Living signs of blessing - Giving thanks for Open Table
Revd Ruth Greenaway-Robbins preaching at Open Table East Cardiff’s second birthday communion service.
ON SUNDAY 6th July 2025, our Open Table East Cardiff community celebrated two years with a simple Communion service followed by some tasty birthday treats!
During the service Revd Ruth Greenaway-Robbins offered this reflection on Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount, also known as the Beatitudes (from the Latin beatus, meaning both ‘happy’ and ‘blessed’.
I have a confession to make: I am a sucker for elections. As soon as they’re announced, I’m glued to the TV, the radio, social media, the whole lot. Nothing fills me with more excitement than a good old manifesto.
Yes, I know I’m a bit of a weird political geek! I download them, brew a good coffee, and pore over all the details. Because you see, there’s something about that moment when promises are laid out, hopes are stirred, visions are cast for a better future - I can’t help but lean in.
“You are not just blessed in spite of the struggle - you are blessed in the costly, holy work of standing for love and justice together.”
The trouble is - and maybe you know this feeling too - I long for things to get better. I want to believe the promises, to see change for the poor, for the marginalised, for those whose voices are so often silenced. And yet, time and time again - spoiler alert: after each and every election, I am left disappointed by the manifestos of this world not fulfilling those promises. You’d think I would have learnt by now. I really don’t!
But here’s the thing - perhaps like me, you too are looking for signs of peace and justice, for hope that the poor and oppressed might finally break through. If so, then maybe the Beatitudes of Jesus (Matthew 5:1–12) are good news for us both. Because in these few verses, we find Jesus’ manifesto. And unlike any party or government, this one is not a promise that might come true if the polls swing the right way - this is the heartbeat of God’s kingdom that is already breaking through among us.
Jesus goes up the mountain, not to shout down from on high but to sit among his followers, to gather them close and say: ’Blessed are you.’ And who does he bless? Not the powerful or the polished, but the poor in spirit, the grieving, the meek, the ones who hunger and thirst for a better world, the merciful, the peacemakers, the persecuted, the reviled - all the ones the world so easily pushes aside.
It’s no small thing to gather around these words as an Open Table community. Because this community is itself a living beatitude, a sign of Christ’s kingdom breaking through. I realise that for many of us - the message from the world, and heartbreakingly too often from the church, has been anything but blessing. Too often the message has been: ’You don’t belong. You’re not worthy. There’s no place for you here.’
But listen again to Jesus’ words: ’Blessed are you.’ Not despite who you are - but precisely as you are, beloved of God, precious in Christ’s eyes. The Beatitudes turn the world’s assumptions inside out. They reveal a God who comes close to the hurting, the weary, the longing and says, ’You are seen. You are mine. You are blessed.’
This community is a living sign of that blessing. A table spread wide where no one is excluded. A table where the poor in spirit are fed, where the mourners find comfort, where hunger for justice is honoured, where mercy is practised, and peace is made one conversation, one embrace, one meal at a time.
But here’s something else: the Beatitudes remind us: this blessing is not passive. Jesus doesn’t say, ‘Blessed are you - so sit back and enjoy it.’ No - blessing and calling go hand in hand. These words are not just words of comfort but a manifesto for living.
When Jesus says, ’Blessed are the peacemakers,’ it’s not because peacemaking is easy - it’s because it costs us something. Real peace doesn’t come from avoiding conflict or pretending everything’s fine; it comes when we step into the mess and speak truth, mend what is broken, and stand our ground for reconciliation when the world would rather settle for division.
When Jesus says, ’Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness,’ Jesus’ is speaking to people who know the ache of longing for a just world - people who refuse to look away when there’s injustice, who stay hungry for what is good and fair even when it would be easier to give up or look after ourselves alone.
This is not about romanticising struggle. The heartbreak, the rejection, the weariness - these are not blessings in themselves. They are the cost of choosing to live by Christ’s manifesto instead of the world’s. The Beatitudes honour the costly road, because that is where the kingdom breaks through - not in comfort and complacency, but in the brave, daily work of love, truth, and justice.
I celebrate with you that Open Table is both a safe haven and a sending place. Around this wide, welcoming table, we are strengthened to keep living these beatitude values wherever we go: to be people who hold open doors, who call out hate, who stand alongside the overlooked, who embody mercy and courage in our daily lives.
In a world still quick to judge or exclude, our very lives become a living manifesto of the Kingdom that says: there is another way. The world’s kingdoms may be built on fear and power, but the kingdom of God is built on compassion and justice, mercy and peace, and that the kingdom of God comes closer every time we live out its manifesto, however small or costly the act.
So, when the world sneers, misunderstands, or rejects, when the old voices of shame whisper in the dark, remember how Jesus ends his manifesto: ’Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven.’ This joy is not naïve; it is defiant. It says, ‘Yes, this is hard, actually it costs so much, but we will not back down. We will not stop hoping. We will not stop loving. Because we know who we are and whose we are.’
So, as we give thanks for Open Table, hear this: I give thanks that you are living signs of Christ’s kingdom. You are not just blessed in spite of the struggle - you are blessed in the costly, holy work of standing for love and justice together.
So, lets hold our heads high. Keep gathering, keep sharing, keep feasting at the table that the world cannot close off. And when we go, go as beatitude people: gentle but unflinching, merciful but unafraid, hungry for righteousness, fierce for peace, stubborn in our holy joy.
