May 30, 2025
Taste and See…
“For everything there is a season and a time for every matter under heaven…”
~ Ecclesiastes 3:1
Propriety. What is fitting, apt, or suitable. We first learn propriety—what is appropriate for a particular time and place—by observing. If you were to hold up pictures of food to young children, they are able to tell you what season or even day it is. A big turkey dinner? Thanksgiving. Hot dogs and hamburgers with watermelon? Summer, maybe even the Fourth of July. Heart shaped cookies? Valentines Day. Chocolate eggs, jelly beans, and colored eggs? Easter.
Children may learn these associations even before they know the months of the year. That is because we learn inductively first. We learn by observing, participating, and imitating before we understand. For example, we don’t teach children the history of our country, our political and economic philosophies, and the stories of patriotism of women and men through our nation’s history and then ask them if they would like to pledge allegiance to the flag. Instead, we teach them the ritual of pledging allegiance to the flag and then, in the context of that daily ritual in school, they learn about our country, past, present, and future. The daily ritual of pledging allegiance shapes our understanding of our country even before we begin to study it. And these understandings and associations stay with us throughout our lifetime. Our opinions and perspectives may change, but they change relative to those deeply ingrained values and beliefs we rehearsed and studied when we were young. That is why burning our flag is such a forceful and painful statement by someone who was once taught to revere it. Deep disappointment in our core beliefs can lead to drastic responses, however appropriate or inappropriate they might be.
What might be missed in all of this is that this nonverbal formation of what is appropriate continues throughout our life. So, in our worship, each season of the church year offers a different diet of worship: reading different texts, singing different songs, praying different prayers.
Even eating different bread.
We have recently begun the practice of using pita bread for the Lord’s Supper. Except when we don’t. When we don’t is a season like Christmas or Easter. Or a special Sunday like All Saints or Pentecost. Then we have challah bread. We also offer any extra challah bread to be enjoyed during Coffee Hour after the service. Occasionally celebrating Christ’s Table (and coffee hour) with challah bread brings attention to that Sunday being special.
This Sunday will be the last Sunday in Easter, Ascension Sunday. It will be the third time this Easter season we have had challah bread. It reminds us of our season of celebrating Christ’s resurrection and the goodness of God which is with us every day. The Table is always “the joyful feast of the people of God,” as we say in our welcome to the Table. But some celebrations are a bit more special than others.
So for now, this one last Sunday in Easter, “Taste and see that the Lord is good!” (Psalm 34:8)
It would only be appropriate.
With confidence in Christ,
~ Pastor Todd