Thursday, April 15, 2021

Good Eats!

 


God’s grace, peace and mercy be with you. … My sermon today is entitled, “Good Eats!” and my focus is our Gospel (Luke 24:36-49). Let us pray. Heavenly Father, the psalmist wrote, “I rejoiced when they said to me, ‘Let us go to the house of the Lord.’” Now that our feet are within your gates, we rejoice to hear your Word. As we listen, may your Spirit enlighten our minds and move our hearts to love deeply as Jesus loved. This we pray to you, Most Holy Trinity. Amen.

One of my favorite shows is entitled Good Eats! If you have never seen it, Host Alton Brown explores the origins of ingredients, decodes culinary customs, and presents food and equipment trends. Punctuated by unusual interludes, simple preparations and unconventional discussions, he brings you food in its finest and funniest form.[1]

I mention this cooking show because of Jesus’ question, “Have you anything here to eat?” The question leads to three points about food: in Luke, the Lord’s Supper and the Church today.

First, Luke. After the Risen Lord greeted his disciples with peace, they became startled and frightened because they thought that they were looking at a ghost. Stories of ghosts and other phantoms of the night abounded in Jesus’ time, but one point worth noting is that ghosts lack material substance. You can't shake hands with a ghost or invite him to eat dinner with you.

In this Resurrection account, the disciples were startled and frightened precisely because they thought they were seeing a ghost. So, Jesus invited them to touch Him, underscoring his point by reminding the disciples that His glorified Body has flesh and bones.

To deepen this point, Jesus asked his bewildered disciples for something to eat. This was a sign that he was indeed raised from the dead – body and spirit. Recall that Jesus instructed Jairus and his wife to give their girl something to eat after he had raised her to life. Only the living require food to eat.

But there is something more important here than good eats. In Jesus’ culture dining with someone indicated solidarity with that person. To eat with someone meant you identified with that person. To take a meal with another was to offer that person the right hand of fellowship in the deepest sense of the term.

Meal fellowship is an appropriate image for an incarnational Christianity. Meal scenes and meal imagery (including parables spoken at or about a meal) serve as a “main course" here. There are ten meal scenes in which Jesus eats with others in Luke. Three of them have parallels in the other gospels; seven, however, can only be found in Luke, and are integral to and reflective of Luke’s theological interests.

Now, when it comes to sizing up Jesus' table companions, one has to speak in terms of his democratic eating habits. For Jesus it was not the food but the people he ate with that mattered most. His dining partners were diversified and inclusive. Every meal was a shared meal. Jesus never ate alone, and where Jesus was present, salvation was also. That said, there is no better image for salvation than a feast, the major metaphor for salvation.

Lastly, Luke tells the story of the eucharist in a story of meals and journeys with Jesus. Unlike foxes who have dens and birds who have nests, the Son of Man had “nowhere rest his head” (9:58). His entire life was one great journey in which meals and simple hospitality played a critical part for him as well as for his followers. Jesus, his disciples, all who would follow later, and the church itself are a people on a journey, a people of hospitality, both offered and received. The eucharist is the supreme expression of that hospitality, sustaining them and us on the journey to the kingdom of God.[2]

With that, we move from my first point, food in Luke, to my second, the Lord’s Supper. Every time we receive the Body and Blood of Christ, it is like we are with his disciples, sitting at table with Jesus. We receive Him, Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity. What we receive is no phantom ghost, but the very substance of the Son of God Himself.

Those of you who were present for Maundy Thursday know that I spoke of Mark’s account of the Last Supper. I am not going to repeat what I taught from Luther’s Small Catechism or The Formula of Concord, however, I am going to cite an even earlier work that I recently re-read.

The Jerusalem Catechesis was one of the first catechisms of the undivided Christian Church. Its 24 teachings, given sometime around 350 AD, reflect the deep, sacramental understanding of the early Christian Church, the meaning of Baptism and all the Sacraments and the beauty of our participation in the life of the Trinity through our participation in the Church, the Body of Christ, of which we are members.

Its use of the word symbol means much more than we westerners tend to think. It means an actual participation by grace. That said, the instruction to newly baptized Christians that “it is with complete assurance that we receive the bread and wine as the body and blood of Christ. His body is given to us under the symbol of bread, and his blood is given to us under the symbol of wine, in order to make us by receiving them one body and blood with him. Having his body and blood in our members, we become bearers of Christ and sharers … in the divine nature.

