“A blessing on this food
and all who have prepared it.
A blessing on this house
and all who eat within it.
A blessing on the work
of buying and selling
of carrying and storing
of farming and of harvesting.
A blessing on the land and all who live upon it.
A blessing on the rain and sun,
the care of the Creator.
A blessing on this food.
Amen”
~ Brian Woodcock

It is Thursday of Holy Week. Some call it Maundy Thursday, others call it Holy Thursday. It is the day when we remember Jesus gathering with his friends, his disciples and sharing a meal and washing their feet. In the church we often lift these acts up as examples of how we are all to be servants of one another and in the world. It is a benchmark of being a follower of the Way of Jesus.

It is a fact that Jesus was always hanging around where food was involved. There is the feeding of the 5000. His eating with Mary and Martha at their home. All those fishing trips with the disciples. I am assuming that their fishing was about the food and not abut the sport! The Gospel of John even used food images as a way Jesus spoke about himself: I am the bread of life.Even after his death, his disciples experienced him around a campfire as they baked fish and broke bread.

Over the past several years some very important facts about eating have become clear to me. All food contains and is an act of sacrifice. A sacrifice that is made for the good of another. Have you ever thought much about this? I have become acutely aware of the mindless eating I often do. Not just eating without thinking or even tasting but without honoring all the people and elements of Creation that have offered themselves for my nurture. The seeds themselves that become plant, vegetable or fruit. The soil which houses the seed. The water taken from another source to make the seeds grow. The sun offering its light. The animals, if meat is eaten, that literally gave their lives for the protein on my plate. All acts of sacrifice.

And that is just the beginning. There are the farmers and the field workers, many of whom don’t make a living wage. No matter how careful I am in buying food that was produced in fair conditions, someone was probably treated unjustly. It is a mark of the systems we have created. There are the truckers and the engineers and the pilots all lifting, carrying, loading and unloading. There are the stockers and the cashiers, the baggers and those that haul away the boxes and cartons in which the food arrived. All these people, whose lives I know nothing about, have contributed to nearly every meal I have eaten. And that doesn’t even include meals eaten in restaurants! Think of all those other hands, and lives, that present nutrition and beauty on a plate.

All so I may live. Perhaps this is the real gift of Holy Thursday and the eating of this meal we call the Last Supper. In it we are, if we choose, reminded of all the sacrifices that are offered so we may live. In the bread….which must be broken before it can be eaten….we are connected with all those other lives and the presence of the One who offers it. In the cup….which must be poured before it can be drunk….we are asked to join in the joy of this life by those whose hands made the drinking possible.

Bread. Cup. Sacrifice. Life.