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Sunday March 14, 2010 "Home Again For the First Time" Joshua 5:9-12 |
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Location: Blogs Brad's Blog |
 | | Posted by: Brad Miller | 3/15/2010 11:59 AM | Have you ever noticed how important food is in the Bible? Over and over again, we have stories of Jesus sharing meals with different groups. Granted, they were usually groups that “unacceptable” to the religious authorities: tax collectors, prostitutes, lepers. But not always. We also have the wonderful story of the feeding of the multitudes with the 5 loaves and two fish. We have the wedding banquet, and of course, we still to this day celebrate the last meal of Jesus’ misnistry: the last supper or holy communion.
But it’s not just the example of Jesus that points out the importance of food. We have examples of Abraham and Sarah welcoming the three strangers to their home with a lavish meal. We have the Passover meal itself as the final act of an enslaved people about to leave Egypt. We have the stories of manna from heaven that sustained the wandering Israelites for some 40 years. And we have the meal that marks the entrance into the promised land that we heard described this morning.
Food is important to our lives, too. Oh, I’m not just talking about food as nourishment, but the importance of food as ritual and as celebration.
Sometimes, when in the midst of an especially delicious meal, I wonder – sometimes to myself and sometimes out loud – “What was the best meal I have ever had?”
And as I ponder that question, I have a couple of meals that pop up as special: A simple meal of steak tips and garlic mashed potatoes that I had in a place called Greg’s in Carol’s hometown of Warwick, Rhode Island. Beef briscuit at Arthur Bryant’s, a seedy, rundown, fantastic restaurant in Kansas City.
How long would it take for you to come up with a list like that? I bet each of us could come up with a short list of delicious meals if I walked down the aisle and asked you to. But I don’t want to get people so hungry that they leave the service early, so I won’t.
But there is another question that will probably lead us in a slightly different direction. That question is: what is the most important meal you’ve ever eaten?
This is where I begin to think about the importance of ritual and celebration that involves food. It’s not always about what food is served – it’s about why we are sharing the meal in the first place.
I think back to Christmas parties at my Grandma and Grandad Millers house in Sandusky, Michigan. The whole family: my grandparents, their 8 children and spouses, their 27 grandchildren, assorted other relatives – all poured into their farmhouse on the family homestead.
It was a time of noise and fun and 15 conversations going at once and I have no earthly idea what we ate at those gatherings. But I guarantee you we did eat, and we ate well. But here is what I do remember about that gathering: it was the only time of the year when everyone was together. With a family that big, and with all but two of the children leaving Sandusky, it was rare to have everyone under the same roof. Oh, they didn’t always have a lot to say to each other: my dad and my uncle Carl, 15 years apart in age, one of them a teacher, one a professional bowler seemed to have the same conversation every year: leaning against the counter in the kitchen, one of them would say, “So, did you have a good year?” To which the other would reply, “Not too bad.” I remember one year my sister and I laughing about the fact that that might be their only conversation that year – and that was the best they could do?!?
But the conversation was secondary to the fact that in this old farmhouse, busting at the seams with people, a family was home again – together – to celebrate.
Another kind of important meal that I think of in my life is the meals that I have shared with people after a funeral service and burial of a loved one.
As a 7 year old, I remember vividly gathering for a meal in the church fellowship hall after the funerals of each of my grandfathers. I have no idea what we ate, or who prepared it, but I remember the feeling in that room. It was as if we could all finally take a deep breath and know that it was going to be alright as we moved forward – together.
Over the years, I have experienced those same exact feelings at the meals following my own parent’s funerals, and of some of your family members, too.
Think about it: graduations and special accomplishments and retirements and a myriad of other events are always marked with the sharing of food.
What is it about these meals that make them so important to us? I think it is because these meals mark the passage of time; it is because these meals help us mark the passages of life; it is because it is clear that in the sharing of these meals, we are once again, home.
The scripture reading this morning marks an extremely important turning point for the Israelites who have been wandering for 40 years in search of God’s promised land. In this passage, they stand at the edge of the promised land, preparing to go home again, for the first time.
The people who left Egypt are no longer alive when this scene unfolded. God tells Joshua that the disgrace of slavery in Egypt has been rolled away and out of that horrible time, life looms and their promised home is about to be revealed.
