A LARGE TABLE - Oct. 12, 2008
Luke 22:7-20; Corinthians 12:12-13
What I remember most about the meal was Milagros, the 12 year-old daughter, bringing a roasted Guinea pig out on a plate. We were in Cuzco, Peru, at 10,000 feet above sea level, just arrived from Machu Picchu, at a home-hosted lunch on our tour. It was the second part of the tour, and the second home-hosted lunch that we were privileged to be invited to.
There were 12 of us, seated together in dining room chairs around two tables put together to make one long one, covered with a yellow table cloth and cute plastic place mats with hamburgers and fries printed on them. We were served on white china with a silver border, and the young son, Piero, who was 8 years old sat at the head of the table with the father, Marco, while his wife Roxanne dished up the meal in the kitchen, and daughter Milagros served the meal.
As I review what I just said about being nice to others as you would want others to be nice to you and about being nice so you can stack your chits for the trip to heaven, I see that its all about me, if I am nice to others, they will be nice to me, if I am nice to others, God will be happy for me to come to heaven. Is that what Jesus is saying to us? I don't think so. Your head is saying, I'm nice to them, they'll be nice to me and I'm nice so there is no reason why I can't go to heaven. Something is not quite right.
Marco is a career policeman several years from retirement, now teaching anti-terrorist techniques at a university and to many tour guides in Cuzco, a city of 500,000 people. Roxanne teaches home economics (cooking and sewing) at the university. Their children go to private Catholic school, a girls school for Milagros and a boys school for Piero.
We were served an appetizer of corn on a small plate -- large roasted yellow kernels Ð and new cow cheese bought at a market. Next came qinua soup (qinua -- pronounced keen-wah -- is a grain very much like couscous), then the main course of boiled potato with pumpkin sauce (served like our gravy -- delicious!), sliced red beets (fresh), carrots & beans, and then came the highlight of the meal, the roasted Guinea pig!! After taking a picture of Milagros carrying the Guinea pig on the plate, it was taken back into the kitchen, cut into small pieces, and we were encouraged to try this Peruvian delicacy. Yes, I tried it -- it was a little stringy, many small bones, a little greasy with a mild flavor, and there is nothing in our taste vocabulary to compare it to.
After a dessert of flan, we gave gifts of appreciation, hugs and blessings, and we were on our way.
The food was delicious (even the Guinea pig), cooked expertly with herbs and seasonings.
But the best part was sitting at table with people who were gracious hosts, and who invited us to learn about their lives. We asked about the children's school, especially after Milagros recited the ABC's to great applause -- then Marilynn who used to teach music asked if she learned it with the song -- and we all sang the ABC song together and laughed. A common bond was forged between people of different continents, ethnic backgrounds and customs. We later found that Piero also knew his ABC's, and was learning English, and he also recited his ABC's to great applause. While we were waiting for our food, Piero was writing on a small pad with a pencil. We found out his favorite subject is history. Later, we drove by the schools the children attended.
But that was the second of the two home-hosted lunches. The first was in a small village in the Amazon jungle. There are no roads in the Amazon, the river is the road, so we were taken to the village in a small skiff that held our group of 18 comfortably, disembarked by climbing up hardened mud stairs leading to the village, where we split into two smaller groups.
Walter and I went to one of the largest and finest homes in the village. It had a wooden floor, raised about 5 feet off the ground so that yearly flood would simply flow under the house, a thatched roof held up by poles, and it was open on the sides. There was another, smaller structure where the food preparation was done, with one small open shelf that held several plates and cups. There was no stove. All the cooking was done over an open fire or a half-barrel charcoal grill. There is no running water, and I asked the guide how the meal was made safe for us. He replied that all the water needed for the meal was provided by the tour company.
We sat on benches around an open area. When we had greeted the family, a young father and mother and their four children -- three boys and the youngest, a 2 year old girl whose birthday it was, so the house was decorated with a few balloons -- the oldest boy brought out two beautiful, green banana leaves and with a flourish set them in the center of the space. The food was placed on the banana leaves, and we were each given one small aluminum plate and an aluminum cup. Although they usually eat with their fingers, we were provided with a plastic fork, and paper napkins.
