2021.04.18 | What's for Lunch?
“What’s for Lunch?”
The Rev. Dr. Arlene K. Nehring
Eden United Church of Christ
Hayward, California
Third Sunday of Easter
April 18, 2021
This morning I invite you to get in the “Way Back Machine” with me, and travel to the home of Lucy and Charlie Spencer, my wonderful in-laws. Imagine that it’s Christmas Day 1992. We are at the Spencers’ home in Arlington, Virginia.
Note that although I had met the Spencers in Boston a few times before when they had come to visit Stephanie while she was studying at BU, I had never been to their home before, and I had never been a contender for in-law status in their family. To keep this story short, let’s just say that one of the Spencers wasn’t too thrilled with my new status.
Nevertheless, Charlie and Lucy were polite to me, and Lucy was kind enough to provide me some very important insights about Stephanie, which she imparted while we were preparing dessert.
I can’t remember exactly what we were talking about in the kitchen that night until she paused abruptly in the middle of cutting her Christmas cake, pointed her sharp knife at me and said, “I’m going to give you a bit of unsolicited advice about Stephanie.”
With my eye on the knife, I said, “OK, what? You have my full attention.”
She said, “When Stephanie gets cranky, you’re going to have to feed her.”
Out of the whole universe of things that Lucy Spencer might have said to me that day, advising me to feed her when she gets cranky wasn’t one of the things I was expecting her to say.
Fast forward 28 ½ years to now, and all I can say is that Lucy was right.
Stephanie’s a highly educated, sophisticated person, who has lived in seven different countries. She speaks four languages fluently, and she can read and write in two other languages.
But at the end of the day, she’s really not that complicated. She needs to eat when she’s hungry. She needs a good cup of coffee in the morning. She needs to stop every 2.5 hours for potty breaks on car trips. And, she needs the tags cut out of her shirt collars. If one just maintains these four standards, all will be well in her universe.
II
In a similar manner, even though numerous scholars and preachers have tried to over-think today’s gospel lesson, it isn’t that complicated. For example, many have gone to great extremes to either prove or disprove the bodily resurrection of Christ based on this text.
I guess that’s because some people’s faith is dependent upon proof of the bodily (meaning “physical”) resurrection of Christ. News flash: mine is not. My faith is not dependent upon the bodily resurrection of Christ. I understand that a lot of people lose sleep over this and that great theological debates still take place over this topic, but not for me.
For me, I have come to the conclusion that this third appearance of Christ in Luke’s Easter story points out one simple fact, similar to the fact that Lucy Spencer pointed out to me many moons ago: most people have trouble comprehending the Easter message when they’re hungry.
Think about how the narrative in Luke 24 progresses. A couple of the disciples were walking on the road from Jerusalem to Emmaus on the first Easter Sunday. They encounter a stranger on the road, who seemed clueless about the events that have unfolded in the previous week back in Jerusalem.
When the disciples arrived at their home in Emmaus, they did the proper thing, and invited their traveling companion to lodge with them for the night.
The stranger accepted their invitation. Over the evening meal, he broke bread with his hosts and their eyes were opened, and they realized that they were in the company of the risen Christ. Shortly thereafter, Jesus vanished. Then they got up from their repast and ran to Jerusalem to report to the others what they had seen and heard.
While these disciples were recounting their experience in Emmaus, Jesus appeared to the eleven in Jerusalem, but most thought that they were seeing a ghost. Jesus tried to calm them down and assure them that he was who he said he was, by revealing the wounds in his hands and feet.
As Jesus spoke, hopes rose in the hearts of his followers, but they remained hesitant to believe. The news seemed too good to be true. So Jesus asked for something to eat. He was offered a piece of broiled fish which he ate in their presence. Then Jesus went on to interpret the scriptures, drawing the connections between the visions of the prophets, and his present-day mission, and then they got it. They finally understood the Easter message — suffering was not their purpose, death was not the end, and their hope was restored — and they were called to be witnesses of these things.
Did you notice how the disciples didn’t begin to comprehend the full meaning of these events in Jerusalem until they saw Jesus eat something, which is another way of saying — until they all had something to eat. Remember, in this setting, Jesus was the guest, so he would have been invited to eat first. That was and still is the norm in neareastern cultures, and many others. Guests are served first.
Where I come from, we say, “Company first. Family hold back.” The principle is the same. It’s about hospitality. It’s also about having enough to eat.
Think about, and I suspect that you’ll agree with me. The disciples were a little bit like Stephanie Spencer. Their brains just didn't work that well on an empty stomach. Maybe yours doesn’t either.
It follows then that we modern people might need a little sustenance in order to fully comprehend the presence of the living Christ and the fulfillment of the Easter message. And, the awareness of our own needs might give us a deeper appreciation for the needs of others, including the need for nutritious food.
III
It was this awareness of hunger in our community — it was the awareness that one in four children in Cherryland didn’t have enough to eat — that led us to start our just-in-time food pantry, Comida para Cherryland, 10 years ago, this month.
At the time that the vision for the Comida was coming together, youth violence was on the rise in the Eden Area. A variety of approaches were proposed about how to address and dial-down that violence, including strategies to prevent, intervene, and suppress the violence.
Eden Church, along with our allies, most of whom were mothers and grandmothers in Cherryland and South Garden, advocated for prevention programs that included launching four new food ministries in the Cherryland area: Comida para Cherryland, a food back-pack program at Cherryland School, a produce pick-up at Cherryland school, and summer lunch program at Cherryland Park.
The three off-site programs that we helped start have since morphed into different programs, but they all still serve the community. The food back-pack and produce pick-up have morphed into the drive-thru food pantry at Cherryland Elementary School, and the summer lunch program has morphed into a literacy and lunch program in the parks.
In a similar manner, our Comida has had to evolve too — particularly because of the pandemic. We are not, for example, able to provide the client choice feature, children’s activities, or snacks that we have offered in the past, due to the Shelter in Place Order. We have had to flip the script on our staffing of the volunteers and rely more on youth and young adults year round, rather than just during the summer and vacation periods. And, we’ve lost the opportunity for fellowship and the ability to have our senior volunteers on site. But they’ve continued to support us with time, talent, and treasure, and for this support, and their constant prayers, we are very grateful.
The number and the diversity of people whom we have served has also grown. We now serve three times as many as we used to, and we serve residents who collectively speak seven different languages, not just Spanish and English.
In addition, as a result of busting out the Cena Caliente (UIY Hot Meal) program last spring and expanding our Sanctuary and Asylum Accompaniment ministries, we have made a lot of new friends in South Hayward, who are now participating in our Companeras Ministries.
Lessons learned from Cena Caliente provided the foundation for our COVID-19 response ministries, including CI/CT and Emergency Food Deliveries, COVID-19 Testing Sites, and now COVID-19 Vaccination Clinics.
As we rise to meet each of these new challenges we encounter tremendous suffering — emblematic of the suffering that Christ endured through his passion — but more importantly, we participate in Christ’s victory over suffering and death as we feed the hungry, welcome newcomers, tend to the wounds of victims, heal the sick, and strive to prevent disease and death from COVID-19 and other maladies that would result in untimely death.
None of this is easy. Oftentimes we experience confusion and anxiety, like Jesus’ disciples did in Emmaus and Jerusalem. But, then, Jesus never promised us a rose garden. He just promised us that he would be with us. And, fortunately, his presence, be that in body or in spirit or both, is sufficient for our needs, and ensures that the gospel is prospered in and through us, who are collectively the Body of Christ, the Easter people of God. Amen.