Being the Beloved - A Monthly Blog from CFDM Northwest
By Tamarah Lee, CFDM Spiritual Direction Graduate
I was listening in on my father’s Sunday school class this spring and was caught short by this verse from Luke 12: “How fortunate those servants will be when the master knocks and they open the door immediately! You know what the master will do? He’ll put on an apron, sit them down at the kitchen table, and he’ll serve them a midnight snack.” I’m used to Master/Servant stories in the Bible. Most of them end with “Well done” or “You’re out.” This one pauses with the Master putting an apron around his waist and serving a midnight snack. It rather breaks all the norms.
As spring progressed, I sat with the question of what might change in me if I knew God as a person with an apron and midnight snacks? Midnight snacks are pulled out with people who work side by side, who celebrate side by side, who push through, side by side. Teresa of Avila talks about mutuality with God. I think this verse exemplifies the concept of mutuality, of working together and celebrating together. And Nouwen highlights how Jesus is showing us a God who values descent, a stepping down to join with us. An apron is such a beautiful metaphor of a God who is with me. The “me” that has spent much of my life in a kitchen, using food to welcome people and say, “You matter.” God does the same.
Suddenly, tables where God was serving food were popping up all over the Bible. The Garden of Eden is the ultimate table story: Adam and Eve, God and ALL THE FOOD. God set a table for Moses and the elders as they are on their way up Mount Sinai for the Ten Commandments, and they all ate amid fireworks. David gets a table in the middle of his enemies. Jesus cooks breakfast on the beach for his disciples. Heaven is pictured as a banqueting feast.
I kept wondering, what if I was to know God from the place of a table companion? What might that teach me about being beloved?
Table companions share life from a place of reality and honesty, not judgement and shame. I wouldn’t be waiting for a “Well Done” or in fear of a “You’re out.”
Table companions tell stories, relive memories, spark ideas. I would be participating in the dance of the Trinity, instead of feeling like I’m banished to the outer circle
Table companions delight in the food, savoring what is before them in gratitude. There would be delight in the work that I get to participate in, not worrying about pride or avoidance. The table says we are a community, and stronger together.
God in an apron makes me feel so very cared for and valued. If I operated in this world from the abundance of sitting at a table being served and serving with the Trinity, I would be offered, and therefore would offer, grace, love, expansiveness, inclusion, abundance to our world. When I feel a punitive God lurking in my mind, or a disappointed God wagging a finger, or an absent God aloof with more important matters, I can recenter myself with an aproned God beckoning by a lakeside fire, or the cozy light of a midnight kitchen and the Divine saying, “Come eat with me. You matter.”
What books, media, activities are nurturing your heart, soul, mind, strength in this season as we are loving God and our neighbor as ourselves? Post in the comments below or hop on over to our Facebook page and share with one another.