We had roasted cashew nuts that they had picked from a tree, yucca root (tapioca), and cooked banana they had grown and harvested from their land which was about a 20 minute walk back into the jungle. We had roasted fish that he had caught in the river (delicious), and wild boar that he had hunted and killed several days ago, dried and cured with salt. We also had papaya and guava. Our beverage was mashed banana mixed with water. My guess is that there were more vitamins and minerals in that meal than we can get in a week buying food in a grocery store, even in Hawaii.
Yes, I sampled everything, even the wild boar, which was even stringier and greasier than the Guinea pig, and of course salty, but full of flavor. My favorites are still the fruits, especially the cooked sweet bananas, and the banana beverage was really wonderful.
After the lunch we expressed our thanks and gave gifts of appreciation. The 100% Kauai coffee I brought was especially appreciated and got big smiles from the mother and father -- I also took Macadamia nuts and they wondered how to eat them, since they have to roast all their nuts themselves. I also gave a small flashlight which the oldest boy promptly checked out.
Other gifts that brought big smiles were from a couple who were retired teachers who brought large coloring books, crayons, colored pencils and post cards from the San Francisco Bay Area, as well as T shirts.
This family didn't speak much English, so our guide interpreted for us. The children go to a one-room school, no books, but they all can use a blackboard and chalk. In one village, the students paddle 45 minutes upstream in a dugout canoe to get to school Most of the adults in this village can't read or write, so the children help them. But all the adults can count! They all make craft items and are very shrewd bargainers. Shopping for those items was a big part of our visit, so we were led over to a large meeting area with a thatched roof and dirt floor to shop. I bought a rain stick and basket from our hostess, and a painting from her son, who is an artist. The walls of their home were decorated with paintings he had painted right on their walls.
But again, it was sitting around the table -- this time the table of banana leaves on the floor -- that brought nine people from the United States together with a village family from the Amazon jungle to share culture with stories, gifts and a meal.
For one week in the Amazon, there was no TV, and no news of the economy. The sounds were of birds and water, of boats and paddles. The worries were of people living off the land that is feeling the stress of modern development, with fewer fish in the river, and trees and wildlife disappearing and forcing change in an ancient way of life. But back to the table.
Jesus was criticized for eating too many meals with too many different classes of people, many of whom were outcasts or undesirable -- but it was those meals that brought the people to Jesus. It was around the table that Zacheus came to understand that he was defrauding the people, and his heart was changed. It was around the table that Mary anointed the feet of Jesus, and Jesus washed the feet of the disciples. It was around the table that Jesus shared with the disciples their own cultural and religious heritage as they celebrated Passover. It was at the breaking of the bread that Cleopas and his companion had their eyes opened, and they knew that all was not lost -- that Jesus was alive.
Jesus table was always as large as it needed to be to invite people to the meal, to receive his message of God's grace. Jesus' table is even larger today, and it stretches across rivers and oceans, across continents and the jungle.
The Contemporary English Version of I Corinthians 12:12-13 states, ". . . But God's Spirit baptized each of us and made us part of the body of Christ. Now we each drink from that same Spirit."
On this Sunday, as we celebrate World Communion Sunday, Jesus brings us to his table to break bread together, and to drink the wine of forgiveness and blessing. The table is inclusive, and challenges us to learn about cultures far and wide, and to open our hearts and doors the way Jesus did.
The world will never go back to those insular days when we could eat at our own table with not much thought of those beyond our walls, but Jesus breaks down barriers and opens our eyes to see beyond our own table and know that we are all part of the body of Christ, drinking form the same Spirit.
So come to this table. It is a table full of grace and God's compassion and glory. Come, for all are welcome. Come and receive the blessing Christ has for each one. Come and drink of the One Spirit. There is room for all, for Christ's table is, indeed, a large table.
Pastor Fran
