There was some great spaghetti and pie after worship Sunday as we joined in a fund-raising meal for our Mexico mission team. In just a few weeks we’ll all sit down together again for our annual Easter brunch. And this coming Sunday, our Inquirer’s (membership) class will have lunch together as we talk about the history of the Covenant church.
We frequently joke about how food is involved in so many of our church gatherings. Our regular after-worship fellowship times often have some quite wonderful snacks along with coffee, tea and water and people hang around to eat and chat for quite awhile.
Given the way Garrison Keillor’s jokes about Lutherans and their hot dishes seem universally recognized, I think we are not that different from many Christian communities. And we are not so different from the very first church community.
We come to Acts 2 as our “great” chapter of Scripture this Sunday and I’ve elected to focus on the last few verses, Acts 2:42-47, since the first part of the chapter is read and celebrated on Pentecost. In previous planning I had thought to zero in on the attention to the apostles’ teaching in verse 42, but this morning, as I read the text again, I noticed how prominently the act of eating figures here.
It’s generally agreed that while “the breaking of bread” in verse 42 suggests the sacrament of Communion, the distinction between the sacrament and what we would think of as ordinary table fellowship (like our spaghetti supper and Easter brunch) was blurry for the early church. You can see that from Paul’s concerns in I Corinthians 11.
We see clear reference to that same phenomenon of joining around the table in verse 46 along with an indication of the gladness and generosity that surrounded they community. Which indicates that the sharing of goods in verses 44 and 45 almost certainly included sharing food with those who were in need.
This all to me suggests an understanding that every meal shared together in the church has a holiness and sacramental aspect. Luke shows Jesus often at table. Last week’s text, Luke 15, showed the parable of redemption concluding with a banquet, as does the Bible itself.
So our food at church is not just an unnecessary add-on to more spiritual matters. Eating together and sharing food, especially with those who are in need, is at the heart of the Gospel story and the mission of the church.
Christians often long for their fellowships to be more like Acts 2. Maybe the first step is to eat together a bit more.