A Time will Come For Singing…Dan Shutte, OCP Build Us a Table… Lori True, GIA What Have We Done For the Poor One's?… Lori True, GIA Who is the Alien?... Lori True, GIA Dream a Dream ….Lori True, GIA Gather Us In, GIA All are Welcome, GIA
Tables are funny things. Alone they are simply another piece of furniture, but when people gather around a table, it is a statement about who belongs and who doesn't. Who is part of the family, and who isn't? It is hard for most of us to invite strangers to our table, yet that is what Jesus did, invited people to the table who were told they don't belong, are not the "good" people, because they are the sinful ones. In gathering them around the table, Jesus said that we all belonged; He did the right thing: both inviting and loving those who were at the table.
As we await the celebration of the birth of this Jesus, it is not a little baby that we coo at, but a deep desire to become ourselves what Jesus always was, a generous host. To do that during this celebration and the whole time of Advent, we need to ask ourselves who has been excluded from this table? Who has not been invited? Who do we only reluctantly invite to this table? Are the immigrant and the alien invited to this table, not as an object of our caring, but as someone who we need to make our journey authentic? For whom do we refuse to be Eucharist, blessed, broken, and given for others? Why are we afraid to invite them to our table?
When Jesus was at dinner in his house, a number of tax collectors and sinners were also sitting at table with Jesus and his disciples; for there were many of them among his followers. When the scribes of the Pharisee party saw him eating with sinners and tax collectors, they said to his disciples, "Why does he eat with tax collectors and sinners?" When Jesus heard this he said to them, "It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I came to call not the upright, but sinners."
Leader: For the times that Jesus has come to the table disguised as an immigrant and was excluded: All: Christ our light, grant that we may see Leader: For the times that Jesus has come disguised as a homeless immigrant and was excluded: All: Christ our light, grant that we may see Leader: For the times that Jesus has come disguised as an immigrant needing food and was excluded: All: Christ our light, grant that we may see Leader: For the times that Jesus has come disguised as an immigrant woman in need of services and was excluded: All: Christ our light, grant that we may see Leader: For the times that Jesus has come disguised as an undocumented poultry worker and was excluded: All: Christ our light, grant that we may see Leader: For the times when Jesus has come disguised as a child whose mother was forced to leave the country without them and was excluded: All: Christ our light, grant that we may see Leader: For the times when Jesus has come to us disguised as an immigrant family living in fear and was excluded: All: Christ our light, grant that we may see Leader: For the times when Jesus has come to us disguised as a day laborer who was unable to earn citizenship and was excluded: All: Christ our light, grant that we may see Leader: For the times when Jesus has come to us disguised as a person who speaks a language not our own and was excluded: All: Christ our light, grant that we may see Leader: For the times when Jesus came disguised as me in all my weakness and unworthiness and was excluded: All: Christ our light, grant that we may see Leader: Let us pray, All: Advent Hope, Your great challenge to us is to convert the sacred bread Into real bread; To turn liturgical peace Into political peace and justice; The worship of the creator Into reverence for the creation; Our praying communities Into an authentic human fellowship; Adding extra leaves to our tables, widening them So that more people can experience the love of God in us. IT IS RISKY TO CELEBRATE THE EUCHARIST! We may have to leave it unfinished Having gone first To give back to the poor, the immigrant, The stranger, the sinner, The broken one, the despised, What belongs to Jesus, Disguised as he is as one of them and one of us. Amen.
