Skip to main content

From Tablet to Table: Where Community Is Found and Identity Is Formed

Review

From Tablet to Table: Where Community Is Found and Identity Is Formed

I wanted to love this book, cover to cover. It didn’t quite happen, although I finished feeling well nourished by the read. The introduction itself is meaty, worthy of being a full chapter. Here, theologian/preacher/family man Leonard Sweet summarizes our contemporary theological hunger (“An untabled faith is an unstable faith”) and our cultural culinary confusion (“Our culture is hungry for table time” and “We are losing the table”). This topical mix continues throughout the book. Sometimes it works.

"Leonard Sweet uses a universal and strong metaphor to draw us to Christ and to each other, encouraging us to the revelatory transparency --- even more, the mystery --- of the table when Christ is present."

Right up front, Sweet encourages readers to know and appreciate the Bible’s story line and its relation to the story of our faith. “We crave a narraphor (a story made with metaphors that help us understand the world, ourselves, and God better).” And “the story of Christianity takes shape around tables, as people face one another as equals, telling stories, sharing memories, enjoying food with one another.” Pushing the idea further, he notes that God’s first biblical command is for Adam and Eve to eat (Genesis 2:16) and that his last command is to drink (Revelation 22:17).

The second half of Sweet’s book discusses “Life’s Three Tables”: at home, at church, and in the world. The “at home” chapter winds around a theological discussion of “truth” and the need for us to be unguarded in self-revelation. It then discusses the Edenic fall and history of our relationship with God, including a quotation from Francis Thompson’s “The Hound of Heaven.” On one level, all this feels far removed from one’s family table, which is to say that a reader needs to come to the book expecting theological discourse, albeit in a narraphor format. 

The “at church” chapter compares churches by using a “franchise” and “gourmet” metaphor. “The more you refine your tastes --- the more gourmet your gospel --- the less satisfied you will be with a franchise faith.” A strong segment of this chapter jumps off from the phrase “table it.” “Table everything. Whatever and whenever, bring it to the table.” … “How did Jesus win people over? Not by standing against them or arguing with them, but by walking alongside them and inviting them to the table” where Christ, who is the Bread of life, is the host.

Leonard Sweet uses a universal and strong metaphor to draw us to Christ and to each other, encouraging us to the revelatory transparency --- even more, the mystery --- of the table when Christ is present. The real deal is in sitting at the table and tasting the goodness of the Lord.

Reviewed by Evelyn Bence on February 25, 2015

From Tablet to Table: Where Community Is Found and Identity Is Formed
by Leonard Sweet

  • Publication Date: January 1, 2015
  • Genres: Christian, Nonfiction
  • Hardcover: 192 pages
  • Publisher: NavPress
  • ISBN-10: 1612915817
  • ISBN-13: 9781612915814