WEBVTT 00:00:01.600 --> 00:00:06.660 Howdy. It's time to go home for Thanksgiving 00:00:06.660 --> 00:00:09.199 break, and you're not really sure what you're 00:00:09.199 --> 00:00:12.660 walking into as you come home from college. You 00:00:12.660 --> 00:00:14.939 know that you and your dad cannot talk about 00:00:14.939 --> 00:00:18.379 politics, not because either of you lacks opinions, 00:00:18.539 --> 00:00:21.780 but because both of you have way too many. Your 00:00:21.780 --> 00:00:25.679 mom has opinions, too, about everything that 00:00:25.679 --> 00:00:28.280 you've done over the last few months. your sleep 00:00:28.280 --> 00:00:31.859 schedule, your major, your laundry habits, possibly 00:00:31.859 --> 00:00:35.719 your haircut, and definitely your diet. Your 00:00:35.719 --> 00:00:38.479 brother is annoyed by your very existence because, 00:00:38.600 --> 00:00:41.119 to be fair, that seems to have been his spiritual 00:00:41.119 --> 00:00:45.240 gift since birth. And your sister loves you but 00:00:45.240 --> 00:00:48.820 maybe resents that you left for college and she's 00:00:48.820 --> 00:00:51.820 still the one who has to do the dishes. All of 00:00:51.820 --> 00:00:55.340 this is waiting for you as you come home and 00:00:55.340 --> 00:00:58.719 you walk in the door You drop your bag, you take 00:00:58.719 --> 00:01:02.780 a breath, and suddenly you realize something 00:01:02.780 --> 00:01:09.819 very simple. You're so hungry. Sure, you've survived 00:01:09.819 --> 00:01:13.000 on pizza rolls, okay? Technically, they're edible 00:01:13.000 --> 00:01:16.959 and legally considered food in most of the bottom 00:01:16.959 --> 00:01:21.000 48. Nutritionally questionable, but don't even 00:01:21.000 --> 00:01:24.840 get started on the ramen. There's a deeper hunger, 00:01:25.040 --> 00:01:27.689 though. a hunger for a place where you're safe, 00:01:28.129 --> 00:01:30.670 where no one is grading you, where you don't 00:01:30.670 --> 00:01:34.030 have to prove anything, where you can just be 00:01:34.030 --> 00:01:39.109 you. And somehow, even with all the opinions 00:01:39.109 --> 00:01:42.709 and tensions and unresolved group chats, home 00:01:42.709 --> 00:01:47.370 is still that place. Because at home, there's 00:01:47.370 --> 00:01:51.069 a table, and at home, there's a chair, and somehow 00:01:51.069 --> 00:01:57.349 that chair is always your chair. Sometimes, though, 00:01:57.829 --> 00:02:01.790 it's not even a holiday table. Sometimes the 00:02:01.790 --> 00:02:05.010 table we find ourselves at is a hospital room 00:02:05.010 --> 00:02:08.610 with cold takeout balanced on a rolling tray, 00:02:09.569 --> 00:02:12.750 family members who haven't slept, paper cups 00:02:12.750 --> 00:02:15.669 of coffee that have long since grown lukewarm. 00:02:16.669 --> 00:02:20.030 But still, even at the times when things feel 00:02:20.030 --> 00:02:23.349 the most strained, someone is still saying, did 00:02:23.349 --> 00:02:27.800 you eat yet? You should eat something. Not because 00:02:27.800 --> 00:02:30.659 food fixes everything, and not because the moment 00:02:30.659 --> 00:02:34.000 is not somehow fragile and frightening, but because 00:02:34.000 --> 00:02:37.020 sitting down together, even in the middle of 00:02:37.020 --> 00:02:40.680 fear, is a quiet way of saying you are not alone. 