Best of the week entry 5

This one comes from Felicity Dale (thanks for the link Alan!) and talks briefly about meals preventing religious rituals: This helps to prevent religious rituals in a simple/organic church

The third of the four things that the early disciples devoted themselves to was "breaking bread." The second half of 1 Corinthians 11, which discusses the problems caused when some people ate all the food without waiting for others to arrive or even got drunk (!), makes it plain that this was in the context of a full meal (verse 21). It isn't referring to a fragment of cracker or bread and a thimbleful of wine or grape juice taken solemnly and silently together! We know too from Acts 2:46 that the new believers shared their meals together.

Most simple/organic churches meet in the context of a meal. There is something about eating together that enables fellowship, and it's harder to be "religious" where food is involved. Eating together usually involves laughter and sharing, good-natured banter and deep heart-to-heart discussions. As one of our friends likes to say, "How do you spell fellowship? It's four letters:

F-O-O-D!

I agree that it is clear from Scripture that sharing meals together was fundamental to the early church. The church clearly shared lots of meals together and I believe that rather than crackers and plastic shot glasses of grape juice, when the people of God got together, even for the Lord's Supper, it was most likely a full meal and not a religious ritual. It is hard to be religious and put on a show when you are chewing food, talking openly (which is forbidden during the traditional "Lord's Supper" observation) and enjoying actual fellowship.