Learning to Love

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We have gathered at this Table from many different households, and we represent many different eating habits. But once a week, we all gather together in order to eat and drink the same thing, and do so in the same way, according to the same custom.

In Christ, this is a meal of shared love, and it reminds us regularly that we are not to come into conflict over food in the rest of our lives. We are not to collide because someone else took what we wanted. We are not to collide because someone served us something we didn’t want. We are not to collide other people eat things we find objectionable, whether those things are cardboard muffins on the healthy end or deep-fried twinkies on the other end. We are called to love each other, and we take a weekly oath that we shall do so. This oath, coming as it does in the form of food, has a particular application to disputes over food.

Remember the words of the apostle: “He that eateth, eateth to the Lord, for he giveth God thanks; and he that eateth not, to the Lord he eateth not, and giveth God thanks” (Rom. 14:6). That other person’s presence here gives you a basis for bearing with them there.

Ironically, it is here, at the Table of the kingdom, that we learn one of the fundamental lessons of the kingdom. “For the kingdom of God is not meat and drink; but righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost” (Rom. 14:17).

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