Summer Table 2022

Photo by Lee Myungseong on Unsplash

Throughout his gospel, Luke highlights how often Jesus teaches about His Kingdom within the context of meals. While the purpose of His mission is to "seek and save the lost" and "to serve by giving His life as a ransom for many," he adopts the strategy of "eating and drinking" with others as a means of embodying the salvation he brings.

Launch Question: On your journey of faith, what "had hoped's" (disappointments and disillusionments) have you experienced recently?

1. Read Luke 24:13-35. What do you learn about engaging people with truths about the Christian faith through the way Jesus engaged the men on the road? 
2. Why do you think the men didn't recognize the resurrected Jesus until he took the bread then blessed, broke, and gave it to them?
3. What does it mean for all of Creation that Jesus ate food after his resurrection?
4. How does Jesus make himself known?
5. What "had hoped's" in your life has Jesus begun to redeem?
6. As you think about those in your spheres of influence, how may God be calling you to engage culture through its "had hoped's"?

Pray about the people in your neighborhood, place of work, or community God is moving you to engage by sharing a meal with them.

Launch Question: The author asks what difference it would make if your church stopped celebrating communion (102). As you consider the lack of a full communion celebration during the Covid-19 quarantine, what impact do you think it had on your life and the Body of Christ?

1. Read Luke 22:7-20. Luke emphasizes (five times) that Jesus' Last Supper with his disciples was a Passover Meal.  What role did meals play in the formation of God's people as the nation of Israel (pp. 106-112)?
2. In what ways does sin-shame distort our relationship with food and all other relationships (pp. 103-106)?
3. How is the new covenant of Christ's redemption embodied in the communion meal (pp. 112-114)?
4. Why is it important that we think of the Lord's Supper as more than a "picture" but a "real thing begun in a partial way" (pp. 114-119)?
5. As a church within a busy, fragmented, narcissistic, and self-promoting culture, what does the regular celebration of the communion meal do for us (pp. 119-124)?
6. In response to what you have learned, how will you approach worship this week?

Launch Question:
How have you experienced God's mission through the sharing of meals?

Read Luke 14

1. What does Chester mean by his statement: "when you combine a passion for Jesus with shared meals, you create potent gospel opportunities" (p.77)?
2. Read Luke 14:1-24. Why is it significant that the master compels his servant to invite the poor, blind, crippled, and lame to his banquet (pp. 78-80)?
3. How are you challenged and encouraged by the idea that "meals express a person's vision of life"? Think about the kinds of parties our culture celebrates. What does Jesus' kingdom offer that these celebrations do not (pp. 81-88)?
4. Why do you think hospitality has always been integral to the story of God's people (pp. 89-90)?
5. Based on the reading, define in your own words biblical hospitality then discuss why we should offer it (pp. 90-92).
6. What excuses do you and others give for not offering hospitality? In what ways could our church become more hospitable to outsiders as a means of fulfilling God's mission?

Launch Question:
How does the offer of hospitality through meals give people hope?

Read Luke 9:7-20 

1. What does the feeding of the five thousand reveal of Jesus' identity as the long-awaited Messiah, Savior-King? (See Luke 9:7-20 and pp. 56-59.
2. How does the Messianic banquet portrayed in Isaiah surpass all other feasts? (pp. 58-59).
3. Consider a "desolate place" as the setting of the miraculous meal. What does the place teach the disciples and us about the reality of the now and not yet nature of God's kingdom and our inability to do what Jesus asks of us (See Luke 9:9 with pp. 60-64)?
4. How does a sense of inadequacy help you respond in a way that fulfills God's mission in the world?
5. What reasons for hope do you and I possess that God will fulfill His mission in and through Christ's church? (pp. 64-73) 
6. Pray about taking a courageous step of faith in response to God's leading.

Launch Question:
While Christians often sing of amazing grace, many theologians speak of God's grace as scandalous. Why do you think they would compare grace with a scandal?
 
Read Luke 7:36-50

1. What do you observe about the kind of community Christ came to establish through the interactions of Jesus, the host, and the woman of the city (see pp. 38-44)
2. How do "problem people. difficult people, or different people" expose what's really in our hearts?
3. When have you been so moved by the grace of God that you risked social discomfort or even disgrace?
4. In our graceless culture, how may hospitality lead to reconciliation and shape community (pp.46-50)
5. How did the gracious hospitality of the early church demonstrate the generous welcome of the gospel (50-54)?
6. What are some ways our church could further God's mission through hospitality?

Week 1 Launch Question: How did a recent meal you enjoyed remind you of God's goodness and blessing?
1. Why do you think the Pharisees objected to the meal of Luke 5 (pp.18-21)?
2. In what ways might we make the marginalized feel unwelcome in our fellowships and churches (pp. 21-25)?
3. How does the grace of God turn the world of religious people upside down?
4. What do the three parables of Luke 15 reveal about God's grace and His mission?
5. Why should meals be an "integral and significant part of our shared life" as Christians?
6. Who in your neighborhood, place of work, or community is God putting on your heart to get to know and invite for a meal?

For each table fellowship, a home host will facilitate conversational connection and a co-host will organize meals and meeting times. Before each gathering, parishioners will read a chapter of a "Meal with Jesus: Discovering Grace, Community & Mission Around the Table" by Time Chester.