An Invitation To Take Your Seat At The Table
“This table is roughhewn and bears the scars of wrestling with powers and systems.
This table declares ‘all are welcome here’
because it has turned status, economic gain and misuse of power upside down.”
Most everyone is undoubtedly familiar with the term “having a seat at the table.”
Often reserved for those who are considered to have both the influence and power to make decisions and effect change, the table has become a symbol of power, negotiation and credibility through which one can forward their career, generate a sale or plot a course for enterprise or ministry success.
When one is provided with a seat at the table,
it represents an opportunity to be heard and to make a difference.
But there is much more behind coming to the table than simply taking a seat. We assume that if there is a table there are those that have a right to be there and those, maybe like you, who are waiting for an invitation. There is limited seating.
You notice that everyone at the table looks the same. They have the same air of superiority, of confidence, but also try to hide their fear because they know at any time they can lose their seat if someone more powerful wants it. We may look at who is currently at the table, with our nose pressed against the invisible barrier, and recognize that for one reason or other, as much as we would die to be seated there, we just don’t fit in.
Depending on the table you imagine, there may be many reasons why you feel you don’t belong.
· You are the wrong gender
· You are the wrong race
· You come from the wrong class
I have experienced various barriers in my life and in ministry. Depending on the perceptions of what people thought I could bring to the table, I was in, or I was out. I was too much, or not enough. I was a creative labelled a diva and an achiever judged for being too busy. I brought people and their God-given talent together on platforms and into collaborative endeavours and was told that God didn’t like performance. I became all things to all people in my effort to be invited to some gathering of the inner circle at the table in my imagination. I stretched myself to over-function when I needed to prove my worth and self-silenced when my voice went unnoticed.
For many of us who have felt somehow ‘wrong’ or ‘out’, we have fought our way to inclusivity. We have smiled and been polite while inwardly waging war against the systemic inequitable matrix. Not always outside the church, but often in the heart of it.
Recently, the all-white, all-male House Freedom Caucus met at the White House to discuss the fate of maternal healthcare, breast screenings and contraceptive coverage. A picture in the New York times showed all white males around this table. What’s wrong with this picture was that women were missing from it.
Throughout history, in almost every culture, men have held positions of power in a disproportionate, unfair and imbalanced way. Men have always been the land owners, lawmakers and decision makers. It’s only very recently – within the last generation or two – that women have been allowed to vote, own property and businesses, and attend college and become ordained. We think that somehow we misunderstood when Jesus liberated each woman he met from her prison of low self-worth and menial role in society. We thought maybe if He saw their broken and bent frame and healed them in a synagogue on the Sabbath or turned around in the middle of the road to look into the eyes of the hemorrhaging woman and heal her, or go out of his way to commission the first unlikely evangelist at the well in Samaria, that maybe, just maybe, he had plans for our emancipation too.
Some would argue that even today, in 2020, women are still silenced and shut out from positions of power, or even equitable positions of service in the local church.
But no-one is arguing that today, in 2020, after centuries of slavery, discrimination and racism that black, indigenous and people of colour have been denied their place at the table.
Whichever side of things you find yourself on,
The truth is that our awareness of long-held inequity of all the unrepresented
is rising up like a tidal wave to awaken our conscience.
We can no longer ignore that our table of privilege and imbalance
is a burning house and needs to be laid bare in order to be rebuilt.
Are you one who presides at a table today that could be enlarged to invite those that are different than you to take their seat? Or are you one who is either waiting for an invitation, fighting your way, bruised and bloodied through the hurdles to get your seat, or giving up altogether because you are weary of the injustice of it all?
I am declaring that there is a table that has a place set for you in the Kingdom of God. He will never give the place that is rightfully yours to anyone else.
If nobody’s offering you a seat, you have to pull up your own chair.
But be sure it is at the right table.
Why would the shocking story of the uninvited woman be so beautifully included in the Biblical narrative in Luke 7:36-50? Jesus went to Simon the Pharisee’s house for a prestigious dinner, where topics of the day were to be discussed. Enter the “sinful woman” (7:37).
She crossed the invisible barrier into the invited, elite space
and shocked all in attendance with her actions…except Jesus.
He declared that she was right where she belonged.
Bold conversations that change history can only happen at tables where all have been invited, not just as token showpieces, or because of policy, but because they belong.
Bold conversations at tables of belonging must seek to first champion the truth of the liberating gospel of Jesus Christ,
challenge inequity,
and change the world.
Just beware that the desire to belong can be destructive. One of C. S. Lewis’s most memorable essays is entitled “The Inner Ring.” It describes the experience and desire of us all at various stages of life—to be accepted within the “inner ring” of whatever group matters to us at the time. To feel “excluded” or “out of it” is a miserable feeling. Yet the desire to be “in” can make you say things you would not otherwise say, or not say things you should say. This desire to be on the inside of whatever group you aspire to can affect your work, your political affiliations, your relationships in the community, and in the church.
Rather seek to belong to the table that Christ has invited you to before time began. Romans 5:1-2 is an encouragement to not only boldly take your seat at this table but dance on it!
This table is roughhewn and bears the scars of wrestling with powers and systems.
This table declares ‘all are welcome here’
because it has turned status, economic gain and misuse of power upside down.
At this table the last are seated in places of honour and the first are last.
I belong here.
You belong here.
It has been forged in love and sacrifice.
By entering through faith into what God has always wanted to do for us—set us right with him, make us fit for him—we have it all together with God because of our Master Jesus. And that’s not all: We throw open our doors to God and discover at the same moment that he has already thrown open his door to us. We find ourselves standing where we always hoped we might stand—out in the wide open spaces of God’s grace and glory, standing tall and shouting our praise.
We have the opportunity to build a new synergistic diverse table that is equitable to all in the church across our nation. It requires leadership, sacrifice, compassion and God’s grace. It is possible now more than ever. Will you take your seat at the table?