The New Kosher
May 6, 2007

There is a show on television that I find myself watching every now and then.  The basic premise of the show is this: a chef armed with a camera crew walks around a high-end grocery store looking for some stressed looking person (usually it’s a well-dressed attractive female) that he can ambush and offer his services as a chef and cook a meal for the lady and whomever she is cooking for that night.

The name of the show is called, not surprisingly, “Take Home Chef.”  Maybe I should start my own television show, “Take Home Priest,” and start walking around Bi-Lo with a camera and ambush some stressed out person and go to their house and bless it or something.  Maybe my mama will watch.  But then again, maybe she won’t! 

At any rate, the other night, the Take Home Chef was walking up and down the aisles of this Fresh Market type of grocery store and came up upon a woman who was staring at some sort of food and the Take Home Chef popped up with the camera crew and made his pitch.  But the woman, said no.  You could see the shock on the Take Home Chef’s face.  Who would say no?  I told Cherilyn the other night as she was walking to Bi-Lo to actually look for the Take Home Chef.  I want him in my kitchen.

But she didn’t want him in hers. The problem is her family had unique food demands.  First of all, they all had allergies, then they had unique tastes, and on top of all of that, they were Jewish and ate kosher.  It wasn’t that she didn’t want the Take Home Chef to come and fix her a gourmet meal; she just didn’t think he could do it and meet the needs of her family. 

While food has the power to bring us together like nothing else, it also has the power to divide us like nothing else.  The Take Home Chef couldn’t convince a wife and mother to let him cook her a gourmet meal because the food they needed actually separated them from other people.

It some strange way, it reminds me of the 8^th grade cafeteria.  Coming out of the cafeteria line with my tray in hand, lunch paid, for I emerge into the great expanse of cafeteria tables with people sitting at every one.  Where do I sit?  If you ever find yourself bored at 11:30 one morning, drive over to the middle school, get permission, and sit in the cafeteria and watch the looks of sheer horror as the kids look desperately for a seat – not just any seat, mind you, but the right seat. 

You see, it’s not just the kind of food we eat, it’s the people we eat it with.  For an eighth grader, you can’t sit at the wrong table.  You’ve got the jocks and the geeks and the preps and the Goths and if you eat with a group that is not your own, it can damage your reputation.

Even in families we divide up the dining room.  There is not a table in America that does not have an adults table and a kids table at Thanksgiving, Christmas, and Easter.  And it is a glorious day when the teenagers are able to graduate to the adults’ table.

Of course this all ties in with St Peter being criticized by the circumcised believers for eating with Gentiles, people who were not Jews, they were not circumcised.  Of course we have two things going on here: not only is the issue about what St Peter ate, but whom he was eating with.

Jewish law said that all males must be circumcised and they had to follow strict dietary laws. 

Not long after we arrived in Waynesboro, I would go to Subway and bring three sandwiches home for lunch.  I would order three turkey sandwiches, one for each of us.  We all like turkey and it is healthy.  Well, after the fifth or sixth time doing this I walked in around lunch time and made the same order. 

The guy behind the counter, the same guy that had taken my order every other time, looked at me and then looked at my collar and a light bulb went off in his skull.  “Oh, that’s right,” he said, “Y’all can’t eat pork, can you?”

There are theories as to why God gave the Jews these dietary laws.  One group says that’s what God wanted and we shouldn’t be trying to figure it out.  If God doesn’t want the Jews to eat pork or shellfish, then they should not eat pork or shellfish. 

Another group says God gave the Jews these laws for health reasons.  God deemed some animals unclean because they carry certain diseases, but that theory doesn’t hold up terribly long.

Another group, and the one that I agree with, says that God have the Jews these laws to keep the separate from everyone else.

In Hebrew, the word for “holy” means separate or set apart.  The Jews were called to be a holy people, a separate people, and having certain dietary restrictions would keep them out of the kitchens and dining rooms of other people. 

I don’t think God wanted the Jews to be antisocial, but if you are not in the dining rooms of pagan people then you won’t take their religion.  You won’t marry them and have their families joined with yours.  If you have certain dietary restrictions, you can even keep the Take Home Chef out of your house. 

Friday, Cherilyn and I saw two boys on bicycles wearing white shirts and black ties.  We knew who they were and where they were going.  I couldn’t imagine being their age and going from door to door trying to bring the people of that house to my religious persuasion, but they do it.  They are expected to.  And on top of that, they don’t drink coffee or Coke and sweet tea (unless it’s decaf).  All of this keeps them separate from the rest of the world.

I told you about the Amish one Sunday and their refusal to own or drive cars.  It’s not that they don’t agree with cars or even ride in cars, but they know that if they start owning and driving cars, they’ll start moving apart.  Fathers will go on business trips.  Mothers will go on trips and the children will go out with friends and never be at home.  All of this takes away from their family unit.  So they keep themselves separate. 

So I guess we can imagine the difficulty the circumcised Christians in Jerusalem had with St Peter eating with people who were not separate and eating things that were not separate.

St Peter had taken the identity of God’s people and changed it.  God had sent prophets, patriarchs, and law givers to keep his people separate – to keep them holy.  When Joshua brought the Jews into the Promised Land, they spent a great deal of time driving the Canaanites and other folks out.  When Ezra and Nehemiah were rebuilding the temple, they were most upset at the Jews marrying pagan peoples.  

And even though Jesus healed on the Sabbath and did other things that ticked off the Pharisees, we don’t have any evidence of him breaking dietary law.  And he was circumcised.  But St Peter ate unclean food with unclean people. 

You know, the Holy Spirit changes things.  Once upon a time it had to be laws and restrictions that made God’s people different from the rest of the world, but after the ascension of Christ and the gift of the Holy Spirit, it was the Spirit living within us that makes us separate, that makes us holy. 

The Holy Spirit moved within St Peter and he moved within the Gentiles, taking away the dietary laws that kept people apart and brought them together in the Body of Christ. 

The Holy Spirit moved St Paul to say that in Christ there is no Jew nor Greek, male nor female, slave nor free, because NOW what separates us from the rest of the world is not how we keep ourselves from other people, but how we give ourselves to other people. 

Isn’t it amazing that Jesus told his disciples that the world would know they follow him, not based on whether or not they eat pork or whether or not they eat lobster or whether or not they are circumcised, but how they love one another?

Which presents quite a challenge to us as the Church.  God knows we have tried to separate ourselves from the people around us.  

There are 22,000 people in Burke County and one Episcopal Church.  There are 6,000 people in Waynesboro and one Episcopal Church.  Holiness is no longer about keeping ourselves away from everyone else.  It’s about being with everyone else. 

White, black, Hispanic, Asian, plaid.  Rich, poor, middle class, no class.  Smart, dumb, and ignorant.  These are the folks we are called to sit with in the cafeteria.  These are the people we are called to invite to dinner.  These are the people we are to share the Good News that God loves them.

And we share it by loving them ourselves.

I know that’s going to be hard.  I know some of us have already shut down and put up our defenses.

But the Holy Spirit changes things.  And if we stop being so careful with our hearts, he might even change us. 

Imagine that.

Amen.