"Meeting Jesus at the Table" (Cynthia M. Campbell and Christine Coy Fohr)

TITLE: Meeting Jesus at the Table
AUTHOR: Cynthia M. Campbell and Christine Coy Fohr
PUBLISHER: Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 2023, (160 pages).
 

Food is a significant part of any community both at home and outside the home. The Bible too has lots of references to meals, food, and feasts. There are food laws in the Torah. Throughout the Old Testament, we read instances of people needing food, like the famine in Egypt; the hungry and thirsty Israelites in the wilderness; the test of Daniel and his friends who opted for vegetarian food as their act of faith; how God fed Elijah; the feasts of kings; and so on. The need to eat continues to be a key thing in the New Testament. The gospels, especially the gospel of John use special feasts as a way to date the interactions of Jesus with the people. For Christians, the highlight of the Christian meal is none other than the Holy Eucharist or the Lord's Table.  The Lord's Table is a symbol of love, hospitality, openness, and welcome. Combing the gospels for instances of meals with Jesus, authors Cynthia Campbell and Christine Coy Fohr lead us through the different aspects of spirituality over the table. The intent of this book is to help us ponder what it means to be disciples of Christ, and what it means to be nourished body-wise and soul-wise. Food not only sustains us. It is an opportunity to cultivate relationships of all sorts. Eating together also provides teachable moments to learn spiritual lessons. In this Lenten Study, readers get to explore eight broad themes using food as a key to unlock these lessons. The authors have also engaged the input of illustrator Kevin Burns to use visual aids to invite further reflection on the past, conversation about the present, and application for the future. Each chapter helps us relate to the Season of Lent, to point us to the direction of meeting our needs in Christ alone.

"Rose Guide to the Feasts, Festivals, and Fasts of the Bible" (Paul H. Wright, ed)

TITLE: Rose Guide to the Feasts, Festivals and Fasts of the Bible 

AUTHOR: Paul H. Wright (Editor)
PUBLISHER: Carol Stream, IL: Tyndale House Publishers, 2022, (232 pages).

What is the connection between Food and Faith? Why are festivals so much a part of the Hebrews? What is the significance of events surrounding feasting and fasting? How does food foster relationships? This book attempts to answer some of these questions from biblical, historical, relational, theological, and practical perspectives. Covering both the Old Testament and New Testament feasts, the author aims to help us see how the simple act of eating could bring people together and bind them. At the same time, festivals enable us to be in tune with the cycles of a religious year. Like seasons during the year, these timely observances enable us physically and spiritually to appreciate God's intended rhythms of rest, relaxation, and relational dimensions of creation. 

Beginning with Old Testament feasts, readers get a fascinating overview of what the ancient Israelites did through the year. Paul Wright asserts that food provides not just nourishment for the body, it is also for the soul. 

"From Tablet to Table" (Leonard Sweet)

TITLE: From Tablet to Table: Where Community Is Found and Identity Is Formed
AUTHOR: Leonard Sweet
PUBLISHER: Colorado Springs, CO: NavPress, 2015, (192 pages).

What is the biggest problem facing families and churches today? Answer: the inability to reproduce our faith. Riding on this inability is a host of other concerns such as the loss of identity; the adoption of non-Christian worldviews as "cure-alls"; simplistic silver-bullet faith; and a lack of rootedness in Christ. Leonard Sweet believes that our self-concept and discovery of identity must go back to the fundamentals of life: Story like what Sweet terms: Narraphor.

A "Narraphor" is a combination of narrative and metaphor that makes up our table talk. He critiques modern Christianity as becoming some form of a "fast-paced, word-based, verse backed, principles driven template for truth" and a "handy tablet of rules and regulations." The Truths of Christianity cannot be reduced to such a tablet or template. It is a Person. Christianity cannot be lived by rules, regulations, or regurgitation of information passed from pulpit to people. It has to be lived with living stories over a simple table. Whether it is family eating, inter-generational gathering, or fellowship meals, a tabled faith makes for a stable faith. Like the benefits of home-cooked food over fast-food, a tabled faith has the following benefits based on the study of Cody C. Delistraty:

• Frequent family dinners raise good kids
• Frequent family dinners improve children's vocabulary
• Frequent family dinners enable future academic success
• Frequent family dinners prevent childhood obesity  
• Frequent family dinners indirectly treat depression and suicidal thoughts

"A Fellowship of Differents" (Scot McKnight)

TITLE: A Fellowship of Differents: Showing the World God's Design for Life Together
AUTHOR: Scot McKnight
PUBLISHER: Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2014, (272 pages).

Difference is the biblical normal. Community is not about conformity toward sameness. It is according to popular author, Scot McKnight, a "fellowship of differents." Using the metaphor of a salad bowl, McKnight argues passionately that the Church ought to look like a "salad" of different tastes, different ingredients, and different mixes. In fact, the Church is "God's world changing social experiment" for bringing all sorts of different people together. Differences are not to be despised but welcomed. Alternatives should be celebrated. This refers to not only gender or ethnicities but also status changes like widows and widowers. In order to facilitate the fellowship of differences, McKnight proposes six ideas to keep different people together.

The first is "grace" via the gospel of yes. For if God says YES to us with such emphasis, why should any of us do any less? In Christ, through the Holy Spirit, we have been promised God's yes over and over again. Through grace, we have been offered both a "place and a power." A "place" is in terms of an identity to be able to sit at the same table with God and fellow believers. A "power" is in terms of overcoming all kinds of odds and differences in order to be united as one people. Through grace, we turn from "God-fighters into God-defenders; Jesus-haters into Jesus-lovers; and Spirit-resisters into Spirit-listeners." After comparing with some definitions of grace by several prominent speakers, McKnight settles on Anne Lamott's "I do not understand the mystery of grace - only that it meets us where we are but does not leave us there." Beautiful.