Just a Thought: As my physician/theologian daughter Alethea Allen has observed, it appears that some are making an idol of “The Table.” I fear that this is all too true. We have made an idol of the Table when we focus more on what it symbolizes than on Who’s presence it actualizes. It has become an idol when we leave the Table more focused on our state of well being than in awe of Him, when personal catharsis is allowed to supplant fellowship with our Triune God, when the Table becomes a shortcut around the work of praying through to the presence and peace of God, when it becomes a substitute for spiritual discipline. Another indicator is the tendency to bifurcate the Word of Life and the Bread of Life. The Eucharist is not a substitute for Scripture; they are one. The table has become an idol when it ceases to call us into the written Word of God, when it ceases to create a hunger for the voice of God inscripturated. Another indicator the Table has become an idol is when connection with the sainted dead there assembled becomes more real and comforting than fellowship with contemporary corporeal believers. Harmony with an idealized spirituality of those gone before must not supplant the call to embody the presence of Christ with our imperfect brothers and sisters gathered with us at the Table. A corollary indicator is the abuse of the table as a means of escape. The Table has become an idol when it serves as a means for denying the truth in which we live, a portal of temporary escape from this life. The sacred meal does not transport us into the future and away from this world; it brings the coming Kingdom into this world. Do not come to the Table to flee your problems; come to confront them in the presence of Christ. JDJ # 475
Posted on: Sat, 26 Jul 2014 14:34:47 +0000
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