Prayer: God we thank you and praise you that when we feel shut out and cut off from hope and wholeness, you welcome us. Be with us as we open our hearts to welcome others. Prepare our hearts and minds to receive a word from you. Lord, you are high and lifted up in this place. Stay close by us, we need you today. In the name of Jesus. Amen.

You may recall from the current issue of the newsletter that the sermon series for August is titled, “Family Matters”. In the spirit of full disclosure, I want you to know that I do not intend to offer a series of sermons on so-called “traditional family values” which suggest that only families that look just like the ones in which some of us were raised or just like the ones we loved to watch on TV can be successful. While we might enjoy the wit and wisdom of the Nelsons, the Cleavers, and the Huxtables, they are not the only model of family. While we might shake our heads at the loving but slightly dysfunctional Bunkers, Jeffersons, and Simpsons, we know that every kind of family, two-parent, one parent, disruptive children, wonderful children, every kind of family formation has its ups and downs, its successes and failures, its good days and bad. But that’s not really my point either.

My point will be to help us celebrate our church family as we recall some biblical family stories. These stories will help remind us of hospitality and hostility, reunion and responsibility. In the process, we just might learn something about the church family to which we belong.

It is true you know that we enter church communities the same way we enter families. For the most part, we enter families by birth, marriage, or adoption. Through all of those ways, and any others by which we come into the community of Christ’s church, we grow stronger and we grow healthier when we welcome one another into this community as Christ has welcomed us.

How many of you were born into this church family? You came here as infants or young children and have been here ever since?

How many of you came to this congregation because you married someone who was already a member here?

How many of you were not born into this church, and did not marry into it, but came to Broad Street Christian Church at the invitation of a member or you found us and were led to make this your church family? In a sense you were adopted into this congregation.

Among my favorite Bible verses about adoption into the Christian family is the one we heard in the first reading, “Welcome one another, as Christ has welcomed you” (Romans 15.7). Your Bible might say “receive”, or “accept” one another. However the word comes to you, hear it as a word about inclusion.

An example of welcome and inclusion for us today comes from a brief, but significant event during the reign of King David. The ninth chapter of II Samuel tells the story of reconciliation, forgiveness, promise, and unending hospitality.

Life for David had been an amazing journey. He could throughout his life been called, shepherd boy, giant killer, master soldier, chair of Saul’s Joint Chiefs of Staff. He David once played the music that soothed Saul’s nerves and calmed his psyche. But things changed. Saul grew increasingly jealous of David, who had become close friends with Saul’s son Jonathan. David was meant to be a leader, and so he was. He was meant to be a man of faith and so he was, he was meant to be a king, and so he became, but not until Saul, who had come to resent David and Jonathan, his intimate friend, were killed in battle. David mourned for Jonathan.

Eventually, King David brought together the northern kingdom of Israel and the southern kingdom of Judah. But David did not forget his friend Jonathan. While he sits in his palaces, and reflects on how far God has brought him, and on what a blessed man he is, surely his thoughts turned to a promise he had made. The promise was made on a day when David was hiding from Saul and Jonathan was about to go into battle, Jonathan prays for the protection of David, and says to him, “if I die, never cut off your faithful love from my house.” (I Samuel 20.14b-15a). Now David wants to honor the covenant, the sacred agreement he made with Jonathan. He begins to inquire as to whether there are any relatives of Saul’s still living.

In the meantime, over in Lodebar sits Jonathan’s son Mephibosheth. We don’t know very much about him except that he had a physical disability. It seems that Mephibosheth was about five years old when his grandfather and father were killed in battle. When the news reached the place where he was, his nurse grabbed the child and fled. But in the rush to get out of the house, Mephibosheth fell, or was dropped, or maybe his legs were banged against the wall. Whatever the case, his legs or feet were broken, and he never recovered from the injury (II Samuel 4.4).

David discovers through Ziba, the identity of Jonathan’s son. All these years later, David brings Mephibosheth, along with his son Mica to his house, and hires the servant Ziba and his family to care for him. What is David thinking? Two answers are possible.

One answer is political and cynical. After all, Mephibosheth was the grandson of the now martyred king. He had a right to claim the throne for himself and his descendants. He could have fought David for it. David was smart and some looking at him providing a place for Mephibosheth, giving him servants and keeping him close would see a shrewd politician.

