Table Faith

Last week, I almost wrote a vitriolic response to the Nashville Statement, a theological declaration about human sexuality composed by members of the Council for Biblical Manhood and Womanhood (CBMW). (TRIGGER WARNING for the statement; it is dehumanizing toward LGBTQI people and highly critical of any straight/cisgendered folk who think that gender equality, marriage equality, and LGBTQI rights are good ideas; also, please note that I do quote the statement below.) I opted not to do so because I had nothing new to add to the tomes of replies written by far more capable siblings in Christ than I, particularly Nadia Bolz-Weber and the House for All Sinners and Saints in Denver who address the Nashville document point by point (they include the original with their response, but it’s pretty easy to skip the original as you read). This won’t be a direct response, either, but it is prompted in part by my reaction and that of most of my colleagues and friends who are Christians to the statement by the CBMW.

It’s also prompted by something my friend and colleague Rev. Vern Wright said this morning in worship at Second Congregational Church UCC in Attleboro, Massachusetts. Vern used the phrase “table faith” in his sermon and it stuck with me as he talked about the openness of God’s table to all of God’s children. I found myself repenting of my anger toward those who drafted the Nashville Statement because, even though they have declared in Article 10 that, “WE AFFIRM that it is sinful to approve of homosexual immorality or transgenderism and that such approval constitutes an essential departure from Christian faithfulness and witness. WE DENY that the approval of homosexual immorality or transgenderism is a matter of moral indifference about which otherwise faithful Christians should agree to disagree,” they are still as welcome at God’s table, despite my disapproval of them, as I am at God’s table, despite their disapproval of me.

We who are progressive Christians have a bad habit of helping our siblings on other paths of Christian belief and practice build walls instead of disassembling those walls as fast as others build them. While we proudly proclaim our openness and willingness to invite anyone to join us on the journey and at the table, we often draw the line at people whose expression of Christian faith is less expansive than ours. Irony of ironies. It’s as though we don’t trust God as much as we say we do to know who is worthy of God’s love and who is not.

SPOILER ALERT: We are all equally worthy of our places at God’s table.

It is not based on being only one of male or female. 

It is not based on some ancient and culturally specific vision of what it means to be a man or a woman.

It is not based on the idea that men can only love women and women can only love men.

It is not based on race, ethnicity, or skin color.

It is not based on belief in God.

It is not based on belief in Jesus Christ as the Savior of Humankind.

It is not based on belief in the Holy Spirit.

It is not based on any specific doctrine of faith.

It IS based on our identity as human beings who bear within us God’s creative and generative image, uniquely ours and uniting us with all of our siblings in every time and place.

We’re called not to pick and choose our tablemates but to live in love, honor, hope, and peace. In Romans 12:20, Paul says to feed our hungry enemies and give our thirsty enemies something to drink, which is a strong reminder that the table really does include people we won’t like. If they, too, are feeding us and providing us with drink, then who really gets Paul’s “burning coals on their heads”?

Our faith tells us that we have ZERO say over who gets a place at God’s table.

Dear God,
THAT SUCKS.
Also, THANK YOU.
Love,
Me.