"They followed a daily discipline of worship followed by meals at home, every meal a celebration, exuberant and joyful, and they praised God ..."
(Acts 2:46, The Message)
Food, glorious food. I DO believe they can unite us!
I remember considering this sometime after a tense political event back when White House Spokesman Robert Gibbs described a meeting that he once had with Henry Louis Gates, Sgt. James Crowley, and former President Obama. He called it "a chance to talk and a chance to have a dialogue," adding, "I would not construe this as a formal (political) discussion, this is about having a beer."
I'll drive back around to the political Biergarten bridges in a moment. Right now I'm thinking how much I would love to go to Texas just to grocery shop with my dearly departed Nana. This woman, as in the grandma contract, was obsessed with feeding people. My Nana made everyone's favourite pie at Thanksgiving and Christmas meal times. That sounds like a feat in itself, but consider that my Nana had six children, most of which now have at least three grown kids of their own so their are grandkids who have kids! Yeah, you may be 2 years old, but if she found out what pie you liked, it would have been there. Maybe twice. The last time we had a major eating holiday at her place my cousin Ryan and I counted over 30-something pies.
But here's the thing: She didn't just like to cook; she liked US. She had an overwhelming love for her family that motivated her to stock her cupboards with sugar, flour, eggs, and every pie filling known to man. Oh, some write love letters, send cards, or express themselves in hugs and kisses. My Nana crammed pies down everyone she loved.
Upon a most recent reading of a very long short story called "Babette's Feast" by Isaak 'I-had-a-fahm-in-Ah-frica' Dineson, I remembered why it was so important for me to ask people over for meals and prepare something that would satisfy them. Babette, a widowed victim of the French Civil War, comes to Denmark to work for two religiously prudish sisters. Babette gives the sisters 14 years of devotion and servitude, helping them to aid the poor and elderly. She eventually wins 10,000 francs in the French lottery, and instead of getting the heck out of dodge, Babette decides she will spend ALL of her winnings by giving the town people a gift of one night of fabulous eating and drinking! Woo hoo!
It can take everything out of a person to prepare a meal, and you can throw yourself into it when you love the people you are serving. Babette had a lot to give because a lot was given to her. I get that. Totally.
Jesus called his disciples over and said, “The truth is that this poor widow gave more to the collection than all the others put together. All the others gave what they’ll never miss; she gave extravagantly what she couldn’t afford—she gave her all.”
Mark 12:44
Celebrate everything that you and your families have accomplished under the blessing of God, your God.
-Deuteronomy 12:7
All that being said, I think our former President Obama's choice to have a Bud with Gates and Crowley was dead on in my humble opinion. It may not be current news, but the concept is still crystal clear that, as one of them said to the press, "not every problem is going to be solved by government and not every problem should be solved by government."
So ... maybe my Nana didn't drink beer, but I'll bet if she thought any president was coming to her house, she would have found out his favourite pie, regardless of her personal politics. They just don't matter at her table.
