This is What Community Looks Like

Lauren and I have been reading through Tim Chester's A Meal with Jesus. It has been a fascinating look at the role of food in the life of Jesus in the gospel of Luke. As Chester says, in the Gospel of Luke, Jesus seems to always be coming from a meal, eating a meal, or traveling to the next one. That sounds like my kind of ministry!

The picture above is our dining room table - and this is one of the primary places we build community. Sharing meals with others is a way to value them with practical service and love. Lauren wrote a blog about the the power of keeping that meal simple and practical. You should check it out.

Eating is a daily reminder that we need something outside of ourselves to sustain us. This is one of God's many ways to remind us that we are not autonomous - we are not independent, isolated beings. We were created by a God of community for community - with him and with each other. Sharing a meal with others is a simple and powerful way to do that.

Everyone gathered around the table - talking, eating, drinking, laughing, and even crying - sometimes everyone gathered around a single big conversation, sometimes in pairs and threes discussing things more intimately - this is a powerful image of the joy and life of community.

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Glorious Mud

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