Pursuing Veritas

This post originally served as a message at Arise Church

Growing up as the oldest of five kids, we didn’t often have a bunch of food leftover after dinner. But since Hayley and I got married, I’ve learned an important life lesson: leftovers are amazing! They’re incredible! There are just so many possibilities. There’s no better lunch than a Tupperware dish full of whatever you had for dinner last night. There’s no better breakfast food than cold pizza from the night before!

Anyone here have some favorite leftovers? Anyone here just not like leftovers at all? I didn’t know this until this week, but there’s actually a vocal crowd online who says that you should never eat leftovers because they’re inefficient and unsafe—and I think they’re wrong. For practical reasons, of course; but also because leftovers are the best!

What we think about leftovers says a lot about what we think about food and consumption. Do you eat what you eat based on what you want or on what you need? To ask that question another way, is your consumption shaped by your appetite or your appreciation?

We live in a culture that caters to our appetites. You should have things your way! Your life should be customizable! We have entire industries designed to create and then satiate your wildest appetites. Every day, every moment of every day needs to be exciting and awesome! We’re told 24/7 that our lives need to be special and memorable, that we need to live life to the fullest and escape anything that’s even remotely normal or boring.

But you know what’s fundamentally normal and boring? What we eat. The food we eat is basic stuff—especially when its’ leftovers reheated in your microwave. Can you remember what you ate yesterday? Last week? Last year? Probably not. Using my rudimentary math skills, I’ve sat down to something like 33,000 meals in my lifetime. And when I spent some time thinking through those meals, I couldn’t really tell you what I ate for more than 100 of them. Optimistically speaking, that’s like 0.3% of the meals I’ve eaten. Because eating and drinking is normal, it’s something we do every day, and it’s often normal and boring.

Eating is an ordinary part of our lives—and it can be part of our Liturgy of the Ordinary. That’s the name of our current series, where we’re examining our everyday habits and moments to see how we can make them intentional and grace-filled—how we can make simple actions like waking up, making the bed, brushing our teeth, and yes, even losing our keys, daily liturgies that point us toward God.

Given how normal eating and drinking is, we shouldn’t be surprised that scripture has quite a bit to say about food. There are entire chapters of the Bible dedicated to teachings about food: what you should eat, what you shouldn’t eat, how you should eat. And there are plenty of stories about eating too. In Matthew’s account of Jesus’ life, for instance, we hear a short but curious story about Jesus’ eating. Listen in:

While Jesus was having dinner at Matthew’s house, many tax collectors and sinners came and ate with him and his disciples. When the Pharisees saw this, they asked his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?” On hearing this, Jesus said, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. But go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.” (Matthew 9.10-13 NIV)

Jesus is eating and drinking, that’s pretty normal. But what’s less normal for His time and culture is who He’s eating with: Jesus is having dinner with tax collectors and sinners, people who were on the margins of Jewish society. And when the religious folks came to question why Jesus would do something like that, He made it clear that there was a greater purpose behind His consumption. You see, Jesus ate and drank not just to satiate his appetite, but to love God and love people. There was a deeper purpose to His eating and drinking. It wasn’t just for nutritional content and energy—Jesus ate and drank to show His love to other people.

Eating and drinking together remains an important way to show love to one another. Every Thursday, our homeless outreach team serves food and drink in downtown St. Louis as a way to love the homeless. Want to get to know someone better? Invite them over for dinner. Eating together is a tangible way to show someone you care. James the brother of Jesus tells us that saying, “I hope you’re doing well” to someone and then not caring if they have something to eat for dinner is the epitome of hypocrisy. Jesus ate with people to show His love for them—and we should too.

So that’s Jesus’ example for us when it comes to eating. But that’s not all Scripture says about food. Yes, who you eat with matters. But there are things other than food that you need to eat: what Christians call scripture and sacrament. Let me explain.

Christians believe all sorts of things about scripture, but most fundamentally, we believe that scripture is the Story of God and His interaction in our world that we find in the Bible. And interestingly enough, numerous times in scripture people are told to eat the words that God has given them. For example, in Old Testament book of Ezekiel we read this: And he said to me, “Son of man, eat what is before you, eat this scroll; then go and speak to the people of Israel.” So I opened my mouth, and he gave me the scroll to eat. Then he said to me, “Son of man, eat this scroll I am giving you and fill your stomach with it.” So I ate it, and it tasted as sweet as honey in my mouth. (Ezekiel 3.1-3) “Eat this scroll,” God says. Literally eat the scriptures, eat my words. So beneficial are the scriptures to us that God wants us to consume them like we would a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.

