A Place at the Table

Recently, someone said they would prefer a place in the kitchen before they were offered a place at the table of cultural dialogue. I thought that statement to be very insightful. In the kitchen is where we prepare the meal that we will serve at the table of discussion. I would like to suggest we add an additional step. 

We need to offer each other a place in the decision-making process of what ingredients we will bring into the kitchen. There are times people can feel like a menu has been prepared without consulting their unique spiritual and emotional dietary requirements.

What would it look like to invite people with opposing views to go shopping with us? As we walk the aisles of a market together and instinctively reach out to grab a familiar ingredient that our intellectual taste buds have grown accustomed to, what would happen if we paused?  And in our pause, asked our fellow shoppers if our preferred ingredient would actually prepare a meal that all could enjoy?

This shared shopping experience is not a compromise of truth. It is a process of exploring the depths of truth to reveal a more substantial conversation than a fixed menu could provide. 

We are in a moment when a diplomatic faith will be what moves us forward into a more inclusive and powerful representation of our faith. The menu of our social dialogue is changing because new ingredients are being selected. We are learning how to shop together to prepare meals of discussion and fellowship that will genuinely change us and, as a result, change the world.