Today’s R&R serves as a companion to yesterday’s, What’s True About the Table.
If you missed it, you can read it here.
Reading
They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.
Acts 2:42
Reflection
I wonder if you’ll indulge a quick exercise with me: What comes to mind when you prompt yourself with “memorable meals”?
Give it a try. Grab something and scribble down—or type out—a few notes.
A breakfast I had with a guy named Josh. He put a small pat of butter in his coffee. We were staying at a center on the outskirts of Lubbock, TX. Cups cooled quickly in the Llano Estacado, and he’d been doing it a long while and knew enough. We’d sit together in the fluorescent hum of the refectory as others were still waking.
A dinner at Capital Grille in Houston with my best friend Matt when I returned home after living in Moscow. We ordered shared sides—creamed spinach and potatoes au gratin. I couldn’t tell you about the beef, though I’m sure it was excessive and red. In typical Matt-fashion, it was a “home game” for him, and I would have been sent home if I’d even tried to reach for my wallet.
My neighbor friend Tommy, who lived across the street, coming over and asking my mom if she’d make him cheese toast like it was a delicacy. On a paper plate or a paper towel, eating it on the cool linoleum kitchen floor or on the textured, blazing backyard patio. She never asked a question—just unfurled a bag of bread.
Silence. Gratitude. Sharing.
These were lessons I learned at these tables.
They were lessons in how to be kind and compassionate, aware and generous, present and willing. These table manners were taught in the way Jesus taught his disciples and the way they taught those who followed them—and on and on until they made their way to us.
Sitting across from one another, breaking bread with each other, is vulnerable and courageous. Even if we aren’t unburdening ourselves or laying our lives bare on the table like worn and sticky brunch menus, we still show up—offering ourselves just as we are.
It’s where authenticity begins to transform into community, and where division begins to give way to unity.
Breaking bread = Top 4
This is what Pastor Brandon said. It was an indispensable part of the early church’s life and faithfulness to Jesus’ teaching. The way the Spirit forms us through meals leaves a far more lingering taste on our souls than the food itself. It, too, is something to savor.
And maybe that’s the invitation—
To keep showing up.
To be shaped slowly and assuredly over time.
To be nurtured and matured—
To be seen and to see.
Prayer
Jesus,
Thank you for what lingers when our meals are done.
Thank you for slow breaths after our final bites,
And for the grace that stays in the silence.
Teach us to sit and be present,
To share what we have.
Give us this day our daily bread—
Enough to carry us through,
And enough to share.
AMEN.