There are no cynics here, but if there were, they might say that David wasn’t really all that interested in Mephibosheth’s welfare. He just wants him where he can see him and his presence in his house is little more than house arrest with a pool, a butler, and digital cable TV. Mephibosheth’s physical condition may have prevented him from mounting an uprising, but David could not be sure. The cynical point of view carries animosity from generation to generation. It is what made Mephibosheth, when he was brought to David fell at his feet with fear.

Look at Mephibosheth on his knees, his legs and feet aching with the effort to bow before David. Listen to his heart pound as he wonders why he’s now been brought before the king. Feel the dryness in his throat. You know he is thinking, “I was doing fine in Lodebar and now here I am at the feet of the man who loved my father, but battled with my grandfather. What is going to happen to me here?”

Thank God David’s thinking is neither nakedly political nor hopelessly cynical. What is David thinking? He is thinking of covenant and honor and love. David is about creating an extended family and as he does, we can feel the relief in Mephibosheth body. Listen as David says to him, “don’t be afraid. Mephibosheth, no one here will harm you. You have not been brought here to my house to be chained or exiled or imprisoned.

“Your father and I were beloved friends. He loved me and I loved him and all that was your grandfather’s, all that would have been your father’s is now yours. Your grandfather’s servant Ziba and his family will take of the land, you will get the profits.

“Mephibosheth, you are not my prisoner. I am creating a new family here and you will be as another son to me. From this day until the day our lives end, you will eat my table. And so it was. David wasn’t about revenge or keeping a potential rival close by him. David was about honoring a covenant, living out of and up to a promise he made with Jonathan. As he does he teaches us something about what it means to create a family.

In some ways, you and I are Mephibosheth. Many of us have found ourselves doing just fine in one place, when we are suddenly in a new place wondering what is going to happen to us. How we long to hear these same words of welcome and peace.

We know the uncertainty of new places, of new experiences, of not knowing if we will be respected for whom we are or whether when we get to a new place, we’ll have to change. And the truth is, new people, a baby born, an in-law acquired, a child adopted - will change a family forever. We decide whether the charge is brings fear or whether it makes the family stronger. We are all part of something larger than we are. We are part of a divinely created family.

David created a new family when he welcomed Mephibosheth into his home. As he did he lived out his promise to Jonathan, he honored his covenant and points us to the ways we can honor ours. We have a covenant too. Our covenant was made when we said yes to being followers of Jesus Christ and when we receive new members into the church, we are creating a new family. Sometimes in order to create a family we have to put some things aside.

Like David, we especially have to lay aside the notion that the family table cannot be expanded. Like many of you I have a table that is set up for four people. But there are two extra leaves - and if necessary the table can be expanded to fit eight.

David could have kept his table small. He could have kept it small by living in the past and remembering how things fell apart with Saul. He might have been tempted to blame Saul for Jonathan’s death. Mephibosheth could have been no more than a symbol of what David had lost. But David let the past be the past, and he looked toward a future with Mephibosheth at his table, as an adopted son for the rest of their lives.

God led David to expand his table, and God invites us to do the same. It is in fact what we do each time we welcome members into this church family. That’s why we take the time to welcome them with prayer and hugs, and fellowship. There’s room here to expand more, that’s why a representative group of us just spent eight weeks in a discernment process, that ‘s why we have fellowship opportunities like the church picnic, and worship that is exciting and inspirational. Expand your table, let’s find more difficult but worthwhile topics to study for the good of the whole church. Get to know new people here, invite them into your circle of friends, take a new person to lunch. Make your table bigger.

When David brought Mephibosheth to his table, he made it possible for both of them to know a measure of peace. When we bring people to our table, three things happen. First, we bring blessing to others. Second, we are just doing for others what had been done for us. We have been blessed to find a welcome in this place, we can do no less for others. And third, a table has already been prepared for us. David’s table is a preview of the heavenly table at which we will sit.

Jesus Christ has prepared a place for us at his banquet table. We practice for that heavenly meal every Sunday when we share the Lord’s Supper. When we break bread together we are getting ready to take our place at Christ’s table. At that table where a leaf has been added for us, the past is past, and former adversaries are brothers and sisters. Praise God as we pull up our chairs at that divine table, we will know what David and Mephibosheth knew. We will know like they knew, reconciliation with those from who we have been divided, forgiveness for our sins, the promise of a place at the table fulfilled, unending hospitality and God’s eternal love.

There’s a place at that table for me and for you, where we will all find welcome. While we wait for the heavenly family to create room for us, may we find here in this place, strength, joy, salvation, and hope, and may we always, welcome one another as Jesus Christ has welcomed us. Praise and thanks be to God. Amen.

Dr. LaTaunya M. Bynum
Senior Pastor