Worship Around the Table
On our wedding video, there is a clip where my wife’s grandpa offered me marriage advice. “Don’t complain when she brings you burnt toast in the morning, just consider it burnt offerings!” It’s debatable if what passed for humor or good advice in his day, has stood the test of time. There is, however, a concept in his statement that points to a reality that goes much further back than the time of our grandparents. There was a day when the word worship might cause a mouth-watering Pavlovian response, because food was being talked about.
In Ancient Israel, the idea of worship or sacrifices was synonymous with "barbecue". A main activity at the temple was animal, grain and drink offerings prepared on the front porch. A whole burnt offering was enjoyed by God alone. This was done by completely cooking it. The word ola refers to “rising up” as the sacrifice ascended to God in the form of smoke. Most other sacrifices were shared meals for the worshipers. This meant that when worship was going on, the air was filled with the scent of a big community barbecue.
In addition to Israel’s regular sacrifices, there were three main worship feasts a year; Passover, Pentecost and Booths. Each of these were week-long festivals where worship was done as dinner theater. The celebration reenacted and reminded the participants of God’s deliverance and his continuing goodness.
As we move to the New Testament era, we see that meal time was still sacred. Consider one of the reasons Jesus was frequently harassed - he ate with the wrong people. His “indiscriminate table fellowship” was not appreciated. In the eyes of his critics, he was sharing sacred table space with the “wrong people”. Being careful who you ate with was important. But, in Galatians, Paul cracks down on the practice of separate tables for Gentile and Jewish Christians, because separate worship was not in line with the Gospel. One God, one table, unified worship!
Communion, instituted by Jesus at the Last Supper, is something I always understood to be a modified Passover meal. What hadn’t been explained to me is that in Greco-Roman culture, their meals were regularly eaten as a celebration honoring the household god or gods present. For gentile converts who now followed Jesus, communion was a modification of meals celebrated as worship to the gods they once followed.
Consider the difficulties of the meal time questions or taboos in a culture that did their eating as worship. When people in the world outside of Jewish territory gave up their gods in order to follow Jesus you can imagine that dinner time in a mixed crowd was a challenge. This explains why Paul spends four chapters helping the Corinthian church figure out their meal time manners (see 1 Corinthians 8-11 and think “meal time” while reading). As you get to chapter 11, you see this Gentile church has got “meal time with Jesus” all wrong. The rich show up early, eat all the good food and get drunk. This was before the poor, presumably day laborers, can finish their work, and by the time they arrive they only find scraps. They need to learn their table manners or how to worship - that is how to connect with God and people around a table.
In our current cultural moment, its a good time for the reminder that when we have meals together its an opportunity to connect with God and others…around a table. Since we’ve been married, my wife has made family dinner part of the rhythm our life. In the past few years I’ve realized the treasure she’s provided our family. When we sit down to eat, we give thanks to God and we enjoy one another. We celebrate the good events and joys in one another lives. We also talk about what’s not going well or even do our best to reconcile with on another if there’s a rift. We connect with God and one another.
I’ve never told our kids “this is a serious time”. Some English Bible versions chose to translate the gathering at feasts time as “a solemn assembly”, an unfortunate choice in my opinion. The feasts were meant for celebration and enjoyment. I want our dinners to feel that way as we connect with God and one another (not solemn). As they grow, I’m sure we will discuss the significance of our meal times (perhaps over dinner). My prayer is that they choose to one day host worship around the table as they connect with Jesus and those they share their table with.
In Ancient Israel, the idea of worship or sacrifices was synonymous with "barbecue". A main activity at the temple was animal, grain and drink offerings prepared on the front porch. A whole burnt offering was enjoyed by God alone. This was done by completely cooking it. The word ola refers to “rising up” as the sacrifice ascended to God in the form of smoke. Most other sacrifices were shared meals for the worshipers. This meant that when worship was going on, the air was filled with the scent of a big community barbecue.
In addition to Israel’s regular sacrifices, there were three main worship feasts a year; Passover, Pentecost and Booths. Each of these were week-long festivals where worship was done as dinner theater. The celebration reenacted and reminded the participants of God’s deliverance and his continuing goodness.
As we move to the New Testament era, we see that meal time was still sacred. Consider one of the reasons Jesus was frequently harassed - he ate with the wrong people. His “indiscriminate table fellowship” was not appreciated. In the eyes of his critics, he was sharing sacred table space with the “wrong people”. Being careful who you ate with was important. But, in Galatians, Paul cracks down on the practice of separate tables for Gentile and Jewish Christians, because separate worship was not in line with the Gospel. One God, one table, unified worship!
Communion, instituted by Jesus at the Last Supper, is something I always understood to be a modified Passover meal. What hadn’t been explained to me is that in Greco-Roman culture, their meals were regularly eaten as a celebration honoring the household god or gods present. For gentile converts who now followed Jesus, communion was a modification of meals celebrated as worship to the gods they once followed.
Consider the difficulties of the meal time questions or taboos in a culture that did their eating as worship. When people in the world outside of Jewish territory gave up their gods in order to follow Jesus you can imagine that dinner time in a mixed crowd was a challenge. This explains why Paul spends four chapters helping the Corinthian church figure out their meal time manners (see 1 Corinthians 8-11 and think “meal time” while reading). As you get to chapter 11, you see this Gentile church has got “meal time with Jesus” all wrong. The rich show up early, eat all the good food and get drunk. This was before the poor, presumably day laborers, can finish their work, and by the time they arrive they only find scraps. They need to learn their table manners or how to worship - that is how to connect with God and people around a table.
In our current cultural moment, its a good time for the reminder that when we have meals together its an opportunity to connect with God and others…around a table. Since we’ve been married, my wife has made family dinner part of the rhythm our life. In the past few years I’ve realized the treasure she’s provided our family. When we sit down to eat, we give thanks to God and we enjoy one another. We celebrate the good events and joys in one another lives. We also talk about what’s not going well or even do our best to reconcile with on another if there’s a rift. We connect with God and one another.
I’ve never told our kids “this is a serious time”. Some English Bible versions chose to translate the gathering at feasts time as “a solemn assembly”, an unfortunate choice in my opinion. The feasts were meant for celebration and enjoyment. I want our dinners to feel that way as we connect with God and one another (not solemn). As they grow, I’m sure we will discuss the significance of our meal times (perhaps over dinner). My prayer is that they choose to one day host worship around the table as they connect with Jesus and those they share their table with.
Yes a great tradition that has been lost in our American culture. But maybe Covid is helping us remember how wonderful it is to be around our table to eat, laugh, and remember. The Shema is the watch word of the Hebrew faith- Deut 6:4-9 “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one.[a] 5 You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. 6 And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. 7 You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. 8 You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. 9 You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.
ReplyDeleteThis is such a powerful tradition that has life when we celebrate it! Glad you do.