The title is “The King’s Table” and we will get to it, but first I want to talk about what makes the King’s Table the best place you could ever be.

How do you describe living with “Jim Crow” for seventeen years of your life.. Abased, belittling, cruel, demoralizing, demeaning. All of these and more describe what it feels like to live with “Jim Crow”. At first glance, you may think “Jim Crow” is a person. “Jim Crow” is not a person, but state and local laws enforced in the United States from the late 19th century until 1965. Laws that denied African Americans the right to vote, hold jobs, get an education, buy homes. Laws that were created and designed to destroy the dignity of a race of people, to superimpose a kind of superiority, to keep them in a position of servitude. Most often (even now) you will hear that era referred to as “segregation”, but in reality, it was rejection of the worse kind…to refuse to accept, acknowledge, to cast aside, cast off, cut off, being seen and treated as having no value. There are even more descriptives, but, I think you get the point.

How is it when the Bible says, “so God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him, male and female he created them.” Genesis 1:27 ESV, that a human being believes it is his/her rightful position to reject another human being? What possibly could be the motivating factor? I believe it is the heart…the center of human existence, the seat of life, strength, understanding, the primary source of both good and bad behavior. The part of the human being that only God sees.

Rejection is like a sharp dagger that penetrates deep into your heart rendering you incapable of life itself…digging a hole and getting in it the better alternative. Rejection takes away your self esteem, courage, confidence, motivation, desire to live. Rejection when living with ‘Jim Crow” wants you to feel, tries very hard to make you feel inferior, less important, less valuable, less worthy…positioning you as close to the bottom as you can get with minimal oxygen to breathe. There was no one around who could or would explain why there were two lines opposite each other and never the two shall meet…that is, unless you were the “help”…’come on over’. When living with “Jim Crow”, you simply learned to accept it as the way it was…the way it was supposed to be. If not for being associated with a life giving church affording me an escape, as well as teachers who always spoke to my potential, living with “Jim Crow” would have marked me forever.

Rejection is the one thing no one wants to encounter..no one…even the perpetrators of “Jim Crow”. We all want to be valued, accepted, to fit in. However, you don’t have to look too far and you will find it in families, in the work place, in private clubs, in schools, in neighborhoods…any place where there is a ‘pecking order’. It still exists because like “Jim Crow”, it is a spirit, but not a spirit from God…”The Lord is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. The Lord is good to all and his mercy is over all that he has made.” Psalm 145:8-9 ESV. What happened that a spirit unlike God would enter the hearts of man?

God created man to be in close relationship with him and we see that early on in the creation story. However, disobedience ushered in sin (to depart voluntarily from the path of duty prescribed by Go to man), causing man to fall far from God. Over time, the fall created a chasm so wide that Genesis 6:5 ESV says, “The Lord (God) saw that the wickedness of man was great…and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.” To reject someone in the attempt to define who he/she is stems from the condition of one’s heart…a condition that can be healed only by God. Acceptance is the antithesis of rejection and we have to look no further than the biblical story of King David and Mephibosheth (pronounced ‘muh-fib-uh-sheth’) to see the beauty of it.

David is the reigning King, a fierce warrior and a conqueror; but he was also a ‘man after God’s own heart’…gracious, loving and kind. King David made a promise and commitment to his friend Jonathan, to care for each other even down to their descendants. Jonathan, Mephibosheth’s father, was the son of the previous reigning King, Saul. King Saul is dead…Jonathan is dead and King David remembered his promise…”Is there not yet anyone of the house of Saul to whom I may show kindness of God?” There is still a son of Jonathan who is crippled in both feet. King David summons Mephibosheth. His response tells us how poorly he has been treated. “What is your servant, that you should regard a “dead dog” like me?” “Dead dog” then referred to a person who was disrespected or considered worthless…rejected. King David said to him, “Do not fear for I will show you kindness for the sake of your father Jonathan, and I will restore to you all the land of Saul your father, and you shall eat at my table always.” 2 Samuel 9:7 ESV. Mephibosheth was given a permanent seat at the King’s Table…still lame in both feet…but no longer rejected.

This blog is not a “how to” overcome rejection, but rather to tell you that rejection, the cruel mistreatment and hatred of others, is not of God, but man. No matter who you are, what you look like, what you have done, or where you are from, there is always a seat of acceptance at God’s table. Psalm 23:5-6 ESV says, “You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; you anoint [refreshing] my head with oil; my cup overflows [never have to leave]. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord [at the King’s Table] forever. I can’t say rejection has not followed me, trying to keep me from living to my fullest potential. But…”This I Know” God has proven Himself faithful time and time again, and with His help, I rise and take a seat at His table…The King’s Table.

As I was writing this, a song we used to sing in church years ago came to me. I was actually caught off guard because I have not sung it or heard it since I was a kid, but it is so befitting The King’s Table. It was penned by Charles B. Widmeyer… the refrain… “Come and dine,” the Master calleth, “Come and dine”; you may feast at Jesus’ table all the time; He who fed the multitude, turned the water into wine. To the hungry [those rejected; those whose heart is in need of healing], [the Master] calleth now, “Come and dine.”

Vivian