This Lent (February 18-April 4), we are following A Sanctified Art‘s “Tell Me Something Good,” in our worship and Church School. We’re looking at what was central to Jesus’ life and ministry: radical welcome, love for neighbor, care for the vulnerable, nourishment for the hungry, nonviolence in the face of injustice.
One of our colleagues in the United Church of Christ denomination is a foodie who describes himself as a “gastro-evangelist,” sharing his ministry through food and entertaining. Jesus spent a lot of his ministry sharing food with people. He also talked about food and dinner parties, and what it means to practice our faith through hospitality.
In Luke 14 (verses 12-14), he’s at a dinner hosted by some Pharisees and he starts telling brain-teasers (parables) about what it means to host a dinner. As usual, he tweaks his hosts about their notions of who’s in and who’s out, who should be at the table and who doesn’t belong.
It’s good for us to re-visit these parables again and again to challenge our own notions about belonging, about how hospitable and inviting we’re actually being — both as individuals and as a community.
Come Sunday and we will renew our minds about how Jesus calls us to be openly invitational.
In faith,
Kent
Image: United Parish Community Thanksgiving Dinner
