Making Room: The Sacred Practice of Sobremesa
Last Sunday we learned about the concept of sobremesa from our guest preacher, Evelmyn Ivens - it's the spanish word for sitting around after a meal, spending time sharing stories and building community at the table. Instead of programming our time tightly, anxiously moving to the next thing, or rushing to do dishes, sobremesa is a time to connect, slow down, and let the past, present, and future all weave together in conversation and presence. Evelmyn shared how she learned more about her grandmother's life after her memorial service during a somber time of sobremesa, and then marked a birthday meal and sobremesa with a celebratory feel - but both gathered family, deepened identity, and were a way to remember in a world that pushes us to forget. My favorite line from her sermon was: "Sobremesa reminds us that radical hospitality is an act of resistance."
I've been thinking about this concept of hospitality a lot this year, of how we make room at the table - literally and figuratively at God's table. We are regularly welcoming new people into church on Sundays at LaSalle, and at events during the week; and we're welcoming people to actual tables of food each Wednesday and every other Tuesday when we provide our hot meals through Breaking Bread and the fresh food for Senior Market. Beyond only a word or idea, how does healthy and intentional hospitality authentically welcome people in? How does a church worship service, or our meal program, or a conversation over coffee, or an email - invite in? Breaking Bread now provides live music, games, and is rooted i providing dignity and safety for all involved - it's intentional hospitality for that community. We're started newcomers gatherings, membership classes, and meals for new members - one way to regularly invite new people step by step in. Sobremesa reminds us to be counter cultural in our welcome as well, because it centers presence, it values slowing down, and it makes room for complexity - for voices, for grief, for laughter, for questions. I've been wondering - how much do we embody sobremesa in our daily lives, in our Sunday rhythms, in our plans and projects up ahead? And how could we deepen our hospitality this season?
I am reading some good reflections on this concept in "The Art of Gathering," and in recent church leadership literature. People are typically coming to LaSalle from a few sources: either because of a relationship with someone already within our church, or after having a difficult past church experience, or because they are looking for a church that feels healthy for folks with various intersecting or marginalized identities (women, people of color, queer folk, the disabled, etc.) Something in our presence is encouraging people to try church again, or to try trusting a faith journey again. That is a beautiful, serious thing! The church in the US is also still living in a time of credibility crisis, where the "witness" of too many white Christians has been violent, racist, tilted, and not trustworthy. LaSalle has a unique story and calling to be a church that takes on trouble, and a church that make room, that rejects much of the story of whiteness and political triumphalism; so how do we live into that hospitality and identity as we welcome those who God is bringing to our doors each week?
I invite you to join with me in noticing, welcoming, and praying for the wisdom to make room, and welcome well those checking out the table at LaSalle in this season. Share your ideas, or the ways you do this in your home, or great books on hospitality - I want us to learn together! I am so grateful for this concept of sobremesa, and the reminder that slowing down and building relationships over meals is a key way to share history, build identity, and make more room. Thanks be to God!
- Rev. Liz