Resurrection Meals

[Message delivered to the Zeandale Community Church on May 3, 2009]

Using the thoughts of Eugene Peterson from his book Living the Resurrection I have chosen today to look at the idea of the resurrection meals. Preparation of food and eating occupy a significant part of our time. Does the Bible give us any insights as to the meaning of these events in our daily life? When we look at some of the meals Jesus participated in, we realize that meals occupy an important place.

Many years ago in Grand Junction, Colorado we had a wonderful couple along with their children move to town. Dick Wilson, along with his wife Velva, became instant friends. We would enjoy a number of heartaches, but even more a great deal of joy with this family.

One great experience we had with the Wilsons occurred when we were having a revival at the Northeast Christian Church. We had invited a great evangelist—Dr. Charles Crane—and were enjoying a week of services. Charles decided that he would like to have the evening meal after services. So around 9:00 pm every night we went to a different home for supper. On Thursday night of the meeting we went to lunch with John and Margaret Ball. John had grilled t-bone steaks and we had a great meal with them. Then my mother called. She really liked Charles Crane and wanted to bring in a snack before the services that night. The "snack" turned out to be big hamburgers on homemade buns and all the trimmings—potato salad and baked beans. Then after the meeting we were to go to the Wilsons for supper. Of course we were all stuffed at this point, but we could not turn down the meal at the Wilsons. Velva outdid herself and fixed a Thanksgiving dinner, turkey, dressing, and all the trimmings. It was a fabulous meal. Their daughter who was a bit shy made a German chocolate cake that was out of this world. When Charles Crane finished his last bite of cake and I knew he was very full, I said to the Wilson daughter, "Dr. Crane was hoping he could have one more, nice large piece of that German chocolate cake." The girl was excited and brought out another generous serving of cake. Charles politely moaned, but ate the cake.

When the Paddocks moved to Rifle to provide ministry for a church that was coming out of the Disciples' Movement, we were living in the parsonage next to the church building. Early one Sunday morning Dick and Velva arrived with a complete surprise breakfast. We had a good time and a lot of laughs as a result.

Only recently did I learn the significance of such events. And that's what we want to talk about.

Let's look at Peterson's presentation:

Ordinary meals

Twice the story of Jesus' resurrection includes meals. "The unimaginable transcendence of the resurrection is assimilated into the most routine and ordinary of actions—eating a meal. We have a long tradition among Christians, given shape and content by our Scriptures, that practices the preparing, serving, and eating of meals as formational for living the resurrection."

First meal:

• Two people, perhaps man and wife, walking to Emmaus (Luke 24:13-32)
  
• They have plenty of time to go into depth on any subject as they walk along
  
• Talked about:
  
  • The trial and crucifixion of Jesus
    
  • Their own feelings about him—"The immense authority and sense of divine presence they associated with him."
    
  • Expectations aroused
    
    • "We hoped he would be the one who would deliver Israel."
      
  • The rumors in Jerusalem
    
    • Women who claimed they could not find the body
      
    • Women saw angels who told them he was alive
      
    • Others (men) went to the tomb and confirmed it was empty
      
    • But at that point the couple does not know if anyone actually saw Jesus
      
• Jesus comes alongside
  
  • The couple from Emmaus are unaware of who this person is. "They were in the presence of resurrection, walking in the land of the living, and didn't know it."
    
  • Jesus puts all that happened in the framework of Scriptures.
    
  • As the couple listened they were not "getting the big picture." See v. 32
    
• The couple asked Jesus to join them for a meal.
  
  • Stopped at the bakery and picked up a loaf of bread
    
  • Purchased a bottle of wine
    
  • That would be supper—bread and wine
    
• Time for a flashback—review the background
  
  • The couple had just returned from Passover, the feast that normally lasted a week. "This great Hebrew feast of salvation, with all the energy and drama attending it." You have
    
    • Ritual
      
    • The place
      
    • Memories
      
    • Stories
      
    • Songs
      
    • Your Jewish identity reaffirmed
      
  • Then sudden desecration
    
    • A man that you highly respected and who was recognized as a prophet, a holy man, is brutally beaten and crucified at the behest of the mob that are stirred up by the Jewish leaders, the godfather high priest and his gang of Mafia members.
      
    • Then you hear rumors of angels and resurrection. "On successive days in Jerusalem you were hurled from celebration to anguish to bewilderment. Your whole world spun out of control."
      
    • Finally you are on your way home, back to peace and tranquility. Your nerves are beginning to settle when this stranger comes along and begins to put together the pieces of the puzzle. Finally, you are at rest knowing the big picture.
      
    • You buy a loaf of bread and a skin of wine. You invite the stranger home for supper
      
      • You pour the wine
        
      • But the stranger takes the bread, blesses it, and breaks it.
        
      • Suddenly you realize—"this is Jesus."
        
  • Breakfast on the beach—gospel of John
    
    • Seven of the eleven apostles are there, having gone fishing
      
    • Caught nothing
      
    • Jesus directed them to cast their nets on the other side of the boat—result: 153 fish
      
    • John is the first to realize the stranger on the beach is Jesus.
      
