Dining Out

The Rev. Joseph Winston

March 7, 2010

Grace and peace are gifts for you from God, the Father of our Lord Jesus
Christ.1
Even if you do not care to admit it, there is a reason why you got out of
bed this morning. For some, you believe that rolling out of bed is nothing more
than a habit. You woke up at this hour of the morning because that is just what
you do. It is conceivable that children, the demands of a spouse, or even a day
of work originally required you to start your day bright and early. Perhaps those
requirements have long passed by or maybe they have not. It does not matter to
you. You still wake up at the same time everyday.
Others want to send the right message to friends and family. You might think
to yourself, “What would they say if the only knew what I am doing right now? “
Even the mere thought of this question is more than enough motivation for you.
You kick off the covers, crawl out of the comfortable bed, and slowly head out
1
Romans 1:7, 1 Corinthians 1:3, 2 Corinthians 1:2, Galatians 1:3, Ephesians 1:2, Philippians
1:2, 2 Thessalonians 1:2, Philemon 1:3.

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towards the first activity of the day.
For others, dragging yourself out of a nice warm bed seems to mean nothing
more than the start of yet another workday. “Another day, another dollar,” is your
motto. That you feel is the only motivation that brings your head off the pillow in
the morning and sends you on your merry way.
The idea that you start your day because that is just what you do, that the
people you know expect you to get up, or “I owe, I owe, it is off to work I go”
instead of doing nothing at all only scratches at the surface of the real reason why
you get up in the morning. For example, there are many biological reasons why
you do not stay in bed. Years of research from the space programs of the former
Soviet Union and this country prove a fact that everyone already knows. People
need to get up and move around. Those activities help maintain healthy bones
and muscles. Biology calls you to get up and get moving. You are hungry in the
morning and need to eat. You also need to dispose of all the waste from your last
meal.
This search for the underlying cause is simply not limited to people attempting
to determine why the entire world is not sleeping in every day. The Bible shares
these same concerns of trying to understand our behavior. Today’s lesson from the
prophet Isaiah presents for us the answer to life’s question of, “What motivates
you?”
The solution to this question given by God might actually surprise you. It is
not the way you did things in the past that causes you to go on to the next moment.
It is not any concern about what your relatives and acquaintances might believe

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about you that drives you forward. It is not the lack of stuff that keeps you going
from one day to the next. It is not even the fear of death that makes you do what
you do even though many scientists would like you to believe that it is. God says
that your belly motivates you.2
This actually is an old, old story. Go back to the first man and women. There
in the Garden was the tree of knowledge of good and evil (Genesis 2:9). Despite
the command by God to not eat from this one tree, the woman looked at the tree
and saw that it was good for food (Genesis 2:17; 3:6). She took and ate and gave
the fruit to her husband and he ate (Genesis 3:6).
Our stomachs have been ruling us since then. They make us get out of bed
in the morning and go to work. They tell us to get this and that. We follow their
commands and we do exactly what they say. Sometimes we are successful and
bring home the bacon. We eat it up and soon we are hungry for more. Other times,
no matter how hard we try, we come home empty handed. Hungry, we try one
more time to catch the one that got away.
That is the story of our lives. We spend almost all of our time on this earth
listening to our stomachs’ and doing their bidding. If this were all to life, then it
would not be a problem. We all would then have to face up to the fact that we live
in a “dog eat dog” world.
But that is not what either life or God has to offer. Life is not measured in what
you consume. God has more on His Table than you can possibly imagine.
2
The basic theology of the Orthodox Church is that Jesus was not sent to rescue the world from
sin, but instead Jesus came into the world to show humans where their hunger was driving them.
Alexander Schmemann, For The Life Of The World, (St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 2000), p. 19.

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 Set before you is the finest bread that money cannot buy. Jesus comes to His
Supper as your host, your servant, your meal, and your Savior (I Corinthians
11:23-26).
Jesus instituted this dinner. By doing that some two thousand years ago, He
became the One who invites you here. Just like for the disciples, He asks each of
you to come and eat.
Jesus might have commanded an angel to feed His disciples around that table.
He did not. Christ, the Son of God, gave the bread of life to everyone at the table.
For you, He does the same thing. Take the bread from Him.
Jesus tells us that the bread we receive from His hand is His Body. We take
Jesus at His Word and trust that He is here. The Son of God gives you His life.
After you dine of the bread that truly satisfies, come for the best wine in all of
the world. It quenches your thirst.
Jesus called this party together. Not only does He want you to eat with Him
but also He asks you to come and to have a glass of wine with Him. That is the
same request He made of all of His disciples. Come and drink.
It would have been easy enough for Jesus to find someone else to take care of
all the guests. He did not do that on the night before His death and He still does
not do that today. He has taken care of every little detail and He personally wants
to serve you this drink.
Jesus promises each of us a place at the table. This is part of the blessing we
receive when we share His cup.
With all the food God sets before us, it is hard to believe that we would want

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anything else. That unfortunately is the story of our lives. We see what God has
to offer and think that it is too good to be true. So, we wander off, looking for
something that might please us.
Nothing in this life is as good as the meal our Lord sets before us. Taste and
see that the Lord is good.
“The peace of God, which passeth all understanding, keep your hearts and
minds through Christ Jesus.”3

References

Schmemann, Alexander, For The Life Of The World, (St. Vladimir’s Seminary
Press, 2000).

3
Philippians 4:7.