In 1 Corinthians (3.1-2), an early follower of Jesus named Paul chastises the church because they’re not ready for adult food yet. He writes, Brothers and sisters, I could not address you as people who live by the Spirit but as people who are still worldly—mere infants in Christ. I gave you milk, not solid food, for you were not yet ready for it. Indeed, you are still not ready. Even though they’re following Jesus, Paul says that the Corinthians are like babies eating baby food. They’re not ready to hear the hard truths that God has for them. And so the message is this: if you want spiritual nourishment, if you want to grow, you’ve got to eat scripture. You’ve got to be consuming the messages of scripture and learning from them.

Alright, if that’s scripture, what is sacrament? Our English word sacrament comes from the Latin sacer, which means sacred or holy. In Christianity, the sacraments are visible signs of God’s grace—tangible practices that reveal God’s love for us. Historically, Christians have disagreed on which actions count as sacraments, but almost all Christians agree on two practices: baptism and communion. In baptism, people are washed in water as a sign of their entrance into the covenant family of God. And in communion, we take bread and wine to participate in and remember Jesus’ death and resurrection. Those are tangible practices, they use water, bread, and wine as ways to connect us with a sacred and holy God. The lesson here is that we should consume the sacraments because baptism and communion are ways to learn and grow and become more like God.

Remember what Jesus says in John 6(48-51): I am the bread of life. Your ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness, yet they died. But here is the bread that comes down from heaven, which anyone may eat and not die. I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats this bread will live forever. This bread is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.” Eating Jesus—which Christians have long understood as a reference to communion—brings eternal life. Jesus Himself says that participating in communion brings life. Just like eating leftovers brings us physical nutrients and growth, taking communion brings us spiritual nutrients and growth.

Now, you might be wondering if scripture and sacrament are really all that ordinary? And although we might not immediately think of these as ordinary things, I think in a way they are. Yes, scripture isn’t ordinary insofar as Christians believe they are words from God; but scripture is quite ordinary in the fact that it’s God communicating to us in words, and words are normal everyday things that we use all the time. Likewise, the sacraments aren’t ordinary insofar as Christians believe that through them God tangibly reveals His grace and love for us; but the sacraments are ordinary in the fact that they use water, and bread, and wine: ordinary everyday things.

And so, if we look at the big picture here, a lesson emerges: spiritual sustenance comes through scripture and sacrament. If you want to grow in your faith, if you want to become more like Jesus, if you want to experience the spiritual equivalent of eating and drinking, look to the scripture and the sacraments.Eating food is a normal and important part of our daily life—but so is eating the words of scripture, being baptized, and taking communion. This is precisely why we focus on scripture and sacrament each week during worship at Arise. Because we firmly believe that spiritual sustenance comes through scripture and sacrament. If you’re going to grow as a human being, if you’re going to become more and more who God wants you to be, you’ve got to eat scripture and sacrament.

That’s why on Sundays we focus on scripture. That’s why we sing songs that are based in Scripture, confess a Creed that is deeply rooted in the Story of God, it’s why we have messages each week from scripture, it’s why we encourage your engagement with the Bible through small groups and AriseU and Bible reading plans. Because you need to eat the scriptures in order to grow.

This is also why we celebrate communion each week—because we know we need to sacraments to grow too. Because we know that this seemingly ordinary practice of remembering and proclaiming the good news that Jesus is our Saving King is more than just a routine—it’s an intentional, grace-filled habit that points us to God and helps us become more like Him.

That’s all well and good, Jacob, you might be thinking. But what does this look like on days other than Sunday? What does a liturgy of eating leftovers mean for the days of the week when I’m not at church? Because the liturgy of the ordinary isn’t just for certain days, it’s for every day. So how can we live out the reality that spiritual sustenance comes through scripture and sacrament in the everyday moments of our lives? I’ve got four suggestions for how you can eat leftovers this week and every week.

First, eat thankfully. Remember to give thanks for the normal, everyday food that you eat, no matter where you got it or how you’re feeling about it. You’re eating a humdrum meal, something you’ve eaten countless times before and don’t really think about? Thank God for the blessing of that food. Pause and say thank you for the material abundance that results in leftovers. Give God thanks for all the good food that you’re privileged to eat.