00:02:41.479 --> 00:02:45.020 You still belong here. And that small ordinary 00:02:45.020 --> 00:02:47.300 table, wherever it may end up being, becomes 00:02:47.300 --> 00:02:51.319 a place of mercy. So what does it mean when you 00:02:51.319 --> 00:02:54.409 know that there's a table waiting for you? A 00:02:54.409 --> 00:02:57.069 place that already has your name on it. When 00:02:57.069 --> 00:03:00.009 that quiet longing, when that deep stubborn hunger 00:03:00.009 --> 00:03:03.830 is closer to longing for God than we usually 00:03:03.830 --> 00:03:07.770 admit. Not with the arguments that we had prepared 00:03:07.770 --> 00:03:10.990 and not with the performances in front of relatives, 00:03:11.669 --> 00:03:14.729 but with an invitation. Because scripture keeps 00:03:14.729 --> 00:03:17.810 telling the same story. God does not meet us 00:03:17.810 --> 00:03:22.229 with a test. God meets us with a table. And if 00:03:22.229 --> 00:03:25.250 you remember what we have seen in baptism, God 00:03:25.250 --> 00:03:28.409 meets us in these ordinary ways. Water poured 00:03:28.409 --> 00:03:31.289 on a humble head, promises spoken, a new life 00:03:31.289 --> 00:03:36.110 quietly begun. Not with spectacle, not with performance, 00:03:36.770 --> 00:03:41.930 just water, words, promise. And somehow, though 00:03:41.930 --> 00:03:46.050 something may be so ordinary, God says, you are 00:03:46.050 --> 00:03:51.560 mine, you belong, welcome home. God's presence 00:03:51.560 --> 00:03:54.139 turns the ordinary into something extraordinary. 00:03:54.680 --> 00:03:57.599 Coming to God's table, it's not about impressing 00:03:57.599 --> 00:04:00.539 him. It's about coming home. It's about discovering 00:04:00.539 --> 00:04:02.960 you were invited before you even knocked on the 00:04:02.960 --> 00:04:07.120 door. Imagine being a people with the table set 00:04:07.120 --> 00:04:11.580 before you go in the wilderness, not quite knowing 00:04:11.580 --> 00:04:15.280 what to do with it. See, Israel has just left 00:04:15.280 --> 00:04:20.110 Egypt and 400 years of slavery. Freedom... is 00:04:20.110 --> 00:04:23.829 still a new thing for them. Generations who never 00:04:23.829 --> 00:04:26.870 tasted freedom, generations who forgot what dignity 00:04:26.870 --> 00:04:30.949 felt like, and suddenly they're free, which sounds 00:04:30.949 --> 00:04:35.110 wonderful until you realize freedom also means 00:04:35.110 --> 00:04:42.189 no easy food supply, no army, no map, no idea 00:04:42.189 --> 00:04:46.290 what comes next. Freedom is glorious, and freedom 00:04:46.290 --> 00:04:50.480 is also terrifying. And now they stand at Mount 00:04:50.480 --> 00:04:53.459 Sinai, where they've been called, where they're 00:04:53.459 --> 00:04:57.560 meant to be safe, named by God, but not sure 00:04:57.560 --> 00:05:00.620 what's going to happen. And they are astonished. 00:05:00.879 --> 00:05:04.000 But what's astonishing is not just the thunder, 00:05:04.360 --> 00:05:07.759 the fire, the giant cloud and the ground trembling 00:05:07.759 --> 00:05:13.480 beneath their feet. It is that God is here and 00:05:13.480 --> 00:05:18.529 drawing them close to Himself. Not to destroy 00:05:18.529 --> 00:05:21.149 them and not to test them about whether they're 00:05:21.149 --> 00:05:25.269 worthy But to bring them to a stable See if you 00:05:25.269 --> 00:05:29.449 were there you would expect judgment Keep a safe 00:05:29.449 --> 00:05:33.389 distance a warning line in the sand do not come 00:05:33.389 --> 