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A Bread of Life Preface:When Two or More are Gathered Sometimes, early in our lives, we begin to be shaped by the little things. I remember as a child in the Mississippi Delta being sent to my grandparents to stay for days at a time propped up on pillows to battle asthma. I was so weak that all I could do was activate my imagination by making up stories full of lively conversation between people. One day my grand father came to my bedside bearing a gift. He handed me a small wicker basket filled with handmade toys–a cloth man and woman, a wooden table, two chairs, and a cooking pot. I was delighted and started "setting the table on the pillows." The man and woman began to cook together, to talk, and to "break bread." It was there in those childhood moments, I now realize, that my spiritual and professional life started a journey together at that tiny meal table. The Eucharist message was so clear even then: when two or more are gathered at mealtime, we are offered the chance to be in touch with the meaning and mystery of life. Thus, cookbooks are important for this very reason–they are manuals for food preparation, but on a deeper level, preparation for the sacred part of our lives together. The compilation of The Bread of Life: A Cookbook for Body and Soul has been a beautiful path on my life’s journey. The women collaborators have helped me reconnect to my Anglican taproot and granted me signs of acceptance and a means of experiencing spiritual strengthening through the ritual of the meal table. This nourishment, fulfillment, and wholeness, and most importantly, this sense of community is there waiting for all of us when we break bread with one another. The scriptural stories now take on new meaning to me, as "meal memories"–the Jewish traveling wisdom teachers, seeking hospitality, finding a meal after the service in the homes of strangers; Mary at the Master’s feet while Martha was dutifully in the kitchen; the loaves and the fishes, the wedding feast, on and on. And finally, the messianic message appearing to us in the Upper Room is the ultimate meal memory. It was so simple; Mark 14:22 provides us with the best picture of what happened. Using his Jewish practice of hospitality, Christ invited his best friends to supper. Once they were seated, he called upon his teaching gifts to articulate his life’s purpose of bringing the New Covenant, thus reshaping their lives (and ours) forever. As they were eating, he took bread, and blessed and broke it, and gave it to them and said: "Take, this is my body: then he took a cup, and after giving thanks gave it to them, and all of them drank from it. He said to them, ‘This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many... Do this is in remembrance of me" (Mark 14:22–14, Luke 22:19). Each day, the young and old, the rich and poor, the strong and weak, the socially conscious and unconscious, gather still at the table to share a meal. The process of fulfilling a basic, human need is merely the catalyst for what happens when people sit together in a ritual designed to sustain life. Bringing a good thought to the table is as important as bringing good food to the table. While we eat in "community;" we can speak about the events of the day, reminisce with childhood memories, proselytize our faith, review current events, teach social responsibility (and table manners), face our individual and collective fears, discover one another’s truths, and speak our hearts about shared visions for tomorrow. When two or more are gathered, we participate in something far greater than ourselves. And if we are truly awake, we give thanks for the celebration of life through meal memories because these times afford us a holy connection with others. All of this is only to say, recipe collections such as this compilation are powerful venues, offering us a chance to make more meal memories to become hosts at the Eucharist table. For the Christian, from the Last Supper forward, every meal becomes a sacrament. Even if it is just for peanut butter and jelly sandwiches or with cloth dolls at a table placed with pretend food on a pillow, we have the opportunity to take the sacred into the ordinary meal table of our homes and make a banquet of our lives. |