“Jesus was accused of being a glutton, not a pop star” and a few other reasons why eating together beats singing together

Andrew’s note – approximate read time – 8 minutes

Here is the latest offering in what seems to be quickly becoming a series critiquing the standard model of church that seems to have become the norm in the evangelical / charismatic scene that I run in (e/c model from here on in) – and an attempt to explore a few alternatives.  I haven’t got a title for the series yet – can anyone suggest one?  As the best I’ve come up with is, “there’s more than one way to skin a cat” – as I say, suggestions welcome.  If you’re new here, or need a recap:

 

Article 1 – Matt Redman and Strange Double feelings – thinking about the McDonaldization of the church
Article 2 – What are the unintended consequences of what you’re doing? Thinking about a few negatives of the e/c model.
Article 3 – Can you pay my bills? – thinking through the financial and other costs of the e/c model.

As I’ve been at pains to say, my aim is not solely to tear down but also to explore other ways forward.  I think some churches should keep going with the e/c model for the glory of God, but I think we all need to think hard about a few things, and repent (that is, change our mind,and change the way we’re doing things) where necessary. Today, what I really want to get my teeth stuck into is why the standard e/c model is selling us short by often relegating the Lord’s supper to a five minute snack of grape juice and crackers every six weeks or so in order that we tick the communion box.  And, by extension, why we should follow the methodology of Jesus of Nazareth, which, by his own confession, was coming “eating and drinking”, not “singing and taking offerings”.  So here are a few reasons why I think that -

Eating has to be part of our Meeting:

1.  Food itself was created by God so that we would have a picture of how we relate to Him. John Piper has made this point very well here amongst other places.  If we neglect food as we worship together we are neglecting one of the Lord’s primary ways of showing us what it means to relate to him, that is, come to him as the Bread of Life for satisfaction of our hunger.

2.  The gospels read like ONE LONG MEAL! I make this point in my video “BANANA CAKE & THE BLESSED SACRAMENT”.  In John’s gospel Jesus’ first sign is turning water into wine at a wedding and he finishes off by barbecuing fish on the beach.  Drawing from the other gospels, in between we find numerous accounts of meals and feasts; not one, but two, massive picnics in the park; Jesus inviting himself over for dinner at Zacchaeus’s house; and cursing a fig tree when it doesn’t provide him with fruit.  Jesus described himself as food; spoke of faith in him as ‘eating his flesh and blood’ despite that turning off the crowds in a big way; provided food for the crowds; and continually provoked questions by eating with the wrong sort of people (tax collectors, prostitutes and sinners), in the wrong sort of way (eating the consecrated bread, not washing his hands before eating etc).  He introduces the last supper by saying, “I have earnestly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer”  Luke 22:15 – the thing he really wanted to do before he was crucified was share a meal with his friends!

3.  No wonder Jesus got a reputation as a drunkard and a glutton! He self consciously described his ministry strategy as coming ‘eating and drinking’.  I really do question how a thin man can maintain that sort of reputation, but, to quote Alan Hirsch, “we can’t have Jesus too chubby can we?”  When Jesus sent the 72 out – he instructed them that part of their missionary strategy was to be eating and drinking!  “Eat what is set before you”  Can’t find anything about tuneful music or an expensive pa… so what is going on here?

4.  The gospel is sharing a meal. See John 8, the story of the prodigal Son, all the accounts of the last supper, or Revelation 3 amongst others.  The gospel could be accurately described as Jesus welcoming us to his table, and sharing a meal with us OR us welcoming Jesus into our home and sharing a meal with Him OR us partaking of the feast that is Jesus.  Now, as the medium is the message (I’ll do a post on this concept soon I promise!) what better way to proclaim this gospel than by eating and drinking?

5.  Some of Jesus’ commands can only be obeyed in the context of sharing food and drink. For example, “When you give a dinner or a banquet, do not invite your friends or your brothers, or your relatives or rich neighbours, lest they invite you in return and you be repaid.  But when you give a feast, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, and you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you.  You will be repaid at the resurrection of the Just”  Luke 14:13-4  When, not if, you give a feast.  Similar to when you pray, when you give etc in Matthew 6.  The Lord expected his followers to be giving feasts, I simply don’t see a similar expectation that we would be conducting services!

6.  Jesus commanded us to continue to break bread and drink wine in remembrance of him. (see 1 Corinthians 11) One of the two physical acts (or sacraments) that Jesus instituted was to keep eating and drinking to remember his death, partake of his life, and proclaim his coming again.  As believers we simply have to do this in some form!  You can debate all day the how and how often, but given points 1-5 above, I’m with Wolfgang Simson when he states, “The Lord’s supper is actually a substantial meal with a symbolic meaning, rather than a symbolic meal with a substantial meaning.”

7.  The practice of the apostolic church was clearly to continue in the same way of doing things as the reputedly gluttonous Nazarene. This is stated clearly in Acts 2:42-47 (there, I’ve finally quoted it!!).  One of the commentors has stated that this is a descriptive (i.e. describing what happened) passage, not a prescriptive (telling us what we have to do) passage, but I am not so sure!  There are several reasons why this is so – basically all of Acts is descriptive, does that mean none of it is prescriptive – surely not?!  The way that Luke writes the account seems to make Acts 2:42-47 something of a model, or statement of – this is how the church operated.  I read that the post-apostolic writers stated this was basically what the church did when it met – apostolic teaching, prayer, giving to the poor (interesting, their collections were for the poor, not the leadership, another post!), and the breaking of bread, I’d imagine they also fitted in ‘notices’ somewhere – but I’m arguing from silence there

8.  Many through history have taken Acts 20:7 to mean that the church should break bread weekly, including Calvin and George Mueller, if you like your big boys.

