It has been testified by others before ; “What is the human race, that you are mindful of it, the son of man, that you care for him? God made the son of man a little lower than the angels, and gave him honour and glory." In giving everything to humans, nothing was left that is not subject to God. At present we do not see everything subject to God; but we do see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels, now crowned with glory and honor because he suffered death, so that by the grace of God he might experience the life and death of humans.
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Yesterday afternoon, I led a memorial service for the sister of a long-time friend. My friend is Japanese Canadian married to a Chinese Canadian. She, her sister and brother, were born Buddhist, but the circle of friends spanned all faiths and cultures. At the reception, people sat around large tables to eat. In the course of an hour and a half, seven different people came to sit and tell me about their experiences with the church. Each of them was on a spiritual quest, each was seeking something, each had no trouble saying they were searching for a spiritual centre, yet the church was clearly ruled out as a possibility - mostly because of the experiences they had as children and young adults growing up in the church. I heard stories of lasting psychological damage, of broken relationships, of an absolute and repressive way of thinking which, in the words of one person, shut down the soul instead of encouraging it to grow. The question was very clearly asked: “Isn’t religion supposed to open us up to the universe, not cut us off and destroy our creativity?” One person said that although he wasn’t religious, he recognised that there was heart in the service which touched people. Another one spoke of the absolutism of his church which he had rejected, but how good it was to hear someone preach about hope, rather than certainty in the future. I heard about experiences as an immigrant to this country, being discriminated against and pushed aside, being the “other”.
And there we were - several strangers around a table, eating and laughing, sometimes crying and sniffling. I noticed that people were very caring about each other - even those they didn’t know. They were serving others, and they were being served by others - and both giving and receiving with grace. We had sushi and green tea, sandwiches and coffee, Yiddish pastries, nanaimo bars, cream puffs, Japanese rice dumplings. We shared around a table where everyone was welcomed, everyone fed and nourished, and not just with food. As we ate, someone accidentally broke a rose off one of the flower arrangements, and they picked up the rose and put it in the centre of our table. It was rather disconcerting, as I had called my sermon “Bread and Roses” . It was also disconcerting because I was worrying about how to put the sermon together, and here in a room of mostly strangers, the sermon became real.
So I went looking for the poem by James Oppenheim, written in 1911, called “Bread and Roses”. Two lines jumped out - because they seemed to mirror the conversations around the table:
“Our lives shall not be sweated from birth until life closes--
Hearts starve as well as bodies: Give us Bread, but give us Roses!”
I couldn’t help but bring this to bear on the passage from Hebrews - that Jesus was made in exactly the same way as all other human beings are made, and experienced the same life and death that all human beings. He suffered pain and illness, he got grouchy, he got elated, he got tired, he got hungry and thirsty - and sometimes he was estranged from his faith community. He grieved for the loss of friends and felt helpless when death entered his closest circle.
I was also reminded that Jesus ate around tables with strangers - with whatever food was common to their culture. He didn’t insist that they share his faith, or that they observe all the minutiae of Jewish observances. He didn’t, so far as we know, invite them to attend synagogue with him. But he knew what Oppenheim wrote, that hearts starve as well as bodies. Hearts need to be fed, to be opened and uplifted to the world, not crushed and broken. Jesus was more interested in what kind of people they were, how they treated others around them, and lived by example. He spoke about loving, sharing, and caring. Jesus’ table was wide open to anyone who wanted to be fed - literally or spiritually - bread, and roses. Jesus’ table was a symbol of God’s gift of grace and community to all peoples, regardless of faith.
I had the feeling yesterday that the table of eastern and western food, green tea and coffee, was representative of the world wide table of God’s family. People of every ethnic descent were in the room, sharing a meal and their lives together.
Isn’t that what this table, today, is meant to be? Yes, it is communion Sunday for all the Christian churches, but it is also a day when we can make an open statement about the grace and generosity of God in creation. It is found around a common table, with ordinary food, and people who care. God’s table is wide open - to nourish the body and the soul, to give us space to grow and expand our souls and our lives. Bread, and roses. May it be so.
Sources:
From the poem “Bread and Roses”, by James Oppenheim, first published in The American Magazine, December 1911.
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