At the Lord’s table, we see how God extends hospitality to the excluded. Around the table, Jesus eats with sinners and tax collectors. At one meal in particular (the last supper) he expresses his expectations for his followers. After washing their feet (serving them) he instructs them to follow his example. He tells them to love each other as he has loved them.

The Church must practice God’s hospitality. This involves loving service to each other but also means expanding who ‘each other’ is. Just as God invites us (outsiders) to the table, so we must also invite our outsiders to the table. So God wants us to reach out to people unlike us, People whose politics, life experience, racial or ethnicity, social class, or any other distinction, tempts us to exclude them. We see the church wrestle with this calling in Acts as the Spirit leads them to cross their own inviolable barriers by bringing the good news to the Gentiles. So today, God also wants us to cross our own barriers, welcoming them at the Lord’s Table so we can love them as he has loved us.