What has been the highlight of your week?
What has been the low of your week?

How did the practice of Discovery Bible Story go this week? 

Welcome to a time of wonder
and prayer that calls us home
Welcome to hear God’s words that inspire and challenge
and to reminders that we are offered holy hospitality -
Hospitality that teaches us how to open our lives to others
leading us to fully live open minds, open hearts, open doors.

Written by Cynthia Langston Kirk.

The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.
He makes me lie down in green pastures.
He leads me beside still waters.
He restores my soul.
He leads me in paths of righteousness
for his name's sake.
Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
I will fear no evil,
for you are with me;
your rod and your staff,
they comfort me.
You prepare a table before me
in the presence of my enemies;
you anoint my head with oil;
my cup overflows.
Surely goodness and mercy
shall follow me
all the days of my life,
and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord
forever.

–Psalm 23

Throughout the Gospels, much of Jesus’ ministry is spent at meals. In Luke’s retelling, in particular, Jesus is either on his way to a meal, at a meal or leaving a meal. Jesus turned an ordinary, everyday occurrence into a profoundly life-changing encounter. A wedding feast in Cana (John 2),  a water break in Samaria (John 4), a dinner with an extorting tax collector (Luke 19), and a beach brunch with a resigned disciple are just a few examples of Jesus’ uncanny ability to transform a necessity into a sacred moment. 

With Jesus’ ministry habit in mind, it is not surprising that in his final moments before the cross, he sat down for a meal with his disciples. And taking the most ordinary of elements, bread, and cup, Jesus gives to his disciples a new practice: One that proclaims his death (1 Corinthians 11:26), displays his new covenant (John 6:54-57), and anticipates the feast he is preparing (Revelation 19:6-9). The Lord’s Supper, the eucharist, communion– whatever you call it, this meal is at the core of the Way of Jesus and was at the center of the early church’s worship (Acts 2, 1 Cor. 11). For the first followers of the risen Jesus, the highlight of the church gathering was not a song or a sermon, but a meal.

Combined, all these details reveal a peculiar pattern and display a profound truth: the beauty of the Kingdom of Jesus is put on display in the simple act of sharing a meal—the first thing we did tonight.

Thus, the Kingdom of Jesus stays busy with scandalous banquets of sinners and saints–this is Kingdom come.

Jesus entered Jericho and was passing through. A man was there by the name of Zacchaeus; he was a chief tax collector and was wealthy. He wanted to see who Jesus was, but because he was short he could not see over the crowd. So he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore-fig tree to see him, since Jesus was coming that way.

When Jesus reached the spot, he looked up and said to him, “Zacchaeus, come down immediately. I must stay at your house today.” So he came down at once and welcomed him gladly.

All the people saw this and began to mutter, “He has gone to be the guest of a sinner.”

But Zacchaeus stood up and said to the Lord, “Look, Lord! Here and now I give half of my possessions to the poor, and if I have cheated anybody out of anything, I will pay back four times the amount.”

Jesus said to him, “Today salvation has come to this house, because this man, too, is a son of Abraham. For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.”

– Luke 19:1-10 (ESV)

The Message Paraphrase

1. What keeps us from regularly having meals with other people?

2. How can we have meals not just with people we love but with people who are very different from us? 

3. Tell the story of a life-changing meal you had. 

A few weeks back, we brainstormed a list of people to pray for. What would it look like to share a meal with them this month? Who could you share a meal with this month?  This week, schedule a meal with someone.