A Wide Net, An Open Table

 

Gospel: Matthew 13: 44-52

"The kingdom of God is like a net dragged across the sea taking in whatever is in its path." What is of value in this net can be somewhat subjective and relative.  We might think all the fish are of value for we can eat them, until you come across one that you cannot eat.  We might think an old tire is of no value, but someone else sees it useful as a tree swing or garden planter.  And what is of value to God is far different from our understandings of value, we who have our jealousies, hatreds, feuds, and wars.  

Many would like to do the work of sorting out the valuable and non-valuable, and how many mistakes would they make! How many others might find us of no value to them? Many would like to make the net more narrow and only take in a few things they could control. This is the movement of the small church, a place where rejoicing takes place every time another person leaves.  

But the kingdom is not small and narrow.  It is a large net, it is a vast table open to all.  It is a net and a table that do not belong to me or anyone else.  We are stewards of these things, and we have been told to cast the net wide and to go into the highways and byways to admit as many to the table as possible.