Redeemer East Side Update

Transformed together through Eat

One passage of Scripture that always sends a little shiver down my spine is in Exodus 24. It’s just seven words long.

Israel is poised at the foot of Mount Sinai having just received the Law of God written on tablets of stone by his own finger. They saw Mount Sinai lit up with the very presence of God — thunder, lightning, thick smoke, and fire. They were told not to touch even the outer edge of the mountain lest the judgment of God fatally break out against them. It is all magnificently dramatic.

But then, Moses goes back up the mountain with the elders of Israel to ratify this covenant with God. We are told that the elders of Israel saw God yet he did not lay his hand upon them. And then, Exodus 24:11, sparing any and all embellishment, matter-of-factly says “they beheld God, and ate and drank.” It’s as if a meal with the Ancient of Days on top of his holy mountain ablaze with eternal glory was just another taco Tuesday. And what does that even mean — to behold and eat and drink with God? What was on the menu? What did they drink? What did they talk about? How long did they linger over empty plates? On the cusp of one of the most redemptively significant moments in history, God stops everything so they can eat together.

In February, we took the entire month to incorporate the practice of Pause into our lives — the keeping of a weekly sabbath to find our rest and delight in Jesus. In March, we hope to build on that foundational practice by turning our attention to the second Practice of PEACE: Eat. Exodus 24 is just one example of how central meals are in the economy of God’s redemption. In the Bible, God most often meets with people over a meal. The specifically spiritual significance of meals is found throughout all of Scripture — from the Passover to the Lord’s Supper to the final Banquet of the Lamb.

What if in a world of pragmatism and efficiency, we were to recover the spiritual significance of our meals? What might change in your life if you were to approach even just two meals a week as an opportunity to meet God and welcome a neighbor or friend or colleague into your life? How might it transform the quality of your relationships with the people God has placed in your life? And because we know that the God who acts in the Bible still acts today, who knows if your dinner table might not become the place where someone you love encounters God’s love, perhaps for the first time?

So, join us this Sunday, March 7 for an Invitation to Eat. We’ll talk more about the power of meals to bring people of all kinds of differences together. Practically, we’ll talk about what this practice might look like in a time of pandemic. While we may not be able to eat together as we would like, we can still find ways to enjoy the company of others in an intentional way, especially in a time of such great isolation.

But above all, I pray that as we eat with others as a spiritual practice, we might become the community of people known in our neighborhoods as the people who offer anyone and everyone the very hospitality of God. As my friend Pastor Russ Whitfield once said, may we feast with such gladness and welcome, that many of our neighbors would begin their journey to the Table of God’s grace at our tables. In other words, let’s together behold God, and eat and drink.

Warmly,

Rev. Abraham Cho
East Side Senior Pastor

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PEACE: An Invitation to Eat

Join Aarti Sequeira, Food Network host, cookbook author, and former journalist, to explore the joy and sacred nature of breaking bread. Together, we'll see how the practice of Eat deepens joy and extends the hospitality of God by turning something ordinary into the extraordinary.

PEACE: An Invitation to Eat Q&A

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PEACE Stories: Eat

When we Eat with others, we reflect the joyful hospitality of Jesus, elevating ordinary actions into an expression of Christ’s restorative kingdom. Here's Judy's story of how she experienced God’s hospitality through her friends at church when she was first exploring Christianity, and how she's extending that to her friends and neighbors during this COVID-19 pandemic.

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