"A Table in the Presence of My Enemies"

Sermon preached by John C. Hall on May 3, 2009

Text — Psalm 23, verse 5

“You prepare a table for me in the presence of my enemies.”

Who we eat with, who we’d rather not eat with, and what we eat is all emotionally loaded. Jesus got in trouble because he ate with sinners. His disciples didn’t observe the customary food-related rituals, such as hand-washing. 50 years ago in the South, blacks and whites were kept from eating at the same lunch counter. In the church, people belonging to certain Christian denominations won’t share the Lord’s Supper with people from other Christian denominations. How pathetic is that?

I’ve been following the “Food Not Bombs” controversy in Middletown. It’s been covered in the local news blog, Middletowneye. A group of students and others have been sharing food on Sundays at the corner of Liberty and Main Street.

I spoke with one of the Wesleyan students involved. The main idea is: there’s a lot of perfectly good food that gets thrown out. After caterers serve at a party, what can they do with the leftover food?  They can’t sell it. They can’t save it until the next party. Restaurants have food in quantities too small to put it on the menu.  Supermarkets have produce that’s slightly damaged.

A lot of food gets thrown out at the same time there are people who need food. Doesn’t it make sense to get this unwanted food to people who do want it?

This is “Food Not Bombs’” mission, and they’ve been doing it for about 10 years — until someone raised the question with the Health Department: Is this food safe?  Is it being properly handled?  Do the people eating the food know where it came from? These are appropriate questions.  There have been meetings and proposed accommodations. Fred Carroll got a $100 ticket for his involvement.

The Health Department says they don’t want to shut down this activity.  The people I’ve talked to believe that the Health Dep’t is sincere in that statement.  And they’re willing to cut the group some slack in terms of certain regulations, as long as the group complies with other regulations, including filing reports.

Food Not Bombs says that the Health Department shouldn’t have jurisdiction over people sharing food. They say it’s like having a cookout. When you have friends over for a cookout, you don’t have to file paperwork.

This is all more complicated than I can describe here, but you get the basic picture. I find this interesting for two reasons.  For one, it raises legitimate questions about wasted food, and hunger, and regulation, and our conventional meal-sharing practices. Jesus got in trouble over his meal-sharing practices.

When it comes to eating food, it’s never just about food. Think about who you like to eat with. Are there times when you’d rather eat alone? 

Now to Psalm 23. The psalmist is declaring trust in God, the Good Shepherd. That’s what the psalm is about in general. And then it says, “You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies.” Why does it say, “in the presence of my enemies”?  Why not just “You prepare a table before me, so I can eat?”  What does the presence of the enemies add in this case?

Part of us likes having enemies. Part of us also dislikes having enemies — probably the bigger part. But nothing — not even sharing food — unites people like sharing an enemy. Enemies energize us, and focus our attention, give us purpose, and bind us together. It’s human nature, when things are tough, or when we’re anxious, to find someone to blame and oppose. When I was in high school, just being bored made me look for something or someone to oppose. Opposing can be fun. Politicians and talk show hosts use this dynamic. Inflame fear, inflame outrage, and you can get a movement going.

Here’s a question: Does this argument about people eating food on Main Street have anything to do, on anyone’s part, with wanting someone to oppose?  This could apply to either side, or both sides.  Is this, in part, a kind of sport?

What does it mean to say, “You prepare a table for me in the presence of my enemies.”  It could mean, “You invite me to your table, O Lord, when others are against me.”  It could mean, “You prepare a table for me because of my enemies, to help me oppose my enemies.” It could mean, “You prepare a table that puts me above my enemies, so I can look down at my enemies who aren’t at the table.”

It could also mean, “You prepare a table for me where I will eat with my enemies.”  You bring enemies together at the same table. I don’t know what the original psalmist meant by this verse, but from a Christian perspective, this is obviously the preferred reading because this is what Jesus did. Jesus ate with the “wrong” people. And he ate with his enemies. Jesus had real enemies. He didn’t just create them for sport. And by the people he ate with, he inflamed certain oppositions. Some things need to be opposed.

On Palm Sunday, in connection with this Food Not Bombs movement, I posed the question, “Has Jesus come to Jerusalem?” Jesus’ coming to Jerusalem, turning over the tables, and getting crucified, was God’s way of disrupting a problematic status quo.

Something is being stirred up in Middletown by Food Not Bombs. If nothing else, it draws attention to the fact that a lot of food is getting thrown out when there are hungry people. Is that something Jesus would have us look into? Is God up to some disruptive creativity in our city? Is some dramatic sport taking place? Is it purely nutrition and health that are being served, or are turf and authority being guarded too?