Come, Lord Jesus, be our guest,
may this food by you be blest.
May our souls by you be fed,
always on the living Bread.
Amen.
The Bible is full of verses and stories about food and eating. From early in Genesis (9:3) when God provides for Adam and Eve (“every living thing … shall be food for you ….”) throughout both the Hebrew and the Christian scriptures, it is clear that God desperately loves, cares for, and wants to feed the people he has created. Food and eating are not just one of the themes in today’s gospel, for the next four weeks our gospels will focus on food and eating.
It’s hard to imagine an important human event that does not involve eating. Birthdays, weddings, holidays, major accomplishments and funerals require eating because the sharing of food is the sharing of life with each other. Deep down we know that food is fellowship. When we eat together we share so much more than calories or grams of fat. We share each other’s joy, pain, struggle, and hope. Sharing food we share ourselves. We show ourselves to be companions in life’s journey, people who by sharing bread also share love. One of the best parts of my recent trip to visit my daughter and her family was the meals we enjoyed together around her table. Eating with friends and family is a joy!
It is no accident, then, that scripture has food and eating constantly in view. God creates life by creating food. God blesses humankind with the promise that agricultural cycles will yield their fruit in due season and then God invites us to participate in the just and generous sharing of food, making hospitality to others a basic Judeo-Christian duty. God wants us to share food with each other because in doing so we share God’s love. In Ecclesiastes we are told to eat our bread with joy and drink our wine with merry hearts.
God’s provision of food is always a gift to be received with open, grateful hands. Food is a living metaphor for God’s sustaining love for his people, meant to be accepted with joy. And, we are called to care for “the least of these” by sharing food as God does. Today, after mass, as we do each month on the last Sunday, we will prepare a meal and serve it and eat it with guests from our community.
Our monthly community brunch is actually unique. Many churches and community organizations provide food for those who are hungry, but, really, very few sit down and share that food with strangers.
Sharing meals is a powerful sign of acceptance and care. In scripture Jesus shared meals with outcast persons and sinners. If you think about it for a minute, which one of us hasn’t been a stranger at some point in our life? Who among us isn’t a sinner?
Eating in community is one of the things we do best at St. Stephen’s Church. Food and its preparation are glue that holds us together. Our English word companion comes from the Latin word for “with” (com) and “bread” (panis) – a companion is one with whom you eat your bread. Eating together is a universally important human activity. Food provides a gathering point, a center around which to build relationships and trust. Remember Jesus’ story in Luke (14:13) when he teaches his followers to do as he did: to welcome as guests at a banquet “the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind,” precisely those who would be able to give back nothing to the host in terms of worldly benefits or prestige?
When we practice the broad, open hospitality that Jesus taught we welcome Christ himself as our guest. Sharing meals across the boundaries of social class and background is precisely the kind of sharing that comes closest to Jesus’ ideal.
Another way St. Stephen’s practices the hospitality of Jesus is by bringing meals to people who are hurting, who have lost someone or who have undergone surgery. We call it the casserole brigade and Margaret Long is the person to contact if you’d like to volunteer to be a food provider or if you need a meal. In his death, burial, and resurrection Christ promises peace and hope and reconciliation, so providing a meal for another in need is one way of doing just that. A casserole says here is a gift of peace, here is a little hope, and here is love from your parish home. Eat and enjoy.
In her wonderful book Eat with Joy (from which many of the ideas in this sermon are taken), Rachel Marie Stone writes “I believe Jesus calls us to do more than that, to look around and find people who need someone to eat with – a lonely elderly person, perhaps someone suffering with an eating disorder who needs love and feeding and listening and more love and feeding.” I like that idea. Who do you know who would appreciate an invitation to share a meal with you? I think we need to take turns being the host and the guest, just as Jesus did. Stone continues, “if there is anything we all need, it’s to be known and accepted as we are so that, as the apostle Paul says, grace may abound.”
It’s not news to any of us that eating is restorative. Meals bring people together and help heal – not just nutritionally – but in all kinds of ways. Meals together are a wonderful treatment for boredom and loneliness, especially for the elderly and those who live alone; they also help stave off eating disorders.
Think about some of the best meals you have enjoyed? Who was with you? What did you talk about? Remember the aromas and the surroundings. Remember the textures and the tastes. Now, think about the next meal you will receive here at St. Stephen’s. Come to this altar with gratefulness in your heart and look around you at all the other companions Jesus has invited to share his table with you. And, at the conclusion of this Eucharist say a brief prayer as today’s lay Eucharistic visitor comes forward to receive consecrated bread and wine she will take to a parishioner who is unable to be with us here this morning. Listen to the words I repeat as I give the portable communion kit to the visitor. “We are one because we all share the one body and blood of Christ.”
Lord Jesus, be our holy guest,
our morning joy, our evening rest.
And with our daily bread impart,
your love and peace to every heart.
Amen.