Notes on the Real

The Last Supper (On Sunday Nights, That Is)

When I look around me I am often amazed by the people I have had the privilege of sharing life with at different points. Ken and Mary Paynter are one of those couples for Ryan and I. They have been leaders of the body in various places and have served in different capacities since they were married. Around five years ago they started serving and encouraging people in a new way. They started running a coffee shop called Main Street Deli and Coffee House. To say that this calling has been easy would be a lie. The ups and downs of business and serving others have been hard, but they have been so faithful, and the Helper has been so faithful to them. We are continually humbled by their great witness as a result of their sacrifice and devotion to the Father.

Ryan met the Paynters during his freshman year of college and had the privilege of working as an employee at the coffee shop for about two years. I started studying there while I was in college and went to different events such as swing dancing and Sunday night dinners. This past summer Ken and Mary did our marriage counseling, and it was so great to have a couple doing that together! They also had great insight as they have served in so many capacities in the U.S. and Africa.

On Sunday nights they have a free meal for college students and we just went to the last one this past Sunday before many of the students head out for the summer. It hit us during that mealtime that this would be our last supper with the gang at the Deli. Over the past five years, this dinner has been an encouragement to many and a time where iron sharpens iron. As Ryan and I are no longer in college we have not gone as often as we have been able to in the past, but we still like to pop in now and again. It was bittersweet to be there for the last supper this school year as they had a time of sharing and uplifting!

-Melissa

Breaking Bread

            I’ve eaten my share of good meals in my time. Some have been at nice restaurants for a special occasion. Some have been over candlelight and in quiet. Some have been around a campfire in the middle of nowhere. Some have been on my parents’ kitchen floor, back when I was just a little squirt. Some have been in our own home, around a table that bounces up and down because it is not screwed in or on a screened-in porch by a crackling fireplace. All these meals have been good meals, however, for reasons other than the food. In fact, I can scarcely remember what I ate at them. Food—guys reading this will understand—is incredibly important. But it is also incredibly temporal. And, ultimately, it isn’t what makes the meal a “good” one.

            I don’t have the time to get into a lengthy discourse about the art of meal-sharing in first-century Hebrew culture (or much of the rest of the world, even today), but I would like to point something out about it that I see in the Word: from the days of Abraham (and surely before them) to the days of the Son of Man (and surely beyond), meal-sharing is an essential element in the fabric of life. And it isn’t about the food, though the food is, as I said, important. Eating is definitely of value, but any creature can eat without putting much thought or effort into it. A person can eat fast food in order to fill up the stomach much in the same way a frog would eat flies. Food is, after all, about finding and maintaining sustenance. But meal-sharing—breaking bread—is something uniquely and wonderfully different.

            Think about it. Why do we put so much time and energy into things like what silverware to use, what napkins to buy, how many chairs to sit around a table, or what flavor of coffee to brew? Why do we rearrange our living space or force ourselves to clean our kitchen sinks? For the mere sake of food?

            We do these things for one central reason, whether we realize it or not: at the table, amid the clamor of forks and knives, amid the chewing and swallowing (and yes, even burping), we gather as a company of friends, loved ones, and neighbors in order to engage in deep, meaningful fellowship—the kind of fellowship that the Word refers to as “bread” that is “made for laughter” and “wine” that “gladdens life” (Ecc. 10:19).

            Take a moment to consider all the various meal-sharing experiences you have had, and cherish them, for I believe that it is in such times that we may encounter the Father intimately and discover the great joy that is to be found when our worship becomes communion instead of duty.

-Ryan