Sacred Meals: Ultimate Happy Ones
by Ken Wilson
Communion, Lord's Supper, as a Sacred Meal. Because all meals are to be sacred, and the communion meal we share together is the reason why.
For centuries we've focused too much on "doctrine" and too little on "story." Never more than when it comes to communion.
Doctrines define truth for us. They are arrived at, held, argued.
Churches now define themselves by doctrinal differences re the meal meant to signify unity! RC "transubstantiation" (bread & wine become body-blood); Lutheran "consubstantiation" (body-blood in/
with/under bread-wine.) Reformed: Christ is "spiritually present"
Two reformers, Luther & Zwingli agreed on 14/15 doctrines. Only difference, communion. Agreed on 7/8 items on this doctrine, but Luther said, "in/with/under" and Zwingli, "spiritually present." Luther refused to recognize Zwingli as a brother, said he was from evil one!
If doctrines define truth, stories convey it. Need to get back to stories behind communion. Stories draw us in. In the nature of stories to go somewhere so they take us with them; move us. We hold doctrines; we participate in stories; what's your preference?
The story of communion starts in Genesis, jam-packed with compel-ling drama. Story of creation, Abraham & Sarah and their family ups & downs, betrayals & reconciliations. The story of God & humanity.
Meals play a dramatic role in the story. Pay attention to first time something shows up in Bible (or any movie for that matter.)
First meal in Genesis is a sacred meal, victory celebration. Abraham has liberated his nephew taken captive by an alliance of kings. When it's over, "priest of God most High" mysteriously appears, a "Prince of Salem," meaning peace, later to become Jerusalem. Gen. 14: 18-20.
Hint of coming attractions, isn't it? Another King of Peace offering us bread and wine, blessing us, receiving our tithes.
Genesis vision of God: God is Sacred, Holy, Good. Everything God touches is Sacred, Holy, Good. The earth is and everything in it, including us! Food is sacred. Our need for it, sacred. Our need for each other, sacred. And so meals, especially, are sacred in the Bible.
You know that already, I hope. Ever been at a meal when sacred is served? Or peeks out at you? Example…
Have you noticed when we wolf down our fast food alone in the car, we just get hungrier for something that better expresses sacredness of meals? Meals not just about putting fuel in tank. Meals celebrate goodness of life on Sacred Planet under the Sacred God.
So there's a counter trend to Fast Food Nation: Culinary Nation. Surge of interest in "culinary arts," celebrity chefs on TV showing us how…
[When we launched MNO, God made it clear he wanted it to be a sacred meal. Wanted it done up right for these single moms.]
So, to follow the love story of God & humanity in all its dramatic beauty, pay attention to the meals....
+ beginning with Melchizedek-meal with Abraham, bread & wine (14)
+ second: Abraham & Sarah prepare meal for strangers who turn out to be messengers, angels, the Lord himself it seemed. (18)
+ third: Abraham's servant sent on a mission to find a bride for son Isaac [who lost his mother; whose father was willing offer him in sacrifice; if ever there was a man who needed a woman it was Isaac]
Servant finds Rebekkah, seems to be the one!, but she must come back with him freely, which means with father's blessing. Drama of servant asking for Rebekkah….seal the deal with a meal. (24)
First three meals advance the story, full of drama, romance.
Next meal introduces dramatic tension: betrayal. Jacob offers his famished brother Esau a meal in exchange for first-born honors. (27)
Then another meal of betrayal. Jacob's sons envy brother Joseph, throw him into a cistern to rot. Then have the audacity to sit down to a meal! 11 betrayers, 1 betrayed listening from bottom of pit….as Judah argues to save Joseph's life: "Sell him to slave traders rather than let him rot in there!" Along come the slave traders as if on cue and they rise from their meal to seal the deal. (37)
The thorn in the flesh of LOVE is what? Kinship betrayal!
Our alienation from God hurts because it is kinship betrayal,
Our alienation from each other hurts because it is kinship betrayal
Not just the hurt it puts on us, but the hurt it puts on God.
This is the Sacred Drama working itself out…
Fast forward through other important meals….to final meal of Genesis….