00:05:37.910 near here But something astonishing happens instead 00:05:37.910 --> 00:05:42.290 the leaders of Israel go up the mountain into 00:05:42.290 --> 00:05:47.240 the presence of God His very feet right there 00:05:47.240 --> 00:05:51.959 and they eat a meal Try to feel how strange that 00:05:51.959 --> 00:05:55.040 moment really is Sandals were scraping against 00:05:55.040 --> 00:05:57.800 the stone. The air was thick with smoke and thunder 00:05:57.800 --> 00:06:01.000 still echoing in their bones every step upward 00:06:01.000 --> 00:06:03.779 They're wondering if this is the step where the 00:06:03.779 --> 00:06:06.819 holiness breaks out against them and it is all 00:06:06.819 --> 00:06:10.360 over Because all their lives they had learned 00:06:10.360 --> 00:06:13.939 that sinners do not stroll casually into the 00:06:13.939 --> 00:06:17.899 presence of the living God. But there's no lightning 00:06:17.899 --> 00:06:20.920 strike. There's no voice of condemnation. There's 00:06:20.920 --> 00:06:26.399 no command to turn back. Only a table and food 00:06:26.399 --> 00:06:30.339 and the quiet permission to sit and to live. 00:06:31.620 --> 00:06:34.639 Because holiness did not consume them. Holiness 00:06:34.639 --> 00:06:38.740 made room for them. And the most astonishing 00:06:38.740 --> 00:06:41.339 miracle on that mountain was not the fire or 00:06:41.339 --> 00:06:45.279 the cloud or the shaking earth, it was that sinners 00:06:45.279 --> 00:06:49.620 sat down in peace and ate in the presence of 00:06:49.620 --> 00:06:55.180 God. Not a table in the presence of enemies, 00:06:56.399 --> 00:07:01.079 but a table in the presence of holiness. Because 00:07:01.079 --> 00:07:03.939 God's first instinct is not destruction of enemies, 00:07:04.699 --> 00:07:08.819 it is welcome. We know that these are not perfect 00:07:08.819 --> 00:07:11.579 people. We already know the failures that are 00:07:11.579 --> 00:07:14.939 going to come. The golden calf with Aaron himself. 00:07:15.240 --> 00:07:18.500 The complaining by the elders. The power struggles 00:07:18.500 --> 00:07:21.259 with Miriam and Elder. Even the broken worship 00:07:21.259 --> 00:07:26.319 with Nadab and Abihu. But still, God welcomes 00:07:26.319 --> 00:07:29.600 them to eat in his presence. If God were waiting 00:07:29.600 --> 00:07:32.420 for holiness to happen first, the meal would 00:07:32.420 --> 00:07:35.920 never happen. God's table though. It's it's not 00:07:35.920 --> 00:07:38.300 where the worthy are rewarded if that's what 00:07:38.300 --> 00:07:41.639 you're expecting you are sorely disabused of 00:07:41.639 --> 00:07:45.339 that notion but it is a place where the unworthy 00:07:45.339 --> 00:07:50.959 are received and slowly transformed The meal 00:07:50.959 --> 00:07:55.740 itself is the grace that transforms us and that 00:07:55.740 --> 00:07:59.459 sounds strangely familiar doesn't it it sounds 00:07:59.459 --> 00:08:04.379 something like the heart of God beautiful as 00:08:04.379 --> 00:08:07.459 he welcomes us to eat, as he gathers near, as 00:08:07.459 --> 00:08:11.480 he brings us to the table where we belong before 00:08:11.480 --> 00:08:15.920 we became who we're meant to be. Blessed are 00:08:15.920 --> 00:08:20.180 the poor in spirit, blessed are the meek, blessed 00:08:20.180 --> 00:08:24.379 are the hungry, not the impressive, not the powerful, 00:08:24.740 --> 00:08:29.180 not the put together ones, the ones who are hungry. 