By Martha Martin
St. Andrew's United Church, Halifax

A Place at the Table

Luke 14: 1; 7-14

I didn’t realize it until I started preparing my sermon for today that much of my spring and summer reading list has included books that have something to do with food. In the early spring I read Women, Food, and God, by Gineen Roth, which offered some very interesting insights into why so many of us in this part of the world, particularly women, have truly lost touch with our own basic instincts and signals around food and hunger.

Then I read Elizabeth Gilbert’s best seller Eat, Pray, Love, which I have been meaning to do for a long time. I wanted to read it before the movie came out, because I can never read a book after I’ve seen the movie. And of course, as many of you will know, it’s a book about a woman who spends a year in three countries, Italy, India, and Indonesia, eating, praying, and loving … hoping to get closer to God, and to find inner wisdom and insight, and ultimately herself. I thought I was going to hate the book, but I actually quite enjoyed it. I liked her writing style, and found it quite humourous in parts.

My next book was John Irving’s latest, Last Night at Twisted River, which although it isn’t specifically about food, it is about an Italian American man, a cook by profession, and his son, and their life over 50 years. I loved this book – I think it is John Irving at his best. However, reading Eat Pray Love and this book back to back made me very hungry for Italian food all the time.

Well, my next book, which again I’ve been meaning to read for awhile, was The Year of Living Biblically, by A.J. Jacobs. This is the record of a secular Jew from New York who decides to live one year, as best he can, according to all the rules of the bible. Again, I was pleasantly surprised by this book – it was very funny in places, and also very informative. Jacobs did a lot of reading and research before and during his adventure. This book again isn’t specifically about food, but he does end up talking a lot about food, as many of the rules and restrictions in the Bible are about food, and the way one eats, and who one eats with ... I’ll get back to that in a few minutes.

And just the other day I picked up The Hunger Games, by Suzanne Collins, a popular book among youth and young adults, recommended to me by one of our confirmands. I haven’t finished it yet, but it’s a futuristic science fiction story, part one of a trilogy, about a post apocalyptic society where some have everything, most have very little, and 24 young people are brought together each year in a survival of the fittest, fight to the death public contest, winner take all. It’s fascinating, and disturbing, but very engaging.

So, that’s my partial summer reading list. And it wasn’t until late this week that I realized that there was a food theme running through many of these books. Was that coincidence, or does food just play a large part in many books? As I thought about some of the other books that I read over the season, Secret Daughter by Shilpi Gowda, and even the Stieg Larsson Girl With the Dragon Tatoo trilogy, I could certainly find many descriptive passages of food, and meals, in those books as well.

Food and hunger, either literally or as a metaphor, seem to play an important role in literature, in movies, in visual art. Perhaps because food is obviously so central to the human condition, for survival, and for pleasure. In the bible, food is often used as a metaphor for the kingdom of God, for a vision of a just world where there is enough for all. In our gospel passage today, Jesus paints a picture of the reign of God as an open table where all are invited and where there is enough for all, forever.1

The commentaries tell us that in the Gospel of Luke, the setting of a meal often speaks to what is important in God’s reign. The use of the image of a table reflects the importance of social obligations around hospitality in Jesus’ time. If you invited someone for dinner, it was expected that that person would reciprocate with an invitation later. Some folks ranked higher in status than others, and so sat higher up at the table, and would even receive different qualities and quantities of food. As usual, Jesus is turning these conventions and norms upside down, and uses the example of a wedding banquet as a way to talk about the inclusive nature of God’s reign.

After first chastising the guests for their scrambling for the places of honour at the table, he then challenges the host to think about who they invite to the table, telling them to invite to the table people who are unable to reciprocate with an invitation.

This would have been particularly difficult for Jews who were concerned with ritual purity, where one ate, with whom one ate, and what one ate were all part of their religious practices. Many of their 613 commandments deal with dietary restrictions.2

One of the delights of last year was the Lenten Study “Chocolate for Lent” that we offered here at St. Andrew’s. The study is based on the Acadamy Award nominated movie Chocolat, from the year 2000. Now I have offered this study many times over the past 8 years, and each time is different. However, the one thing that we always do is eat chocolate, a particularly decadent thing to do for anyone who is used to giving up something for lent, particularly chocolate. We explore many different themes over the six week study – the issue of fasting and why we do it; issues of inclusiveness and belonging, and the insider/outsider phenomenon; issues of rules, control, and power; issues of pleasure and enjoyment … and, food, and chocolate.

