ODJ: Simple Tables

June 7, 2016 

READ: Acts 2:42-47  

[The believers] shared their meals with great joy and generosity (v.46).

I have a friend who has spent most of his life with people who live on society’s margins: people experiencing poverty or homelessness, those who wrestle with addictions or simply exist outside the mainstream, anyone who might be considered an outcast. “That’s where I seem to fit,” my friend says. “On the edges.” He helps believers in Jesus learn how to be in true friendship with those who are different. “This kind of friendship isn’t as complicated as we like to make it,” my friend insists. “Often it’s as simple as knowing someone’s name and how they like their coffee.”

This wisdom reflects the early stories of the church, when people of varied nations and languages found themselves swept into God’s story. We often consider the Pentecost miracle to be the moment when everyone heard the apostles speaking “in [their] own native language”. But perhaps the true miracle was the way people who were at odds (Jews and Greeks, Medes and Egyptians) were gathered into the same community and worshipped the same God (Acts 2:8).

God’s new community encompassed all kinds of people who emerged from the provocative action of His Spirit and the simple obedience of His people. The description couldn’t be more ordinary: “All the believers devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching, and to fellowship, and to sharing in meals (including the Lord’s Supper) and to prayer” (v.42). In other words, they received God’s wisdom together. They ate together. And they prayed together.

The rhythm was plain: They “met in homes...and shared their meals” (v.46). If you don’t know where to begin to participate in God’s work, consider simple friendship around a simple table.

—Winn Collier

365-day plan: Luke 1:26-56