Making Room

I’m going to do something that might embarrass a few people and tell a story about them. The last time there was a chance to sign up for Dinner Rounds at church (which is a group of 8-12 people that take turns hosting dinners at each of their homes), Ben and I signed up hoping to meet a few new people. As it turns out, seven of us have stuck together and formed an on-going group that meets about eight times a year. The original intention was to get to know a few people over the course of a year or less, but we’ve been going for about 3 years. We were scheduled to meet again and we had a house guest staying with us, so we asked the group if it would be okay to bring him along. We obviously know this group well enough to know that they would be welcoming and friendly. But I was still struck by the hospitality and goodness of these five other people to make space in a group that now has lots of “inside” jokes and ways of hanging out together. Every person made an effort to get to know our friend. They were, even dining al fresco, the church in the truest and best sense of that word. They cared, they listened, they were curious about someone else. And they were authentically themselves, in a very winsome and welcoming way. I knew they were great people, but as I sat at the table with these friends eating, laughing, and talking about God and life, I was really impressed with them and the way they had of putting a stranger at ease. So Ronna, Dave, Teresa, John and Pat, you have really captured the reality of this quote from Dorothy Day:

“We cannot love God unless we love each other, and to love we must know each other: We know Him in the breaking of bread, and we are not alone any more. Heaven is a banquet and life is a banquet, too, even with a crust, where there is companionship.”

Now that I’ve had my chance to tell a story, what story do you have of the church breaking out in meaningful ways?