March 27, 2015
Rev. Lindsay Collins
Mark 14:12-25
When it was
evening, he came with the twelve. And when they had taken their places and were eating,
Jesus said, ‘Truly I tell you, one of you will betray me, one who is eating
with me.’ They began to be distressed and to say to him one after another,
‘Surely, not I?’ He said to them, ‘It is one of the twelve, one who is dipping
bread into the bowl with me. For the Son of Man goes as it is written of him, but woe
to that one by whom the Son of Man is betrayed! It would have been better for
that one not to have been born.’
The sharing of our meals is important in our
faith tradition as Christians. The
last 24 hours of Jesus’ life begins with a meal. A Passover meal to be exact. And the Passover is the retelling of the story of God
delivering his people from slavery in Egypt as told in the book of Exodus in
our Bibles. It is a celebratory
meal of what God has done.
But here is the thing that I think we should
really notice here -- despite acknowledging the betrayal of one of his
disciples, Jesus takes the bread from the dinner table and blesses it for his
friends. Jesus doesn’t exclude
anybody from the table for their sins – actual or presumed.
I don’t believe that it is a small thing that
Jesus chose to spend his last night with his disciples sharing a meal. And I don’t believe that it is a
small thing that Jesus chose to help us remember our salvation story with the
gift of the meal we call Holy Communion.
I believe that food and more importantly the sharing of food is an
intertwined part of our faith – just think about the pages and pages of the Old
Testament dedicated to food and keeping kosher or the feeding of the 5,000 in
the New Testament. In fact, I ‘ve
seen it listed that there are over 50 references to food in the Bible.
Food can be a comfort at times, hence why we
call it comfort food. It’s no
accident that when a loved one dies, the family is deluged with food. The impulse to feed is innate. Food is the language of care, the thing
we do when traditional language fails us, when we don’t know what to say, when
there are no words to say.
And food is what we offer in celebration – at
weddings, at anniversaries, at happy events of every kind. It’s the thing that connects us, that
bears our traditions, our sense of home and family, our deepest memories, and
on a practical level, our ability to live and breathe each day. All food is a gift from God and food
matters. And the sharing of food
like you do as part of the Backpack Ministry is important. It is sharing what God has given us and
it is a way of letting folks know that they are loved without even speaking a
word. Food can breakdown barriers
that are separated by money, race, and language. You want someone to know that they are loved by you and by
God? Start by sharing your
food. It’s a important starting
place.
This Lent and Easter Season: consider sharing a meal with the
families of the Interfaith Hospitality Network (IHN) and/or collecting food for
the Backpack Ministry.
For food in a world where many walk in hunger;
For faith in a world where many walk in fear;
For friends in a world where many walk alone;
We give you thanks, O Lord.
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