The Food We Need

John 6:56-69

August 23, 2015

Everyone eats.

Not the same thing or the same amount.

Not everyone has the same likes or dislikes.

Some people need to take nutrition

in different ways because of health problems.

Some people have more complicated relationships with eating.

Some people love to eat, some people don’t.

Gethsemane's Tables

But everyone needs food.

Everyone eats in one way or another.

The necessity of eating has brought

people together forever.

People have formed communities

out of hunting and gathering

food with each other.

In pre-grocery store times,

making a meal was a community act.

The cheese maker shared the baker’s products

baker shared the farmer’s products and the butchers.

The necessity of food brings people

to our food pantry every week and

out of that necessity, we’ve made

new relationships with new people
we might never have met before.

  

And since we all know that we have this

similar need, eating is a good opportunity to

gather together with other people.

So people come around tables.

Somewhere where we can put the food down on

Whether it’s a dining room table,

a kitchen table, a coffee table, a restaurant table.

We have places where we can do this

necessity of life together.

And lots of things happen around these

tables while we’re filling this needed activity.

When we do come together at the table

it’s probably the most extended

amount of time people spend together.

This human necessity that we all share,

makes the sharing of food with others a sacred experience.

God joins us in that moment.

Whether we’re sharing with strangers, giving it away,

or eating with our families around these tables.

Now, if you’re like me, you remember a lot of

of good times around this table,

talking, laughing, sharing.

But if you’re like me, you also remember some horrible times,

bad news, yelling, crying, storming away.

The dinner table:

The best of times and the worst of times.

That’s a good indicator when something is sacred and holy,

it can go very, very good and terribly wrong.

But the thing about food, is that we all have to eat.

The need brings us back again, and again

where we can forgive and rebuild

sometimes a good plate of spaghetti

can fix a lot of things.

For the last 5 weeks we’ve been hearing Jesus

talk about food and bread.

His body given for us, his flesh and blood

that he gave for us, that lives inside of us

the meal that we share at this table together.

Now this table and all tables

that share communion are Jesus table.

And Jesus table has been used

for great things, for healing and hope,

for forgiveness, and wholeness.

But, like all things sacred, it can be

the worst of times too.

Exclusion, fear, pain.

We come to this table and all tables like this

to share the necessity of life with one another.

Jesus body and blood, the gift and sacrifice of God.

Jesus is the host of this table.

And we have come as Jesus guest.

We have shared at this table with people

we don’t like, don’t agree with, can’t stand.

But yet, this basic human necessity brings us back again

and again, to forgive and rebuild.

This table of Jesus challenges us, and stretches us,

being at this table with others makes us

more like what we eat.

There was an Anglican priest named Wiggit

who ministered to the political prisoners in

South Africa in Pollsmore prison in the early 1980’s.

Every week they shared communion when Wiggit would come.

They would sit around a table and the prison

always assigned a warden to come and observe who would just sit there and make sure that there was no ‘suspicious’

activity happening, no secret information shared.

In 1982, Nelson Mandela was transferred to Pollsmore prison.

He had already been in prison labor camps for over 20 years.

The first time that Nelson Mandela was there,

Wiggit started the communion liturgy and

as they shared the peace, Mandela asked them to stop.

Mandela walked over to the warden and

asked him if he was a Christian.

The warden said yes an Mandela said

"Well then … join us round this table. You cannot sit apart.

This is Holy Communion, and we must share and receive it together”

  

This is difficult teaching.

To sit across the table and share this sacred

food with our enemies, those that don’t share,

that don’t believe our struggles or opinions.

Who don’t understand us or agree with us.

Even those who keep us captive,

who treat us with great injustice.

This is difficult teaching.

Not everyone can live with that.

But this is Jesus table, Jesus is our host

and so it’s Jesus guest list that we use.

And the food that we share

The need we share,

keeps us coming back to the table.

And this table has the power of reconciliation,

the power of forgiveness.

The power to help and to heal.

The power to bring us together

This living bread from heaven

has the words of eternal life.

And when we finally come together at God’s table

Our differences will fade,

our hatred and anger will go.

and we will all be together,

and our hunger for

the bread of life will finally be satisfied.