00:08:30.089 --> 00:08:32.809 And like the Beatitudes, God's blessing rests 00:08:32.809 --> 00:08:36.450 not on being impressive, but on the humble, the 00:08:36.450 --> 00:08:39.830 meek, the ordinary, the ones who are humble enough 00:08:39.830 --> 00:08:45.490 simply to receive. At God's table, fear becomes 00:08:45.490 --> 00:08:48.730 welcome, and welcome becomes the beginning of 00:08:48.730 --> 00:08:53.889 everything new in your life. What a strange thing, 00:08:54.169 --> 00:08:57.429 really. To sit in the presence of God and simply 00:08:57.429 --> 00:09:01.899 eat. No fear, no proving something, just a presence 00:09:01.899 --> 00:09:06.039 as powerful as we need it to be. But when we're 00:09:06.039 --> 00:09:09.139 welcomed, when we finally find that place where 00:09:09.139 --> 00:09:14.059 we belong, then we take it for granted. It feels 00:09:14.059 --> 00:09:18.659 too normal. It feels too everyday. It feels like 00:09:18.659 --> 00:09:21.659 we do this every week. Is it really that big 00:09:21.659 --> 00:09:24.940 a deal? But I want you to fast forward a few 00:09:24.940 --> 00:09:28.279 centuries. This is what we have been seeing these 00:09:28.279 --> 00:09:31.399 past weeks from Jesus. In baptism where something 00:09:31.399 --> 00:09:33.860 as simple as water is a doorway into the kingdom. 00:09:34.360 --> 00:09:36.639 In the Beatitudes where the blessed are not the 00:09:36.639 --> 00:09:39.179 impressive but the humble, the meek, the ordinary. 00:09:39.539 --> 00:09:42.980 And in being salt and light where faithfulness 00:09:42.980 --> 00:09:45.299 looks less like fireworks and more like feeding 00:09:45.299 --> 00:09:49.399 the hungry, caring for the poor, loving a neighbor. 00:09:50.200 --> 00:09:53.720 No light shows. No swinging down from the balcony. 00:09:55.039 --> 00:09:59.200 Caring. for the ones in need now we're on another 00:09:59.200 --> 00:10:03.139 mountain different people same god peter james 00:10:03.139 --> 00:10:07.299 john they climb up with jesus and suddenly everything 00:10:07.299 --> 00:10:13.139 changes the transfiguration suddenly this quiet 00:10:13.139 --> 00:10:18.220 ordinary road explodes with glory light brighter 00:10:18.220 --> 00:10:22.860 than sunlight history standing there in conversation 00:10:24.490 --> 00:10:27.649 the weight of glory pressing into the air. This 00:10:27.649 --> 00:10:31.090 is the kind of moment that the religious people 00:10:31.090 --> 00:10:35.429 would have dreamed of. Light, voices, Moses, 00:10:35.889 --> 00:10:40.889 Elijah, power, proof, vindication of everything 00:10:40.889 --> 00:10:44.009 those disciples had been doing. Finally, something 00:10:44.009 --> 00:10:48.490 undeniable. Everybody needs to see, right? And 00:10:48.490 --> 00:10:51.519 Peter thinks this is it. This is the turning 00:10:51.519 --> 00:10:54.419 point. This is the moment that God fixes everything. 