At the table we eat and drink to another reality and toward another order. And if we are to understand shalom at all,...we shall understand it at the table. It is at the table as nowhere else that we get our minds off ourselves long enough to think of His promises and His tasks. Most of the time the church is busy worrying about wellbeing, survival, reputation, success. At the table we occasionally get these temptation in perspective and see that they do not really matter./ No doubt it is not possible for us as the church, any more than any other commmunity, to live always with that demanding reassuring awareness. But what a marvel and a gift! We have given to us, and can value that moment of truth when we come face to face with realities that let us get free of our immobilising self-preoccupation.
Walter Brueggemann, Living Toward a Vision (United Church Press, 1982), 143.
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