On a Typical Monday

On a typical Monday afternoon, Paula Sattler’s family knows where to find her. She’s making supper for Jesus. And she’s probably got help. Each week in Lake Norden, SD (population 350 on a good day) the doors of the Covenant Church open for a community ministry simply called Table. Paula leads a core of volunteers who come from various churches in town, or no church, in preparing balanced meals for anyone who wants to come and eat.
Table. The word is a crowd, a thousand images. To be at table goes way out past belly filling. To be at table with others is to be in community with them. Needs previously unknown are met, hungers which have gone unnoticed are quieted. Table means family, safety, reconciliation, mercy, freedom. Hold on to those pictures of table and you begin to get close to what goes on here.
We started Table when I was the pastor at Lake Norden Covenant Church. Our intention was simple: feed the hungry. But, as is so often the case with Jesus centered service, much more has happened.
We at the Covenant Church had talked for a long time about issues like hunger, loneliness, evangelism, and service in a holistic package in our little town, as well as our own need to be Jesus to our community. We’d had opportunity to participate in a ministry called The Banquet in Watertown, a town of 20,000 some 25 miles away. The Banquet makes no bones about being a service to the poor and residents of group homes for mentally retarded adults. In the fall of 2001 we began to talk about how we could emulate that dynamic ministry.
At our initial meetings with representatives from the other churches in town, we thought to imitate the organizational structure of The Banquet, complete with a Board of Directors with two members from every participating church, volunteers pulled from surrounding churches and service organizations, and a focus on “helping the poor”. We soon realized, however, that it was our job to do the work, that we needed one “chef”, that no one likes to be identified as “the poor”, even if its true, and that hunger wears many guises.
The flavor of what we finally arrived at after a few months of just doing it is unique and has lent itself to ministry we could never have foreseen or planned. There is no sharp line between “workers” and “guests”. Everyone is welcome in the kitchen, and many people head to the sink to wash a few dishes on their way out the door. The cooks make sure to get out and eat, and if they don’t, someone heads in and takes over for a while. The organizational style of Table has sometimes been described as “organic”, “very hippie”, and “liquid leadership”. Whatever it is, it works. Table is a success by whatever standard we can apply.
First, the people who show up and make the food are often the poorer members of the community. Many of them are participants in Paula and her husband Jeff’s “Trailer Trash Bible Study”. They, often labeled by society as “needy”, provide for the needs of others. In fact, some helpers stop by the local food pantry first, then show up to cook, set tables, fill salt shakers, and greet diners. In this context, for these people, receiving are literally two sides of the same coin. They may feel awkward when a plate passes through Sunday’s pews, but at Monday’s Table they give time and talent and effort.
Then there are the people who come to eat. They come for a variety of reasons. Some come because there’s not much in the cupboard, some come because they’re lonely, some come out of boredom, others come to support a good thing. People of mixed social, economic, religious, and family backgrounds sit together, linger over dessert. Breaking bread they become bread for each other.
When we first started Table, some of the community members feared we’d use food to coax them into the church and then hit them with an evangelism bomb. Don’t think it wasn’t suggested. “You have a captive audience,” some said. Suggestions for “evangelism” ranged from Christian music in the background, to devotions, prayer, and sign up sheets for church activities. We resisted, believing that acting like Jesus is better than talking about Jesus. Now some of those same people who balked at coming to church for supper have been on mission trips, attend Bible studies, and serve at Table. They’ve seen the good news of Jesus in action, they’ve sat at table and stood at sinks with people whose struggles are changed (not eliminated) by the Holy Spirit, the gospel has rubbed against their wounds, they’ve tasted and seen the goodness of God.
Three churches in Lake Norden (ELCA, General Conference Baptist, and Evangelical Covenant) actively and regularly participate in Table. Those three churches have historically cooperated in VBS, a yearly outdoor worship service, and Lenten gatherings, but Table seems to have raised ecumenism to a different level.
Table reaches children and, through them, their parents. As Paula says, “The kids in this town can’t seem to remember to come home on time, but they all know five o’clock Monday afternoon.” Families eventually come, and everyone greets them with excitement. Then they come back.
Reconciliation happens at the Table. I’ve seen sisters- the grown women kind- forget heir feud and stir stock pots together. Friends who have been estranged set up tables and reset their relationships. Baptists and Lutherans shove into the same hot sink and battle roaster pans. The only theology among the suds is the theology of the Son of Man who came not to serve but to be served.
We started Table in January 2002. Paula and Jeff (who are not wealthy by any stretch) donated the first meal. After some debate, we put a basket out for donations. Since then, anywhere from forty to eighty have eaten, and eaten well. Nearly every week, the basket pays for the meal. Once a year the Table crew does a bake sale to raise money to recharge the checking account, but then they can’t resist giving some of in away to pay for a yearly pilgrimage to Pine Ridge Indian Reservation for Thanksgiving.
Many theologians have pointed out that what made Jesus a unique figure in the first century was his “radically inclusive table fellowship”. I tend to think that observation belongs as much to our era, as well. As Table has unfolded itself on the Lake Norden community, we have found the deep truth of such statements. It is literally impossible to call ourselves followers of Jesus without the hard work of actually following.
Table is nothing like a church supper; it is a reflection, however pale, through whatever dim glass, of the kingdom of God. As far as it is possible to say so in a place like Lake Norden, “Many (have) come from the east and the west, the north and the south, and (have sat) at table in the kingdom of God.” Church people, community folk, the pious, the liars, the rich, the poor, the gregarious, the shy, the penitent, the searching, the strong, the weak, the fearful, the proud, the workers, the management: they’re all there.