Dripping with drama….unfolding reconciliation meal. (43) Stuff of high drama. [Talk to Me: Peety Green….falling out with manager… friendship begins at pool table, reconciled over one]
Genesis ends with reconciliation between Joseph, the betrayed and his brothers, the betrayers. Joseph came to Egypt as a slave and through great trial became most powerful man in Egypt; meanwhile famine back home, sending his brothers to beg for grain in Egypt.
Joseph oversees distribution. He knows them, they don't know him.
Invites them to a Egyptian feast before eventually revealing himself.
Fast forward to the gospels starring Jesus of Nazareth. Religion has become something that divides people rather than uniting them.
The religious experts have used religion to make it perfectly clear who is holy and who is not holy, who is sacred-clean, and who is unclean.
Jesus steps into this divided-by-religion place and he makes some dramatic statements by the company he keeps at meal time.
First meal (pay attention to first!) at Levi's place. A notorious sinner, a tax collector, a nation-betrayer. Levi's friends: loose women ecstasy-cocaine crowd. Mark records Jesus "having dinner" with them. GK., "katakeimai": to lie in bed; or to recline at table [context decides] What's a holy man doing "in bed with sinners" so to speak?
Next time we see Jesus reclining at Simon the Pharisee's table. (Mk. 13) Uninvited woman pushes her way in to anoint his feet… He gets the same old push-back and pushes back even harder to make room for the sinners at his dinner parties!
Then, boom, straight from this meal to the Passover meal that we now call The Last Supper, setting the stage for what we call, The Lord's Supper. Mark 14: 17-26 [draw out kinship betrayal]
You can go to wikepedia to study differences: transubstantiation, consubstantiation, spiritual presence, real presence, symbolic presence. Master arguments, decide which is correct, get into that p. match. Define yourself. Defend yourself. Mark your doctrinal turf.
But let me warn you: there's a long line for that bathroom. Once you get in, may never get out.
What in the Bible invites us to approach communion like that? As something to be argued? As something to simply play out the curse of kinship betrayal? To send the thorn deeper into the flesh of LOVE?
NO! Communion is presented as the beginning of the resolution-culmination of the Sacred Drama centered around the meals we share. Meals which are understood by experience to be sacred, the earth being the Lords and the fullness thereof.
Nowhere does it say in the story: "Stop! The communion meal is separate from all these other meals. There's a firewall of holiness between this meal and all others."
Just the opposite. The story tells us all of these meals are connected.
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Communion: something we do when we're all together on Lord's Day. As it has been for 2K yrs in many different places, different ways
It is perfectly legitimate, desired even, to share communion around a real live dinner table in a smaller, more intimate venue.
Also legitimate that we would do this when we're all together for the express purpose of being as aware of his presence as we can possibly be together. That we would do this in a way that works practically.
For practical reasons, instead of full fledged dinner, we have bread and fruit of the vine in small portions…..
I think of communion in this form as concentrated communion.
Of all sacred meals that make up sacred drama of betrayal-betrayed finding reconciliation….the ones in this book, ones in our lives….
[What's it all about Alfie? It's about our soul-searing craving to connect with others, including God….]
This is the concentrated meal--stripped to core essentials, bread and drink, fruit of the field, fruit of the vineyard--Jesus now coming into it all, coming into all our meals to make them sacred, before us….
Body of Christ broken for us, blood of Christ shed for us…real presence of God, in Jesus, with us, here and now, in the unfolding resolution of kinship betrayal which is the thorn in the flesh of LOVE.
Isn't it wonderful: today, by happy coincidence, we have these empty barrels being filled with food for hungry, left behind, outta luck?
Message of this meal is not: be careful who you share it with! Message of this meal is: "Unless you are willing to share yourself with others as I freely share myself with you today, you're participating in the wrong story, not the love story of God and Humanity."
THE MOOD OF COMMUNION
Festive, not Debbie Downer Dour
Sacred yes, as all of life is meant to be.
But it a sacred meal….I like my meals!
Not the Last Supper (mood foreboding)
But Lord's Supper, because the kingdom party has begun.
Anticipatory, not backward-looking.
Not re-enacting the mood of Good Friday.
We don't meet on Friday. We meet on Resurrection day!
Because of what he's done, wrongs may be undone;
because of what he's done, better days to come!
So we bring with us all the mess we're in the middle of, anticipating it's resolution….because this is an unfolding resolution-restititution-reconciliation-resurrection feast….the meal we share "until he comes" and all shall be well.