I’m going to play a three minute clip from the movie – it’s the birthday dinner scene. Arman, played by Dame Judy Dench, has asked Vianne, the woman who has recently arrived from outside the village and opened up a Choclaterie during Lent, to give her an extravagant birthday dinner. She has promised Vianne that after that she will then abide by her daughter Caroline’s wishes and go into a retirement home where her poor health can be managed. Over the past few weeks that the choclaterie has been opened, Vianne has made several friends in the village, each of them struggling with their own insecurities and demons. The chocolate shop, despite the hostile and controlling Compte de Reynaud, the mayor of the town, has been a catalyst to each of these people re-discovering their true selves. Although they are giddily excited by their new found happiness, and at being invited to the party, they are also still afraid that the Compte will find out what they are up to. And to make matters worse, Vianne has invited Rue to the party. Rue is the leader of the river gypsies, the true outsiders of the town. After the opening scene from the meal, we see Caroline, Arman’s estranged daughter, looking for her son Luc, who has disobeyed her and gone to the party.

In our last study session, I decided that we would explore the topic of communion, and communion theology, using the film, and in particular, this scene, as a jumping off point. We began the session by everyone answering the question “what are your memories and feelings associated with communion.” Much to everyone’s surprise, there wasn’t a uniform answer to that question. Answers ranged to feeling that a communion service was extremely meaningful, to some feeling that it was not very meaningful at all. As folks began to share, there were also many questions. Why do we do things that way? I don’t like it when we come forward. I really do like it when we come forward. I don’t like the little glasses. I don’t like dipping the bread in the juice. Why can’t we share communion with Roman Catholics? I don’t like the blood and the body imagery. I like it when we all eat together.

A plethora of experiences, memories, and questions. It became very clear that there wasn’t enough time to have the full discussion that folks wanted – so we sent a suggestion to the worship committee that we might do a bit of teaching during our communion times this year, offering folks a chance to reflect on their own experiences and theology of communion.

There are some liturgies written that explain the prayers around communion as we say them, and we might choose to do that sometime in the future. They are helpful in understanding the different components of what we have come to know as the Great Thanksgiving Prayer, the prayer before communion. But I thought that the gospel reading today lent itself well to thinking a bit about the theology of the table, and the communion meal itself.

I think that the scene from the movie shows some essential elements of communion theology. Aside from the obvious symbolism of there being 13 people at the table, it shows us exactly what Jesus was talking about as far as who is invited to the table – those who can’t reciprocate - children, widows, those with very little resources, those who have been abused and marginalized, the outcasts of the town. It also shows a feast of abundance, perhaps even decadence. Chocolate sauce over chicken? There is a recipe for this in the resource book for the study – I’ve yet to try it, but the folks in the movie seem to be enjoying it. They are laughing, joyful, and enjoying each others’ company. Again, if we think of this as a metaphor for God’s banquet, this is a banquet to be enjoyed and savoured.

For those who have seen the movie, you will know that there is also a sacrificial element to the meal, which means nothing more than when we give ourselves totally to God’s love, sometimes there is a cost.

Here are some words from the United Church worship resource, Celebrate God’s Presence about the theology of communion and the symbolism of the bread and wine: “Throughout his ministry, Jesus ate at table with friends, outcasts, and sinners. In his teachings he used the table as an image of inclusivity, hospitality, and God’s in-breaking reign. … The brokenness of our world is lifted up in the bread broken. The bloodshed of our world is remembered in the cup shared. In the gathered grain we are brought together and grounded in God’s good earth. In the fruit of the vine we are united with the groaning of all creation.” (p. 239)

Those are the important elements of sharing in a communion meal – the fact that we are all together, that we use the formula that Jesus used, no matter how short or how long the prayer – the formula with four actions. Take, bless, break and share. We take the bread and wine, or juice as is our practice, we bless them, we break the bread and pour the juice, and then we share it amongst ourselves. Take. Bless. Break. Share.

We are called to join Christ in setting this table - a table set for all. A table where we are called to come and act out a vision of abundance and healing for all the earth. A table that represents God’s inclusiveness and compassionate love for each and every one of us, and for the world. Come, for there is a place for each and every one of you at this table. Thanks be to God.

1 Seasons of the Spirit, Congregational Life Pentecost 1; p.118
2 http://www.journeywithjesus.net/Essays/20070827JJ.shtml