Feeding one another

…What is YOUR food?
…What is your native cuisine?
…If I invite you over for lunch… what would you like to eat?

On World Communion Sunday (10/2) we celebrated communion with different kinds of bread from all over the world. When we do this, we are remembering the mystical words of the Apostle Paul: “Because there is one loaf, we, who are many, are one body, for we all share the one loaf” (I Cor 10:17)… remembering that the act of sharing communion with one another binds us with Christians across the world who participate in the same meal.
One way to express this, tangibly, is by using communion wafers. Those are the same everywhere you go (and if they taste like cardboard, at least it’s the same cardboard). The opposite way of expressing it is what we did — using EVERY kind of bread available, and declaring (in spite of your senses telling you otherwise) that these breads, which are many and diverse, are actually one and the same. The logic here can confound you… or it can be a wonderful mystery.
But the other important purpose of using so many breads is one of our favorite words… WELCOME. By putting the traditional breads of the world on the table, we declare that we are willing to eat *your* favorite foods even if they are not ours. We are willing to cross cultural boundaries and get out of our comfort zone in order to make it absolutely clear that God’s love is for everyone, and that God isn’t the kind of parent who sits you down and makes you eat foods you hate. Your favorite foods are there on our table. A Paul Simon song asks “how can you eat from a rice bowl, when the holy man only breaks bread?” — critiquing Christianity’s history of cultural superiority, and the way Christians have often told other people to change not only their minds but their lifestyles. We take a stand against that at MPC. The cultures of the world are welcome, and not asked to change. In the light of that lyric, I wish we had thought to have a big bowl of rice on the table as well. Next year, perhaps?