The Table
Dear Church Family,
This past Sunday we kicked off our new series, At the Table: What Technology Can’t Replace, and this week we named something almost all of us feel: we’ve never had more ways to connect, and we’ve rarely felt more alone. Technology used to be a room in the house. Now it’s in our pockets, on our wrists, and in our kitchens, and it’s trying to take a seat at the table. About half of American adults now use AI chatbots, and the share of Americans who say they have no close friends at all has quadrupled since 1990. We used to call our buddy Floyd when the car made a weird noise, or call Mom when the baby wouldn’t nap. Now we ask a screen first. We get faster answers, but we lose something along the way. The cost of convenience is connection.
Here’s the truth underneath it: technology can give us a taste of connection, but it can’t embrace us, love us, forgive us, or make us feel a part of something. Every one of us longs to be loved, accepted, and redeemed, and only the Table Maker can give us that. Jesus doesn’t send a notification. He knocks.
“Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with that person, and they with me.” (Revelation 3:20)
We saw it in two stories. In Luke 15, a son who wasted everything comes home rehearsing a servant speech, and his father runs down the road, throws his arms around him, and throws a feast, because “this son of mine was dead and is alive again.” And in 2 Samuel 9, Mephibosheth, lame in both feet and hiding in a town called Lo Debar, calls himself a “dead dog,” but King David gives him a permanent seat at his table “like one of the king’s sons.” He wasn’t invited because of who he was. He was invited because of who his father was. And that’s the gospel. We don’t get a seat at Jesus’s table because of what we can earn. We get it because of who our Father is.
“See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are!” (1 John 3:1)
That’s also why we launched two services this week. We’re not just adding a service to fit more people in; we’re setting more places at the table. Somewhere in Kokomo, someone is in Lo Debar right now, convinced they’re too far gone. The Father is still running, and the King is still setting places.
So here’s the question to carry into this week: which one do you most need right now, to be loved, accepted, or redeemed? Whatever your answer, the door is open and the table is ready.
We’d love to have you with us for the rest of the series.
-Pastor Aaron Perry