2024 Wesley Community Lenten Devotional
Let Love Lead the Way
Week Two
Alyssa and Keegan Densham
Community ConnectionsAlyssa: WTS Current DMin student, WTS MDiv 2022; Pastor, Provision Church, Northern VA
Keegan: WTS 2024 Lenten Devotional Cover Artist; Honorary Student Council Representative, 3rd Grade, Kent Gardens; PPMK (Planting Pastor Military Kid)
Love ConnectionMother and sonLove LanguageAlyssa: Braised meats
Keegan: Drawing picturesFavorite Love SongAlyssa: King of Carrot Flowers, Part 1 by Neutral Milk Hotel
Keegan: On Top of the World by Imagine DragonsFavorite Love QuoteAlyssa: “Feed my sheep.”
Keegan: “That’s a weird question, Mom.” -- Keegan’s response to being asked about his favorite love quote, lol.
Food is Love
John 21:4–19
We say “food is love,” but what does that mean?
When I was in college, a friend loaned me a worn copy of JD Salinger’s Franny and Zooey and in it he writes about a “consecrated bowl of chicken soup.” That image sticks with me. This simple, simple bowl of soup is easy to brush off as inconsequential and yet, because of the offering, becomes an encounter with the divine.
I can think about so many meals that I’ve eaten that weren’t that kind of experience though. Overcooked salmon with the albumin leaching from the flesh that’s lost its rosy hue for a dull orange is definitely not love. But sometimes, even when the food is technically correct (mid-rare salmon, to extend the metaphor), there’s something still missing. I’ve also had truly delicious meals at tables where I felt uneasy and sometimes even unwelcome. It’s not the salt or acid or the tablescape. Clearly, it’s not the food itself that is love. But food offered through love becomes a place where we meet God. Good exegesis says that Jesus meant more than the literal sense of feeding when he spoke to Peter on that beach, and yet, I know that Jesus meant that we should offer each other bowls of consecrated chicken soup too.
Recipe for Consecrated Chicken Soup
(so easy a 3rd grader makes it)
Ingredients
Leftover bits and bobs from kitchen prep (carrot tops, onion peelings, chicken bones- that sort of thing)
Salt, a good palmful
Water
Directions
Put all the bits and bobs into a large pot, cover with cool, clean water. Add salt. Simmer for a few (2, 4, 10, more?) hours until water has been transformed. Strain the soup. Salt to taste. Add some pepper if you want, or other things (herbs are good, noodles are expected). Serve in beautiful bowls, the ones you keep hidden so they don’t get broken. Or serve in paper cups. It doesn’t matter. But serve it at a table full of gratitude for everyone present.
NB: If you add beet trimmings to your pot, the soup will turn pink.
Reflection: In what spaces could you offer consecrated bowls of chicken soup (or lasagna, or fufu, or congee) that would lead the way to God’s love?
Learn more here about Alyssa’s and Keegan’s thoughts on Food Is Love.
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