11
" The main thing that distinguishes mealtimes with Jesus, as Conrad Gempf has shown, from the meals of his contemporaries are four verbs.[44] Whether it’s the feeding of the five thousand, the Last Supper, or the Emmaus meal, four things take place: First, Jesus takes something. Second, Jesus blesses what he takes. Third, Jesus breaks what he has blessed. Fourth, Jesus gives away what he has broken, to be a miracle in the lives of others. First, Jesus takes something. It doesn’t matter what it is. No matter how meager or damaged or out-of-touch it is, it comes to life at the touch of God. Second, Jesus blesses what he takes. You never get a blessing for yourself. You get a blessing to bless others. In the words of the black church, “a blessing can’t get to you unless it first can go through you.” We are blessed to bless. Third, Jesus breaks what he has blessed. The word company derives from Latin words cum and pane, meaning “breaking bread together.” Companion means “the one who brings the bread along,” a community of broken people breaking bread together.[45] Every day I make plans to live forever, but bless everyone I meet that day as having one broken thing in common: the life we soon must lose. Fourth, Jesus gives away what is broken. For Jesus it is not enough to be creative and witty and wise in oneself. Are you the cause of creativity and wit and wisdom in others? Just as we are blessed as we bless, we are fed as we feed. At the table we feed others the Bread of Life to be fed the Bread of Life. The more we give, the more we receive. Of course, these four verbs become one in Jesus himself, who is the Bread, blessed, broken, and bestowed. Some of Jesus’ followers thought he came to give bread to them like manna in the desert. The truth was Jesus came to be bread for them—and for us. "
― Leonard Sweet , From Tablet to Table: Where Community Is Found and Identity Is Formed
15
" IF A PROBLEM PERSISTS for generations, it is no longer a crisis. It’s a condition. The identity crisis facing our faith, our families, and our world has prevailed so long it is now a condition—a condition of shadows and storms, yielding a world of confusion and conflict, unruly souls, and unraveling societies. As both consequence and contributing factor, eating has become not so much a God-designed daily routine of identity formation as a function, a procedure to ingest the energy we need to keep going, or a therapy of comfort foods to alleviate our anxieties. "
― Leonard Sweet , From Tablet to Table: Where Community Is Found and Identity Is Formed
18
" More recently, Magic Johnson and Larry Bird faced each other on the basketball court as arch-competitors—first in high school, continuing through college, and culminating in the NBA, with Johnson playing for the LA Lakers and Bird playing for the Boston Celtics. The rivalry of these two champions became legendary—as did their dislike for one another, which seemed to grow in intensity with every passing year. Somewhere along the way Converse paid each of them to shoot a shoe commercial; they faced each other on the court, Bird wearing white shoes, Johnson wearing black. Bird insisted that they film the commercial at his farm in Indiana. The shoot began icily, with both superstars circling each other, but when they broke for lunch and started to go their separate ways, Bird’s mother announced that she had made lunch and invited everyone to the table. In Larry Bird’s words, “It was at the table that I discovered Earvin Johnson. I never liked Magic Johnson very much. But Earvin I like, a lot. And Earvin didn’t come out until I met him at Mom’s table. "
― Leonard Sweet , From Tablet to Table: Where Community Is Found and Identity Is Formed
