When we invite friends for a meal, we do much more than offer food for their bodies. We offer friendship, fellowship, good conversation, intimacy, and closeness. When we say, 'Help yourself ... take some more ... have another glass ... ' we offer our guests not only our food and drink but also ourselves. + Henri Nouwen, Bread for the Journey
As shared in a previous post, to close 2022 Emmaus City Church will finish the year focusing on living into the Way of Jesus through B.L.E.S.S. practices. The first practice was Begin with Prayer. The second was Listening Closely & Paying Attention. And the third goes well with the first two: Eating with Others. This practice has been core for Emmaus City Church. For a teaser as to why, check out a preview of A Meal with Jesus.
Listening and Eating Make a Great Combination
Some things are just better together, including the practices of listening and eating. Why do these two make such a powerful one-two punch?
1) Neighbors seldom share meals together. In our individualistic society, hospitality is seen as an extravagant gesture of good will.
2) When the focus of the meal is centered on good conversation to get to know your neighbor, it comes across as a tremendously generous act.
Much of Jesus's ministry involved conversation around a table. In the book of Luke alone, there are 10 stories of Jesus dining and talking with various people.
Our world longs for the blessing of a shared meal. I'm convinced that eating with someone is one of the most powerful ways you can bless your neighbors. It's a statement of friendship, an affirmation of that person's value, dignity, and worth.
Story: Praying for an Empty House to Be Filled with Friends
The house next door to Brooke and Justin was like a revolving door of new neighbors. Over a five-year span a stream of people rented the house, then just as quickly would disappear and move out. With each new neighbor came the excitement of getting to know them, but that was quickly followed by the letdown of a quick departure.
Then a couple moved in and stayed. Brooke and Justin began to pray for them and looked for an opportunity to connect. But this new couple wasn't interested. They would come home from work and drive into the garage. They wouldn't be seen again until the next morning when the garage door opened and they drove away. An occasional "How are you?" followed by "I'm fine" was as far as the relationship ever got. Then that couple moved too.
Brooke and Justin prayed, "God, you know this house is vacant again. Please give us some neighbors we can love and enjoy life with."
Another couple, Lauren and Quentin, moved in. Brooke and Justin went next door and welcomed them to the neighborhood, intentionally listening to their stories and seeking to bless them. The next week they invited their new neighbors over for a cookout. That meal included a long conversation about jobs, favorite sports teams, and restaurant recommendations.
When Brooke found out their new friends had not yet bought a lawn mower, she "encouraged" Justin to mow their yard when he mowed their own. He continued to do so every week without being asked. Finally, Lauren asked Brooke, "Tell me. Why are you so different? Why do you seem to always go out of your way to help us out?" Brooke began to share some of her story about Jesus.
Not much later, Lauren came over and said, "I wanted to update you on something. Quentin and I decided to stop renting and buy our house. I wanted you to know the biggest reason we bought it was because of the neighbors."
Several weeks later, Quentin crossed the lawn and told Justin, "I just got news that my uncle died suddenly. I'm having some really deep questions about God and what happens after you die. I know you have faith. Could we talk?" The two of them sat down in the front yard for a couple hours, and Justin led Quentin to Christ there. The following Sunday he baptized him, with Brooke and Lauren and the local church congregation with them.
Brooke would tell you, "It all started with us praying for that empty house, asking God to give us neighbors we could love. Now they are some of our very best friends."
Jesus Gave Us a Meal: The Power of Sharing a Meal
For Jesus, eating was essential to His mission of seeking and saving the lost. He blessed and loved people by sharing meals with them. He even ate so frequently with "gluttons and drunkards," He was accused of being one Himself (Luke 7:34-35). Sometimes He got invited to parties, like the one at Levi's (Matthew's) house (Luke 5:27-32) or the wedding at Cana (John 2:1-11). And when the wine ran out, He made sure there was more and better wine. Whether it was dinner at His place or a night on the town, Jesus made these meals Kingdom of heaven breakthroughs on earth. Whatever there was good food and people, there was an opportunity to deepen relationships and make friends.
And it was around a table in the Upper Room that Jesus used a meal to reveal His love for the world. With the bread He would tell His disciples His body would be beaten, stabbed, bruised, and hung on a tree, and like the wine, His blood would pour out of Him. It was around a table that Jesus spoke words that have become foundational to us as His followers.
Author and Bible scholar N.T. Wright says, "When Jesus Himself wanted to explain to His disciples what His forthcoming death was all about, He didn't give them a theory; He gave them a meal."
Through His sacrifice, Jesus invites us all to share a meal at His table of grace, forgiveness, and blessing. Which means that we too can invite our friends, coworkers, and neighbors to share meals of grace and blessing with us.
Author Henri Nouwen wrote about the power of eating together. He said, "When we invite friends for a meal, we do much more than offer them food for their bodies. We offer friendship, fellowship, good conversation, intimacy, and closeness. When we say, 'Help yourself ... take some more ... don't be shy ... have another glass ... ' we offer our guests not only our food and drink but also ourselves."
What would it look like if you set aside just one or two meals (out of a potential 21) every week to bless people by eating with them? Picture a world where people are sitting together, eating, talking, listening, and connecting to one another. What if a community you're part of started having barbecues, parties, or dinners once a month, inviting neighbors, coworkers, and friends? Hang out, eat, party with them like Jesus did. That could be someone's first taste of His Kingdom coming to earth.
In their book Right Here, Right Now, Alan Hirsch and Lance Ford say that sharing meals together is "one of the most sacred practices we can engage in as believers." They even go as far as to say that if every Christian regularly invited a stranger or a poor person into their home for a meal once a week, we would "change the world by eating."
Story: BBQ in the Driveway
Rudy and Amber didn't know their neighbors. So they started praying for them and listening to them. Theirs is an extremely diverse neighborhood full of people from different cultures and different life stages. Some are brand-new; others have been around for years. Rudy and Amber decided that food might be something that could bring this group together, so every Tuesday, they pulled their barbecue grill in front of the house and invited everyone over for a meal.
For the first four weeks, one family showed up, or no one at all, except Rudy and Amber. Then after a month of prayer and consistent grilling, they had a breakthrough, and soon the whole neighborhood was eating together. Then something else happened: the conversation shifted from the weather to deeper topics. People began to discuss relational and financial struggles. They were becoming friends. They even started serving one another. They began to love one another.
+ excerpts above from Chapter 5: E: Eat in B.L.E.S.S.: 5 Everyday Ways to Love Your Neighbor
Here are links to other recent City Notes (CN) books:
A Time To Heal (Shalom); Red Skies; Story of God in a Sanitation Truck; The Artistry of What's Next; Seeds of Hope in the Rain & the Dark; The Church is the Most Corrupt Institution on Earth; The Seamless Life; A Good Calling; Inisheer Island; Wrestling with God in Doubt; Taste Grace in World of Seculosity; I've Seen What Hope Can Do; Baptism as the Way of Life; The Cross and Peacemaking Presence; Being with God; Pray As You Can; Knowing and Naming True Friends; Gifted Saintly Identity; A Curious Faith
With presence, peace, and many prayerful blessings,
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