Do not, then, regard the eucharistic elements as ordinary bread and wine: they are in fact the body and blood of the Lord, as he himself has declared. Whatever your senses may tell you, be strong in faith. You have been taught and you are firmly convinced that what looks and tastes like bread and wine is not bread and wine but the body and the blood of Christ.”

My friends, through grace Christ invites us to his holy meal to eat his Body and Blood. Through God’s grace and our belief as a Church body and members, we share in the divine nature. What does it mean for us? With that, we move from my second point on the Lord’s Supper to the Church today.

The Gospel passage we heard today is the last meal story in Luke. In each of the previous nine, Jesus was the host. In this one, the Church plays host. The previous passage, the Road to Emmaus, is one which speaks clearly of hospitality. It is hospitality that is vital to the Church today, and to speak to the Church today, I return to one of the Church Fathers recognized by the Synod, Gregory the Great of the 6th century. Usually, Gregory’s sermons were detailed exegetical commentaries. Here, he dispensed with that which gave him the opportunity to sing the praises of the great virtue of hospitality.[3]

We know that the two disciples were walking on the road and, while not believing in Christ, spoke of him. The Lord “exchanged a few words with them, reproached them with their slowness in understanding, explained to them the mysteries of Holy Scripture concerning him, and yet, their hearts remaining foreign to him for lack of faith, he pretended to go further. … It was necessary to test them to see if, not yet loving him as God, they were at least capable of loving him as a traveler. Truth journeying with them, they could not remain strangers to love: they offered him hospitality, as one does for a traveler.”

Gregory points out that they begged, urged, pleaded, pressed or constrained Jesus to stay with them. He continues, “This example shows us that we should not only offer hospitality to travelers, but to accept it. The disciples set the table, offer food; and God, whom they did not recognize in the explanation of Holy Scripture, they recognize it in the breaking of bread.”

“As you can see, the Lord was not recognized when he spoke, but he deigned to be recognized when he was given food. Love, dear brothers, hospitality, love works inspired by charity.”

Hebrews reminds us, “Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels unawares” (Heb 13:2) As does Peter, “Show hospitality to one another without grumbling” (1 Pet 4:9), and Matthew, “I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me” (Mt 25:35). 

After citing these passages, Gregory said, “What great virtue is hospitality. Receive Christ at your tables, to deserve to be received by him at the eternal banquet. Give shelter today to Christ who presents himself to you as a stranger, so that in the day of judgment you are not for him as strangers whom he does not know (cf Lk 13:25), but that he receives you as his own in his Kingdom.”

My friends, I am sure each of us has pressed strangers in our midst to accept our hospitality. It may have been one who was a stranger in our country or community. It may be one who was a stranger to God or the Christian Faith. At times, simply offering is met with resistance or refusal. Perhaps people are reluctant to receive hospitality. Perhaps they think that they must reciprocate a gracious act. But our salvation, as we know, is a free gift from God. That is why we should and do offer hospitality to strangers in our midst – to be channels of God’s free grace to them that they too may receive and enjoy salvation through Christ.

I was thinking about this point as I was waiting for Cindy to pick me up a few weeks ago. I noticed that several cars drove up to the Blessing Cupboard. They came when no one was around to notice, took what food they needed and left. For all I know, they are strangers in our midst to whom we offer hospitality. So, I asked Linda Rodenbeck about this ministry, and she forwarded my request to Barb Kraynie.

Barb responded with this. “The blessing cupboard was started in May 2017. I had seen a Facebook page called blessing box. I thought there are many people in our area that could use the help but are not comfortable letting people know. With the cupboard they could come any time anonymously and take whatever they need. It also gives other people the ability to donate any amount anytime that is convenient for them. Not only church members but many people in the community stock the cupboard. We do not keep records of donations and what we give out. Linda has been instrumental in expanding our giving with the Christmas boxes the past two years. She also has used her contacts to get donations from Blackhawk schools and Boy Scouts. When I was working, I drove by the church every day. I would stop and check if food needed stocked. I was amazed the amount that came and went on a daily basis.  I hope this information is helpful.” (Barbara Kraynie)

Friends, this is a wonderful Christian ministry we provide for the community. As we move through this great Season of Easter, open yourself to God’s grace poured into your hearts. Open yourself to divine hospitality, and may the grace of God that surpasses all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.



[1] https://www.foodnetwork.com/shows/good-eats

[2] Eugene LaVerdiere, Dining in the Kingdom of God, p. 9.

[3] https://sites.google.com/site/aquinasstudybible/home/luke-commentary/gregory-the-great-homily-23-on-the-gospels

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