    • Peter jumps in the water and swims to shore. "Don't you just love it when people with spiritual experiences leave you to clean up the dishes?"
      
    • On shore Jesus has a breakfast ready of bread and grilled fish.
      

"Christian practice in matters of spiritual formation goes badly astray when it attempts to construct or organize ways of spirituality apart from the ordinariness of life."

The meals were not a religious occasion, not metaphorical, but real meals. Recognition of the resurrection is delayed.

"Jesus is host, always. We are never 'in charge,' of our spiritual formation. We don't decide the menu. We don't customize the details according to our tastes and appetites. But at the same time we are completely present and participatory, engaged in the actual formation-by-resurrection itself."

We are rapidly losing 'the culture at the table."

The common meal:

• The way we take care of our physical need for food
  
• Our social need for conversation
  
• Cultural need to carry on traditions and convey values.
  
• The meal is
  
  • Inclusive
    
  • Comprehensive
    
• The experience of sacrifice. Something had to die for almost every part of the meal
  
  • "Eating a meal involves us in a complex, sacrificial world of giving and receiving. Life feeds life. We are not self-sufficient. We live by life, and life is given to us."
    
• The world of the meal has greatly diminished.
  
  • "Fast-food means there is little leisure time for conversation."
    
  • Explosion of restaurants—less preparation time at home.
    
  • The invasion of television
    
  • Instant microwave meals
    

The shape of the liturgy—the Lord's Supper

Jesus and meals:

• Taking
  
• Blessed
  
• Broke
  
• Gave
  

The events:

• Feeding the 5000
  
• Feeding the 4000
  
• The Passover/Lord's Supper
  
• Emmaus
  

Jesus takes what we bring to him—"our bread, our fish, our wine, our goats, our sheep, our sins, our virtues, our work, our leisure, our strength, our weakness, our hunger, our thirst, whatever we are."

Jesus blesses and gives thanks for what we bring. Remember he said to Andrew, "Five loaves and two fish? Is that all you come up with?"

Jesus breaks what we bring. "All too often we come to the table with our best manners and a pose of impenetrable self-sufficiency. We're all surface, all role—polished and poised performers in the game of life." Jesus is after what is within, including our inadequacies. He does not allow us to be self-enclosed or to be self-sufficient. Jesus gives back what we brought, but it is no longer what we brought. Every meal is an extension of the Lord's Supper.

Now, how does this work out for us today?

First, I want to emphasize the simplicity of the meals Jesus served.

• Feeding of the 5000—bread and sardines
  
• Feeding of the 4000—bread and sardines
  
• Lord's Supper—bread and wine
  
• Road to Emmaus—bread and wine
  
• By the Sea of Galilee—bread and grilled fish
  

Because Jesus was involved these became special events. Jesus wants to be in our special events. He wants to take the simple and turn it into the profound. He wants us to have resurrection experiences.

Note some recent events at Zeandale:

• The Soup supper and hymn sing—on a Sunday evening and our crowd was as big as the morning service. We had a great selection of soups, nothing fancy, but everything good. The following hymn-sing lasted for over an hour and even when it was "officially" over, one of the church pianists pulled up to the out-of-tune piano in the basement and the hymn-sing went on for another 45 minutes. No one was anxious to go home. The interaction and pure enjoyment kept them there. It was a resurrection event.
  
• Not much later we had our famous Easter breakfast. We have people come to this breakfast that are never seen again until the next year. But there is so much resurrection experience going on. On Saturday the men of the church get together and prepare for the breakfast. There is a great time of fellowship accompanying the cinnamon roll preparation. All get excited like small children waiting for the first sample to come from the oven. Then on Easter Sunday at 8:00 am the men are busy again and the fellowship is rich. It is a resurrection event.
  
• Recently we had a choir party to celebrate the end of another season. People came early and stayed late. We officially started at 6:30 pm, and our last visitors left shortly before 10:00.
  
• Two years ago, our second daughter graduated from Washburn School of Law. It was a big family event. For her graduation dinner she wanted Navajo tacos. The trick to this is making the Navajo fry-bread upon which the taco makings are placed. Two of our sons rolled out and cooked the fry-bread outdoors. It was a resurrection experience for them as they live a thousand miles apart and seldom see each other. Another resurrection event was taking place in the kitchen where Arletta and our daughters and ladies from the Zeandale church were busy preparing the rest of the meal. The preparation was followed by the meal and then by the afterglow where people just hung around and visited with one another. Probably 40-50 people were involved.
  

The message is plain. When we let Jesus become part of an event, it becomes a resurrection event. Probably more so that some church services. Jesus had a desire to interact with people where they lived. They didn't have to come to him with predetermined conditions for fellowship. He ate with them the food they had. He blessed the menu and saw that it met the needs of all present. Somehow we need to have more such resurrection meals. Most of all we need to recognize that in the meal and the fellowship we are experiencing the resurrection.