Monthly Church Pot Lucks - Good for Body and Soul

An e-mail I received after the feast on Autumn Leaf Harvest Sunday this past week said it all. "The celebration was absolutely fabulous. I'm thinking it's time to reconsider a monthly potluck after worship." - Stephanie.

It truly was fabulous - both the worship and the harvest meal! My mouth waters as I remember the taste of the communion bread, baked using the whole wheat flour grown in the church's JCGarden wheat patch. Others thought so too. "...that was the sweetest wheat bread that I have ever tasted. Amazing how the flavor lingered – a beautiful gift…." - Susan. Then there was the harvest meal. It featured locally raised organic beef patties, church baked hamburger rolls, bean soup made from plants grown from seeds passed out during the Blessing of Seeds and Gardens Sunday, and many other local dishes lovingly prepared by members of the congregation. All were tasty and made more so because we knew whose hands had prepared them.

As the e-mailer noted, it is time to reconsider monthly church potlucks! I agree, for two things happened on Sunday. Firstly, Christ Jesus was made known in the breaking of bread during holy communion. And secondly, Christ Jesus was made known in the "breaking of bread" during the harvest meal as we experienced him in table fellowship with each other. And that was good!

It IS time to get back to regular church potlucks. These should be held on communion Sundays, so that monthly, bread is broken in sacrament and, after worship, table fellowship too. For Jesus longs to make us one with him (communion) and one with each other (table fellowship) that we might live in relationship with God and neighbor as the starting place for Christian living.

Each monthly potluck could be flavored in some way with one of the four different herbs that grow in the four little crosses. The devotion and worship herbs, processed into herbal vinegar or herbal oil as salad dressing, would remind us how these two works of piety draw us ever deeper into relationship with God. And the compassion and justice herbs could remind us how these two works of mercy connect us not only to friends but to all who stand in need of love and care. A brief story could introduce the herb of the day and share how the act it represents (devotion, worship, compassion or justice) was practiced and found meaningful.

In this fashion, springing directly from the centrality of the cross, the potluck might allow us to sacramentally ingest the very truth of God, that we might be one with Him in purpose and prayer, "Thy kingdom come, on earth as it is in heaven." Amen!