As people of faith, we need to remember that when we gather, Jesus is there. How we treat each other, speak to each other, and interact with each other when we gather impacts our community. Because, if a community of faith can’t or won’t treat each other with love, what does that say about how we will treat those outside of this community?
September 14, 2025
The Welcome Table
“Come to the Table: Love”
Romans 13: 8-14
Matthew 18: 15-20
Rev. Dr. Heather W. McColl
Romans 13: 8-14
Don’t be in debt to anyone, except for the obligation to love each other. Whoever loves another person has fulfilled the Law. The commandments, Don’t commit adultery, don’t murder, don’t steal, don’t desire what others have, and any other commandments, are all summed up in one word: You must love your neighbor as yourself. Love doesn’t do anything wrong to a neighbor; therefore, love is what fulfills the Law. As you do all this, you know what time it is. The hour has already come for you to wake up from your sleep. Now our salvation is nearer than when we first had faith. The night is almost over, and the day is near. So let’s get rid of the actions that belong to the darkness and become instruments of peace and light. Let’s behave appropriately as people who live in the day, not in frivolity and indulgence, not in sleeping around and obscene behavior, in bickering and grabbing everything in sight. Instead, dress yourself with the Lord Jesus Christ, and don’t plan to indulge your selfish desires.
Matthew 18: 15-20
Don’t be in debt to anyone, except for the obligation to love each other. Whoever loves another person has fulfilled the Law. The commandments, Don’t commit adultery, don’t murder, don’t steal, don’t desire what others have, and any other commandments, are all summed up in one word: You must love your neighbor as yourself. Love doesn’t do anything wrong to a neighbor; therefore, love is what fulfills the Law. As you do all this, you know what time it is. The hour has already come for you to wake up from your sleep. Now our salvation is nearer than when we first had faith. The night is almost over, and the day is near. So let’s get rid of the actions that belong to the darkness and become instruments of peace and light. Let’s behave appropriately as people who live in the day, not in frivolity and indulgence, not in sleeping around and obscene behavior, in bickering and grabbing everything in sight. Instead, dress yourself with the Lord Jesus Christ, and don’t plan to indulge your selfish desires.
Come to the Table: Love Rom 13:8-14; Mat 18:15-20
Earlier this week, a previous sermon of mine was shared on Facebook. I share this not to gloat but to simply say I recognize what a humbling place and position I am so honored to hold and with which I am entrusted…to be able to stand each week as a minister of the Gospel of Jesus Christ offering the Good News, to spend time in prayer and meditation, discerning the words and wisdom of the Spirit for a time such as this. It truly is an odd and wondrous calling…
I share all this this morning because in going back to listen to that sermon once more, I realized what a weird and wonderful moment it truly was and is for me. When I listened to the sermon once more, it was with fear and trembling, hoping that I conveyed the message which was shared with me. I will also admit, going back and listening to that sermon once more, it was an extremely humbling experience for me as well, knowing that something I said a year ago is still having an impact on an individual. It was a reminder again that words matter, that what we say matters, that how we convey our words matter, that in this digital age, our words have lingering effects and can always be pulled up with a few clicks of a keyboard.
Again, I share all this as an acknowledgment to myself and more importantly to you, the community of faith of Midway Christian Church both in person and online, I share all this as an acknowledgment of the sacred mantle of trust placed upon my shoulders as a minister of the Gospel message of Jesus Christ. Because the aforementioned sermon was shared just a few days after another school shooting in the United States. The context for the sermon was the sacred story of the two Hebrew women who chose life over death for numerous Hebrew boys. In that sermon, I encouraged this community of faith to be brave.
That encouragement still holds. I stand by my words for us as people of faith to be brave in a time such as this, to as Paul says it in our text today, to get rid of the actions that belong to the darkness and become instruments of peace and light, to as Matthew says it, to remember that wherever two or three are gathered, Jesus is there in our midst. All of that still holds and I would add…to know that Love doesn’t do anything wrong to a neighbor, that to quote a few artists who are more poetic than me…. “When all your hopes are shattered, And you feel like your soul is a sea, Your dreams don’t seem to matter, Your heart is bruised and battered, You can’t feel anything, When your world has gone to hell and there’s No story left to tell… Love anyway”
Or let me say it this way… When I was planning this series, I assumed this whole come to the table of love was an invitation from me, from us to the people out there, as a way to let everyone know who we are, what we stand for us as a community of faith. And yes it is still is that AND it is also an invitation for me, for us, for all the people out there to come to the table of love and know love and light will overcome, to know that death and destruction will not have the last word, to know that I can, we can come to the Table of love with all that we are. Our hurt, our anger, our frustration, our fear, our worry, our sadness, our dismay, our question of where is God in all this mess. That we can come to the Table with all that we are, that we can gather together and engage in conversation, that we can gather together for hope and healing, that we can gather together as we show the world we choose to love anyway. This invitation to come to the Table of Love is for all of us to come and gather so that we can find renewal, strength, and encouragement in times such as this.
Because, for me, it is at the Table of Love, I experience most deeply and most profoundly the presence of God. It is at the Table of Love where I know that I am forever bound to my God, to the Body of Christ through the bread and cup…gifts given to me by my God to nourish me, to sustain me, to comfort me, to remind me that the ordinary can and does become extraordinary, and more importantly to strengthen me for the work of building up God’s Beloved Community for all of God’s people here and now. It is at the Table of Love where I learn how to love anyway…not because of who I am but because of who my God is. My God who is faithful from generation to generation. My God who is steadfast. My God who recklessly and illogically loves this world so much that God gave God’s only Son so that we might live. For me, it is at the Table of Love where my God reminds me over and over again…this world will not have the last word.
I wish I had some words of wisdom or a great sermon illustration to bring it all home. All I have got is an invitation…an invitation to come to the Table of Love, not just because our hurting world out there needs to hear it again. We as people of faith also need to hear it once more as well. We need to hear that whenever two or three are gathered, Jesus is there. We need to know that the good news of the Gospel matters, not for the world’s sake but for our sake. We need to hear that all of us, all of us who are tired, who are worn out, whose shoulders are drooping under the weight of the world, all of us who are wondering if God has still got this, all of us are invited to come to the Table of Love and hear once more the words that transformed us, that shape us, that are the core of our identity as disciples of Christ, those words being…When you do this in remembrance of me…you show the world a different way to be.
For all of us here, for all of us connected to the Body of Christ, whether you are in a church or not, For everyone born, there is a place at the table of Love for you, for me, for all of us. It is a place to gather, a place to be embraced as a Beloved Child of God, a place to bring all that we are and know that the promise of God’s love still holds.
For everyone born there is a place at the Table of Love, to gather, to become instruments of peace and light so that we can fulfill our call as disciples of Christ which is simply this…to love anyway. May it be so. Amen.
See also: Theology Tuesday for Sunday, September 14, 2025 – Come to the Table: Love Rom 13:8-14; Mat 18:15-20.
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