AT THE TABLE

May 7, 2009
May 16, 2011

“AT THE TABLE”
By Rev. Dr. Larry D. Coleman


For a few remarkable years, a number of black preachers and pastors, myself included, met for communal breakfast and spiritual refreshment, every week day morning at Niecie’s Restaurant formerly near 60th and Prospect, in Kansas City, Missouri.

We met “at the table,” roughly, over a ten-year period from 1994 through 2004, under the faithful and persistent leadership and example of Rev. Emanuel Johnson, former pastor of Mount Vernon Missionary Baptist Church, now deceased, and his friend, Rev. Aaron Neal, Sr., former pastor of Paradise Missionary Baptist Church in Kansas City Kansas, also deceased.

Rev. Neal, a co-convener of the table, was newly arrived from California, but originally from rural North Carolina, had invited me to the breakfast table shortly after I was licensed to preach in the African Methodist Episcopal Church, in 1994. Brand new to the ministry, my zeal for the word was such that I would carry a minimum of two different versions of the Bible with me, among my legal papers, in my “satchel,” as Rev. Johnson, a rural Arkansas native, and Rev. Neal’s co-convener of our breakfast table, termed my brief case. They called me “the lawyer.” Freely utilizing that rhetorical license legendary among black preachers usually resulted in my being termed,“De lawyer,” for dramatic effect. Either way, I was, in fact, a sole practitioner licensed to practice law in Missouri, and also the pastor of tiny Brooks Chapel A.M.E. Church, in Butler, Bates County, Missouri, roughly 70 miles south of K.C., simultaneously.

Members of “the table,” as it came to be known, sat in a corner of that small restaurant beneath a wall mural depicting diners engaged in conversation in a bustling inner city soul food restaurant, while dining on a variety of delectable food items. “Members” is an inexact term; as there were no membership cards, the table was open to any male, Christian pastor or preacher who showed up early enough to get a seat. Females were not permitted, though, as co-conveners Reverends Johnson and Neal, being old school, fundamentalist Baptists, “did not play that” at all.

Some other ministers who frequented the table, during my tenure there, included Rev. Kenneth Ray of Highland Missionary Baptist Church; Rev. Gregory Washington of Good Samaritan Missionary Baptist Church; the late Bishop Emmanuel Newton of the Christian Tabernacle Church of God in Christ; the late Bishop W.B. Henderson of the Trinity Temple Church of God in Christ; the late Rev. O. Cordell Moore of the Temple of Faith Missionary Baptist; the late Rev. A.L. Johnson and his associate, Rev. Carl Hatcher, both of Zion Grove Missionary Baptist Church; Rev. Gregory Stevenson, Park Avenue Missionary Baptist Church; Rev. Robert Davenport, Pilgrim Rest Missionary Baptist Church; Rev. F.J Jordan, Gospel Tithing Baptist Church; Rev. Elijah Clark, Mt. Sinai Missionary Baptist Church; Rev. Frank Witherspoon, Freewill Baptist Church, along with many, many others. Visiting ministers, revivalists, and evangelists also enriched the table while they were in town.

Camaraderie and commensality distinguished the table. Laughter was always on the menu. So were theological inquiries and debates, ranging from the astute to the absurd. Rev. Neal once asked the question, “Did Jesus commit suicide?” “Suicide?! What you drinking in that coffee,” someone asked to peals of laughter and muffled mirth. “How did you come up with that novel idea?” I asked. He replied, “Jesus said ‘no man takes my life from me. I lay it down on my own’. Well, didn’t he say it?” A thoughtful silence descended. I reached down for one of my Bibles. “Go John 10 and see what it says,” advised Rev. Neal. Sure enough, in John 10:17-18. The word said: “For this reason the Father loves me,(S) because(T) I lay down my life that I may take it up again. 18(U) No one takes it from me, but(V) I lay it down(W) of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down, and(X) I have authority to take it up again.(Y) This charge I have received from my Father."

Well, thus ended that particular discussion.

Sometimes, even Myra, and Renona, her sister, two of Niecie’s most notorious, no-nonsense waitresses, would chime in with their acerbic wits, to keep “it real” and to keep everybody else “real” at the table! Myra was busy like Martha. Renona was thoughtful, like Mary, Lazarus’ two sisters, described in Luke 10.

Of course, the main preoccupation at the table was Jesus Christ: him crucified and resurrected. In this regard, I remember Rev. Johnson describing how he had fashioned a sermon entitled “It Depends on Whose Hands It’s In.”

Once, while driving to Omaha, Nebraska, up highway I-29-North, he happened to see a billboard describing an insurance company as “The Good Hands People.” That insight led the preacher to proclaim that in his hands a piano was just a noise-maker, but in the hands of a skilled musician, it became a magnificent instrument. Similarly, a scalpel in his hands was a murder weapon, but in the hands of a skilled surgeon, it was a healing tool. Finally, 2 small fishes and 5 barley loaves, in his hands, was just lunch.

But, in the hands of Jesus--but, in the hands of Jesus!--that little lunch could feed over 5,000, with twelve baskets of fragments left over. (Matt.14:13-21) “It just depends on whose hands it’s in,” he explained.

At the table, there were no big “I’s” and little “you’s.” There was brotherhood at the table. There was hope at table. There was renewal at the table. There was love at the table. There was deliverance at the table. There was joy at the table. There was provision at the table. There was the Holy Ghost at the table. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TNZK8vC8KQY&NR=1&feature=fvwp

At the table, at the table, at the table!

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