The Rev. Amy Turner preached on Luke and used the metaphor of the Table as a sign of hospitality, inclusiveness and God’s grace. At VTS, students were expected to go to class, chapel and have meals together as part of developing a community. Her community which involved Catherine became the "Breakfast Club", a group of students that had breakfast together from about 7:15am to 8pm before class. The crowd was diverse in age, sex and experience. And they welcomed all. At VTS the new one coming could be a bishop from another part of the world, a prospective student for next year and a current student. Or it could be an angel .
The "Breakfast Club" was named after a 1985 movie. In that movie, there were five students with nothing in common, but faced with spending a Saturday detention together in their high school library. At 7 a.m., they had nothing to say, but by 4 p.m., they had bared their souls to each other and become good friends. The assistant principal assigned each student must write about who he an essay on who he/she thinks they are, and then leaves, returning occasionally to check on them. The class wrote a letter in response to him:
Here is the way it read:
"Dear Mr. Vernon: We accept the fact that we had to sacrifice a whole Saturday in detention for whatever it was we did wrong. But, we think you’re crazy to make us write an essay telling you who we think we are. You see us as you want to see us: in the simplest terms, in the most convenient definitions. But, what we found out is that each one of us is: a brain . . .
Andrew Clark: And an athlete . . .
Allison Reynolds: And a basket case . . .
Claire Standish: A princess . . .
John Bender: And a criminal.
Brian Johnson: Does that answer your question? Sincerely yours, The Breakfast Club "
The Table at VTS appeared almost like an organism over time – growing, shrinking over time. At time they had to add chairs and table. God blessed the food which was hot and plentiful. And they welcomed the stranger as was stressed in the Hebrews reading.
In the Gospel reading, the Pharisees invited Jesus to a meal to figure out what kind of prophet he was. Those at the meals typically reclined in that time. The guest was seated higher that the rest. To them it was about power but for Jesus it was to stress lowliness, humility and he advocated those seated higher to give their seat up to the poor. The word "humble" in Latin means "close to the ground" or grounded.
Jesus invites us to his table where there are no corners, no foot, and no head. All are seated and all are equal. They are "companions" which is a Latin based word meaning come together and sharing in bread. Bread is a sign of our togetherness from the communion to the coffee hour later today. We kneel at communion together on the same level and nourished by the cup of salvation.