00:10:55.379 --> 00:10:58.419 This is the moment that the power arrives. There's 00:10:58.419 --> 00:11:03.080 Elijah. This is what we were waiting for. This 00:11:03.080 --> 00:11:06.259 is the day everyone finally understands what 00:11:06.259 --> 00:11:09.500 Jesus the Messiah is doing, right? And of course 00:11:09.500 --> 00:11:13.440 he thinks that. Because he spent his whole life 00:11:13.440 --> 00:11:16.649 under the weight of someone else's empire. watching 00:11:16.649 --> 00:11:19.730 his people strain under taxes and soldiers and 00:11:19.730 --> 00:11:23.490 shame, hearing promises that someday God would 00:11:23.490 --> 00:11:29.330 act, really act, set things right. So when the 00:11:29.330 --> 00:11:31.710 mountain suddenly burns with glory and the heroes 00:11:31.710 --> 00:11:34.929 of Israel's past are standing there alive, when 00:11:34.929 --> 00:11:38.769 heaven itself feels close enough to touch, how 00:11:38.769 --> 00:11:41.129 could this not be the moment that everything 00:11:41.129 --> 00:11:44.320 changes, right? Of course Peter wants to hold 00:11:44.320 --> 00:11:46.919 on to it. Of course he wants to hold something 00:11:46.919 --> 00:11:50.539 permanent, build, because if the glory can stay, 00:11:50.740 --> 00:11:56.440 then maybe the suffering will go away. And all 00:11:56.440 --> 00:11:59.639 this stuff that Jesus had been talking about 00:11:59.639 --> 00:12:03.799 won't have to happen. So Peter starts talking. 00:12:04.559 --> 00:12:07.700 Because when humans encounter glory, we either 00:12:07.700 --> 00:12:11.279 fall silent or we start making stupid building 00:12:11.279 --> 00:12:15.639 plans. Let's build the tents. Let's organize 00:12:15.639 --> 00:12:17.840 this. Let's capture the moment because Peter 00:12:17.840 --> 00:12:25.000 still expects a Messiah as a spectacle Judgment 00:12:25.000 --> 00:12:28.860 against their foes reversal of so much evil fire 00:12:28.860 --> 00:12:33.500 from heaven to bring their victory but heaven 00:12:33.500 --> 00:12:38.259 interrupts him Not with instructions to build 00:12:38.259 --> 00:12:45.360 not with strategy just a voice Listen to my son. 00:12:48.759 --> 00:12:50.460 Because the glory on the mountain is not the 00:12:50.460 --> 00:12:55.379 destination. It never was. It's a sign pointing 00:12:55.379 --> 00:13:01.059 somewhere quieter. It's far more quiet, but far 00:13:01.059 --> 00:13:06.379 more costly. Jesus is not asking Peter, James, 00:13:06.460 --> 00:13:11.620 or John, or anybody to perform. Be still. Receive. 00:13:12.660 --> 00:13:17.539 Listen, the glory is real, but the invitation 00:13:17.539 --> 00:13:22.139 is quiet. They had already heard that invitation 00:13:22.139 --> 00:13:26.820 once. From the voice crying in the wilderness, 00:13:27.220 --> 00:13:31.039 remember him? Prepare the way, repent, be made 00:13:31.039 --> 00:13:35.899 humble. People didn't listen then, which means 00:13:35.899 --> 00:13:38.480 that they were never going to recognize the kind 00:13:38.480 --> 00:13:43.039 of Messiah who doesn't come with spectacle. who 00:13:43.039 --> 00:13:47.200 only comes with a quiet presence. So down the 00:13:47.200 --> 00:13:50.559 mountain they come, toward the suffering, toward 00:13:50.559 --> 00:13:54.799 the table, toward the cross. And that's a lot 00:13:54.799 --> 00:13:58.879 harder to accept than fireworks. Because we would 00:13:58.879 --> 00:14:03.240 prefer to have a dazzling God over the quiet 00:14:03.240 --> 00:14:08.759 present one. The kingdom keeps arriving in these 00:14:08.759 --> 00:14:11.730 small ordinary ways. the water on a forehead, 00:14:11.870 --> 00:14:13.909 the bread in the hand, the wine on the lips, 00:14:14.190 --> 00:14:16.950 the love in ordinary places, because God's glory, 00:14:17.149 --> 00:14:22.730 it rarely shouts. More often it sits quietly 00:14:22.730 --> 00:14:27.269 beside you and waits to be noticed. Our witness, 00:14:27.549 --> 00:14:30.669 it's not about being spectacular. It's about 00:14:30.669 --> 00:14:34.570 living faithfully in the ordinary love that is 00:14:34.570 --> 00:14:38.850 sometimes so difficult for us. Because God's 00:14:38.850 --> 00:14:43.169 glory, It doesn't appear in the fancy moments. 