The Longer Table

When James writes that God gives wisdom "generously and ungrudgingly," the Greek word is haplos — simply, without double-mindedness, without sorting people into categories first. God does not means-test wisdom. God does not check your theology before answering.

A friend of mine pastors a small church in Portland that nearly split over whether to become an affirming congregation. The arguments went in circles for months — proof texts volleyed back and forth, voices raised at congregational meetings. Finally an elderly woman named Dorothy stood up and said, "I have been asking God for wisdom every single morning since September. And the only thing I keep hearing is: build a longer table."

That phrase broke something open. Not because it settled the exegetical debate, but because it reframed the question entirely. They had been asking, "Who is right?" God kept answering, "Who is missing?"

This is what Progressive theologian Brian McLaren calls "a new kind of knowing" — wisdom that moves us from certainty to curiosity, from gatekeeping to hospitality. Rachel Held Evans put it beautifully: the gospel does not need protecting. It needs proclaiming, especially to those who have been told they are outside its reach.