The language of their disgrace being ‘rolled away’ is interesting here. To the Christian hearer in 2010, it sounds very familiar: as when the stone is rolled away from the tomb of Jesus. In both places, the message is clear: God is to be trusted – neither the disgrace of captivity nor the darkness of death can stand in the way of God’s love to redeem and give life. Out of the horror of the past, God brings the Israelites home to new life and out of the horror of Good Friday, God brings Jesus home to those who hunger for salvation and freedom.
And in the end, that is what this passage is all about: letting us know that God can be trusted to bring us home, to bring us into new life, to simply be with us on our journey.
And that trust is acknowledged by the Israelites by sitting down at table and sharing in a meal that marks their coming home. By celebrating the Passover meal they are acknowledging that their trust is strong. With this celebratory meal, they are signaling that they understand where they come from and are prepared for the future. They are letting God know that they understand how they have been blessed by God’s presence and they give thanks for all the connections between God’s promises and God’s actions.
At this sacred meal, we also see that something has changed: the menu.
For 40 years, the Israelites lived on manna from heaven – always receiving exactly what they needed to live. But really, over time, don’t you think at least some of them were saying: “Really, manna again?”
I think back to a time when I was on a teaching fellowship in graduate school. We got paid once a month and usually in the last week of each month, I would take a look at my check book and realize that things were going to be tight for a few days.
So, I would go to the grocery store and by a big bag of rice and a big bag of beans, and with the spices I had at home, I could eat for that last week of the month. Friends of mine did something similar – although for them it might be a big bag of baking potatoes, or several boxes of 25 cent macaroni and cheese or huge jars of peanut butter and cheap bread.
And when I graduated and was able to buy “good” food, there are still times that I wistfully looked back on those simple, sustaining meals. But more than that, I give thanks for the beans and rice and know that I am blessed today.
The Israelites sit at table and look forward to a new menu, a new life, a new home. But none of that would have been possible without two things throughout all their sojourn: God’s provision and their trust in God’s presence.
As we make our way through Lent, coming closer and closer to the miraculous events of Easter Sunday, this issue of trust is an important part of our truly celebrating what is offered to us: a coming home to a renewed life in Christ. To put it bluntly, we must ask ourselves, simply and directly: do we trust God?
Not , “do we believe in God?”, or “do we have faith in God?”, but “do we trust God?” Are we willing to hand ourselves over to God’s will and truly trust that God will show us a way? Or will we fall back on our own devices, our own actions to make our way?
At different times in our life, we find ourselves in a situation where we may feel alone, isolated and hopeless. Those are the times we need to gather together and partake of a sacred meal – a meal that invokes the feeling of home, a meal that invokes the felling of safety, a meal that lets us know we are not alone. A meal that invokes all those feelings because it is a meal rooted in the reality of God in our lives. A meal that reminds us where we come from, a meal that reminds us that God has always been with us, a meal that reminds us that we can trust that God will always be with us.
A meal that is celebration of what has past and celebration of what is to come.
A meal like the one we share each week at this table.
This meal that we share, like the Passover meal that the Israelites shared on the planes of Jericho, is not simply ritual. It is a time for each and everyone one of us to pause and thank God for the reality of God’s presence in our lives. It is a time for remembering that we have been through difficult times, but God did not leave us.
I don’t know about you, but I sometimes have a difficult time seeing God in the midst of the now. But when I look back, I can see clearly when God carried me, guided me and never let me down. And it is in the looking back that I confidently place my trust in God’s presence in the future.
Do you trust God?
Take some time this morning during our celebratory sacred meal to look back. Remind yourself of those times when God was surely with you. And give thanks.
The Miller family has a reunion every summer. My grandparents, 6 of their children, even a few of their grandchildren are no longer with us. But the family gathers, and eats, and shares remembrances of good times, difficult times, times that strengthened times that remind us we are not alone. And in the remembering, we are home again, just as if we are still all gathering in the little farmhouse in Sandusky.
I treasure the sacred meals in my life: the meals that cause me to stop and remember what gracious blessings God has bestowed on me and my family. The meals that mark a new beginning. The meals that bring us together in sorrow, yet strengthen us for what lies ahead. The meals that remind us we are not alone, nor have we ever been alone. The meals that remind me that in the grace of God’s care and the fellowship of family and friends, I am, without a doubt, home.
Let us pray: Gracious God, when we have been hungry, you have fed us. When we have been lonely, you have been our companion. When we have been disobedient, you have still stayed with us. When we have reached out to you, you have stretched out your arms and said, “Welcome home.” May we celebrate your presence and power in the sacred meals we share, today, tomorrow and always. Help us to remember, and to trust. Amen. | | | Permalink | Trackback |
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