00:14:43.710 --> 00:14:46.289 It's in the quiet places where He's already near. 00:14:46.669 --> 00:14:49.789 The places where we truly know Him, not only 00:14:49.789 --> 00:14:54.370 as God above, but as God with us in the flesh. 00:14:55.789 --> 00:14:59.509 But what about that table? See, that's when the 00:14:59.509 --> 00:15:03.409 night comes when everything falls apart. Betrayal 00:15:03.409 --> 00:15:06.570 is in motion. Denial is already whispering in 00:15:06.570 --> 00:15:09.669 the shadows. The violence is only hours away. 00:15:11.210 --> 00:15:13.350 Jesus knows what is coming. He sees the cross 00:15:13.350 --> 00:15:16.789 ahead. If there were ever a moment for Jesus 00:15:16.789 --> 00:15:20.990 to display power, this would be it. But what 00:15:20.990 --> 00:15:27.250 does He do? He sets a table. No army. No escape 00:15:27.250 --> 00:15:30.649 plan. No giant explanation or defense of everything 00:15:30.649 --> 00:15:34.169 He's done. No final miracle to leave with one 00:15:34.169 --> 00:15:38.860 final display of glory. He sits down, he eats, 00:15:39.600 --> 00:15:42.620 he drinks. He stays with the ones that he loves, 00:15:42.700 --> 00:15:50.519 the friends who still don't understand. He gives 00:15:50.519 --> 00:15:53.299 them his presence in the holiest moment of all. 00:15:54.139 --> 00:15:56.419 As the hands reach for the bread, as the voices 00:15:56.419 --> 00:15:59.440 murmur, as people shift in their seats, this 00:15:59.440 --> 00:16:02.460 doesn't look like the end of the world, but it 00:16:02.460 --> 00:16:05.350 doesn't look like salvation either. It looks 00:16:05.350 --> 00:16:10.710 like bread and wine. Jesus gives them himself. 00:16:11.850 --> 00:16:14.009 When the world was breaking all around them, 00:16:14.009 --> 00:16:19.289 Jesus didn't explain it all. He fed them. This 00:16:19.289 --> 00:16:21.970 is what communion is. And this is what happens 00:16:21.970 --> 00:16:24.769 every time we gather at the table of the Lord. 00:16:25.090 --> 00:16:28.509 Not perfection, not spectacle, not something 00:16:28.509 --> 00:16:32.250 polished or impressive. Simply the presence of 00:16:32.250 --> 00:16:37.210 Christ. Hungry people fed at his table. Grace 00:16:37.210 --> 00:16:40.450 given freely and abundantly. And we discover 00:16:40.450 --> 00:16:43.669 again that we belong to one another as his body. 00:16:44.649 --> 00:16:50.009 Ordinary elements, extraordinary mercy. It's 00:16:50.009 --> 00:16:52.149 not because of the things that we feel, but because 00:16:52.149 --> 00:16:56.690 of what he promises. Just as how we receive grace 00:16:56.690 --> 00:17:00.049 freely given in baptism with his hands, with 00:17:00.049 --> 00:17:04.970 the bread, with the wine, his presence. His sacrifice 00:17:04.970 --> 00:17:10.710 was proclaimed. A miraculous reality in the simplest 00:17:10.710 --> 00:17:15.730 way possible. And suddenly Sinai makes sense. 