The Power of Meals
This year’s Chinese New Year family reunion dinner was special. We had the whole family together. The last time this happened was in 2020 in Penang. My mum was still with us. That was a special reunion dinner too for all sorts of reasons. But mum has gone ahead and is no longer with us. Then there were the Covid years. And with family in Australia and Canada it wasn’t easy to get everyone to be together. Maybe we didn’t try hard enough. But this year, it happened.
Sitting down for a meal together does two things. It is an embodied statement of the fact that we are family. And it helps strengthen that bond. Having not been in the same place at the same time for a long time meant that there were issues and feelings that had not been dealt with. There were some tough exchanges. But when we sat down for the Lunar New Year's Eve dinner, we were family.
I am continually impressed by how important meals are for our relationship with God. At the Last Supper (Luke 22:7-23), a meal, Jesus talks about another meal yet to come (Luke 22:14-18), when the Kingdom of God comes in its fullness. As early as Exodus, we see God having fellowship with Israel’s leaders over a meal (Exodus 24:9-11). And it was at a meal that the two disciples on the Emmaus Road recognised Jesus (Luke 24:30-32).
When we sit down to have a meal, we acknowledge our need for food and community. We need both to live. We are not surprised then that God chooses shared meals as a metaphor for His presence with us. He offers us His life and His fellowship, and our meals are a perfect sign for this.
I understand how the different denominations celebrate Holy Communion the way they do, but I am still convinced that something unique was happening when the early church met around a meal, with the Lord’s Supper integrated into the meal. This was a face-to-face encounter that spoke of our need for food, for each other, and for God.
We need to seriously think through a theology of meals. Some of us shy away from this topic because of the negative connotations of gluttony. We shouldn’t. The thing to do if we have more food than we need is to share the food with those who don’t have enough. The main activity of most churches is our Sunday corporate worship. These assemblies may meet some spiritual needs but many go away from these gatherings relationally hungry. How do we incorporate meals into the heart of our church practices?
And in a lonely age I believe that evangelism should be more about inviting people to a meal and a fellowship than buying a ticket so that we can escape hell and go to heaven. God is inviting us to a meal. There are parables that actually say this (Luke 14:15-24). People may reject the invitation but those who say yes know that they are responding to an invitation that meets their deepest needs, their need for food, for others, and for God. Our friends who run the Alpha evangelistic programme know this. But we needn’t wait for a programme to invite folks to a meal.
So this year’s family reunion dinner was special. I will savour the memory for a long time. We miss mum/grandma very much. But there will be another reunion dinner later.
Ambushed by the Power of Your Love
Lord I come to You Let my heart be changed, renewed Flowing from the grace That I've found in You (1) Last weekend we sang “The Power of Your Love” during worship service. I was surprised that singing the song unleashed vivid memories and powerful...
In the Same Club
Grief is not a disorder, a disease or a sign of weakness. It is an emotional, physical and spiritual necessity, the price you pay for love. The only cure for grief is to grieve. — Dr. Earl A. Grollman Yesterday (15 Jan) I met up with a friend for coffee. He lost...
Ah, Look at All the Lonely People
A recent article on the BBC website reinforced something that we have known for a while — that one can be lonely in a crowd. ... other people — counterintuitively — aren’t always the antidote to loneliness. They may even be part of the problem....
A Time for Goodbyes
I had bought some of the books 40 years ago. Most of them I had not read for about 20 years. They were stored in our office. But the time had come to move to another relatively smaller office. Much of our stuff had to be discarded. That included many of my...
Come to the Light
This morning I connected with a friend I hadn’t connected with for some time. I found out that he and his dear wife had lost two parents this year and one more is critically ill. I can’t even begin to imagine what their year has been like. Their news came...
The Power of Meals
This year’s Chinese New Year family reunion dinner was special. We had the whole family together. The last time this happened was in 2020 in Penang. My mum was still with us. That was a special reunion dinner too for all sorts of reasons. But mum has gone ahead and is no longer with us. Then there were the Covid years. And with family in Australia and Canada it wasn’t easy to get everyone to be together. Maybe we didn’t try hard enough. But this year, it happened.
Sitting down for a meal together does two things. It is an embodied statement of the fact that we are family. And it helps strengthen that bond. Having not been in the same place at the same time for a long time meant that there were issues and feelings that had not been dealt with. There were some tough exchanges. But when we sat down for the Lunar New Year's Eve dinner, we were family.
I am continually impressed by how important meals are for our relationship with God. At the Last Supper (Luke 22:7-23), a meal, Jesus talks about another meal yet to come (Luke 22:14-18), when the Kingdom of God comes in its fullness. As early as Exodus, we see God having fellowship with Israel’s leaders over a meal (Exodus 24:9-11). And it was at a meal that the two disciples on the Emmaus Road recognised Jesus (Luke 24:30-32).
When we sit down to have a meal, we acknowledge our need for food and community. We need both to live. We are not surprised then that God chooses shared meals as a metaphor for His presence with us. He offers us His life and His fellowship, and our meals are a perfect sign for this.
I understand how the different denominations celebrate Holy Communion the way they do, but I am still convinced that something unique was happening when the early church met around a meal, with the Lord’s Supper integrated into the meal. This was a face-to-face encounter that spoke of our need for food, for each other, and for God.
We need to seriously think through a theology of meals. Some of us shy away from this topic because of the negative connotations of gluttony. We shouldn’t. The thing to do if we have more food than we need is to share the food with those who don’t have enough. The main activity of most churches is our Sunday corporate worship. These assemblies may meet some spiritual needs but many go away from these gatherings relationally hungry. How do we incorporate meals into the heart of our church practices?
And in a lonely age I believe that evangelism should be more about inviting people to a meal and a fellowship than buying a ticket so that we can escape hell and go to heaven. God is inviting us to a meal. There are parables that actually say this (Luke 14:15-24). People may reject the invitation but those who say yes know that they are responding to an invitation that meets their deepest needs, their need for food, for others, and for God. Our friends who run the Alpha evangelistic programme know this. But we needn’t wait for a programme to invite folks to a meal.
So this year’s family reunion dinner was special. I will savour the memory for a long time. We miss mum/grandma very much. But there will be another reunion dinner later.
Ambushed by the Power of Your Love
Lord I come to You Let my heart be changed, renewed Flowing from the grace That I've found in You (1) Last weekend we sang “The Power of Your Love” during worship service. I was surprised that singing the song unleashed vivid memories and powerful...
In the Same Club
Grief is not a disorder, a disease or a sign of weakness. It is an emotional, physical and spiritual necessity, the price you pay for love. The only cure for grief is to grieve. — Dr. Earl A. Grollman Yesterday (15 Jan) I met up with a friend for coffee. He lost...
Ah, Look at All the Lonely People
A recent article on the BBC website reinforced something that we have known for a while — that one can be lonely in a crowd. ... other people — counterintuitively — aren’t always the antidote to loneliness. They may even be part of the problem....
A Time for Goodbyes
I had bought some of the books 40 years ago. Most of them I had not read for about 20 years. They were stored in our office. But the time had come to move to another relatively smaller office. Much of our stuff had to be discarded. That included many of my...
Come to the Light
This morning I connected with a friend I hadn’t connected with for some time. I found out that he and his dear wife had lost two parents this year and one more is critically ill. I can’t even begin to imagine what their year has been like. Their news came...