Food and Friends and Faith

So it seems like every time I turn around these days I come across something else talking about our overscheduled, overproductive culture and tying that to our eating habits.

Short version: Our lives are generally insane. Everything comes prepackaged and corporatized and disconnected from the natural order, which is bad for us, bad for the environment, and inherently unsustainable. It makes us sick and miserable and yet we keep doing it.

How can we stop the crazy and generally live better lives?

Well, the Slow Food movement says, let's start with how we eat. Instead of looking for food that is faster, let's slow down the process. Let's have soups that simmer on the stove rather than get poured out from a can. Let's eat around a table with family and friends rather than in the car zipping from Point A to Point B. Let's be more connected with the natural rhythms of the seasons rather than always shipping everything all over the globe. Let's have our food be about culture and tradition and community and joy rather than simply ingesting nutrients.

And, let's have our food be about God. The slow foodies don't say this in so many words, but they should. Let's appreciate God's gracious and extravagant creation. Let us be bound together around a common table.

This idea of heritage and sharing meals should be especially resonant for us Christians who regularly gather around the communion table. I recently came across an article which drew some of these ideas together.

http://www.christianitytoday.com/le/2008/003/6.65.html