Sunday Supper Church // March 1 2020
hi! happy monday, and a quick catch up: 3 years ago, i helped found and currently pastor a dinner church in Chicago called Sunday Supper Church. we center our church experience around tables filled with delicious food and intentional conversation so that our faith expands as we receive and reflect the light of God.
it’s awesome.
last night, we gathered around our guiding theme: love your neighbor as well as you love yourself by voting for the well-being of: the hungry, thirsty, sick, immigrant, refugee, and prisoner {Matthew 25}. Justin led communion on God as friend as we looked around the circle at our friends and ate the bread and drank the juice. Elizabeth made biriyani/vegetable rice as a loving offering for her new church community, and Danielle whipped up the most delicious benediction dessert from things she had left over in her freezer.
during dinner, we discussed our experiences voting, and after dinner, we reflected on how we might be of service by voting our convictions. the energy circling the tables was electric as people discussed phone banking, researching candidates, and helping friends not stay home on election day. if this isn’t church…
our new friend Audrey led the sermonette on how she got involved in politics as a result of losing her father and as a way of making meaning of her life and faith. she encouraged us to participate in elections as a way of actively loving ourselves and our neighbors, a way to be our brothers’ and sisters’ keepers.
all of this has me feeling so grateful. for a church filled with friends committed to being an organized movement and force of love in our city. for the power of food to feed and nourish and strengthen so that we can do the hard work of love. for a faith community that sees religion and politics as intertwined, as an extension of faith, as the good work of love and Jesus.
also. we had a full house as friends brought friends who brought friends. we set up an extra table with chairs—quickly rummaging through bins for a tablecloth and forks, as Kelly brought in extra plates from our car (what, you don’t travel with extra plates in your car?!). it’s not always like this at SSC—some nights, it’s very quiet with a small group around a few tables, which i love just as much. but last night, people showing up, bravely + actively engaging around the table filled my heart so deeply.
next up: our March 22nd gathering centered on food as resistance, and the story of Ruth gleaning food for her family. + a house dinner on March 8th centered on next steps for the March 17th election.
gather x eat x act {repeat}
