Meal and Memory
In the fourteenth chapter of Pilgrim Heart Tippens focuses on the importance of meals together in and their relationship to memory. He notes that memory is an essential ingredient to our identity, both individual and corporate.
He writes, "The Bible invites us to remember because memory is the great vehicle of spiritual identity and formation, an important supply for moral reflection, and a source for constructing the future. Without memory there can be no mature and enduring spirituality" (168). This applies to social memory as well. He maintains the one of the marks of our own society is the "erasure of cultural memory," and he quotes Milan Kundera: "The first step in liquidating a people is...to erase its memory. Destroy its books, its culture, its history" (169).
One of the purposes of the Bible is to help the community of faith transmit its memories from one generation to the next. In fact he refers to the Bible as "a book of memories" (170). The Exodus is a big story that Jews transmit from one generation to the other and it invite them into the story, to metabolize it and make it their own story, for instance. Likewise, the story of Jesus' life, death, and resurrection becomes a disciples story.
Tippens observes how important meals are to transmitting memories. If you grew up in a halfway healthy family, you no doubt have fond memories of mealtimes, or a big family feast. An ancient way of helping people to remember is through a shared meal. The Bible is full of examples of the church fathers and mothers, not to mention Jesus, sharing meals together. Tippens writes, "The fact is that in early Christianity there was a deep and mysterious fusion of food and faith that we only dimly understand in an age which so relentlessly segregates the sacred and the secular...in the Bible food talk is really God talk" (172).
Taste and smell have a kind of immediate access to memory, and therefore, Tippens argues that any faith community that takes itself seriously needs to incorporate meals as an important part of community life. We need to do this both as families and as a church family. It makes me wonder how well we as a church are encouraging families to carve out the time to have meals together and how well we are practicing this as a community of faith. What do you think?
He writes, "The Bible invites us to remember because memory is the great vehicle of spiritual identity and formation, an important supply for moral reflection, and a source for constructing the future. Without memory there can be no mature and enduring spirituality" (168). This applies to social memory as well. He maintains the one of the marks of our own society is the "erasure of cultural memory," and he quotes Milan Kundera: "The first step in liquidating a people is...to erase its memory. Destroy its books, its culture, its history" (169).
One of the purposes of the Bible is to help the community of faith transmit its memories from one generation to the next. In fact he refers to the Bible as "a book of memories" (170). The Exodus is a big story that Jews transmit from one generation to the other and it invite them into the story, to metabolize it and make it their own story, for instance. Likewise, the story of Jesus' life, death, and resurrection becomes a disciples story.
Tippens observes how important meals are to transmitting memories. If you grew up in a halfway healthy family, you no doubt have fond memories of mealtimes, or a big family feast. An ancient way of helping people to remember is through a shared meal. The Bible is full of examples of the church fathers and mothers, not to mention Jesus, sharing meals together. Tippens writes, "The fact is that in early Christianity there was a deep and mysterious fusion of food and faith that we only dimly understand in an age which so relentlessly segregates the sacred and the secular...in the Bible food talk is really God talk" (172).
Taste and smell have a kind of immediate access to memory, and therefore, Tippens argues that any faith community that takes itself seriously needs to incorporate meals as an important part of community life. We need to do this both as families and as a church family. It makes me wonder how well we as a church are encouraging families to carve out the time to have meals together and how well we are practicing this as a community of faith. What do you think?
posted by UCC Medfield at 6:42 AM
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