It seems to always come back to food: our church life, ministry, and outreach

A year ago I preached on Isaiah 58 at Christ Presbyterian Church in The Hill and, then, the following week, I had the privilege of bringing this same massage to the CPC church plant in Fairfield/Bridgeport.

We--at CPC in The Hill--are continually surprised (not really) that we seem to continually come back around to food, the subject of eating in messages (they're all over the Bible), in the very thing that the NT teaches was at the center of the church's gathering--a meal. I think it is pretty clear that God designed us to meet Him in the sharing of food.

It is interesting that the biblical concept of Sabbath is also actually linked to food as well.

Someone recently asked me if I could drop a dime on the spot in the Hill . . . for CPC in The Hill to find a more permanent home (or own building). . . I'd find it dropped on a spot we can turn into our place of worship AND a place of food (a cafe, inviting the "tax collector and sinners" to a meal, meals and worship, BBQs).

"God, we need a place to set ourselves as CPC in The Hill where we can focus on food, eating . . . "

But for now, its sidewalk meals and BBQs and BBQs in the Park . . .

It is interesting that the prodigal son parable is most often preached without the center (the climax of each), the focus Jesus gives it, and of which Luke sets it in within the narrative. It is interesting that the ONE-in-THREE parable stories of Luke 15 is centered in celebrating at a meal. The parable-trio is given because the poor, marginalized, unclean, uneducated (the socially non-elite) were "eating" with Jesus and the established Temple leadership had problems with that (cf. Luke 15:1-2). Just prior to the parable of the Three Lost Things (again Luke 15), we read about the Great Banquet where the poor and marginalized are invited (Luke 14). We need to follow the whole thread that Luke sets before us (much more openly as we interpret his parables of the Three Lost Things). The three parables were given to judge the accusers (that's what parables do bytheway). Each parable ends with feasting. My goodness, how can we not see the importance of this cultural and literary (i.e., Luke's) context!

And it doesn't surprise us that "food" is right there in the Isaiah 58 Sabbath text:

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"Is it not to share your bread with the hungry
and bring the homeless poor into your house . . ."
​(Isaiah 58:7a).

This is the privilege, scope, and responsibility of Sabbath pleasure. What are you doing--what is the church doing--so that others may find rest? To find God?  Today, as we do every Wednesday evening during the summer, that is, bring a grill into our nearby Hill park and put on a feast of hot dogs and hamburgers and salads and fruit and desert for whoever is in the park.

Our 1st evening of the 2019 season of In His Midst Park BBQ Ministry >> Check it out

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