Food Challenge #3
For as long as I can remember, my mother has baked sourdough bread. When I was growing up, it was a near-weekly occurrence. Sourdough bread involves using a “starter” or culture of fermented yeast that is mixed in with the rest of the ingredients. The portion of the starter that is used for a “batch” of bread is then replaced and kept in the refrigerator until the next time bread is baked. For the entirety of my upbringing, the back right corner of the top shelf of the refrigerator was occupied by mom’s sourdough starter. As long as the portion of the sourdough starter is replaced when it is used for baking, the culture is quite literally living. My mom began making sourdough bread because someone gave her some of their starter and that sourdough starter had it’s origins with a woman from Kansas who had begun it at the turn of the 20th century. For years my mom would gift other people portions of her sourdough starter so they could make sourdough bread of their own. And every time she did, she included some written notes about the woman from Kansas who started it all decades earlier.
When new families moved into our neighborhood (and there were a lot of families that lived on our block), mom would deliver a loaf of her bread as a welcoming gift. If she knew there was a boy – in my age range – or a girl in one of my sisters’ age ranges – she would take us with her and introduce us to that child. And when it was mom’s turn to provide the communion bread for Sunday worship (we grew up in a small-ish church where families signed up to provide bread for communion on a rotating basis), it was one of her sourdough loaves she brought – baked in a special round pan reserved for the communion bread.
All this serves as the context for our third food challenge this month. For every week of our three-week sermons series this month on “The Meals Jesus Ate,” I offered a food-related challenge at the end of each sermon.
Week 1 sermon theme – The meals Jesus ate connected people to each other, and to God.
Week 1 food challenge – Share Food. Sometime this month, share a meal (snack, coffee, etc..,.) with someone with whom you don’t normally eat.
Week 2 sermon theme – The meals Jesus ate were extravagant because God’s grace is extravagant.
Week 2 food challenge – Save Food. Refrain from going to the grocery store for 1 week. Instead, eat the food already in your house and avoid contributing to the food-wasting in our country. Whatever you would have spent at the grocery store that week, consider giving as a donation to a food-serving organization like the Good Samaritan Inn.
Week 3 sermon theme – The meals Jesus ate confirmed the promises of God
Week 3 food challenge – Give Food. Provide food (gift card, loaf of bread, etc...) to someone going through a hard time. With your gift, consider including these words (or ones like them):
“May this food confirm the promise that you are not alone and that the Lord is with you through whatever you struggle or challenge may be.”
Blessings – Michael