00:17:16.609 --> 00:17:19.650 The mountain of glory makes sense because they 00:17:19.650 --> 00:17:23.049 were always leading here. Not with distance, 00:17:23.970 --> 00:17:27.589 not with mere symbolism, but with God himself 00:17:27.589 --> 00:17:32.509 feeding his people. So as we are entering this 00:17:32.509 --> 00:17:36.170 season of Lent, we remember something simple 00:17:36.170 --> 00:17:40.809 yet easily forgotten. The miracle is not in what 00:17:40.809 --> 00:17:43.609 dazzles us, it is in the ordinary presence of 00:17:43.609 --> 00:17:47.450 God. A meal with the elders, Jesus feeding his 00:17:47.450 --> 00:17:50.690 disciples, a quiet table of communion. The glory 00:17:50.690 --> 00:17:53.569 is not in what we do to earn it, but in what 00:17:53.569 --> 00:17:56.470 God has already done by welcoming us, by feeding 00:17:56.470 --> 00:18:00.180 us and inviting us to sit at his table. God with 00:18:00.180 --> 00:18:05.500 us in weakness, feeding us in mercy, staying 00:18:05.500 --> 00:18:09.339 when we would have ran away. So we do not come 00:18:09.339 --> 00:18:14.059 here today to perform. We come to receive. And 00:18:14.059 --> 00:18:19.680 having been fed, we are then sent. Not to prove 00:18:19.680 --> 00:18:23.259 something to the world, but to love it. To be 00:18:23.259 --> 00:18:27.559 salt, to be light, to be the ordinary grace in 00:18:27.559 --> 00:18:30.869 ordinary days. Because the table is not the end 00:18:30.869 --> 00:18:34.150 of the story. It is the beginning of a people 00:18:34.150 --> 00:18:38.529 sent into the world. Not to impress, but to remain 00:18:38.529 --> 00:18:43.150 faithful in a thousand unseen moments. Because 00:18:43.150 --> 00:18:46.509 Christ has already welcomed us and has already 00:18:46.509 --> 00:18:50.450 brought us home. So as we leave today and go 00:18:50.450 --> 00:18:53.529 back into the everyday lives, the presence of 00:18:53.529 --> 00:18:56.750 Christ doesn't stay here. The presence of Christ 00:18:56.750 --> 00:18:59.930 goes with us. as we have been fed and nourished 00:18:59.930 --> 00:19:05.230 by his word. You carry it into kitchens, offices, 00:19:05.829 --> 00:19:08.410 hospitals, classrooms, quiet conversations that 00:19:08.410 --> 00:19:11.809 no one else will ever hear. In relationships, 00:19:12.789 --> 00:19:15.950 in your work, in every quiet place where love 00:19:15.950 --> 00:19:19.630 is given in his name. And that, more than any 00:19:19.630 --> 00:19:22.029 mountain of light, is where the glory of God 00:19:22.029 --> 00:19:24.990 keeps appearing. Because the glory of God is 00:19:24.990 --> 00:19:29.240 not on a mountain top alone. It is with you, 00:19:29.500 --> 00:19:33.880 here and now, in the everyday. So this table 00:19:33.880 --> 00:19:36.720 of the Lord is only the beginning. Because one 00:19:36.720 --> 00:19:38.779 day after all the long roads you have walked, 00:19:39.279 --> 00:19:41.740 after every sorrow that you've followed, after 00:19:41.740 --> 00:19:44.299 every hunger that you have tried to hide that 00:19:44.299 --> 00:19:48.519 God already knows, you will come home to a place 00:19:48.519 --> 00:19:51.500 you did not build and live a life you did not 00:19:51.500 --> 00:19:55.559 earn. And the door will be open for you. The 00:19:55.559 --> 00:19:59.039 table will be set. and your chair that no one 00:19:59.039 --> 00:20:04.259 else can take is waiting for you. Not in a home 00:20:04.259 --> 00:20:08.000 that was your own, but because Christ brought 00:20:08.000 --> 00:20:14.220 you to his home. So in his name, welcome home. 00:20:15.480 --> 00:20:16.099 Thanks be to God.