Empty ... Empty.. Empty....

Empty …  Empty…… Empty…..there has been no writing in my blog……. 

Ok I admit it has been a long, yes long, long time since I wrote anything, so I decided that has to change.    Here are some of my most recent thoughts……

The TABLE of the LORD…..

Empty chairs and empty tables, did you hear that song in the musical Les Miserables? Let me share with you some of the Lyrics in case you have not seen either the musical or the movie:

There's a grief that can't be spoken.

There's a pain goes on and on.

Empty chairs at empty tables

Now my friends are dead and gone.

Here they talked of revolution.

Here it was they lit the flame.

Here they sang about `tomorrow'

And tomorrow never came.

From the table in the corner

They could see a world reborn

And they rose with voices ringing

I can hear them now!

The very words that they had sung

Became their last communion

On the lonely barricade at dawn.

Oh my friends, my friends forgive me

That I live and you are gone.

There's a grief that can't be spoken.

There's a pain goes on and on.

Phantom faces at the window.

Phantom shadows on the floor.

Empty chairs at empty tables

Where my friends will meet no more.

Oh my friends, my friends, don't ask me

What your sacrifice was for

Empty chairs at empty tables

Where my friends will meet no more

A moving song, about those who dreamed together, whilst sat together, of a better day to come, and then continued on to give their lives in pursuit of that dream.    

Whilst meditating on the thought of those who have gone before us, those who dreamed of a Kingdom, those who saw a revelation of Christ filling all in all, those who dreamed of Heaven coming to earth, I began to see this …. The Table of the LORD.

This table of the LORD, is a never ending table, it stretches throughout time and eternity, and there are actually no empty chairs at the table.

The table is laid out before us, it is a feasting table, a table with no sadness and no division, it is a table of celebration, a wedding table, a continual table not bound by time.

At a wedding celebration family members all come together, those you have not seen for a long time, those you see regularly, those you do not get along with so well, and those you eat and live and play with on a regular basis.  Even those you do not know too well, from the other side of the family, perhaps those with a different slant on their understanding and theology than you, they all come together and sit at the table of celebration.

The table of the Lord is set, and we are welcome at all times to sit and feast.   I believe God is calling us to feast together, feast with those who have gone before us, even if we have changed slightly in our understanding; feast with those who will come after us even though they might also see differently from us, feast with those who are along side us and those who are far away in their understanding and theology.

There are no empty places at the Table of the LORD, the Lord himself will ensure that, so come now with great excitement and full confidence to this amazing miracle table, you belong at this table.   Feast at this miracle table of Health, may you find healing to your bones, joy unspeakable and peace overwhelming.