In 1922, the Florida Normal Quartet introduced a song with Biblical roots that connected with a related African-American spiritual. The song was reintroduced numerous times, and is currently on YouTube recorded by Courtney Patton's Southern Gospel Revival. It is a great song with lots to say.
Two Scriptures come to mind when you hear this song. The first (and what the original song was based upon) is the wedding feast of the Lamb in Revelation 19:6-9. Christ's bride (the Church) has been brought to the wedding feast and is referred to as "Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb (Rev. 19:9)!" The other passage is the Parable of the Great Banquet in Luke 14:15-24. In the parable many of the invited guests are too busy with their lives to attend the great feast. The owner of the great house is angry that the 'invited' are so self-focused that they must make excuses and beg out of the feast. So, the owner says, "Go out quickly to the streets and alleys of the town and bring the poor, the crippled, the blind and the lame (Luke 14:21)."
Lots of 'meat' in these two passages. First, we have a myriad of people who feel they are 'invited,' in fact guaranteed, a place at "The Table." And it is true that many are invited to God's table. I would venture to say that we (the Church) are to invite everyone to God's table. But the point of the parable is that being invited isn't choosing to be at the table. Our free will, our pension for being self-directed and our propensity for placing our priorities before God's priorities can have eternal implications. To sit at the table, to enjoy God's company and to join in the wedding feast, we must choose God over other stuff.
Second, God is pretty good at calling our bluff. He hears us sing the songs about 'the land over yonder' and he watches us on Sunday morning as we worship. But God looks deep. Is our worship 'in Spirit and Truth' as God clearly desires ("God is Spirit and those who worship Him must worship in Spirit and Truth [John 4:24]")? So, God, in the parable and in the verse from Revelation, calls us to account. Will we be able to meet on God's terms at God's place in God's time? The big question here is, "How are YOU prioritizing God right now, today?" Are you checking out property, buying oxen or focused on personal events? God is asking, "Tell me where I fit in!"
Finally, God isn't a respecter of our categorizations of people. God values our brokenness more than our stature. I wonder if this passage is saying what Matthew 11:28 is saying ... "Come to me, all who are weary and heavy laden." I wonder if the invitation to these two banquets have a little note at the bottom of the invite-card that says "The unbroken need not come."
Back to the song. The lyrics say, "I'm gonna sit at the welcome table ... I'm gonna sit at the welcome table one of these days!" That table requires me to place God before self. That table requires me to confess brokenness. That table is for those who need God. In Matthew 5:3-11 God (I believe) lists many of the requirements for that welcome table ... go read them. Many of us wouldn't place much value on the people God views as "blessed." But I guess that table, the banquet hall, pretty much everything, doesn't belong to us. It is the owner's house. Wanna go? Randy
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