Twice Christ took the bread apart
with his human hands that he used for
such tasks, once with fish and once with wine,
the grain a pattern of tribute, distribute,
as he worked the division of himself into
feeding others with his body, taken but not taken,
there but not there, it was two times
two times two. Ever body got some body
who will feed them even when there seem hardly
enough to go round. When I hungered the word
fed me. Even so, so many others hungered
he needed a hundred more human hands.
That was when I said here take mine.
~D.A. Powell “The Miracle of Giving”

I wonder more and more if the first thing shouldn’t be to know people by name, to eat and drink with them, to listen to their stories and tell your own, and to let them know with words, handshakes, and hugs that you do not simply like them, but truly love them.
It is a privilege to have the time to practice this simple ministry of presence.
~Henri Nouwen from The Practice of the Presence of God

The church, I think, is God’s way of saying,
“What I have in the pot is yours,
and what I have is a group of misfits
whom you need more than you know
and who need you more than they know.” 

“Take, and eat,” he says,
“and take, and eat,
until the day, and it is coming,
that you knock on my door.
I will open it, and you will see me face to face.”

He is preparing a table.
He will welcome us in.
Jesus will be there, smiling and holy,
holding out a green bean casserole.
And at that moment, what we say, what we think, and what we believe will be the same:
“I didn’t know how badly I needed this.”
~Jeremy Clive Huggins from “The Church Potluck”

Every Sunday evening,
After meeting for prayer and hymns and the Word,
Our church people move to the back building to share a meal:
A potlatch, a potluck, a communion of comfort food.

What to bring? What soothes stomach and heart?

Macaroni and cheese
Beef stew chuck-a-block with vegetables
Buckets of fried chicken
Potato salad
Greenbean casserole
Watermelon slices, apples and bananas
Meat loaf topped with ketchup
Tossed Caesar salad
Jello and ham buns

Home made bread, steaming, soft
Whole chocolate milk
And ice cream sundaes

Nothing unpronounceable
Or extravagant
Or expensive.

A fitting ending to a Sabbath day,
When times get tough, when we feel all alone,
When we drown in discouragement,
We gather together to become the cross itself.

This is time for congregation becoming community,
For inviting neighbors to come eat together,
For huddling against life’s storminess
Forgetting our worries for a time
To share God’s comfort food, all together, misfits that we are,
Smiling to know — we all badly needed this.