From Tablet to Table {Book Review}
I am a new reader of books written by Leonard Sweet. In his latest, From Tablet to Table, he compares and contrasts the old and new. The tablets being the old and the table being the new.
New Testament believers gather around the table where the Old Testament was governed by the Tablets (the law). I found the book to be so engaging that I didn’t want to put it down. In fact, I read it cover to cover one day and then started back through it as I thought about several points presented.
In the first half of the book, the author explains why the table is better than the tablets and how at the table we can be nourished both physically and spiritually. I appreciated the point that was brought out being that Christ didn’t preach from the position of a preacher standing at his pulpit. Christ taught as he walked and interacted with people.
For me this pushes the point that our faith is all about relationships. In order for us to grow our faith we need to be in a relationship with Christ and in order for us to share our faith with others we need to develop relationships with them too.
I found this book to be both inspirational and practical in the teaching. The resources offered to back up the importance of family time was an encouragement to keep pushing for those family dinners. And the point of just being at the same table isn’t the same thing as sharing a meal..just struck a chord with my heart.
When we gather together around the Lords table, we should all be on the same page, of the same thought and of the same mind. A family..not just a group of people gathered at the same time and place but not sharing anything in common.
I would recommend this book as a thought provoking and make you want to pull out your bible and look up the verses mentioned type of book.
Product information from the publishing house: From Tablet to Table: Where Community Is Found and Identity Is Formed
What if the Bible were seen less as a tablet of ink than as a table of food? From Tablet to Table invites readers to explore the importance of The Table in biblical theology, and what it might mean for us to bring back the table to our homes, our churches, and our neighborhoods. The table pictures the grace of God’s provision for all aspects of our lives, a place of safe gathering, of finding identity in shared stories, of imparting food and faith, of playing host and finding satisfaction as a guest. Sweet explores how our failure to understand and appreciate “the most sacred item of furniture in every home” has created such a deficit in our fast-food, take-what-you-like-smorgasbord, together-but-separate society.
And here is a little more information from the back of the book cover:
When was the last time a meal changed your life? The story of God is full of references to food. From the Garden of Eden to the Last Supper to the wedding feast of the Lamb, God sets a table before us and invites us to join Him there.
Contrast this rich and filling good news with the thin and meager fare to which we’ve become accustomed in our relationships, in our churches, or even in our families. We consume fast food in front of our smartphones, never facing each other, barely acknowledging the existence of one another. We consume bite-size Scriptures and reduce our world so that we can move through it quickly without being distracted by the activities that surround us.
It’s time to look up from our tablets and notice our neighbors, our loved ones, our Lord. Leonard Sweet’s From Tablet to Table shows us how to repent of our “tabletized” ways and rediscover the gift of fellowship, story-based faith, and the fullness of life as God intends it.
From Tablet to Table
Many thanks to Tyndale for sending me a complimentary copy of this book.
Leave a Reply