Foodie Theology

“People will come from east and west, north and south, to eat at the table in the kingdom of God.” Luke 13.9

“God was in Christ reconciling the whole world (cosmos) to himself.” 2 Corinthians 5.19

A couple nights ago, Dianne and I watched our nephew Colin Mays on the Food Network’s Cheap Eats Show. Colin is a chef in the university town of Athens, Georgia. His creation is a wonderful looking (I can only imagine tasting!) French Toast made with challah bread served with seasoned Georgia Peaches. Not so sure nine-buck French Toast is all that cheap, but I liked his answer when asked how/why he came up with the dish. He said something to the effect that the restaurant’s owner is Jewish and peaches connect with Georgia, and so it signified bringing people together.

That triggered a memory of my foodie father. For most of my dad’s working life, he was in food. Not cooking and preparing it but selling and promoting food. Truckloads of coffee sold to buyers for school, hospital, hotel, military, restaurant, and government systems. Along the way, bakery supplies, Gerber baby food, Jell-O; anyone remember Tang? A potato service rushed fresh cut potatoes for French fries across the area. My best memory is the company that made the array of toppings for Dairy Queen and the goop for Shoney’s strawberry pie.

Anyhow, I remember my dad quipping from time to time that he liked being in the food business – grocery stores, restaurants, lunchrooms, and such – because… “Everyone eats. Whatever our differences; everyone eats.” Most days back then around Birmingham and Alabama were punctuated by those who politicked and stirred up people on the basis of the ‘differences in people’, who even tried to apple shine the ‘separate but equal’ baloney. My dad would never have been mistaken for Atticus Finch, but he (and my mother) had a non-segregated respect for all people. “Everyone eats.”

In his EAGER TO LOVE: THE ALTERNATIVE WAY OF FRANCIS OF ASSISI, Richard Rohr explores how for Francis, Jesus’ table connects with Jesus’ cross. “Jesus’ meals are never for the few or the elite. Francis’ life has frequent stories of eating with groups of people…the sick, with Muslims, with those too weak to fast. Eating was a social event that included and created community for both Jesus and Francis. There is no indication it was ever a reward for good behavior or an attempt to give a group its separate or superior identity. Can you imagine Jesus making sure there were no Samaritans or Syro-Phoenicians eating his multiplied food?” (p. 131)

I confess I have seen so many renderings of DaVinci’s Last Supper across the years – on plates, T-shirts, religious greeting cards, trinkets, Sunday school room walls – I paid little attention to them, even writing such off as sappy and sentimental. Never again!

In his LEONARDO DA VINCI, Walter Isaacson depicts the genius Leonardo infused in perhaps this most famous painting of all time. (Pp. 279-292) In 1494, Duke Ludovico of the city-state of Milan commissioned 42-year-old Leonardo Da Vinci to paint the Last Supper on the refectory, dining hall wall of the Santa Maria delle Grazie church. Known for procrastination, the 29’x15’ painting took him quite a while. When a bossy priest tried to hurry him, Leonardo threatened to use his face as model for Judas.

Isaacson tells how DaVinci brought his knowledge of light, perspective, and anatomy to bear on his painting. Motion contained in a moment – the facial expressions, position of hands, angle of bodies. Their almost perceptible movement can reach the soul of the viewer; can connect motion with emotion.

It captures the moment Jesus says, “One of you will betray me.” Each reacts in his own way: disbelief, hurt, anger, sorrow. Some talk to each other; others to Jesus. Judas, 4th from the left, skulks down. Thomas to Jesus’ left holds up his forefinger, a hint of Risen Jesus’ later word for Thomas to put his finger in his wounds. These very different people with complicated relationships had heeded Jesus’ invitation to follow him. They didn’t always get along, were often scared, not the brightest bulbs; they have been called the duh-ciples. Peter was a big mouth, brave one moment, chicken the next. Taxman Matthew had been something of a collaborator with the hated Romans, Simon a militia Zealot. Brothers James and John had a tough case of sibling rivalry. Everyone even Judas eats.

Might I say these followers of Jesus were a bit of a loving dysfunctional family…had complicated relationships?

Might I say from the vantage of the cosmic Christ, the whole planet can be viewed as a dysfunctional family into which our creator from the beginning and into eternity is infusing a love greater than our meanness and differences?

How all this gets lived out in the details of our daily lives is not easy or for the faint. There is the abiding challenge, whether with groups or individuals that junk up our emotions, to respond instead of react.

So the Table of Jesus reminds me that ‘everyone eats’ and everyone is included. Jesus’ pattern of love has the power to transform the jerk in me and the jerk in you. And so we use the time we have on earth better to find ways to include instead of exclude, to share the cosmic Christ love that even includes you and me. And now to the details of today and tomorrow…