Taking it Home: The eating of meals together, though seemingly not as important today, is still a central part of our culture. Whether we eat a fast food meal or celebrate a grand dining experience the eating of meals together still holds fascination because we all need to eat. But the way we eat that meal can also tell much about us as individuals and as a people. For instance the way we answer the following questions might tell us much about how eating meals can function as an eye on our society. Who eats with whom? Who is invited to the table and who i excluded? In the days of the civil rights movement, it was no accident that one of the first places chosen for integration were the lunch counters of the local Woolworths. The fact that African Americans were excluded from our lunch tables spoke volumes about their exclusion in society.
   And so if we answer the above questions for ourselves, what kind of a response would we get? Are certain people excluded from our tables? And more so, what about the times, places and events around which we choose to eat our meals? What might that tell us? For example, the life events we choose to celebrate with a meal - weddings, baptisms, retirements and even funerals. Why is it so imporatnt that we celebrate these events around a meal?
   The eating of meals is the one thing that all families share in common; whether it is the solitary diner around a lonely table or the extended family gathered for a holiday dinner, all families share meals. They are unique to who we are as families. But even more importantly is what happens around our tables when we gather - the sharing of life and the telling of stories. These are the things that help families discover something about themselves; that they belong to one another, that they share a common identity and that this identity connects them to the larger world around them.
   Jesus knew this connection between meals, stories and families. He knew how meals functioned within Jewish family life and within the larger world around him. It was for this reason that Jesus was often portrayed in scripture as being at table, eating and drinking and telling stories, often times with people one would hardly expect. But Jesus was about more than simply having a good time with friends. In his own unique way he was creating an approach for re-shaping and rebuilding the world around him and, in the process, the human family. Who Jesus ate with, when and where he ate and what he did at these meals were Jesus' attempts to redefine not only the meaning of the meal, but also the kind of life that the meal now symbolized.
   Why talk about meals? Because the scriptures for this weekend are about Eucharist and Eucharist is primarily about a meal. Yes, within the context of the Eucharist we celebrate the outpouring of the Son for the life of the world, but the primary shape for the way we do this is through a meal. Jesus' Last Supper was a meal of deep table friendship with his closest followers. And so gathering around the one table of the Lord, we tell the stories of God and Jesus and we discover how our lives connect to this larger story. And in the process of remembering and telling the story, Jesus becomes present to us once again. And so in gathering and telling the stories, just like at our family meals, we discover our identity - we are God's family because we are the words that come forth from the mouth of God and because all stories are part of the original story; that God made us to love. We also discover our relationship  to God as sons and daughters, to each other as sisters and brothers and to the world around us. Then with the help of the Holy Spirit, this meal helps to refashion and reshape us into the people we are called to be - the Body of Christ; a people of love and mercy, who are called to be bearers of this love and mercy to a world that we are sent to transform through our way of living as the Body of Christ on earth.                      

                                                  Deacon John