Week Five: Setting the Table for Betrayers
Theme
Restoring the fallen
Scripture
“Carry each other’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ.”
- Galatians 6:2 -
Culinary Symbolism for the Meal Ahead
Grape leaves wrap tightly around rice and herbs, carrying weight just as we carry burdens for others in community.
First Reading Reflection
The request is straightforward to understand: help carry your neighbors' burdens.
Unfortunately, it is not always as easy to put into action.
I seem to complicate things and make them far more complex than they need to be.
The ask of me is to help carry a burden.
It is not to help carry the burden...if and only if someone else first helps carry mine.
I have many opportunities for growth in this aspect of my development as a human.
I look forward to it because in that space is where we experience more of Jesus.
If betrayal fractures a community, restoration requires shared labor. We are not meant to carry the weight of repentance, grief, or healing alone.
Judas carried his sorrow to isolation. What if someone had offered to help shoulder it? What if, instead of leaving him to his shame, the disciples had remembered Paul’s call to “restore gently” and to carry one another’s burdens?
This week, we ask how our tables can become places of mutual care.
Where the weight is distributed and no one carries the heaviness alone.
Table Practice
For this meal, serve family-style.
Take turns filling each other’s plates.
Practice the simple act of bearing the work of nourishment for one another.
As you serve, ask:
What burdens are we carrying right now?
How might we help lighten the load?
Share openly if you can.
Offer silence if you cannot.
Writing Prompt for the Week
What table are you being called to set in this season?
Who do you need to make room for?
Post Week Reflection
We look forward to hearing about your reflections on these experiences each week.
Journal daily and share a piece of your journey with us that you feel comfortable sharing.
Feel free to email your responses to us at [email protected]
You help make our voice.
Together WE collectively make up The Welcome Table.
Your voice IS important.
Please use proper discretion and appropriate conduct when discussing in open forums.
Week Five: Stuffed Grape Leaves (Dolmas)
Ingredients:
1 jar grape leaves (or blanched cabbage leaves)
1 cup cooked rice
½ cup chopped parsley
½ cup chopped mint
2 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp lemon juice
Salt and pepper to taste
Directions:
Mix rice, parsley, mint, olive oil, lemon juice, salt, and pepper.
Lay out grape leaves and place a spoonful of filling in each. Roll tightly.
Steam for 20 minutes.
Serve warm, drizzled with olive oil and lemon juice.