There’s a homeless teenager who I follow on TikTok who’s videos are about how he lives on a couple dollars of food every day. Whenever his videos come up, it’s a startling reminder of how much food I have and how little I must think about where my next meal is coming from. It reminds me how thankful I should be for the food I have. So eat thankfully this week—say a prayer of thanks to God before or after your eating—to remember how God is caring for you through the provision of food.

Second, eat the Book. In his wonderful guide to engaging scripture called Eat This Book, pastor Eugene Peterson writes, “The Christian Scriptures are the primary text for Christian spirituality…. We are formed by the Holy Spirit in accordance with the text of Holy Scripture.” (15) There’s little that will grow your faith more than eating the words of Scripture—not just seeing them, but sitting down with them, taking them in, chewing on them for a while, and then digesting them. Don’t just look at the menu of scripture: eat it. Think about it. Engage scripture with your whole being. There are few liturgies of the ordinary that will make as big an impact in your life as the habit of regularly engaging scripture.

Now, I know for many of us, making sense of the Bible can be challenging. There’s a lot in scripture that’s confusing or from a very different context. That’s why I want to encourage you to check out our “Tools for Bible Reading” guide (which you can find at arisestl.com/resources). None of us are innately brilliant enough to just sit down with the Bible and completely understand everything it says and means. There are some approaches and practices that can help us better digest what scripture says. So take some time this week to eat the Book.

Third, eat attentively. Consider where the food that you eat comes from and pay attention to what it is that you’re eating. We live in a culture that pays precious little attention to where we get what we consume. Where did the beef in your hamburger come from? How did it get there? What about all the other things that went into the food that you ate yesterday? In the Old Testament, God is concerned with where food comes from and how it’s prepared for consumption—are you? There are questions here not only of health and wellness, but also love and justice. Pick up some Wendell Berry or watch a documentary on where our food comes from and you can’t help but feel the need to pay better attention to what you’re eating and from where it comes.

Or how about this: do you know where your morning coffee came from? Our morning beverages have a long and complicated history filled with stories of forced labor, unjust work systems, and slavery. But rather than going along with that, the hospitality team here at Arise wants us to drink attentively—we want to know where our coffee is coming from. So we take a little extra time and money to support Hope Coffee, where coffee farmers are treated with justice and compassion (and get to hear about Jesus too). Liturgy of the Ordinary, pastor Tish Harrison Warren notes that, “We are formed by our habits of consumption.” (73) So pay attention to what you’re consuming: eat attentively.

Finally, eat together. Don’t just eat alone—eat with other people! One of the simplest and yet most loving things you can do with people is eat with them. Sharing a meal is one of the kindest things you can do for someone.  As we saw earlier in Matthew, Jesus ate with people—anyone and everyone—that was one of His primary ways to show love and acceptance of other people. This is why we encourage eating together here at Arise. It’s why we hold supper clubs in the summer, why we encourage small groups to eat together, and why we’re having a church picnic in a few weeks—because eating together is important. This is also why we celebrate Communion together each week—because eating together reorients us from being mere consumers and points us toward life together in Christ.

So, who can you eat with this week? I can already hear your responses: “well, we’re pretty busy this week, so….” And that’s really the point here people. If your schedules are so filled with activities and practices and stuff to do that you can’t eat with other people—that you can’t eat with your family, let alone eat with people outside your family—you need to change that. If that’s your life, this is the liturgy that you need to work on. You need to get in the practice of eating with other people. Let’s be honest: if Jesus could make time to eat with people—not heal more people from illness, not teach more lessons that would end up in the Bible, not raise more people from the dead—if the Son of God could prioritize eating with others, why can’t you?

Eat leftovers. Eat thankfully. Eat the Book. Eat attentively. Eat together. Eating in these ways reminds us that all food—breakfast, lunch, dinner, scripture, communion—all food is a gift from God. Taste and see that the LORD is good—and live like spiritual sustenance comes through scripture and sacrament in the everyday moments of our lives.

And that’s it—that’s what the liturgy of eating leftovers can look like. Being purposeful and intentional with what we eat and how we think about that eating—one simple part of our lives that we don’t often think about, but one that can take on greater meaning and significance. God loves you and He’s always with you. And sometimes all we need to do in order to recognize His presence is to take note of the grace He offers us in the little, daily things of life—like eating leftovers. God is forming you into a new people—and the place of that formation is in the small moments of your life. Are you ready to journey into the ordinary with Him?