In Search of a Roundtable
Concerning the why and how and what and who
of ministry,
one image keeps surfacing:
A table that is round.
It will take some sawing
to be roundtabled,
some redefining
and redesigning
Such redoing and rebirthing
of narrowlong Churching
can painful be
for people and tables
But so was the cross,
a painful too table
of giving and yes
And from such death comes life,
from such dying comes rising,
in search of roundtabling
And what would roundtable Churching mean?
It would mean no diasing
and throning,
for but one King is there,
and He was a footwasher,
at table no less
A healer of hearts, he,
and bestower of disturbing peace,
whose footsteps we lost track of
We looked for signs,
but with uncirumscised hearts,
trying to discern a message undiscernable
to pomped and circumstanced,
yet well intentioned ones,
who while proclaiming the finding,
were all the time losing
For at the narrowlong tables,
servant and mirror
became picture framed
and centers of attention
And crosses became but gilded ornaments
on bare stone walls
in buildings used but once a week only
But the times and the tables
are changing and rearranging
And what of narrowlong table ministers,
when they confront
a roundtable people,
after years of working up the table
(as in 'up the ladder')
to finally sit at its head,
only to discover
that the table has turned round???
Continued rarified air
will only isolate
for there are no people there,
only roles
They must be loved into roundness,
where apart is spelled a part
and the call
is to the gathering
For God has called a People,
not 'them and us'
'Them and us'
are unable
to gather round,
for at a roundtable,
there are no sides
And ALL are invited
to wholeness and to food
"When more than was lost
has been found has been found"
(e.e. cummings)
But wishing and hoping
will not get us there -
daily dying and rising will
(and some sawing)
At one time
our narrowlong churches
were built so to resemble the cross,
but it does no good
for buildings to do so,
if lives do not
Roundtabling means
no preferred seating,
no first and last,
no better, and no corners
for 'the least of these'
Roundtabling means
being with,
a part of,
together, and one
It means
room for the Spirit
and gifts
and disturbing profound peace for all
It is not magic bread
that we are baking,
for the dough we are dealing with
must and will
take its dying-in-order-to-rise-again-time
And it is we in the present
who are mixing and kneading
the dough for the future.
We can no longer prepare for the past.
We will and must and are called
to be Church,
and if He calls for other than roundtables
we are bound to follow
Leaving behind the sawdust
and chips, designs and redesigns
behind
All the while
being harmless as doves
and wily as serpents
in search of and in the presence of
the Kingdom
that is His and not ours
Amen.