meditation on breaking bread

Meditation on breaking bread.

I can see why some people want to go to college. From a pragmatic point of view college is worth considering. There’s money in it.

Yesterday’s World Herald revealed that in Omaha, a high school drop-out in 1962 earned more income in a year than someone with a high school diploma today. The only way out of that downward spiral is advanced education, luck, or being extraordinary. This financial fact is about the accelerating chasm in Omaha between wealthy and poor people. The article reports, not surprisingly, that people without money see the world differently than those with it. On balance, it seems a person is better off with enough money than to be without it. The world looks better and is more “approachable” that way. Without much money, sections of the Big O become farms for racism: people see the world in through the lenses of poverty and tiredness. And I know how well I function when I don’t get enough sleep!

A previous article in the OWH (10/29 you can log in at Omaha.com and do a search on “bread and barriers” in the e-edition) noted how groups of people are overcoming this poverty/isolation way of viewing life by having dinners in private homes where racism is the topic of conversation. Now, call me crazy, but I think this is church! Comments are just like I heard for years in churches I served, “”We’re all afraid of the unknown. But when someone is sitting at your dining room table and you get to know then, it’s hard to be afraid. Barriers break down.”

Jesus, the prophets and the patriarchs all had a thing for getting together to eat with people they knew and people they didn’t. Eating is a God thing:

Genesis 18:
1The LORD appeared to Abraham by the oaks of Mamre, as he sat at the entrance of his tent in the heat of the day. 2He looked up and saw three men standing near him. When he saw them, he ran from the tent entrance to meet them, and bowed down to the ground. 3He said, “My lord, if I find favor with you, do not pass by your servant. 4Let a little water be brought, and wash your feet, and rest yourselves under the tree. 5Let me bring a little bread, that you may refresh yourselves, and after that you may pass on—since you have come to your servant.” So they said, “Do as you have said.” 6And Abraham hastened into the tent to Sarah, and said, “Make ready quickly three measures of choice flour, knead it, and make cakes.” 7Abraham ran to the herd, and took a calf, tender and good, and gave it to the servant, who hastened to prepare it. 8Then he took curds and milk and the calf that he had prepared, and set it before them; and he stood by them under the tree while they ate.

Luke 19
1He entered Jericho and was passing through it. 2A man was there named Zacchaeus; he was a chief tax collector and was rich. 3He was trying to see who Jesus was, but on account of the crowd he could not, because he was short in stature. 4So he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore tree to see him, because he was going to pass that way. 5When Jesus came to the place, he looked up and said to him, “Zacchaeus, hurry and come down; for I must stay at your house today.

Matthew 9
9As Jesus was walking along, he saw a man called Matthew sitting at the tax booth; and he said to him, “Follow me.” And he got up and followed him.
10And as he sat at dinner in the house, many tax collectors and sinners came and were sitting with him and his disciples. 11When the Pharisees saw this, they said to his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?” 12But when he heard this, he said, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. 13Go and learn what this means, ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’ For I have come to call not the righteous but sinners.”

In fact, I think there are more stories about food and eating together in scripture than just about any other setting. It seems eating together—with friends and strangers—is a good and holy thing to do.

Sounds like a model for church to me! (and campus ministry for that matter).And oh yeah, how about a movie to go with it? the good folks in Omaha will watch “Crash” and talk about how race plays a part in our perceptions, what we do, and where we work.

Hmmm. Dinner, a movie, and discussion. Now that’s church. College students can do this, and it may just be as helpful to life than that best paying job you’re after.