Feasting on the Savior [Hospitality E1]

February 4, 2024 • Trey Van Camp • 1 Corinthians 11:23–33

All throughout the Gospels Jesus is described eating, feasting, and partying with common people. Jesus is almost always going to a meal, at a meal, or coming from a meal. The early church adopted this practice as well. The book of Acts tells us that the first followers of Jesus made it a regular habit to break bread from house to house, eating with “joyful and sincere hearts.” And as the meals spread, so did the gospel.

But for Jesus and his followers, a meal was about more than just food; it was a means of grace. Meals were a way for the Son of God to come near people and offer conversation, friendship, and healing. Every dinner shared with a sinner was a way for God himself to extend a merciful hand of salvation to those who least deserved it. This is why the communion was often shared as part of a full meal.

When we partake in communion, we’re eating a meal together. We’re reminding ourselves that through his sacrifice, fellowship, and hospitality, God has cleared a space at his table for us. Taking communion is our way of feasting with our Savior.

Feasting with the Sinner [Hospitality E4]

February 25, 2024 • Trey Van Camp • Luke 7:34–50

Many of Jesus’ interactions with the lost happened over a meal. In https://biblia.com/bible/csb/luke%207.34, Jesus is accused of being “a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners.” The Gospel of Luke illustrates this well: In https://biblia.com/bible/csb/luke%205, Jesus is described dining with tax collectors and sinners at a man named Levi’s house. Jesus is anointed by a sinful woman while eating at a Pharisee’s home in https://biblia.com/bible/csb/luke%207. And when Jesus forgives and restores Zacchaeus, the Jewish tax collector in https://biblia.com/bible/csb/luke%2019, he first invites himself over for a meal. Bottom line: Jesus’ proximity to those living counter to the way of God was scandalous to the self-righteous and life-giving to the self-rejecting. Again, if seeking and saving the lost was his mission, then sharing a meal with them was his method. As Jesus’ disciples, we’re instructed to do the same. By practicing hospitality, we create a safe space for those opposed to the way of Jesus to encounter and experience the love of God. We don’t affirm people’s sin, but we do affirm that they’re loved and valued image-bearers of God.

Feasting with the Stranger [Hospitality E3]

February 18, 2024 • Trey Van Camp • Luke 14:12–24

If “loving your neighbor as yourself” was the second most important commandment in the scriptures according to Jesus, then it’s something we should make a regular part of our day-to-day life. But in our hyper-individualistic and self-serving culture, few of us actually get to know the strangers we interact with on a daily basis. Jesus and his disciples faced similar issues in their day. Loving their neighbors was difficult because of boundary lines and discrimination that occurred between Jews and Gentiles. Later in the biblical story, the early church faced violent opposition and persecution due to their commitment to King Jesus. And yet, the more meals they shared with their “enemies,” the more their enemies became friends. Over time, those friends became part of the family of God. Henri Nouwen defines hospitality this way: “the creation of a free space where the stranger can enter and become a friend instead of an enemy.” People will always expect our hostility until they experience our hospitality. By getting to know the neighbors in our lives, even our actual neighborhood neighbors, we create spaces and opportunities to serve those around us and demonstrate the love of God.

Feasting with the Saints [Hospitality E2]

February 11, 2024 • Trey Van Camp • Romans 12:3–16

When the people of God are described throughout the Bible, they’re most often described as a family. And when family gathers for dinner, they share more than just a meal. They share life, stories, laughter, questions, tragedies, and celebrations. Throughout the scriptures, the people of God use meals to mark this kind of fellowship. The art of eating together with those we’re close to is a lost one. Meals have been commodified and looked over as nothing more than a relieving break from the mundanity of work at best, or an inconvenient break in our daily rhythms at worst. We might enjoy an occasional date night, birthday celebration, or holiday feast, but the regular practice of sharing life at a table is one that fewer and fewer people in the West are participating in. For Christians to recapture this lost tradition, we must intentionally make space in our schedules to be hospitable toward those in our community. Feasting regularly with other followers of the way encourages us, strengthens our bonds, and nourishes our souls. But there’s also a shadow side to community. Without love, grace, and intentionality, we can fall into the trap of familiarity, codependency, resentment, and idealism.