people. Jesus points this out in His conversation with Nicodemus. Jesus speaks with clarity and since we are folks who are choosing to align with Christ then we need to listen because Jesus said we need to do more than wave a sign like this … He said, “I ASSURE YOU UNLESS someone is born anew IT IS NOT POSSIBLE to see God’s KINGDOM.” Belief and change … are essentials to TRANSITION as Wright says in his book and are REQUIREMENTS … we can’t be the same old-world embracers … we need to strive to become the CHILDREN of GOD. And, who are they according to Jesus … THEY ARE THE PEACEMAKERS PERIOD EXCLAMATION MARK who will be known for THEIR LOVE OF THEIR NEIGHBORS … ALL of their neighbors including their enemies DOUBLE EXCLAMATION MARK. It should be no surprise to any of us that Jesus also noted, “If the world hates you, know that it hated me first. If you belonged to the world, the world would love you as one of its own. However, I have chosen you out of the world and you DO NOT belong to the world. This is why the world hates you.”
WE COME TO THE TABLE OF THE LORD … and yet on this Sunday morning, the second Sunday of Lent thousands attending Christian churches are loudly celebrating the world and unwilling to accept the teaching of Jesus Christ because they have other gods. They do like holding up a sign that implies something different but their words, their actions and more important and essential to God their hearts reflect deep disagreement with Jesus Christ because the world’s gods have seduced them away.
So, are you ready to come to the Table of the Lord focused on doing what the Lord God requires of we humans? Micah tells us the answer … you have heard it often from this pulpit but you can look it up in your Bibles if you want assurance that it is God’s Word … TO DO JUSTICE, LOVE ALL WITH MERCY, and WALK HUMBLY with GOD.
Actually, it says with YOUR GOD … who is your God this morning? Is your god the war mongers and war embracers in this world? Is your god some politicians or talking heads whose words you memorize when you hear them on TV. I remember that the late entertainer Rush Limbaugh used to call his followers “dittoheads” because they sucked in every word he said on the radio as if his words were the Gospel from a higher power and then repeated them wherever they went. Listeners to an entertainer treated him as their god. Or is your God the God of Creation … the God of love who sent Jesus Christ to us and for us? Have you transitioned, changed, and been born anew as Jesus said choosing to reject the world and focus in on God’s expectations?
Wouldn’t it be amazing if people of faith not only repeated the words of Jesus Christ but put them into action in this world? You know striving to make heaven on earth and being the Light of Christ. It begins with reviving our souls and that comes from the TABLE … we remember Jesus not only taught us how to live but also He took our sins to the cross dying a painful death but then … on Easter morning Jesus Christ, the Son of God … was discovered alive and well and the women declared HE IS RISEN <<He is Risen Indeed>>
Nicodemus was part of the politically powerful Pharisees … the Pharisees rejected and hated Jesus fearful that His message of love and healing might take away their power. They knew the Scriptures, but they were not aligned with God. Nicodemus carefully went to see Jesus hoping not to be seen by anyone in power because Nicodemus had questions.
We come to the Table of the Lord … do you have questions? Are you worried about your eternal journey after this life? Nicodemus was worried and confused … he discovered that God loved the world so much that God sent Jesus. But that a life with God has a requirement … a transition … from life in the world into a life God expects. What we believe truly believe is reflected in our life’s behavior … it transitions us from what we once were and belief is not merely a statement of convenience … belief is living out what matters most … belief in God and in Jesus Christ as Jesus would say requires us to become like the children and the children of God are to be the world’s PEACEMAKERS even though the world might hate us for it as we love all of our neighbors not just some.
The world … our friends … our family members … our neighbors … they just might reject and hate us when we live for Christ but if we believe then we shouldn’t be hiding our faith because we are worried about those who might reject us. And, just maybe if we live for Christ … live like Scriptures teach us to live … those friends, family members and neighbors might want to change too because of what they see in us.
WE COME TO THE TABLE of THE LORD …Our help comes from the Lord … it is past time for us to live our lives as if we have been born anew thanks to our faith in God and in God’s love for us. AMEN