Sermon for Sunday, May 6, 2007WHENEVER YOU EAT TOGETHER REMEMBER MEby Rev. Dr. Harvey C. Martz |
|
Scripture: Revelation 3: 20 20 Listen! I am standing at the door, knocking; if you hear my voice and open the door, I will come in to you and eat with you, and you with me. The first congregational trip to Italy to study art and Christian history was even better than we expected it to be. We stood together in the catacombs and saw where fellow Christians 1800 years ago wrote the names of Paul and Peter on the stones there honoring those early leaders. We saw the names of persons buried there who had been martyred for their faith in Christ. We stayed for a short time in the prison in Rome where it is likely that Peter and Paul were held before they were executed by the state for spreading the good news abut Christ and where before their execution they converted even some of their guards. We stood before some of the greatest and most awe inspiring art in the world and were moved by the creative genius of Michelangelo and Bernini and Raphael and Caravaggio and Botticelli. Most of their themes of course were taken from the Bible and from the stories of Christian faith. We saw many paintings of the annunciation of Mary and of the crucifixion and the Last Supper and even one of the meal at Emmaus where the risen Christ is finally recognized. We saw this imaginative picture in Rome of a less reverent Last Supper where the disciples look very human—this is by renaissance artist Jacopo Bassano—it looks like some of our extended family meals where some folks are distracted and some are bored. We noticed the relative absence of paintings of Jesus teaching people in the Sermon on the Mount or healing people or laughing with the children whom the disciples were trying to shoo away. We worshiped in the church St. Francis of Assisi was in and were moved by the frescoes of Renaissance artist Giotto who used every surface of wall and ceiling to tell the story of Francis’ life. Did you know, by the way, that the crèche scenes we use in our homes at Christmas are all because Francis originated that idea? We remembered again the efforts at reforming the church, redirecting the church, that Francis and then later Dominican monk Savonarola and then of course Luther took up to try and correct the abuses of faith that they saw. We saw beautiful buildings, ornate buildings, and reminded ourselves of the spiritual leader who said “Our churches are dripping with gold while Christ in the form of the beggar is pleading outside our doors.” And we ate. One traveler abut halfway through the 12 days said it felt like we were eating our way across Italy. We had pasta with meat sauce, pasta with marinara, pasta with mushrooms, even pasta with squid (a few of us ate that). We now know the location of many gelato shops and many corner cappuccino bars. We all enjoyed the Italian food immensely (bad word), but Judy and I felt compelled the first day home to go out for a chicken fajita burrito and a quesadilla with guacamole for a change. And we were not only better grounded and better educated in our faith; we accomplished another of the goals whenever our church travels to Israel or Greece or Italy: we—29 individuals became a community. We took care of each other. We supported each other. We formed lasting bonds of friendship. And we laughed together. And that community was often formed as we ate together—not only the communion meal on the last evening in the little village where the Pope has his summer residence but at most every meal. We ate together. And we remembered that it was that feeling of communion and fellowship over food and coffee that Starbuck’s founder, Howard Schultz, saw when he was in the Italian coffee places many years ago and envied and hoped, when he came back to the US from his time in Italy, to make possible in the new chain of coffee shops he founded when he bought a little coffee bean place in Seattle and turned it into neighborhood gathering places where people could feel at home over coffee and a pastry. It was in the Italian coffee shops that Schultz got his vision of fellowship for the Starbucks coffee places. We learned in the incredible city of Pompeii, two thirds of it uncovered from the volcanic eruption nearby, that even the early Italians saw the importance of gathering together over food and eating together when we saw examples of the 89 restaurants so far discovered in Pompeii and the 35 bakeries there. Some of those 89 restaurants had not only a counter to get a bowl of soup or a cup of wine but also a place to sit down and visit with friends. Eating together brings us together. It makes us family. It creates communion. It binds us to each other. Have you noticed in that memorable verse from Revelation that Jesus says, listen, I am standing at the door and knocking and if you open the door, I will come in and eat with you—not just be with you, but eat with you, because when we break bread together, important things happen and we are on holy ground. And Jesus tells us in that Thursday night Passover meal that whenever we eat together we are to remember him. Grace is present, barriers can come down, and strangers become friends -- when we eat together. Folk artist Carrie Newcomer tells us that in her song “Betty’s Diner”, a song about table fellowship and forgiveness and grace-- and communion.
|
