Cultivating Habits: Table Grace
Acts 27:21-38
January 11, 2015
Rev. Joshua Sawyer
First Christian Church
(Disciples of Christ)
Omaha, Nebraska
Today we continue our series on Cultivating Habits. Habits that will help us deepen our
faith in 2015. Last week we talked about starting a daily devotional. How is that going
for everyone? This week we are talking about saying grace, table grace.
In our scripture today Paul is a prisoner. He had been out sharing the Gospel when a
group of people decided that they were going to kill him. We are told that he was invited
to share his case, concerning the hope of the resurrection and the dead. Roman
soldiers took Paul to an outpost to be given a fair trial. His accusers called him an
agitator and a ringleader of the sect of Nazarenes. Paul was kept in prison for two
years, seemingly for his own safety. He was still in a Roman prison when a new leader
of the area was appointed. Paul’s accusers tried again to have him brought to them so
they could kill them. Paul requested to share his case before the Emperor of Rome to
hear why the Jews wanted to kill him. Paul shared his story with the King, which is to
say Christ’s story: about how God had met him on the road. How God asked Paul to
stop persecuting him and his people. How God appointed him to serve and testify about
the risen Lord. How God sent Paul forth to help people turn from darkness to light and
from the power of Satan to God so that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a
place among the sanctified. The king found no fault in Paul. Paul was put on a ship to
be transferred to the Emperor. This is where we discover Paul today, on a ship in the
Mediterranean Sea on his way to meet the Emperor of Rome.
Acts 27:21-38
Since they had been without food for a long time, Paul then stood up among them and
said, ‘Men, you should have listened to me and not have set sail from Crete and thereby
avoided this damage and loss. I urge you now to keep up your courage, for there will be
no loss of life among you, but only of the ship. For last night there stood by me an angel
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of the God to whom I belong and whom I worship, and he said, “Do not be afraid, Paul;
you must stand before the emperor; and indeed, God has granted safety to all those
who are sailing with you.” So keep up your courage, men, for I have faith in God that it
will be exactly as I have been told. But we will have to run aground on some island.’
When the fourteenth night had come, as we were drifting across the sea of Adria, about
midnight the sailors suspected that they were nearing land. So they took soundings and
found twenty fathoms; a little farther on they took soundings again and found fifteen
fathoms. Fearing that we might run on the rocks, they let down four anchors from the
stern and prayed for day to come. But when the sailors tried to escape from the ship
and had lowered the boat into the sea, on the pretext of putting out anchors from the
bow, Paul said to the centurion and the soldiers, ‘Unless these men stay in the ship, you
cannot be saved.’ Then the soldiers cut away the ropes of the boat and set it adrift.
Just before daybreak, Paul urged all of them to take some food, saying, ‘Today is the
fourteenth day that you have been in suspense and remaining without food, having
eaten nothing. Therefore I urge you to take some food, for it will help you survive; for
none of you will lose a hair from your heads.’ After he had said this, he took bread; and
giving thanks to God in the presence of all, he broke it and began to eat. Then all of
them were encouraged and took food for themselves. (We were in all two hundred and
seventy-six persons in the ship.) After they had satisfied their hunger, they lightened the
ship by throwing the wheat into the sea.
Paul is on a ship. A good sized ship in rough waters carrying two-hundred and seventysix persons. The people were fasting. No one had eaten we are told for 14 days. By this
time bellies must have been louder than the waves breaking against the ship. On the
fourteenth day, just before daybreak, we are told, Paul urges the people to take some
food in order to help the people survive. At this Paul took bread; and giving thanks to
God in the presence of all, he broke it and began to eat. And all were satisfied.
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I am a snacker. It is a horrible affliction. Right now I am trying to be a little healthier in
this New Year, like a lot of people, and I am trying to substitute my chip addiction for
things like carrots and various types of fruit.
I am going to go out on a limb and say that I am not alone in my snacking addiction
since there is a global 400 billion dollar snack market. Here in North America we spend
roughly 120 billion on snacks a year, according to an article from the Washington Post
back in September. And most of the snacks we eat are salty here in the United States:
chips, nuts, crackers. 63% of people who participated in this survey said they had eaten
such food in the last month for a snack. I think maybe we take Jesus’ call in Matthew
5:13 to be salt a little too literally.
