Making room at the table, or what would Jesus say about the Ethiopian Mennonite church's decision to leave the Mennonite World Conference over LGBTQ+?

I wonder what Jesus would say about the Meserete Kristos Church (MKC) in Ethiopia deciding to leave the Mennonite World Conference (MWC), the worldwide community of Anabaptist-related churches, over the topic of LGBTQ+?

Oh, wait—he did say something about that. But I guess nobody in the MKC was listening.

But first, some background.

With over 500,000 members, the MKC is the largest and fastest growing member of the MWC. And like other Anabaptist-Mennonite groups around the world, it is also caught up in debates about LGBTQ+ welcome and affirmation—with the added wrinkle that same-sex activity in Ethiopia is illegal.

In making its decision, the MKC said it decided to leave for two reasons. First, because it believes that Christian marriage is a divinely instituted and lifelong union “between one man and one woman alone as the Word of God clearly teaches.” 

The second and what it called the most “decisive factor” that compelled them to separate from MWC was its “continued inclusion of churches and conferences that not only tolerate but also endorse, affirm and practice homosexuality.”

While I disagree with the first reason, I can still say fine—believe whatever you want in your context. (Homosexuality is illegal in Ethiopia.) I won’t stop you! And I won’t want to stop fellowshipping with you over it. But why can’t you stay in fellowship with me? Have a beer or a meal or go to church with someone who believes differently about this topic?

It’s almost like being in the same conference as people like me will taint them, somehow.

Actually, that’s exactly the problem. Which brings me back to what Jesus had to say related to this topic.

As we know, Jesus said nothing about homosexuality. But he did have something to say about purity—and how it inhibits and prevents God’s community on earth.

His teaching on this comes from his parable of the Great Banquet in Luke14: 12-24.

 

In the parable, Jesus told the story of a wealthy host who invited his friends for supper. But when the supper was ready, his friends didn’t come. They all had excuses.

 

One said he had bought a field; another bought some oxen; a third was recently married. So, sorry old friend, but we can’t come.

 

These excuses made the host angry. But rather than let the meal go to waste, he decided to invite others to the banquet—the poor, the sick and the disabled.

 

Which sounds like the right thing to do—right? Especially to conservation-prone Mennonites raised on the seminal book More with Less.

 

But what we who live in the 21^st century don’t fully appreciate is how radical this parable of Jesus was in the first century, and how it would have scandalized his audience.

 

Why was it radical and scandalous? For that answer, we need to know something about the social and religious codes of that time that ranked people according to their wealth, social standing, disabilities, health and religious purity.

 

Wealth & social standing. It was understood back then that you would only invite people of similar wealth and social standing to your home for supper—and they, in turn, would invite only you and your kind back.

 

What this meant for the poor in that time—who were the majority back then—would never be invited to these kinds of fancy events, to a rich person’s table.

 

Wealth & illness. According to the religious codes of the day, people who considered themselves to be “pure” had to avoid people who were “impure”—being with them would render them religiously impure, too.

 

One form of impurity was being dirty or unwashed—such as would occur if one had a hands-on job, like farming or carpentry.

Back then, one could only become religiously clean through careful and meticulous ritualized washing—something that was very hard for the average hardworking person to do. They simply wouldn’t have the time or means to make sure they were clean enough to go to the home of a “pure” person.

 

Another form of impurity was disability and disease. People who were disabled, blind or sick were not considered “whole” back then. It was taken for granted they would never be invited to a home for a meal. (And puts Jesus’ response to people who were ill and disabled in a different light.)

Turning the tables

 

Instead of letting the food go to waste, the host turns the tables on his erstwhile guests.

He tells his servant to invite those who would never normally be invited to his home—the marginalized, the poor, the disabled—those who society looks down on, those who are considered impure.

 

By implication, he is saying to the guests who turned him down: You think you’re so great? These people are as good as you. Better, maybe, because they accepted my invitation.

 

For the people who heard Jesus tell this parable, this was scandalous. It broke all the social and religious norms that governed their lives. Nobody who wanted to retain his friends, his social standing—and his or her purity—would ever do such a thing.

 

Which is the exact point Jesus was trying to make: For God, nobody is impure. And if you want to be righteous and pure in God’s eyes, then you need to make room at your table for those who aren’t like you.

 

Jesus makes a similar point with the parable of the Good Samaritan. That parable isn’t so much about what a good guy the Samaritan was—although he was—but how the purity codes of that day prevented the priest and Levite from doing the right thing.

 

According to those codes, touching an injured person—or worse, a dead body—would have rendered them impure and required them to go through onerous purification rites so they could continue to live their religious lives.

 

Takeaways from the MKC decision

 

I want to be careful not to transfer a teaching from 2,000 years ago to 2026. Not everything has a parallel. And the point is not that those who support same-sex marriage are impure and MKC is pure.

 

The lesson to be drawn from it is that everyone is to be treated with dignity and respect by those who claim to follow Jesus. That includes LGBTQ+ people, and their allies.

 

In other words, Jesus is saying that if you want to be of high status in God’s eyes, don’t follow the rules that govern relationships in the world around you—rules made by people about who is welcome at the table. Instead, make room at your table for everyone. Even those you disagree with.

 

All are welcome at my table, Jesus says. I make room for all—and so should you.

 

But apparently not for MKC. They have no room at their table for LGBTQ+ people, or those who support them.

 

People like me.