Kitchen Table Evangelists - Be One (pt.3)

Recap of Parts 1&2

Over the past few weeks we've been considering an adaptation of a pamphlet I wrote some time ago, entitled "Kitchen Table Evangelists - Be One."  In pt. 1 we considered the importance of inviting unbelieving neighbors, friends, or colleagues into our homes to share a meal together.  We noted that this was not only a good way to do evangelism but also a very simple way.  Moreover, sharing a meal with others was something that the Lord Jesus often did in His earthly ministry.  For Christ these meals not only embodied God's generous grace but they also enacted God's mission.

Before wrapping up last time we noted the first of five specifics about what meal-sharing accomplishes.  Today we move on to consider the remainder of that list before concluding our consideration of this topic.


              Just incase you missed them....
                                   click to read part one
                                   click to read part two

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what sharing a meal does - 5 specifics

1.  Meals Are The Great Equalizer

We covered this one last time.  Want to reread it?

2.  Meals Build Community 

As we mentioned at the outset of this paper we love to run programs and create projects, but who wants to become someone’s ‘project’? No one! People want friendship. Perhaps another term for friendship is “dependence.”  Surely that’s what James Taylor communicated when he sang:

      When you're down and troubled and you need a helping hand
 and nothing… is going right.  
Close your eyes and think of me and soon I will be there to brighten up even your darkest nights.

 You just call out my name, and you know where ever I am
 I'll come running to see you again.
 Winter, spring, summer, or fall, all you have to do is call and I'll be there…
you've got a friend.


James Taylor performs "You've Got A Friend" - a deeply personal song concerning Taylor's brief experience as a Quaker.

A friend is someone we depend on and food helps remind us of just how dependent we are on others - people like farmers, truck-drivers, shopkeepers, cooks, etc.  And each time we bow our heads and pray before a meal we are acknowledging that over and above all we are dependent on God.  Simply stated, we need to "refuel" or die.  Refueling is a great blessing from heaven.

3.  Meals Exemplify God's Lavish Grace

Though food is fuel, food is much more than just fuel.  Think of all your favorite foods.  Think about the great diversity that exists in all things delicious.  From chocolate to chops from apples to asparagus, from pumpkin pie to pork roast, from ham and eggs to turkey and gravy – God is wonderfully lavish in His creativity and generosity.   It has always been this way, you know.  God’s first act after creating humanity was to present us with a menu: the fruit of all the trees in the garden.  Every meal is an opportunity to receive God’s good gifts with thankfulness and to acknowledge His grace. 

Food is also an opportunity for human creativity and generosity to display the lavish grace of the Creator.

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4.  Meals Exemplify Our Neediness 

Here’s an unpleasant thought that food reminds us of; food is at the heart of our rejection of God.  Never forget that the very first act of rebellion was an act of eating.  Ever since that time, our relationship with food (and everything else) has gone wrong because our relationship with God has gone wrong.  As a result many in our culture look for comfort in food instead of looking for refuge in God. Others avoid food to make themselves appealing, while in other parts of the world many go without food altogether.  In light of all of this it's no surprise to find that our brokenness shows up often times in our relationship to food.


Meals remind us that we are needy.

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5.  Meals Are a Great Gospel Metaphor 

It is against the backdrop of food-gone-wrong that we see the Gospel in which God promises a feast.  Again and again in the Bible, salvation is pictured as a feast with God.  When God leads the Israelites out of Egypt, the leaders of the people are invited up to Mount Sinai to eat and drink with God.  Even before this, the rescue from slavery in Egypt was commemorated with a meal, the Passover.  Fast forward to the high point of Israelite history, in the reign of Solomon.  During this period we are told in I Kings 4:20, ‘the people of Judah and Israel were as numerous as the sand on the seashore; they ate, they drank and they were happy.’  Even when things begin to unravel, God promised in Isaiah 25:6-8 another meal on a mountain, ‘a feast of rich food for all people.’  On this occasion death itself will be on the menu and God will swallow it up whole. This is an eternal feast that no one need ever leave. In the Gospel records we read that Jesus, Himself provided a foretaste of this feast when He feds the five thousand.  Here is a feast which need never end. Indeed there’s more food at the end than there was at the beginning.  It’s all a foreshadowing of the ultimate fulfillment of God’s promise: that great day when we will feast forever in His presence and be fully satisfied.

In the final analysis the meals of Jesus represent something bigger than mere lunch-breaks or midnight snacks.  They represent the consummation of all things in God’s coming world.  But at the same time they give that eternal reality substance in the present moment.  Meals are made up of things you put in your mouth, things you taste, things you touch, things you smell, things you see, and things you eat. More than this meals are social occasions that represent friendship, community, welcome and the lavish grace of God.
  

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conclusion

So, will you do it?  Will you become a kitchen table evangelist?
 
Of course this will cost you something in terms of your time, resources and so forth, but this fact reminds us of something worth remembering as we conclude.  Our invitation to the feast of God cost Him something too.  One writer summed it up in this way:

    "The price of our invitation is the precious blood of Jesus his Son. We are outsiders, we are enemies, we are excluded.  But Jesus takes the judgment we deserve.  He becomes the ultimate outsider – pushed out of the world onto the cross; forsaken by his Father.  As a result we become insiders, friends, included. The invitation goes out to all.

  It’s not an accident that at the heart of what it means to be the church is a meal.  Jesus told us to remember Him not only in a pattern of words, but in a meal – communion."

Therefore, around the table, whether it is the table of the Lord or the table of our kitchen we can offer friendship and celebrate life with others.  Our meals offer a divine moment – an opportunity for people to be persuaded by grace into a better life, a truer life, a more godly human existence.

  Jesus ate meals with people. If we routinely share meals with others and if we have a passion for Jesus then we’ll almost certainly end up doing His mission.

Yes, it’s true that meals alone cannot save people, people are saved through the gospel message.  But meals create natural opportunities to share that message in a context that resonates powerfully with what we’re saying.

  To become more effective in our evangelistic enterprises we don’t need another church-program.  We don’t have to be rich, trendy, attractive, or smart – we don’t even have to be able to cook!  We just need to be people who eat, people who love Jesus, and people who want to tell others that they are invited to the great feast of God.