The same article says that many of us snack so much because we are a time starved
people. We don’t have enough time to sit down and eat a proper meal. In fact, 52%
percent of people just snack through the day instead of eating lunch. Which makes me
wonder if we don’t have time to eat a meal, how are we ever going to make time to give
thanks for our food?
We love to snack. We have a snack problem. So I imagine it is really difficult for you, as
it is for me, to imagine Paul and a group of 276 people on a ship fasting for fourteen
hours. I mean that sounds absolutely horrible. It sounds like one of those Carnivals
Cruises gone wrong.
So as we read this text I am troubled, troubled for the people because I have to imagine
that they are not just hungry, they are completely famished. They are starting to look at
each other the way cartoon characters looked at each other when they were famishedDo you remember when the famished feathered bird suddenly began to look like a finely
roasted chicken?
276 famished people on a ship in troubled waters and all of a sudden bread appears.
Paul brings bread out before the people and tells them to eat because they will need
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their strength. He saw an angel of the Lord and they are going to lose their ship, so they
should eat something. But before any of them can take a bite, he tells them to hold on.
Wait. Wait another moment. Wipe the drool from the corner of your mouth. Quit forcing
your way to the front of the line. Hold on and bow your heads. Put your hands together.
Take your hat off, boys and girls. Close your eyes. Take your eyes off of the bread, trust
that on a ship full of prisoners that no one will take the bread and run off with it and go
find a corner to eat it all up. Take a moment and give thanks. Table grace is an age old
tradition.
Jean Simeon Chardin has this beautiful painting, “Saying Grace” In the painting he
depicts a mother and her two children at the dining table. The food is set upon the table.
The younger daughter has her hands together, seemingly looking at her mother for
instruction. The older daughter’s gaze is lowered. A classic moment of table grace
caught.
This past summer Lexi and I had some of the young adults of the church over for
brunch and I absolutely loved how little Sindi Makalima bowed her head and put her
hands together before we ate. It was a wondrous act. Something I would like us all to
consider doing during the lunch hour this year.
I once heard Frank Schaeffer tell a story about what table grace was like for him and his
family as a child. Frank Schaeffer came from an Evangelical family. In fact, many
consider his father, Francis Schaffer to be a monumental figure for modern Evangelical
Theology. Frank recalls going out to eat and having his father begin a prayer at the
table, always loudly, a long loud prayer announcing God to all those in the restaurant,
describing why each person in the restaurant needed God and what would happen to
them if they didn’t accept Jesus as their personal Lord and Savior that day. Table grace
can be uncomfortable…
Our kids when they go to camp in Burwell, Nebraska at Kamp Kaleo, they always say a
prayer before each meal. Actually they don’t just say a prayer they sing their prayers.
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The sing “The Lord’s been good to me and so I thank the Lord for giving me the things I
need like the sun and rain and the apple seed. Amen…” We do this at Roots and
Wings, too. It is a fun way to share table grace. This isn’t exactly the habit I am asking
for you to cultivate either.
If you look in your bulletin you will find a list of prayers. Some of them are traditional,
others are a bit different. Some of them are written by theologians, others by poets. I
have given you a number of prayers so that the task does not become monotonous.
Why pray? This is a question we will cover in our next series when we look at famous
prayers and provide you three prayers to keep in your pocket with you. Suffice to say
that, as Alexander Campbell remarked, prayer is communion with God and the proper
response of God’s people, who have received God’s grace.
Why pray before lunch? Perhaps we should pray so that we won’t take our food for
granted. We can pray and give thanks that we can eat good nutritious food like
blueberries or strawberries or salad when it is below zero with the wind chill. We can
remember that this isn’t necessarily something that everyone can do. In fact, you can go
with a group of us from First to a place like the Heart Ministry Center on Friday, January
30, from 9:00-12:00 and see for yourself that many in our community and the world still
starve, not to fast, but because they have no money to buy any food, let alone good
healthy food.
Perhaps praying at lunch is a good time to remember that the gift of food is a gift. Thank
the farmer. Thank the grocer. Thank the middle man or woman that flies to warmer
climates to make sure that we can have fruit and vegetables in the bone chill days of
winter. Or thank the animals that have given their life. Our Jewish and Muslim brothers
and sister pray before killing their animals as a sign of the sacred in all life. Thank God
that you have the ability to choose your food and pray for others and then ask God to
help you work to help provide other people such an amazing choice.
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Say grace. Proclaim God’s grace. Give thanks. If for no other reason than because you
have received God’s grace.
Amen.
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