Micah 6:8: “What does the Lord require of you? … to do justice and to love kindness and walk humbly with your God.”
The Kingdom of Heaven is like a house with many rooms, so there must be a BIG kitchen table. The Gospels have enough food references to stock a pantry and Scriptures make plain that Jesus loved to sit and share meals with friends and strangers.
So, I imagine God’s kitchen table is bustling with all types, surrounded by people we know and people we don’t, all brought together for the sake of being together. God, ever the gracious host, greets each of us with a warm hug, pulls out a seat, and invites anyone and everyone to stay awhile.
This image is insightful in the context of our resurrection into new life, but the metaphor extends into our lives on earth as a foretaste. In the Lord’s Prayer, we boldly request that this be made true on earth as it is in Heaven. Graciously, God spoke through the Prophet Micah what is expected to accomplish this monumental task: Do justice. Love kindness. Walk humbly with God.
Simple, right? Yet despite the thousands of years since we received this guidance, we remain inhabited in a world that is too often unjust, unkind and idolatrous. Our focus on what makes us different is used to justify exclusion, instead of recognizing the gifts of diversity and God’s call to be together. But though we continually fall short, God’s grace impels us to keep trying to live into the fullness of Micah’s prophecy with each new day.
The World Communion Offering is a new way for Presbyterians to “love kindness” by recognizing the inherent worth of every person, practicing hospitality and making room at the table for all people. This Offering works to reconcile God’s children by supporting the wider Church in the work of racial justice, gender justice, global witness, peacemaking, and ecumenical and interfaith relations.
This World Communion Sunday, I invite you to consider how you can join in this mission. Is there someone you need to extend a merciful hand to? Are there members of your community seeking justice and failing to receive it? Whose love is missing from your table? Can you build a bigger one?
Your gifts, combined with those of other congregations, empower the World Communion Offering to support the PC(USA) ministries, partners, congregations and mid councils addressing these questions and their underlying challenges. While reconciliation begins in our hearts, the Special Offerings recognize how we can do this work together. With God’s help, we can work toward the Kingdom of Heaven with the hope that each and every person can take their seat at the Table of Grace.
Sarah McDowell, Annual Giving Officer, Stewardship and Funds Development
Let us join in prayer for:
Jessica Oms, Reservation Specialist, Stony Point Center, Presbyterian Life & Witness
Njeri Wagana Hughes, Associate, Partners Beyond the PCUSA, Presbyterian Life & Witness
Let us pray:
Holy God, as we come to your table on World Communion Sunday, we thank you for all your servants who enact justice around the world and who ensure that your love is made known. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.
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