Back to School 
Pause
The table where we meet for meals can be a holy place, one where we gather not only to fill our bellies, but to know others more intimately.
God has in mind a table where the entire world will have that experience.
The host has set the table. All are invited. So come today whether you feel like a guest or a host. Stay to be refreshed in the feast of God’s grace.
Listen
And as he talked with him, he went in and found that many had assembled; and he said to them, “You yourselves know that it is unlawful for a Jew to associate with or to visit a Gentile; but God has shown me that I should not call anyone profane or unclean.
Acts 10:27-28
Think
While farming a few years ago, delighting in fallen plums off the ground and blackberries from the vine and showering in outdoor solar showers, my definition of clean versus unclean evolved. I gained insight into the concept of “permadirt”—that little bit of dirt under your fingernails or engrained in your heel that, despite your best efforts at cleanliness, you seem to always carry with you.
Likewise, Peter’s definition of clean versus unclean was evolving in today’s passage. While Gentiles had previously been considered unclean by Jewish custom, Peter was sharing his new understanding from God through Jesus. Peter asked, “Who am I to judge or call anyone unclean?”
Peter was claiming the spiritual permadirt in all of us. Gentile or Jew, Christian or not, all of us are equally, sinfully unclean on our own before God, yet God chooses to cleanse each of us in God’s grace.
Molly Logan
Pray
God of justice, create in me a clean heart and renew a right spirit within me. I’m no better or any worse than anyone else. All of us are your children. Restore to me the joy of your salvation today. Amen.
Go
So, who’s at your table today? You may be surprised.
God’s promise is that everyone is welcomed to heaven’s provision.
We are blessed to be both guest and host in the feast of God’s grace.
Go now to share your bread at an open table.
