Faith and Cooking
Sermon St Mary's Comberton - 12th October 2008
Faith and Cooking
Ge 18:1-8; Lk 14:12-14
<How do you encounter God in the preparation and sharing of food?>
INTRODUCTION – 3 KITCHENS
Friday evening. Fly on the kitchen wall in 3 different homes.
Chaotic. Linda exhausted. Wondering what on earth to cook for her 3 children's dinner. The 2 older come home from school high as kites, youngest has been unwell grizzling all day. By the time her husband gets home from work it will all be over, but the next hour will be utter chaos. She opens the fridge is full of clutter but seems not to contain anything that the children will want to eat. Will it have to be Frozen Fish fingers again? She needs some one to share her load with.
Quiet. Too quiet. Beryl is lonely. Since she lost her husband 5 years ago, she's found it harder to do the simple things in life. It's not that she doesn't enjoy cooking – she used to love cooking for Bob. She just doesn't enjoy cooking for herself. It's all she can manage to heat up a tin of soup and pop some bread in the toaster. She needs some one to share her meal with.
Energised. Phil is enjoying himself. He's has had a busy week at work, but it's in the kitchen he likes to unwind. He's throwing one of his famous dinner parties tonight - this time trying out a new recipe for salmon fritatta. A digital radio warbles away in the background as he pours himself a glass of wine and sets to work beating the eggs. I wonder who he has invited to share the party with him?
3 kitchens. Many of us relate to at least one of those – at least from time to time.
4000 yrs ago Abraham. Dozing outside his tent in the heat of the day. Stirs, opens his eyes to see 3 men walking towards him. Not knowing who they are and probably finding their unannouced arrival a little of an inconvenience – he nevertheless follows the conventions of his day welcomes them courteously. He bids the guests sit down and rest, but behind the scenes everything is hustle and bustle – Sarah is set to work baking; a calf is selected and slaughtered, and a meal is prepared. Of course we (the reader) knows all along (told in verse 1) no ordinary visitors – The LORD is visiting him. It is only when Abraham stops all his rushing about and listens that he realises who has come to his tent. In this act of hospitality he has encountered God himself.
THE QUESTION POSED
How do you encounter God in the preparation and sharing of food?
Odd question – what's cooking dinner got to do with God? Precisely what the writer of Genesis wants to tell us – in the ordinary humdrum breaks through the extraordinary/ the sacred.
What that tells us
Whether your experience is closer to Linda's / Beryl's / Phil's – God is interested.
How do you encounter God in the preparation and sharing of food?
Do well to learn from the experience of Br Lawrence.
French Monk (Carmelite) 17th C. Never rose to any position of authority. Spent most of his time in the kitchen at monastery, doing the jobs that needed doing. didn't enjoy – but in time he found that he prayed just as much in the kitchen as he did in the chapel. Depth of his relationship with God – Abbot published letters and conversations.
“[Brother Laurence] had a strong natural aversion [to the kitchen], but he trained himself to do everything there for the love of God, and on praying at every juncture for his grace to do his work, he had found it very easy during the fifteen years he was thus employed.” (p23)
What might it mean for you to see the jobs you do in the kitchen as something you do for the love of God?
Preparation, Cooking, Serving, Clearing away, Washing up, Wiping down. As if you were doing them for him. Sharing them with him.
THE QUESTION ASKED IN 3 KITCHENS
What might it mean for Linda to encounter God in the preparation and sharing of food?
Big challenge Linda faces cooking for Family undervalued - children, partners.
“twenty-four” Krish Kandiah p91-92
“Those of us who do most of the shopping and cooking for the family are often under-appreciated, but even this disappointing let down is a great opportunity for us to connect with God. How many times has God worked to provide something for us and yet we have been too stubborn to accept or too thoughtless to say thank you. When our family is ungrateful or our kids just won't eat the meal we've slaved over, we can ask that God would use these times to teach us about his often-unappreciated faithfulness to us. Pray that when we make hard decisions about healthy food and all we get are grumbles, the experience would make our hearts more receptive to the times when God says no to things we want because he wants to give us the things we really need.”
Undervalued by society in general. Microwave, ready meals, fast food.
This week “Back to the Table week”
encouraging families to eat together.
Website – print out a dinner invitation / fussy eaters / discussion starters
Good: Strengthen family relationships / foster family traditions/ better nutrition.
God thinks it is good for a family to be around a table together (Ps 128:3)
Opportunity to pray together. Grace – not just perfunctory. Time to pause as a family and say thank you.
What might it mean for Beryl to encounter God in the preparation and sharing of food?
Challenge – loneliness.
Not easy – before I was married
Spirit of Thankfulness -every time you slice open a tomato – beauty and goodness
Remember, like Br Lawrence. Christ is with her in the kitchen. Imagine him sitting down to eat with her – that she is cooking food for him.
“I turn my little omelette in the pan for the love of God. When it is finished, if I have nothing to do, I prostrate myself on the ground and worship my God, who gave me the grace to make it, after which I arise happier than a king.” (p85)
Another way of encountering God is to take the step of faith of inviting someone else to share the meal – is there is a neighbour or friend in a similar position? Important thing – not quality of food – companionship. Anything that fills a hole will do the job – bring 2 people together.
What might it mean for Phil to encounter God in the preparation and sharing of food?
In one sense he's part way there already.
God made us with tastebuds to be aroused – created us to be creative. When we enjoy the good things of the earth and let our creative juices get to work we are discovering part of what it is to be fully human, made in the image of God.
But there's another side to the dinner party – that comes up in our Gospel reading – about who we invite and why we invite them.
Jesus must have been a really embarrassing guest. Ignored social decorum and challenged the underlying assumptions. Imagine holding a dinner party and one of your guests lecturing you on who you hadn't invited.
Read v12-14.
Challenging today as they were then.
Jean Vanier – L'Arche communities. Physical and mental disabilities living alongside able-bodied.
How willing are we to go outside our normal social circle when we invite people?
Silly example / real – excluded – After Jacqui and I started going out – friends of Jacqui's said “We're so pleased you're together because now we can invite you round for a meal.” - What does that say about the value we place on people who are single?
Very easy to invite people just like us. Say the things we want to hear. But if we only ever hear the things we want to hear, we will never be challenged to see things differently. In short we will never encounter God.
Maybe God prompting you to invite someone you wouldn't normally consider – down your street / in church.
CONCLUSION
How do you encounter God in the preparation and sharing of food?
Heart – abundant thankfulness and sharing that reaches beyond social barriers.
Delia Smith – A journey into God (p13)
“We are afraid to encounter God, to stand on holy ground.
'Mummy, mummy' cries the excited 7 year old, who has still not lost that precious sense of wonder. 'Come and look at the sunset.'
'I'm busy making a cake,' comes the reply
'But, Mummy, you can make a cake anytime. There'll never be a sunset like this one.'
All right, you may say, the sun rises and sets every day, it's quite an ordinary event. But it is God who is in the ordinary and we who are outside it.”