So then, my brothers and sisters, when you gather to eat, you should all eat together. Anyone who is hungry should eat something at home, so that when you meet together it may not result in judgment.

1 Corinthians 11:33, 34

We casual readers might be missing a profound and eternal truth – you should all eat together.  Really?  The Jews have their kitchens as do the Gentiles.  They prepare all sorts of food, including the traditional ones that mark their identity.  It is these identity markers, I believe, that Paul is writing about.  When the believers gather to eat together, a meal that demonstrates their new self-understanding as followers of Jesus Christ, they should deliberately eat one another’s food.  This might seem to be a minor thing – for all cultures, eating together has profound meaning.

The Jews stressed their identity through food, explained carefully by their habits.  They did not consume blood, the Gentiles had no such prohibition, for example.  The Jewish festival table was a reminder of God’s love for them always.  There was no room at their ritual tables for Gentiles!

The followers of Jesus, Jews and Gentiles alike ate some high feasts together, probably eating some common food, certainly the cup of wine and pieces of bread of Communion.  Over the years I have come to understand the importance of cultural eating. It is the place for cultural expression!  We show who we are by our eating!

So the Spirit of the Lord is opening an entirely new way of relating for all would believe – eating together.  This sounds mundane but is profound beyond measure.  Our little white middle class congregation where we attend eat a common meal once each month – when all bring food for the enjoyment of all.  It is, to tell the truth, a cultural as well as religious experience, maybe mostly cultural.  When we enjoy the meal we do so with delight.  The secret of faith is to eat with all peoples of the earth who believe in Jesus.  Foods and drinks differ, the flesh and blood of Jesus never changes.

I need to let this truth sink in.  Food should link us with others, not divide!  I read again, you should all eat together.