Sometimes the ideas of church, theology and mission can be a bit theoretical. We get lost in the ideas of what things could and should be and miss the people who are right in front of our faces. I’m like that. I get caught up in all the little things that I think are important – organizing the pantry, cleaning our house, volunteering at church, and getting ready to do something big. I don’t always know what I’m waiting for, but I think while I’m waiting for a big opportunity I miss a lot of everyday ones. I mean, what good is a clean house if no one is there to enjoy it and to mess it up again?
Many people love the idea of the church as a community. But when we eat together, we encounter not some theoretical community, but real people with all their problems and quirks. The meal table is an opportunity to give up our proud ideals by which we judge others and accept in their place the real community created by the cross of Christ, with all its brokenness. It’s easy to love people in some abstract sense and preach the virtues of love. But we’re called to love the real individuals sitting around the table. pg. 48
A Meal with Jesus was another good reminder that God meets us in our everyday lives. We don’t need to do something extraordinary to be a part of His story, of what He is already doing. We all eat. Most of us eat 21 times a week (at least). Why not share those meals, at least a couple of them? There’s something wonderful that happens when we gather over a meal. We get to know each other as more than acquaintances. We become family around a table. This is what we are trying to do with out everyday lives, with our meals, with our community. My friend Kara recently posted about our Monday night dinners with our Community Group. She really did the beauty of the evening justice. We started as strangers and we really have become family around that table. Serving each other. Encouraging and challenging each other. Laughing. Celebrating.
I’d recommend Tim Chester’s book, A Meal with Jesus to anyone who wants to share their lives like that but isn’t sure how to take the idea from theory to practice. There’s nothing novel in there, no crazy new ideas. It’s about living life around a real table with real people just like Jesus did when he was on earth. He didn’t spend his time praying with the pious or comparing notes with the scholarly religious elite. He ate and drank and talked with regular people. We should be doing just the same thing, sharing our table with the people we know and meet who need to be loved, who need to know the love of God.
Every time you place a meal on the table with quiet satisfaction, you’re sharing the joy of the Creator at the creation of the world when he declared everything good. pg. 69
