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A series of eight small group studies written by Canon Christopher Butt, former Dean of Bahrain Cathedral.
He writes:
“A number of recent experiences have encouraged me to explore the centrality of meals in the Bible.
At the final gathering of Junior Church before the summer holidays, we had a party in the meadow of Bishopscroft and the children were asked about meals and parties that Jesus had with different people.
I had recently got back from covering the initial ten weeks of an interregnum at St Christopher’s in Bahrain. As well as leading worship and conducting eight weddings, much of my time was spent having meals with people, sometimes in homes, at others in one of the many simple restaurants catering for the very international community there. It was an opportunity for me to catch up with the journeys of peoples’ lives.
And we recently had a week’s holiday with our family, a rare event for all of us to be together in one place, but again meals were a memorable part of that holiday.
When we lived and served in Hong Kong in the 1980’s, I was responsible for organizing a programme of weekly lunchtime Bible expositions at St John’s Cathedral. I remember one series title vividly. It was led by a Chinese priest: ‘The Essence of Christianity is Eating.’ Perhaps that is a distinctively Chinese insight, food being so central to Chinese life, but it wasn’t just the food that he highlighted, but what meals do to foster deeper relationships.
I recently read another example of that from Mennonite House, an interracial social service project in Atlanta, Georgia in the early 1960’s. The lady involved in running this important centre remembered her mother’s example ‘providing spaces of refuge in the midst of struggle, spaces of joy, and laughter, good food and kind words.’
So, I hope that as you explore some Bible meals together, you might reflect on the deeper meaning and experience of those meals. When it comes to the New Testament, we will be drawing heavily on the insights of Eddie Askew, formerly International Director of the Leprosy Mission, in his book Cross Purposes, meditations and prayers based on meals with Jesus.”
