Below is the weekly chaplain's newsletter called 'Table Talk' that I write for the Lower School division of Holy Innocents' Episcopal School.
Dear Golden Bears
and Parents,
This semester in
chapel, we’ve discovered how people find God’s love and goodness through the arts,
through service, through nature, and through songs. While it may strike many as
sounding odd, finding God’s love and goodness through fasting and feasting is
one of the central themes of Judaism and Christianity.
Yom Kipper, the
Jewish holiday that took place over the weekend, is a period of fasting, repentance,
forgiveness, and renewal. Judaism teaches that before renewing your
relationship with God, you need to have renewed the relationships with those
around you. Jesus stressed
this point too, which is not surprising when you consider that he was Jewish.
Jesus' favorite place to renew relationships was around a table. Hosting meals was
among his central ways of showing others God’s love and goodness. This is
why you’ll find a table—better known as an ‘altar’—at the front and center of
just about any church in the world.
Who Jesus ate
with was often surprising and controversial. Like the Hebrew prophets who came
before him, Jesus went out of his way to identify with the least, the last, and
the lost—the poor, the homeless, the handicapped, the sick, foreigners, prisoners, and all
of the people who were regularly excluded from society. Though two millennia
have passed, it is simple to think of people who are regularly and unfairly
excluded today.
Situated in the
prophetic tradition, the Eucharist feast is an important reminder that God is
always on the side of those who are bullied and excluded. A renewed
relationship with God always requires the elimination of bullying, and
inclusion and welcome are peaceful forces that help to end bullying.
When we celebrate
Eucharist in chapel each month, we reenact the meal of Jesus so that we can be
shaped by the ongoing experience of God’s love and welcome. Eucharist is monthly
practice for daily life. It’s meant to let the inclusive Spirit of God guide
our actions outside of chapel so that each of us becomes more inclusive and
welcoming in our thoughts, words, and deeds.
In the spirit of new
and renewed relationships, our Chapel Challenge was to go to a
person you see being excluded or bullied—either at recess or during lunch, in
the classroom or after school, on the field or at home—and to stand beside
that person and invite him or her to spend time with you and be your friend.
I hope you
encourage your children to take part in this challenge by attempting to
befriend someone yourself. Kids, after all, often learn best by example.
With Love and
Prayers,
Chaplain Timothy
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