Food for Thought Food, as God intended it to be, is a symbol of love and comfort, celebration and sacrifice, grace and gift. Most of all, it is a symbol of nourishment and life.” Emily Stimpson “Eating Light” Food plays an enormous role in our culture. Just consider the number and the size of the grocery stores in the Flower Mound area. Then start counting restaurants. Magazine racks and whole sections of bookstores are devoted to literature about eating and dieting. Doctors worry about obesity rates and eating disorders. Is chocolate healthy or harmful? Even beyond health, there are ethical considerations. In order to avoid killing animals, some embrace a vegetarian or even a vegan diet. Motivated by a desire to avoid killing of any kind, “fruititarians” eat only fruit, nuts, and seeds that have fallen naturally from the plant. The New York Times recently published an article by Michael Marder reporting on plant responsiveness entitled, “If Peas Can Talk, Should We Eat Them?” Food plays an enormous role in Scripture as well. Disobedient eating was the cause of man’s fall. Eucharistic eating is necessary for man’s salvation. Jesus said, “Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. For my flesh is true food and my blood is true drink” (John 6: 53, 55 ESV). When we celebrate the Lord’s Supper at church, we recognize the costliness of what we eat and we eat as a family. What if we viewed every one of our meals in this same way?
Eat Thankfully: Food is a symbol of divine love.
Eat Together: Table fellowship creates a powerful bond.
God is great, God is good, So we thank you for this food.
In Homer’s The Iliad, the Greek warrior Diomedes and the Trojan warrior Glaucus are taunting each other across the lines before a battle. Their interchange brings about the realization that Glaucus’ grandfather was once a dinner guest in the home of Diomedes’ grandfather. Even across generations, this guest-friendship bond is too important to break. Although they will still fight others, they determine not to kill one another.
Alexander Schememann, author of Life as Eucharist portrays all creation as “divine love made food, made life for man.” He explains, “All that exists is God’s gift to man, and it exists to make God known to man, to make man’s life communion with God.” We call the Lord’s Supper “communion,” but in a certain sense every meal is a little communion as we are nourished by the goodness of God. Norman Wirzba, author of Food and Faith: A Theology of Eating, writes, “We should recognize all eating as Eucharistic— a sign and sacrament of God’s love, a witness to the costliness and mystery of life and death.” We are hungry creatures and so we pray, “Give us this day our daily bread.” God provided manna in the wilderness, bread to Elijah, food for the 5,000. Finally, he provided himself as bread showing that all along our hunger was really a desire for God. Jesus tells his disciples, “I am the bread of life” (John 6:35 ESV). In eating, we have a “taste” of heaven. In the four gospels, Jesus has twenty-four public prayers. In half of these, he is giving thanks. Ten of the twelve prayers of thanksgiving are returning thanks for food. Mealtimes are a wonderful opportunity to practice gratitude both to God and to the others whom he has used to provide our meals. The great commandments are that we love the Lord God with all our heart, mind, and soul, and that we love our neighbor as ourselves. Stopping to be thankful for our food provides us with an opportunity to do both, for meals also provide us with an avenue of generosity to others.
Modern Americans are starting to recognize the importance of eating together. According to Dr. Anne Fishel with The Family Dinner Project, recent studies link regular family dinners with lower rates of substance abuse, teen pregnancy, and depression as well as higher grade point averages and self esteem. Miriam Weinstein, author of The Surprising Power of Family Meals, writes: “Sitting down to a meal together draws a line around us. It encloses us and strengthens the bonds that connect us with other members of our self-defined clan, shutting out the rest of the world.” A study by Cornell University’s College of Human Ecology asserts that children who regularly sit down to dinner with their parents have more resilience in the face of life’s problems and a greater ability to resist negative peer pressure. The impact of table fellowship is not surprising to the church. Christians have always recognized that important bonds are built when we eat together. In “Eating Light,” Emily Stimpson reminds us that “a table is at the center of our spiritual, family, and community life. The central event of the Christian life is the Eucharist. The central event of family life is the family dinner.” Table fellowship was an important part of
Jesus’ outreach to others. All four gospels record his controversial willingness to eat with sinners. His first miracle takes place at a wedding feast. His final conversation with his disciples in John 21 occurs over breakfast. What exactly happens when we break bread together is a mystery, but we are nourished emotionally and spiritually as well as physically. We become imitators of Christ as we give of ourselves in planning, buying, cooking, and cleaning in order to nourish others at our table. Every meal is an opportunity for generosity and gratitude. We are approaching the greatest of Christianity’s feasts, the celebration of Easter. It is a good time to commit ourselves to thankfulness and to service as we eat together. Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us. Therefore let us keep the feast—Alleluia!
Moms in Prayer Where: Chapel at Harte House Contact individuals below for information M/W contact: Leah Clark T/Th contact: Tessa Nownes Coram Deo Café “Encourage one another and build each other up” (1 Thess. 5:11) Contact information: M/W contact: Jacque Younger T/Th contact: Donna Rector Morning Prayer, Scripture Reading & Bible Studies, Scripture Reading and Prayer Contact: Jon Jordan Where: Room 113, grammar school building When: Monday and Tuesday, 7:40-7:50am Who: Parents, students, and faculty are all welcome. 6th & 7th grade Girls Bible Study of James Who: CDA students, 6th and 7th grade girls and friends Where: Jeff and Alicia Roy’s home Contact: Alicia Roy Logic School Boys Bible Study When : Every Other Monday 7:00-8:00pm Where: Jeff and Shelley Vosburg’s home Contact: Rodney Ashby Book Club Contact: Janelle Oppenheimer Location: Crossroads Bible Church