TABLES SPREAD FOR LIFE ABUNDANT

GOSPEL — JOHN 10:1-10
The Fourth Sunday of Easter

​Sometimes a table is spread in a generous fashion but still feels impersonal, like the buffet at a big conference. You can fill your plate as many times as you want, but that doesn’t change the fact that you’re wearing a printed name tag because no one in the room actually knows your name.

And sometimes a table spread seems meager because it’s the end of the month or you didn’t have time to make it to the store, but you’re with friends who feel like family, so no one is worried about how simple the meal is.

Today we have the best of both worlds. We have abundance to the point of extravagance, and we have a God who knew our names even before we were born. We have a table heaped with grace upon grace and our heads anointed with oil, and we have a God whose voice we recognize as soon as we hear our names spoken aloud. All our beloveds have been invited, and every last one of us has a name card in front of our plates, handwritten in our favorite color, no doubt. Today we’re reminded that even when the world feels like a wreck, God shows up with abundance, inviting us by name.

Where have you noticed this lately? Where have you noticed goodness and mercy following you around? Where have you noticed evidence that God wants you to experience life? In the feisty weeds poking up through the cracks in the sidewalks? In the hope of the students who are so close to summer break they can taste it? In the bright sunshine breaking through the clouds not thirty seconds after the thunder stops? In the youngest members of your worshiping community, skipping forward with their hands outstretched for bread and blessing?

It’s there, this evidence of God’s life abundant. Go looking for it. Go looking to remind someone else. It’s way too good to miss.


From sundaysandseasons.com.
Copyright © 2023 Augsburg Fortress. All rights reserved.