When a piece of wood is more than a piece of wood and a table is more than a table

Last week we looked at how a table can represent different aspects of our lives. It's a functional place, set aside for specific tasks but it also becomes a place of meeting experience, a place to meet God, a place to reflect on Jesus in our actual world.

The dinner table is a place where we satisfy our basic need to eat and drink. But is also a place we meet family and friends: a place of engagement. There are also huge social expectations associated with this table of how to behave. Who sets the rules? Why? How does this reflect social exclusion of who is in or out? Jesus ate with sinners, prostitutes, the unclean and tax collectors. Who would you invite to your table?

The work table is where we spend most of our time. Who do we meet here we don't meet elsewhere? What do we have in common? How is your work life integrated with the rest of your life to give it meaning? Jesus worked at the plane and the lathe, and called people from their place of work. Do you have a sense of call at work? Does Jesus call you to doing or be something different at work?

Table tennis is an example of table used for play, but it could be a sewing table, pool table or card table. This is the place where you choose to be; this is our time, our choice. How do you spend it? Do spend it in a way that is constructive or destructive? How does it fit with the rest of your life? Is prayer a chosen occupation? If you had just one more minute extra today, how would you spend it?

The fourth table was an operating table or a table at a morgue. A place where we meet the darker side of life, those in pain, dying or dead. A place where we would rather not be but a place were we will ultimately end up. A place where we sanitise our society by placing it apart in hospital or hospice. But Jesus' experience of the tomb was new life and new meaning. Who do meet at this table or who do you fear to meet?

Finally comes the communion table or altar. A table set aside for a particular meeting. Not that we don't meet God elsewhere... but this table is set apart especially for that meeting.

As we have seen, we meet many different people around a table, so is it any wonder that we meet God around a table? Jesus, who gathered his friends around a table to share bread and wine, body and blood. We shared these things at Sanctus 1.