Elbows off the table please. Table manners revisited.

Faithful readers,

Some dude in the Bible thought a lot about meals. Often He likened the kingdom of God to a feast. Perhaps even more frequently, He hosted meals that didn’t simply point to the kingdom but revealed it: scandalous meals where the least and the lost were included and the first and the found were excluded; meals that judged all other human meals and embodied a new vision of life in community.

Interestingly, that dude left behind a family of disciples gathered around a heavenly meal where bread and wine are shared. It is here as the family of God that we learn the “table manners” of His kingdom. As we see the bread and wine, we are reminded of the abundance of God’s goodness. Here, we share that bread and wine and learn together to be a generous and sharing people. As we eat the bread, we are reminded of those who have no bread. Is it any surprise that the first church in Jerusalem, gathered around so many meals with this dude, was also a community about which Luke said, “Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need” (Acts 2:45). Learning His table manners led to a new community where “there were no needy persons among them” (4:34).

But then consider the Corinthian church against which Paul rails, “When you come together, it is not the Lord’s Supper you eat” (1 Corinthians 11:20). The family meal had degenerated into a food fight. Why? Because the poor were being humiliated, doing without, even as the rich went home stuffed (vv. 20-22). Is it any coincidence that those in Corinth likely never dined with the dude?

As often as we meet, we gather around a meal that is a foretaste of that great Day, the Marriage Feast of the Lamb, when humanity will live again without want in an abundant creation loosed from its bondage to the curse. That dude came announcing good news for the poor (Luke 4:18-19)—by His death and resurrection the Banquet has begun, the year of Jubilee has come.

As we go into places where poverty and hunger have eclipsed hope, we go in the name of the dude who says to the poor, “This is the year of the Lord’s favor. I am the Bread of Life.” We go with the gospel's words and deeds of justice that the poor might taste the glory of the banquet that lasts forever.

Will work for Food,
Your Friendly Neighborhood Infidel,

~Bill