The Table - Part 2
Passages (First Nations Version): Luke 5:27-32, Luke 22:14-20, Luke 24:28-35
Preacher: Mark Kingston
This Sunday I spoke about how awesome things happen around God’s tables. And by that, I don’t just mean communion, but any table set well for others in Jesus’ name.
We looked at how Jesus often used tables to show what God is like. In Luke 5, when He ate with tax collectors and sinners at Levi’s house, the table became a place of belonging. At the Last Supper in Luke 22, it became a place of remembering. And in Luke 24, on the road to Emmaus, it became a place of revelation, where the disciples recognised the risen Jesus and hope came alive again.
That’s what happens around God’s tables. The lonely find belonging. The forgetful remember grace. The hopeless taste joy. The fearful find peace. And together we see God more clearly.
Our church has always understood this. When our current Church building was first imagined, it was meant to not just be a sanctuary, but a concert venue, and a restaurant too - a place for worship, beauty, and shared meals. Many of you have helped set those tables over the years, creating spaces where people have laughed, connected, and been cared for.
But I believe God may now be nudging us to set new kinds of tables, ones that reach further into our community.
The first dream I shared is shown in the picture below. This is a mock-up of what it might look like to turn the space under the balcony into a small café or lounge.
Imagine it: a warm, welcoming place open during the week where anyone could come for coffee, conversation, or quiet. This could be a ‘first step’, a way to see how God might bless it and how people might use it, need it, and respond to it.
The second dream is much bigger. Imagine a new community café and kitchen built beside the church, with a children’s play area and landscaped outdoor space. A place filled with life and friendship, where people can eat, rest, learn, and find hope together.
Imagine it: walking up and catching the smell of fresh bread drifting out the door. You can hear laughter from children playing nearby while parents sit and talk over coffee. Inside, volunteers are cooking meals for neighbours who are struggling. In the kitchen, others are learning how to bake, can fruit, make soup, or lay a table beautifully. It’s a space alive with the simple holiness of shared work and shared food, where people are fed in body and spirit, and where the presence of Jesus quietly but surely fills the room.
Bringing this kind of vision into reality would take far more time, money, and planning than we have on our own. But these things shouldn’t make us afraid. What matters most is discernment: asking together, “Lord, is this something You are nudging us to do?” Because if it is, then we can trust this truth: where God guides, He provides.
So, as you pray this week, take time to listen and notice what rises in you as you think about these dreams. What excites you, what stirs, what feels uncertain or hopeful? I’d love to hear what you sense God might be saying, especially after you’ve had space to pray and reflect. This is something we’ll discern slowly and intentionally together, trusting that God will guide us clearly as we listen to Him together.
Remember, awesome things really do happen around God’s tables. They always have. They still do. And perhaps the next one He’s asking us to imagine will be big enough so that anyone in Gibsons who comes looking for welcome, friendship, or rest will find a place…
REFLECTION QUESTIONS
Jesus’ Tables
When you think about the tables Jesus shared in Scripture, which one speaks most to you right now: belonging, remembering, or revelation? Why?Your Own Table
How have you experienced God’s presence or kindness around a table in your own life?Imagining the Café
As you imagine the space under the balcony becoming a café or lounge area, what do you picture God doing there? Who do you see being drawn in?Honest Feelings
When you think about the bigger dream of a community café and kitchen, what feelings rise in you? That might be excitement or hope, but it could just as easily be uncertainty, concern, or doubt.Listening Together
As you pray this week, what do you sense the Spirit might be nudging you or us toward in setting new tables for our town?
