Organizing a dinner seems rather easy if we solely listen to the Gospel Readings telling us of Maundy Thursday.
Jesus arrives at a village outside Jerusalem. Asks his disciples to go find a specific person and ask him if he would not love to host Jesus and his 12 disciples that very same evening.
‘No problems,’ the person replied and dinner is served.
Now all of you who have ever had to serve a larger dinner – maybe even assisted with some of the Dinners here in our Church – knows that it is not all that easy.
And maybe it has even become more difficult to arrange a dinner in recent times.
One of the things that is remarkable about the times we live in is that we easily can obtain a lot of knowledge. Knowledge about what we eat, knowledge about our body, and knowledge about how our body react to what we eat.
We have watches available to us that can vibrate every time something is not in order, and if we want to achieve certain goals for our well-being, the very same watches can keep us on track.
This to some extent is very convenient, but with a lot of knowledge a lot of demands often also arise, and these demands are, what might make Dinners harder to organize today compared to previous times.
‘No, I cannot eat dairy, I cannot eat gluten, I cannot eat sugar, I cannot eat nuts, I cannot eat eggs.’
Or even ‘No, I do not eat meat, I do not eat fish, I do not eat fat, I do not eat anything not organic’.
Many of the restrictions knowledge have made of aware of makes sense. Therefore, I will not argue against upholding these.
But from a community point of view, it is an issue how making something that in the Bible seems so easy – Dinners – have become increasingly stressful due to knowledge
One of the first letters I got from Bjoern’s school as he started Kindergarten this Fall, was a letter describing all the dietary restrictions that was among the students of his class.
The list was not short I tell. And maybe that is one of the reasons why Bjoern rarely brings something home given to him by another student.
When I was a kid, we would all bring something for our Birthday. But it seems as this – with the knowledge convenient to us – is an outdated tradition. And I must admit that I on behalf of my son miss it just a little.
And it is not better in Denmark. In most classes nowadays most of the parents agree to a non-sugar policy meaning that no kid is allowed to eat anything sugary in school.
A story goes that one parent once tried to give his child fruit to share with his classmates on his birthday – not ‘flødeboller’, fruit – but it led to a huge outrage among the other parents:
‘My six-year-old is on a strict diet. How dare you give my child something that my app does not calculate with!’
Again, there is pros and cons with every knowledge and control we have. But what does this do to dinners? What does this do to community?
As for me, I am a diabetic meaning that I for sure is one of the persons that many people find it hard to invite for dinner.
I remember the first years I went through as a diabetic. All my friends were aware of my new disease and of course wanted to please me. Also, if I went somewhere I would make the kitchen aware so that they could accommodate.
But to tell you the truth. I do not do that anymore. Also, I have asked my friends not to cater something special due to my diabetic. Because I have simply had to many terrible tasting – yet well-meant – sugar free options baked in my honour. It is hard to make a cake taste good without using sugar.
Sweet it is. Or actually it is not. Kind it is. But nowadays I prefer simply taking some extra insulin and then let friends and chefs prepare for me what they please. I have learned that my taste buds appreciate that a lot more.
But, but, but… what I have realised is that this can also be a problem! At least I have several times been asked if this really could be true? Of course, people would like to make me feel included.
And then a dance of polite phrases goes back and forth until we have reached a compromise. All this way before we have reached what the dinner truly is all about: Community.
Community. That is what a shared meal – a dinner – is all about. If it was solely about the food, we would eat as individuals when and what we pleased.
But sharing something – and in particular sharing foods – creates a certain bond and atmosphere – creates community. And that truly is what any shared meal – a dinner – is all about.
That a dinner is not about what we eat, but that we eat and with whom we eat, the dinner – communion – that Jesus in today’s Gospel Reading institutes is a good example of.
For communion we serve: 1) a small biscuit – often known for being dry despite I rather like ours. 2) a small shot of port that mostly have been open for a while.
We for sure could do better from a culinary point of view. Yet still this very meal to many is the best meal of every week. Not because of what – what we eat – but because of that – that we eat, and with whom – with each other and with Jesus.
I hope that all of you will have many great dinners to attend throughout the rest of your lives. And with my sermon for today in mind, I also hope that you will at those dinners remember not only to value the food but value the community as well.
Dear Jesus, thank you for being with us throughout this evening. Thank you for being with us every Sunday as we share communion.
Thank you for teaching us that what truly matters is not any material good. Thank you for teaching us that community with each other and with you is all we need to uphold – not only our earthly lives, but our eternal as well.
And grant us all a blessed Holy Week.
Amen.