WWWJE?

Last spring, when the youth group at the congregation where I was volunteering decided to focus our earth day celebration on food, they began asking "What Would Jesus Eat?" After we explored this for a while, I opined that the real question might be "With Whom Would Jesus Eat?" Certainly the stories of Jesus' pre-paschal ministry focus much more on this. Jesus was always earning disfavor for his choice of companions.

Reading "Thursday" in The Last Week, I was reminded that it's not an either/or.

"But meals were not just about inclusion. They were also, and crucially, about food. The meals of Jesus were not ritual meals in which food had only or primarily symbolic meaning. They were real meals, not a morsel and a sip as in our observance of the Eucharist. For Jesus, real food - bread - mattered."

The authors remind us that the petition for bread is in a prominent slot in the "Our Father." And that "For Jesus's peasant audience, bread - enough food for the day - was one of two central survival issues of their lives (the other was debt)." (And for so many in the world today the preoccupations of their lives.)

"The Last Supper continues and culminates in Jesus's emphasis upon meals and food as God's justice."

Thinking about this meal as both The Last Supper and The First Supper of the future relationship of disciples to Jesus is also very helpful.

I've been trying to recall: is there a Eucharistic prayer that links all the meals with Jesus together? From the manger, through the feeding of multitudes and partying with outcasts, to the First/Last Supper, to grilled fish on the beach (after resurrection it's still about real meals), on to the meals of Christians through the ages - our just suppers when they are - and looking to the time when the reign of God is fully realized and all have enough?

If you know of such a prayer, please post a comment and let me know.

If not, I need to write one.