PODCAST
Belonging At The Table
April 20th, 2021
Romans 9:1-8
Our family dinner table was the center of activity in my home growing up. After school studies, competitive game nights, family planning meetings, weekend projects, and mealtimes were all shared around this table. Many of these shared experiences included others not part of our biological family. Single adults in our church, couples without families, college students away from home. My mother was so purposeful about involving others in our family gatherings. To this day we regard many of them as family, as part of us.
God’s table is an open table. Throughout the narrative of scripture our eyes are continually opened to characters thought to be “outside the family.” God surprises us by throwing open the door of belonging, of bearing God’s name, to those beyond the tradition or expected participation.
God’s promise and inheritance are for all who will receive it. In John’s description of Jesus as the light coming into the world we’re reminded, “Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God” (John 1:12).
Author: Jamison Sandbloom
