[Sermon] One Table
Pastor Hector Garfias-Toledo
October 25, 2026 + Twenty-Second Sunday after Pentecost + A Wider Table Week 4
Leviticus can sound like a book of dry prescriptions, but Walter Brueggemann reminds us that its codes are a scaffolding that protects the sacredness of life. The call to be holy because God is holy is urgent, and it reaches into our economic, relational, and civic lives. On Reformation and Commitment Sunday, Pastor Hector sets Jesus’ summary of the law beside the two tables we are tempted to build, one for the blessed and one for everyone else. Loving God, neighbor, and self sounds easy until the neighbor is already seated beside us. Agape love disrupts and transforms, tearing down every structure that divides the one table God has prepared. Our commitments are a grateful response to that grace, joining God’s work of welcome and healing so the table grows wider.
Sermon Transcript
From YouTube's automatic captions, lightly edited by AI for readability.
As you can see, I’m very confused today. And this is a public service announcement. If you found my sermon somewhere in the narthex, [laughter] can you return it to me? I was trying to put things together this morning. I told David, “David, I think I lost my sermon somewhere in the narthex, and I haven’t found it.” So I told the early group that we met in the chapel that I think I’m just going to wing it today and see what happens. All right. [applause] Let the Holy Spirit. That’s what Lorelle said. Okay.
Grace to you and peace from God, Abba, Father, Mother, Creator, the Lord Jesus Christ, who comes and prepares the table for us. And we say, well, actually, I lied, because I found my sermon. [laughter]
But I’m still wondering. I think this is a good time for us as church to really take a few minutes and reflect together on some of the things that we heard today, both in the Old Testament and in the New Testament, because I think they are very important aspects of the life of the Christian faith and for us as followers of Jesus.
Last Sunday, Mary Denny really took us and led us into the interface between our call as people of God who bear God’s name and image and our civic life as sojourners in this world. A world whose loyalties seem to be put in the wrong places most of the time, a world where these loyalties go to powers that work against God’s intent for creation. And then on Wednesday we had this Bible study where, for those of you who participated, I believe we had a very robust discussion about holiness, and who is holy, and what makes God holy.
So as we look at the readings today, I would like to ask you: what do you hear, and how do you feel with the reading of Leviticus, or maybe with the book of Leviticus, which is the third book in the Pentateuch, which is the first five books in the Bible? What comes to your mind when you hear the word Leviticus, or again, the message of Leviticus?
[Congregation: Prescriptions. Prescriptions.]
[Congregation: Sounds like love each other.] Love each other. A message of loving each other. Yeah. I heard somebody else. What?
[Congregation: Lost.] Okay.
[Congregation: Hmm.] Okay. Right.
I mean, the book of Leviticus is one of those books that in some ways sounds a little bit mysterious and difficult to handle, because in many ways we have seen the Pentateuch and the law somehow as legalistic, in a way that makes us almost stay away from it. Interesting that Laurel said that in the midst of everything we can hear there is this message about love. And maybe that is what today, as the always-reforming church, we are called to think about and to reflect on.
The book of Leviticus talks about a holy God who desires to dwell among the people who have broken the covenant, and provides some guidance for us to understand how God is constantly looking after us, seeking us where we are: in the midst of our messy lives, in the midst of our messy systems, in the midst of our confusion, disorientation, in the midst of not knowing what we are doing and why we are doing what we are doing.
There is this theologian that I have mentioned several times, and you know, we have read some of his books here, Walter Brueggemann, who emphasizes that the Levitical codes are not dry legalisms. They are a vital scaffolding for protecting the sacredness of life and for reaffirming God’s eagerness to find us and to be with us. The holiness of God is urgent. It is urgent in the face of a profanation which empties life of the God-given dignity of all people and all creation, and also in the face of the pervasive brutality which tribalizes God’s purpose and abuses God’s world. So holiness is fundamentally economic, relational, and civic, and it cannot be disassociated from our daily lives, the realities of our daily lives, our ministry and our witness in this place.
So what does all this have to do with Reformation Sunday and Commitment Sunday? As we come to the closing of our generosity emphasis, A Wider Table, what does the book of Leviticus have to do with what we are celebrating today? How is that connected? What do you think?
I may invite someone to speak here with me and maybe have a little conversation with me, so be ready. If you’re sitting at the front, maybe it will be easier for me to reach out to you. So don’t start moving backwards. Stay where you are.
So today, as you saw in the young worshipper’s slides, there were two tables. Two tables that show the tension in our lives, in our ministries, in our understanding of who we are as church. On the one hand, we have the table where we feel we are blessed by God. We have everything. We have abundance. We have the generosity of God. And by the way, you too, but you need to go to the other table, because that’s where you belong. It’s so nice to have you, but you need to go to the other side. It’s like those things that happen in our society where you say, “Everybody, we need to have shelters for all these people.” Oh, yeah. Great. “We’re going to put it in your neighborhood, next to your home.” Oh, no. The value is going down. Nobody will come. It will affect me.
I mean, these are the realities, the tensions in life where you and I are living every day. And still we hear the words that say, “Be holy, for I, the Lord your God, am holy.”
