we've moved!

Not into the new house. Not yet.

But here's the long-awaited big reveal that all (five) of you have been waiting on! Drumroll...


Risking civil strife, Suzy and I will be co-blogging on a new blog! Of course, that also means that our individual blogs shall be no more (sad emoticon face). I guess that's what the minister at our wedding meant when he said, "And the two shall become one."

In any case, I won't be posting here anymore, but I will be a regular contributor at our new location. And I'm sure that many of those posts will be about food and faith, in addition to our family, home, and work adventures. Oh yeah...and lots of pictures of the baby.

Check us out!

theDovers

whet the appetite

...or this post could be titled, "back from the brink of starvation."

If blog posts were food, I'd be dead by now. Again, sorry for the delay, but we've been busy little bees. So to keep you all up-to-date on the goings on, here is a quick post to let you know what we've been doing (and will be doing):

- I got accepted into the Doctor of Ministry: Global Online Concentration at Drew University! So maybe some of my academic work will revolve around table fellowship, theology of food, etc., which I will gladly post.

Go Rangers!

- Suzy and I also got the house we were trying to buy, so now we are starting our renovations. I'll especially be writing more about the kitchen remodel, since that will be where we make our food and is "the heart of the home." I'll have plenty of pictures, too!

At some point, this will be a "before" picture

- Since we are moving to a new place, I decided that I'd try to make a natural wood slab table. So far, I've only gotten as far as to locate someone who can cut the slab for me, but I'll definitely update y'all along the way, especially since this will be a place around which we gather to eat as a family.

- And finally, there's a change on the horizon... (and no, Mom, we're not pregnant). Stay tuned for more!

back at the table

Been a while, huh?

We've been crazy busy with new house excitement and old house responsibilities, applications for loans and D.Min. programs, not to mention work, baby, etc. So my apologies to my devoted followers. I know you've missed me. I've missed you, too...all four of you.

My mom, our (good) friend Amy, Suzy's cousin Jenny, and Suzy, who won't even show her face on my blog.

That being said, I'm on vacation this week and really looking forward to some do-nothing-related-to-anything-I-would-normally-be-doing. That means, no deeply poetic insights on the blogosphere about food theology or delicious eats.

I will throw you a bone, though. As I was going through files on the computer, I came across a sermon-ette I preached five years ago at my home church, way back in the mid-2000s, when I was but a mere intern at United Ministries (which has previously featured on this blog here).

Suzy will hate that I'm posting this, because she says it is pretentious and nobody cares about reading an old sermon. Well, yes and no. Yes, I am very pretentious, but I'm under no illusions that this seven-minute reflection I wrote half-a-decade ago is any good. But no, there might be at least four people may want to read it...right?

Anyway, here it is. The text was Luke's feeding of the five thousand (9:10-17):

A pot-luck dinner with a pot-luck family.  We call it our Sunday Night Family Dinner, and we have it every week.  We rotate who hosts, but everyone brings something to contribute to the meal.  If Emily makes lasagna, then Shawn brings the bread, Bekah brings the salad, and Seth brings dessert.  We’re not technically a “family,” but that’s what we call ourselves.  It’s just our close group of friends at Wake Forest Divinity School.  It began as a way for us to get a home-cooked meal once a week, but it quickly became a time of retreat and fellowship in the midst of our hectic schedules.  It’s interesting:  no matter where people are or in what situation, we create a sense of family with those closest to us.  Like I said, a pot-luck dinner with our pot-luck family. 

But this type of fellowship around a meal is unusual in our society.  Rarely do families sit down to eat dinner together.  Instead, meals often consist of fast food in the car, a protein shake on the way out the door, or a nutrition bar at the office.  And rarely are these meals eaten with others.  We are a “take out” culture, and a square meal is not the only thing that we are losing because of this trend.

Our gospel lesson for today is just one of many instances in the gospel narrative and in the parables of Jesus in which meals are the focus.  In fact, one New Testament scholar wrote that at any given point in Luke’s narrative, “Jesus is either going to a meal, at a meal, or coming from a meal.”  And the feeding of the 5000, found in today’s text, is one of the most prominent of these stories.  It is the only one of Jesus’ miracles that is found in all four gospels—and it centers around a meal.  Clearly it is important, but why?

