Rev. David Horton, Lead Pastor at Gethsemane

Genesis 18:1-10

The Lord appeared to Abraham by the oaks of Mamre, as he sat at the entrance of his tent in the heat of the day. 2He looked up and saw three men standing near him. When he saw them, he ran from the tent entrance to meet them, and bowed down to the ground. 3He said, ‘My lord, if I find favour with you, do not pass by your servant. 4Let a little water be brought, and wash your feet, and rest yourselves under the tree. 5Let me bring a little bread, that you may refresh yourselves, and after that you may pass on—since you have come to your servant.’ So they said, ‘Do as you have said.’ 6And Abraham hastened into the tent to Sarah, and said, ‘Make ready quickly three measures of choice flour, knead it, and make cakes.’ 7Abraham ran to the herd, and took a calf, tender and good, and gave it to the servant, who hastened to prepare it. 8Then he took curds and milk and the calf that he had prepared, and set it before them; and he stood by them under the tree while they ate.

9 They said to him, ‘Where is your wife Sarah?’ And he said, ‘There, in the tent.’ 10Then one said, ‘I will surely return to you in due season, and your wife Sarah shall have a son.’ And Sarah was listening at the tent entrance behind him.

Reflection:
There’s a saying: food is love. If you want to love somebody, feed them! Well, if food is love, and God is love, that means God is food!

I don’t believe God can be reduced to a taco (though I’ve met tacos that come close) but I do believe feeding people is one of the primary vehicles of God’s love. Food is how we tell people we care about them. Food is how we show people they matter to us and to God. Food is the universal love language.

That’s what we believe about Holy Communion, right? There’s an everlasting, life-giving, life-creating Love, that Love enters bread and cup, and we feast on the Love within.

If you want to love your neighbor as Jesus commands, then bring some calories! Yes, you can measure love in calories. You can measure love in meals. You can measure love in hungry bellies that aren’t hungry anymore.  

A few strangers, we find out later they’re angels, appear to Abraham and his wife, Sarah. Abraham and Sarah drop everything, they raid the pantry, cook up the best steak they can afford, and serve a home-cooked, gourmet meal to strangers who invited themselves over to dinner. It’s love on a plate, and it becomes the reason Sarah gets pregnant, even though she’s well beyond child-bearing years. Sarah will give birth to Isaac. This is important because without Isaac, there’s no Jesus, and without Jesus, there’s no us.

Imagine it- the salvation of the world came down to food and whether or not the people who had it would feed the people who didn’t. They did, and here we are.

We owe everything to an old married couple who served up love on a plate.

There’s a woman named Ms. Jessie Hamilton. She was the cook at a fraternity house at LSU. She served generations of fraternity brothers. She made Cajun. Fried chicken. Red beans. Peach cobbler. But she didn’t just feed these young men. She was their grandma. They’d come to her kitchen after class, stressed out by a chemistry exam, or they’d come with their girl problems, and she’d invite them to sit on her kitchen counter. She’d talk to them. She’d listen. She’d feed them wise counsel and sweet tea to wash it down. Years later, those fraternity brothers would pool their money to pay off Ms. Hamilton’s mortgage (she was working two jobs well into her seventies). They handed her a big check. Of course, the check was generous, and Ms. Hamilton was grateful, and yet Ms. Hamilton’s legacy of love was not outdone. Hers, quite literally, was the greater portion.

We’re amazed by grand gestures of love: writing the big check, getting down on one knee, rescuing people from a flood. God is present in these, there can be no doubt. But where does love begin? Where did the generous person, the groom and the bride, and the hero in a hurricane learn what love is? Where do we learn what it means to love sacrificially and joyfully?

It happens in calories, around dinner tables, in meals served up to strangers, in bread and cup. We learn how to love by being fed, for in being fed we learn what love feels like. Your dinner table is a masterclass in how to be loved and how to love in return. If food is the universal love language, then God is fluent in food. And at dinnertime, the teacher’s coming to teach.

Prayer:
Jesus, you are the Bread of Life. When I feel unloved and unlovable, lead me to your table and I will feast on your love. Teach me what love feels like, so I may turn around and feed your sheep. Amen.