And in Matthew, when Jesus is asked which commandment is the greatest, Jesus comes and says, “Love God, love your neighbor,” and go, love yourself. And as I was thinking of this, I think what happens to us is that we love this passage of Jesus saying, “Don’t consider the Ten Commandments and the six hundred or eight hundred rules that the prophets put together, but just do it in three. Love God, love your neighbor, love yourself.” From ten to three. I can do that. I love it. Thank you, Jesus, for making it easy for me. And then I said, “Wait a minute. Is it really easier? Is it really easy just to love God, to love the neighbor, and to love myself?” Remember the two tables? Remember the shelter, the detox facility in the neighborhood?
I think that Jesus had a point here. This is not about the greatest commandment. It is not about how I’m going to make it easy for you. What I want to tell you is that loving is hard, because the loving that I am teaching you now is not the loving of good friends, of feeling good, of tolerating people. It is the love of God. It is agape. A love that really disrupts, changes, tears apart, and also tears down every structure that you have created to make two tables out of the one table that God has prepared for us, for all creation.
I believe that Jesus has shown us that love is harder than what we ever imagined. And the only way to live and to practice that agape love is through God’s liberating grace, that can make us capable of doing it and leads us to be open to disruption, transformation, and dying to ourselves.
Remember the example that two Sundays ago I gave you, when I was in this situation where people were sitting at the table, and it’s the constant question: who is missing at the table? And I gave you that approach to think about and to reflect on, that sometimes with our good intent we end up actually doing what we are fighting against, because we find ourselves deciding who is in and who is out. Sometimes you say, “Wonderful, you have the right skin color. Come to the table.” Oh, but you don’t speak the same language that I do. And you have an accent. “Wonderful. You believe like us, and we are going to fight together.” Oh, the background on your skin color is not necessarily what we’re looking for. It’s hard. It’s hard.
Martin Luther reminds us that we are beggars, and not beggars in the bad sense, but beggars in the sense that you and I have nothing, really. The only thing that you and I have is God’s grace, God’s life, God’s love. And when we are walking in our journey, the table that has been spread for all creation is right there. And we, as beggars, come to the table. And sometimes the seat that is open is next to a person who I may not be comfortable with, my neighbor. And God says, “Sit there, because I’m going to teach you and help you to understand the love that I claim and proclaim for you and for all people. The love that I want you to live by every day in your life. The love that is going to heal you and strengthen you and give you purpose in life, direction in your life, and strengthen your life, that will help you to connect with me in a deeper, intimate way. And yes, it’s a love that is going to disrupt you, to change you, to transform you. Because my grace is not a grace that embraces you and keeps you the way that I find you. My grace is a grace that takes you and embraces you to transform you, and to remind you of those days when I said, ‘It is so good’, when I walked with you, when we talked together, when we chatted in the garden, when you understood that the meaning of your life, the source of your life, is in this agape, in this love. That is the love that I want you to live as you go to the table that I have prepared for you and for all creation.”
Grace sets us free from the idea of works as a ticket to heaven. Good works flow from the freedom, not toward it, so that we can reflect that the reign of God is already here. A table is prepared. We are to be the extension of God’s agape at the same time that we receive it from others. Love God. Love your neighbor. Love yourself. Love even those who hurt you. That is the call of this congregation: for us to be a space where all people, gathered by God’s grace, can have a foretaste of the feast. The new order of God’s reign, and the grace of God that embraces us as we are and yet expects us to be more than we had ever imagined that we could be.
It is through a life of generosity that you and I are restored and made whole, and able to see in others the gift of God’s abundant, generous grace. In other words, to see in others the face of the Lord Jesus.
The generosity commitment, the generosity we commit to today, is not a campaign. And as you hear me refusing to call this a capital campaign or capital emphasis, it’s not a fundraiser either. Today we are in this place because the table is wider, because the church gathers, because you and I are part of God’s creation and are those who are invited to practice agape in this place. It is a response to the grace that has already seated us at the table, and it is a grace that turns us toward the neighbor we did not choose, because the neighbor is already at the table, and we all are invited. And to be honest, my siblings in Christ, to me that is the good news of today’s message.
Today we bring our commitment to the table. God has already prepared more than enough, and our giving of money, prayer, and service and daily acts of love is a grateful response. Each commitment that you and I are going to offer today is offered in trust, joining God’s work of welcome and healing in this community and beyond, so that the table grows wider and every neighbor finds a place.
So today, in a few moments, during the hymn of the day, there will be a little basket on that stand here at the front. And I would like to invite you to pray, discern, and bring your filled-out commitment card forward, if you have it with you, and place it in the basket. If you are more of a tech-driven person, there are QR codes that you can use on your telephone. If you participated online, you can do it online, or you can send the cards to the office. But again, my siblings in Christ, this is not just about collecting cards today. Today is a moment and a time to recommit ourselves to live generous lives that reflect the grace that God has given us by inviting us to the table that God has prepared for all people. Where you and I are going to be reminded of the type of love that is expected from us because we have already received it. And to make this place a place where every single person has an opportunity to practice and to experience the restoring grace of God.
And I ask you, my siblings in Christ, are we ready for that?
Let’s prepare our hearts, sing together, and bring our cards.
