The welcome table

Heeding the call for social justice

B

ono, the lead singer of U2, tells this story: “Before I had kids, I visited an Ethiopian camp/feeding station. A man came up to me with his little boy, a beautiful boy, and proud of his son, the man begged me to take his son home and through the translator he just repeated over and over, ‘You take him with you.  If he stays here, he will surely die.’ The rules of the camp are that you can’t take children home with you, you can’t adopt them. But in some strange way that day, I did take that little boy home with me. That interface with extreme poverty that day has driven me to call people of influence, power and wealth to account for what they are doing or not doing for their poor brothers and sisters around the world.”

Here is a parable of the Kingdom of God: “One time when Jesus went for a Sabbath meal with one of the top leaders of the Pharisees (religious leaders).  All the guests had their eyes on him, watching his every move.  Then Jesus turned to the host. “The next time you put on a dinner, don’t just invite your friends and family and rich neighbours, the kind of people who will return the favour.  Invite some people who never get invited out, the misfits from the wrong side of the tracks.  You’ll be - and experience - a blessing.  They won’t be able to return the favour, but the favour will be returned - oh, how it will be returned! - at the resurrection of God’s people.”  (Luke 14:1, 12-14, The Message)

The issues of poverty and marginalisation are often debated in terms of what are the causes, are the poor themselves to blame for their condition, or can we do something to or for them to help improve their plight.

God’s response to the poor and marginalised is to bring them in. God wants us to bring them to the table, to invite them into relationship, to get to know who they are and what’s going on in their lives (that’s what happens when you have people around for a meal).  This actually helps lay the foundations for developing a healthy community where everyone gets changed.

A famous African American spiritual entitled The Welcome Table says this:

“We’re gonna sit at the welcome table,
We’re gonna sit at the welcome table one of these days,
Hallelujah!…
All God’s children around that table…
No more fightin’ or grabbin’ at the table…
I’m gonna walk the streets of glory…
I’m gonna get my civil rights…
We’re gonna sit at the welcome table on these days.”

The welcome table metaphor, when actually lived out, changes us and our approach to the poor.  It helps us understand who the poor really are, what they need, and how the rest of us (and our values, our programs, our bureaucracy and our systems) need to change. The poor no longer remain at arm’s length, living in isolation, when we join together at the welcome table, when they are truly invited to join us in our families and communities, when together we find solutions to our problems.

When we join together at the welcome table, when we listen to understand and speak to be understood, a deep sense of compassion will be stirred within us, but compassion is only the doorway to change. Feeling and seeing what life is truly like for others is the beginning of change.  Some will cry out, in the words of the Beatles, “Love is all you need…love is the answer.”  But the love of God is meant to be taken to the streets and tested on the streets.  In so doing, we will soon realise that compassion is nice, but it ain’t enough!

We then need to heed the call for social justice. In the words of Jim Wallis in his new book Seven Ways to Change the World, “Feeding hungry people is helpful, but it isn’t enough. Asking why so many people are hungry is the justice question.  Working in a homeless shelter or helping find someone accommodation is inspiring at times, but it isn’t enough.  Asking why there isn’t more affordable housing available, or why home ownership is only the domain of the middle class, is the justice question.”

But even in calling for social justice, there is still the possibility of keeping a safe distance from the poor themselves, still the temptation to see problems to be fixed as concerning “them” and not “us.”

The third step is into solidarity or community or interdependence with the poor.  It is at this point that we come to believe that we need one another, no matter what our background, and that everybody has things to give and to receive.

When we all gather at the welcome table, no matter what our background, we become filled with compassion, motivated to do justice, willing to live and work in healthy community.  It is then that the image portrayed in U2’s song, Crumbs from your table, will hopefully become a fading reality…

Where you live should not decide whether you live or die,
Three to a bed - Sister Ann, she says,
‘Dignity passes by’.
And you speak of signs and wonders,
Well I need something other,
I would believe if I was able,
But I’m waiting on the crumbs from your table.

Writer: Major Brendan Nottle heads up Corps 614 Melbourne, Australia. This article originally appeared in his divisional newsletter.

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