[Faith-talk] Good Night Message for Thursday, April 25, 2013

[Paul]

Hello once again and good day to all my fellow saints of the Most High God, whether you live in Europe, North America, Central or South America, Asia, Africa or Australia and New Zealand.  I hope that your day is going well or went well.

The subject of food is the theme of today's article written originally probably in late 2010 by Kristin Berkey-Abbott entitled "Come, Let's Eat," rendered as follows:

Set your welcome table as a spiritual discipline.

We Christians have spent hundreds of years arguing about the sacrament of Communion.  Pitched battles have been fought over whether or not the bread and wine are mere symbols or if something happens to them during the process of the ritual.  At times we've lost sight of the fact that Christ sat at an actual table--having a literal meal.

Take a seat.

In the past few decades, many of us have stopped eating at tables.  We eat in our cars so frequently they've been redesigned to hold our cups, takeout cartons and bags.  Many people can't cook even the simplest food.  We don't have people over to our houses to eat because we tell ourselves that we don't have time to clean and prep.  But many of us also don't have people over because then we'd have to provide a meal--an actual, literal meal.

We think we don't want people to see the way we really live, but God wants to know us in just that intimate way.  God came to us in the form of Jesus in part to show us the best way to live human lives.  Now, as we find ourselves living these lives at an increasingly hectic pace, we can follow Jesus' example and come back to the dinner table.

Educators remind us of the dinner table's value in forming young minds.  Children who eat at a communal table do better in school, do better at resisting peer pressure and just do better overall.

The dinner table also provides opportunities to practice and model spiritual behavior.  And it works better if we're eating at a table, not a sports field or in the car.

Let's say grace

We begin by saying grace, a simple thank you for the meal we're about to receive.  No need to look very far to see what happens when humans don't develop a sense of gratitude--they live in a self-centered, entitled, chronically disappointed way.  Maybe a prayer of thanks before every meal is like a vaccination against brattiness--setting our children on the path to becoming grateful grownups.

Blessing a meal also invites blessing on a larger scale.  Asking God to bless the hands that prepared the meal reminds us of the efforts that go into our daily upkeep.  Asking God to bless those who don't have enough to eat throughout the world fosters a sense of gratitude.  We begin to form a consciousness of social justice in ourselves and our children.

Over dinner we can talk about the right ways to behave while discussing how we spent our days.  We can encourage compassion on our children and ourselves while pondering aloud the ways of the world.  We can share where our food comes from and our call to care for God's creation as it gives us nourishment.

After the meal, we foster responsibility and good stewardship patterns as we clear the dishes and clean up.

And we can go even further.  We can invite people to our dinner tables to share a meal.

Be our guests

I think we forget how radical Christ was in this practice.  By inviting outcasts to share a meal, by sharing a dinner where people all along the social spectrum sit at the same table.  Jesus threatened to overturn the whole social order.  And Jesus calls us to do the same.  Sharing a meal provides powerful medicine for the mental woes that afflict our modern culture.

Who to invite? Many of us lives hundreds or thousands of miles away from our nearest relatives.  Many of us have only the most tenuous social connections.  We live among the lonely, and we are likely lonely ourselves.  Break that loneliness for you and others by sharing a meal.

Where to start? It doesn't have to be complicated.  In most towns, grocery stores offer ready-made food:  roasted or fried chicken, a package of salad, brownies from the bakers, and dinner is done.  For a vegetarian option, spread a can or two of refried beans on a dish and top it with salsa and grated cheese.  Heat in the oven or microwave until the cheese melts.  Open a bag of tortilla chips.  Dinner couldn't be simpler.  Or you could rediscover the joys of the potluck, where everyone brings a dish to share.

It's easier than you think

But perhaps you're still terrified.  For many of us, inviting other adults to dinner means coming up with something to talk about.  Maybe we've read Martin Luther's table talks and know we could never have such an erudite conversation at the end of a frazzled day.  Well, here's some good news.  We don't have to aim that high.  Like our kids, most adults are happy just to discuss the content of their day with someone who will listen and care.

When we think of spiritual disciplines, many of us contemplate things that are hard:  Meditating for hours a day or twisting our bodies into various toga shapes.  We berate ourselves for not yet managing to tithe.  We try to remember to pray several times a day but often forget to pray once.

But sharing a meal can be easy.  We all have to eat, after all, and that break for meals helps launch us toward other spiritual disciplines that will nourish us:  praying more often, living in fellowship and helping the poor (in pocketbook and in spirit) by inviting them to our table.

There's an old spiritual that uses the idea of a welcome table as a metaphor for heaven.  The good news Jesus brings us is that we don't have to wait for heaven to experience kingdom living.  Over and over, Jesus reminds us that God's kingdom is already here, breaking through our imperfect world.  Want a taste of our future feast to come? Set your welcome table, right here, in your kitchen or dining room.

And that does it for now.  You probably didn't think that, when I mentioned food at the beginning of this post, that we would get this far, right? Well, thanks to Kristin, that hopefully changed your attitudes about eating a meal.

And now may the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob just keep us safe, individually and collectively, throughout this night or day and especially in these last days in which we live.  Your Christian friend and brother, Paul