UCC Church of Charlotte

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Sermon for April 26, 2009
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Sunday, April 26, 2009 8:24:12 AM
From:
Phil Hobson   
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To:
Phil Hobson 


Eating Together
Luke 24:36b-48

Grace and Peace to you this morning.  Grace and Peace.
    
So here come these two disciples back from Emmaus, telling everyone
else about Jesus walking with them, and them finally knowing it is him
at the meal, when he breaks the bread.  And as they are all talking
about this, Jesus shows up.
    
And while they are talking, Jesus himself stood among them and says,
“Do not be afraid.”  We know this is what the angels keep saying.  We
know this is the great message of faith.  Do not be afraid.  But in
this instance, I will grant that anyone who is in the room at the time
who isn’t afraid, check their pulse.
    
Luke says, “But they were startled and frightened.”  Well, yeah!
    
Jesus just appears in their midst, and they are afraid it is a ghost.
    
So he shows them his wounds, asks them to touch him, to know he is real.
    
And when seeing him, touching him isn’t enough, he asks for something
to eat.  Eating is something ghosts don’t do apparently.  So when he
east the broiled fish, they start to believe he is alive and human and
not some spirit.
    
Eating together is the basis of our faith.  It is the most basic
practice of faith.
    
Abraham’s hospitality to the three messengers.
    
The lamb and unleavened bread eaten by the Israelites as they prepare
to leave Egypt.  The first meal of shared manna in the desert, where
they learn they are totally reliant on God.
    
The last oil and flour of the widow which, by the power of God through
the prayers of the prophet Elijah, becomes enough to sustain.
    
The meals when Jesus gathered with sinners and tax collectors and
prostitutes and was scorned by the religious and the righteous.
    
Or when he ate with the Pharisees and they couldn’t keep the thankful
people out.
    
The passover meal, shared in an upper room, where Jesus takes an
ancient tradition and makes a new way of connecting and communing with
God.
    
The broken bread in Emmaus, where he becomes known to these fleeing disciples.
    
The piece of broiled fish, eaten with his people, so they know he is
alive and human.
    
Eating together is different from just sitting and talking.
    
Eating together is more than meeting together.
    
Something more happens.
    
We become more human as we eat together.  We take care of one another
when we eat together.
    
And the church has continued these faith traditions:
    
Holy Communion.  Celebrating God’s passover and Christ’s resurrection
and our own.
    
How many of you remember revivals with dinner on the ground?
    
A wedding reception, when all the stress and difficulty of getting
everything ready becomes a party and a celebration of the vows made
and the lives changed and the community around the couple.
    
A funeral luncheon, where we have gone in our grief to the land of the
dead, and we have left the body, the ashes, the remains of our loved
one there, and now we come back to the land of the living and remember
in our fellowship and our eating together that life does indeed
continue to move along, and us with it.
    
Gathering over coffee to recount our lives with our fellow pilgrims.
    
Donuts at Men’s Group.
    
Easter breakfast.
    
Tonight’s Progressive Dinner.  When we finally get to sit and eat with
our fellow members and friends, not for the business of the church or
for worship or for other reasons, but just to sit and enjoy one
another’s company and share our lives.
    
And there are those moments outside the church, but which are infused
with the Holy Spirit as well.
    
Community Dinners over at the Eagles.
    
The VFW Cancer Benefit Smorgasbord.

And there is something about eating together after working together
that makes people more than individuals.

The chili and sandwiches yesterday which we ate together after we
helped Eileen Wenger move.
        
Just ask the work parties out at the Rinckeys’ and the Yerkeses’ after
the storms.

Eating together can make individuals into a team, into a family, into
a church.  So when we pray our grace, let it be thanksgiving for the
food and the land that grew it and all the hands that have made it
into sustenance for our bodies.  Let it be thanks to the God who
provides more than we need.  Let it be thanks for the energy which
sustains us and fuels our work.

But let it also be for the people with whom we gather.  The lives
shared around the table.  The joy of being together.

And let us remember who Jesus ate with, and remember to follow where he leads.

For we are his witnesses.

We are to be his forgiveness and kindness and compassion to the world.

We are eat with the unloved and the unlovely.

In witness to the one who eats with us.

Thanks be to God.
Amen.