The angel of the Lord came . . . and said, “Get up and eat, or the journey will be too much for you.” – 1 Kings 19:7 (NRSV)
Flour and honey. Butter and cheese. Bible stories overflow with rich images of food, cooking up a message that feeding our bodies leads to spiritual nourishment. Whether it’s receiving cakes baked by an angel of God like Elijah does or Jesus gathering his followers together for supper, sacred stories evoke images of faithful, hungry people receiving the sustenance they crave.
Reading stories of communal feasts is one thing, but practicing it in our own lives is more complicated. How many of us struggle with our relationship to food, having internalized cultural messages of restricting our intake as the path to piousness? For others, allergies or specialized diets create barriers to breaking bread with hosts who have limits to the ways they are able (or willing) to include all people.
Perhaps these same complications make the connections between physical and spiritual nourishment even more timely. How many of us struggle with our relationship to God, having internalized cultural messages about what a spiritual practice must be restricted to? How often do we hear of people being shut out of houses of worship because of who they love or what they look like, barred by church leaders who have limits to the ways they are able (or willing) to include all people?
The message Elijah receives is clear: you need to eat, or the journey will be too much for you. To find our way to the strength of a fed body and a nourished spirit, we are called to prepare tables that accommodate and feed all bodies. We are called to cast aside rotten messages of shame and eat up God’s provisions of love.
Give us this day our daily bread and may we savor every bite.
