Peace and Kitchen Pie

Where does ministry take place? What is the heart of teaching in the church setting? I’ll tell you. Eating in the kitchen. That’s right. I’ve had more faith building experiences with students raiding the kitchen at church (or where ever) than I have in any other program.

Some how I could see Christ raiding the fridge with Peter. Passing a couple pieces of cold lamb and fish around after everyone else has gone to bed. Then Jesus asks the hard questions. It’s then that the ministry meat takes place. You can’t tell me that the only things Christ said to his compatriots in three years of traveling is completely contained in the few scant stories about his life that we hold? The bulk of his ministry was eating in the kitchen time.

There are a different set of social rules where ever we meet with people. In dinners, restaurants, offices, parks, libraries, etc. But the one place in which walls that separate us come crashing down the fastest is in the kitchen eating leftovers. It’s sacred time. I think that’s why there are no stories of Jesus regaling over the day’s events with his friends in the after hours. Because those times are wholly spirit times. We aren’t allowed the glimpse into that moment upon which we can build doctrine and rules. It is a time that is completely sprit led.

I wonder how world policy would be different if kitchen meetings were mandatory. What if Sharon and Arafat could have privately shared a plate of Baklawa and coffee in their own kitchens. What grudges could be held if these two men had met not in their expensive suits and military dress, but in nightshirts and robes.

So it is to a lesser degree with all people. If we are truly intent on making connections with one another we are able to meet one another on the common ground of informality. What more can we do than to echo the informality of Christ—the bulk of who’s ministry was not in the synagogues or the temple but in the streets and more often the homes of the people with whom he was called to be. And talk about empowering volunteers! What DCE wouldn’t die to have a ratio of 12-1?