9.  Paul clearly expected that the church in Corinth would have eating as part of their meeting – see here.  And therefore can’t we assume this was his practice in all the churches?  Sure, they were mucking it up badly, but their abuse should not lead to our disuse (same with spiritual gifts – note to charismatics – don’t be so selective!).

10.  The practice of hospitality is clearly a fruit of Christianity as portrayed by nearly all the New Testament writers.  We’ve already talked about the gospels and Acts.  Paul, Romans 12:13 – “seek to show hospitality”; the writer to the Hebrews, “Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels unawares.”  Hebrews 13:2; Peter, “Show hospitality to one another without grumbling.” 1 Peter 4:9; See my post LIFE IN A HOSPITABLE KINGDOM for more on this.

11.  Eating is a great leveller! 99.9% of people know how to eat.  They might not be able to sing in tune, sit still for a 30 minute sermon, or endure another prophetic word about waterfalls, but they sure can eat!  If we resist a dinner party culture, eating can be an incredibly inclusive activity.

12.  One meal together = at least 50, ‘hi, how’s your week been?’ over styrocoffee. It really is an incredibly powerful way of building, growing, and sustaining relationships.

13.  We live in a culture fascinated by food. See the number of restaurants in your town, the number of cooking channels on tv, and the rise of the TV chefs – what an opportunity to tell of the One who made the ingredients!  But perhaps the best way to do this is through eating rather than singing?

14.  Everyone eats anyway, so why not do it together? Why do we share a symbolic supper together and return home to eat the sunday roast alone?  Is that the way of Jesus?

15.  Church is both a family and a body – and both of those need to eat, right?

16.  I am convinced it is a highly effective missional strategy.  I draw this mainly from scripture (see above), but also from exerience, I could cite many examples here, but one will suffice – does anyone think the Alpha course would be made more effective by removing the meal element?

17.  If you disciple someone into eating as a Christian, then that’s probably at least 21 times a week they are helped. By contrast, if you teach someone to be a Christian during a worship service, you help them once or twice (or three times if it’s going badly ) a week.

18.  The Bible makes it a requirement that leaders in the church must be hospitable people. See 1 Timothy 3, and Titus 1.  Or to put it another way, if a person isn’t regularly opening up their home and sharing meals they shouldn’t be given a position of leadership in the Church.  Why might this be?  Several reasons probably, but perhaps the success of a church is dependent upon the ability and willingness of its leaders to share not only the gospel of God but their lives as well (1 thess 2.10), and to share the gospel through food?  Putting a few of the points above together perhaps part of the Lord’s strategy is that his people would ‘transform the world through eating’?

19.  Our final judgement will be heavily weighted by who we ate and drank with, or who we refused to eat and drink with. Matthew 25:31-46 (see also Luke 14:12-14 above also).

20.  The culmination of history is the marriage supper of the Lamb! It’s all heading towards a feast!  What better way to proclaim that than by eating in the name of Jesus?  Indeed, isn’t this what Jesus himself instructed his people to do?

So why don’t we do it?

a)  I think somewhere, a slightly bizzare concept has crept in that ‘we can only celebrate communion if an official leader is present’. Indeed, in some ‘consecrated’ buildings it is against the law to celebrate communion unless an ordained clergyman is there.  Just one question, where is that in the Bible?

b)  I think there something else bizzare has happened whereby we have separated the fellowship meal / love feast / meal together from the breaking of bread / communion / Lord’s supper.  Perhaps you can trace this all the way back to Paul’s instructions in 1 Corinthians, but I don’t think this was Paul’s intention, I think it is very unfortunate, and I think the two belong together, or, in fact, are actually interchangeable.

c)  I think there is a mundaneness about eating together that something in our human nature likes to escape from.  It’s a lot easier to look impressive / spiritual behind a microphone with a planned presentation, or whilst singing in tongues, than it is wiping bolognese off your chin trying to answer someone’s question about something that has actually happened this week.

d)  Eating together does limit the numbers in most cases… and can a church of 12 really be considered ‘successful’? I mean, it probably can’t pay a leader, or run a conference, or get a decent band together….

e)  Over a meal table you actually have to begin to engage with people, or you really do come across as rude.  It is far easier to be anonymous or disengaged in a more standard e/c service model.  I suppose the question then is, are we after anonymity or community?

I’m sure there are other reasons but I’m not sure if any are good enough, given points 1-20 above…  More to come…

In the mean time, do check out my video, BANANA CAKE if you haven’t already.

Brian Heasley, who runs 24/7 prayer in Ibiza, has a great blog where he is also currently musing about food at the moment – here amongst other articles.

As ever, questions, comments and critiques welcomed.  Especially welcome are suggestions for series title, more points for why we should eat together, and disagreements!

Much love, I’m off for some food!

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