SERMON: “Remember, eat and believe.”
The cook Julia Child once said: “People who love to eat are always the best people.”
As Danes we can only agree. With Danish modesty and humility, we know that people like us who like to gather for hours at a lunch, dinner, or coffee table, are the best. A shared meal and shared time, creates compassion, fellowship, love and belonging.
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The first thing the world knew about Christians was that they ate together.
At the beginning of each week they gathered – these first Christians. Rich, poor, slaves and free, Jews and Gentiles, women, and me – to celebrate the day the whole world changed for them, to celebrate the gospel of Resurrection.
While each of the first congregations did worship a bit differently, as all the Christians churches and denominations we know today also do, - it appears most practiced communion by enjoying a full meal together combined with a thanksgiving for the bread and the wine.
They remembered as the ate.
They remembered Jesus with food.
They remembered Jesus with stories told, laughter shared, tears of memories, lively debates and discussion and then common cleanup.
Sounds familiar, doesn’t it?
It almost sounds as the missed lunches and dinners here at the Danish Lutheran church and it especially sounds like our beloved and emotional Maundy Thursday Dinner with a full meal of spices, lamb, chicken, salad and fruit combined with celebrating of Holy Communion.
As Rachel Evans write in “Searching for Sunday.”: “ According to church historians, the focus of these early communion services was not on Jesus death, but rather on Jesus friendship, his presence made palpable among his followers by the tastes, the sounds and the smells he loved.” Page 125
The author Nora Ephron said: “A family is a group of people who eat the same thing for dinner.”
It is true for us a family, as it is such an important part of being a family that we do gather at the same table and eat the same thing – together.
It is true for us as a church family and congregation, as it is such an important part of being church and congregation that we do gather at the same table and eat the same thing – together.
And this is what we really miss in this time of Pandemic and isolation. To eat together, to share holy communion together, to share live and faith together.
For these first Christians and congregations that meal was of great importance of being church. Jesus did give them concrete things to do, specific ways of being together in their bodies, when he was no longer with them. “Do this!” he said to them. He didn’t say: believe this but he said: “do this…. In remembrance of me.” And so, they did. And so, Christians have done ever since through our common church history.
When the mighty Emperor Constantine made Christianity the official religion of the state, he also infused some imperial pomp and elements of pagan ceremonies into the holy communion. The prayers grew from simple to more stylized and fixed. Chants and processions replaced the mealtime banter and fellowship. Christians did not gather around tables but instead before altars, - and by the Middle ages, many lay people only received communion once a year.
Then the Reformation swept over Europe and the Church. Some reformed protestant church returned to shared meals, others focused more on preaching and teaching, - while there was a big debate about the Catholic teachings about Holy communion and the so-called transubstantiation. Wars were fought and books were burned through these disagreements.
Today, with all our different churches, denominations, synods and cultural differences, Holy Communion is celebrated in so many ways. For some – like us in pre and post COVID19 – we celebrate it every week, for others it might only be monthly. The atmosphere might be celebratory or somber, is might be quit or a talk active part of service, -the elements might be a freshly baked loaf of bread and fine wine, or wafers and apple juice, - but in every tradition and every sacrament, at some point somebody says: “Remember!”
And so, they did. And so, we do. Remember.
Remember how God became one of us. Remember how God ate with us, shared wine with us, laughed with us, and cried with us. How God suffered for us and gave his life for us. Remember. Remember the stories told about the presence and the miracles of Jesus; how he had compassion for the crowds following him, and how he fed them with five loaves of bread and two fish. “And all ate and were filled, and they took up what was left over of the broken pieces, twelve baskets full. And those who ate were about five thousand men, besides women and children.” Mathew 13.20-21
The very first miracle that Jesus did according to the gospels, before crowds, rumors and threats followed him everywhere, Jesus attended a wedding in Cana. In first century Palestine, even modest weddings were marked by 3-4 days of feasting. The wedding was an event that Jesus loved to attend as he loved to be seated with people, to be eating and drinking, to listen to music and laughter, to smell the scent of roasted lamp and the scents of flowers, the sweet taste of pomegranate, dates and honey, the voices of happy or animated conversations between family and friends.
Of course, the ministry of Jesus had to begin at an event like this. And then the wine ran out.
It was a strange way to begin a ministry, turning water into wine. And what sort of sign was that anyways, ensuring that a wedding could continue, and more wine could be poured? Was he supposed to condone this as a good Christian or rather as a good Jew?
It is tempting to dismiss the miracle of feeding the 5000 or the miracle of the wedding in Cana as mere magic tricks or unbelievable superstition. But maybe these stories truly tell us more about Jesus and God, something that we often forget: that God truly cares about our reality and life; and Gods glory and presence also resides in everyday life, just waiting for us to see it and realize the blessings of it.
God works in mysterious way. God also works through food and wine. Through people and moments.
God does not meet us outside of life in some kind of a esoteric metaphysical manner. Rather, he meets us at the table, in sacred moments of faith and hope, in relations of love – and he meets us through our church sacraments, which are mysterious and yet ordinary.
I remember many years ago, when Soren and I just met, and our families were getting to know each other. Soren’s grandparents were lovely loving and caring people, and Kirstine, Sorens beloved grandma would always greet us with a Eat Eat Eat before we even had settled when visiting, and Kirstine used to have a chicken coop in her back garden. Some 10 -15 chicken providing the family with fresh eggs.
It so happens that I am a chicken farmers daughter. A chicken farmer who produced more than 1.2 million chickens every year in chicken stables of 20-30.000 chicken each.
One year my father experienced a catastrophic shortage of food for all these chickens, as the company that should deliver the weekly chicken food wasn’t able to due a local strike among drivers. My dad and other chicken farmers were scrambling to find delivery else where and be able to feed these thousands of hungry and growing chickens.
I shared this concern with Kirstine, and she said to me with common sense: “Why don’t your dad just boil a lot of potatoes – I surely do that when I am short of food for the chicken?”
Kindly, we had to explain to dear Kirstine that we could not just boil potatoes to some 50.000 chickens – and I still remember the first time Kirstine visited my families chicken farm and saw the crowds of chickens. That might be the only time, Kirstine did not know what to say!
I think of that incident when reading the Story about feeding the thousand of five loaves of bread and two fish. And I can almost hear Christine’s voice in the words of Jesus: “You give them something to eat!”
Off course, we could reply, off course, the disciples did reply. But how?
“We have nothing here but 5 loaves and two fish.” And then Jesus said: “Bring to me what you have.” And Jesus took the bread and the fish, blessed, and broke it and gave it to the crowds to eat. And all ate and were filled…
The action and call of Jesus hits us just in the heart of our culture and personal cravings. That kind of scarcity would tell us that we need to protect what we have and grasp even more. It encourages us to look after our own interest rather than others. The common good barely registers and we might not even notice the hungry that are knocking on our doors every day. As Jesus said, “You will always have the poor with you….” Matthew 26.11
It was an act of faith, hope, and compassion to bring to Jesus what they had. When we do so, when we bring to him whatever we have, God’s grace does miracles.
Jesus blessed and broke open what was surely not enough, and dared the disciples to offer it to others.
When we share, when we care, when we have compassion, when we see the hungry and the poor, when we give, support, when we focus on the common good, and volunteer our time and talents miracles do happen and five loaves and two fish multiply.
“People who love to eat are always the best people.”
“A family is a group of people who eat the same thing for dinner.”
When our spirits are nourished and fed, we can catch a glimpse of God’s Grace of abundance.
AMEN.