Part of the reason for this story’s importance is that it is about meeting people’s basic human needs.  The miracle is initiated when the disciples recognize that it is late in the day and the people are hungry.  But they want the people to go into the surrounding villages to eat.  Jesus, however, takes their suggestion and turns it back on them, telling the disciples to feed the crowds.  At this point, the disciples are astonished, as I’m sure many of us would be.  How can they feed so many with so little?  Viewed in this light, the feeding is a story of abundance.  Jesus not only provides enough to feed the crowd, but enough for leftovers!  As the text says, “All ate and were filled.”  This is not “first come, first served,” but rather “all that come will be served.”  It is about abundance in meeting the needs of others.

In my time at United Ministries, I have seen examples of this type of abundance.  Often the food pantry seems extremely low, but somehow we are able to continue providing bags of food for those in need.  In fact, when I first came to United Ministries, the shelves were almost empty.  But soon we had cans arriving and the shelves were full again.  In all honesty, it probably should not work.  But it does, because the staff, the volunteers, and the donors are willing to follow Jesus’ lead.  They have seen the need and are willing to serve the way the disciples do in today’s scripture.

This story is also important because it is a prime example of fellowship around a meal as a metaphor for the commonwealth kingdom of God, a theme that permeates Luke’s gospel.  As with many other instances of Jesus at meals, cultural norms were broken.  There was no seating arrangement according to status.  There was no ritual washing before the meal.  There was no regard for who was supposed to be present and who was not.  There were no requirements, other than to be there and have a desire to hear what Jesus had to say.  That is all.  They did not have to profess a certain theology, they did not have to vote for the correct political party, they did not have to go to the right church.  They simply had to be there, wanting to hear what Jesus was saying. 

Many times in the gospels, meals are an act of community, a way to break down social barriers at the most basic of human levels.  Everybody eats, so what better way to join people from all walks of life than with a meal?  Jesus eats with sinners, tax collectors, Pharisees, the whole lot.  And it gets him in trouble.  To many folks, eating with undesirables and those on the margins of society is a dangerous practice.  It threatens the delicate balance of the status quo.  We might even say that Jesus got himself crucified because of the company he kept at meals.  But as one of my divinity school professors put it, quite bluntly, “You show your love by breaking bread together.  If you can’t do that, then your Christology remains flawed—no matter how many creeds you quote.”  When we honestly and openly share a meal of fellowship with others, we declare the power of reconciliation to our fragmented world.

An important point to recognize, though, is that this is not merely a meal of toleration.  Jesus and the disciples were trying to retreat, but the crowds followed them.  Yet Jesus did not turn them away or accept their presence begrudgingly.  He taught, healed, and welcomed them, providing for their basic needs and creating an atmosphere of community and fellowship.  In the Jewish world in which Jesus lived, to share a meal with others was to share a meal before God.  All who ate the meal partook in the blessing offered by the host.  Thus, Jesus is not merely tolerating the crowds, but welcoming them to His table with open arms, offering His blessings upon them. 

In this way, the feeding of the 5000 not only anticipates the Last Supper, but the kingdom of God.  This miracle prefigures the banquet described by Isaiah in which people from all ends of the earth will be gathered together at the return of the Messiah.  And that is what the kingdom is all about.  All are welcome at God’s table, regardless of race, social status, income, or education.  It is a kingdom and a banquet of radical equality among the human family.  And when we share the fellowship of a meal with persons different from us, we get a glimpse of what the kingdom of God is like, and understand more fully who Jesus is. 

It is no coincidence that Luke places this story where he does.  Peter’s confession immediately follows the feeding of the 5000 in the narrative.  This confession occurs when Peter, responding to Jesus’ question of who the disciples say He is, answers “The Christ.”  It is a turning point in Luke’s gospel.  The disciples are finally starting to get it!  After observing Jesus feeding the multitude, and serving alongside with him, they understand.  Serving in the presence of Jesus, following His example, has given them insight into who Jesus is.

I know that with all this talk of food and meals, you’re probably getting hungry.  But as you eat your lunch at the Country Club, or at home, or at the Ham House, remember that God is present.  God is present wherever an open invitation to the table is extended to others.  When we look past trivial differences and past the arbitrary boundaries that our culture puts between people, we fulfill our Christian calling in the extension of God’s grace and love to others.  And it is in these times that we get a glimpse of what the kingdom of God is like.  It is the pot-luck family of God.  But when, as a family, we come together in fellowship, God can do amazing things—even turn five loaves and two fish into enough for 5000.