The Joshua Victor Theory

In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, Amen. Meals are inescapably at the center of human life. Eating is a defining feature of our existence—stop eating, and you won’t be sticking around for too much longer. Meals and meal etiquette are at the center of much human culture. A feast or a banquet is an especially important meal—usually greater time and care is taken in preparation; and usually a feast or banquet is a celebration of something significant. Meals, whether a feast or an ordinary meal, are a place where hospitality, friendship, trust, brotherhood, and even forgiveness and reconciliation can be communicated. Meals truly are a key part of our human existence. Today’s Gospel reading is part of a series of mealtime conversations with Jesus. It’s one of many in Gospel of Luke. Zoom out one step further to the whole Bible, and you’ll find dozens more examples of prominent meals with God, feasts or banquets. They are so important because they are of...

“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.” Are you hungry? How hungry? Just need a snack to take the edge off your hunger? Or do you have a total starving hunger for a real feast? What kind of meal will you find here at Emmanuel Lutheran Church? The food on the menu is not the kind you will find elsewhere, and the eating is a little different from what you’re used to. You drink through your skin and your ears, and you eat with your ears and mouth, and you digest with your heart and mind. The 1st Course was served in confession and absolution—you come with a bag of spoiled food—sins, wrongs, hurts, guilt and shame. We dumped it out in confession, laying that sin and guilt before God, until we had an empty sack. The heart and mind growls and aches from emptiness. Not the kind of hunger pains you’re used to. It’s a longing for things to be right again, a sadness about the wrongs you’ve done, or the hurts you’ve suffered, or the brokenne...