Sermon Notes — September 21, 2025
“Breaking the Bread”
September 21, 2025
Luke 24:13-35
Rev. Terry Carty
(Hold up an unsliced loaf of bread.)
We are very familiar with breaking bread in Christian worship. It is most often associated with the Eucharist, Holy Communion, The Lord’s Supper. Our prayers draw from Jesus’ comments to his disciples at the Last Supper before his Crucifixion.
I want us to consider a broader understanding of the breaking of bread in our faith.
Last week, Mary Beth spoke about ‘hospitality.’ We are most likely to recognize hospitality as it relates to food and table.
Today’s scripture (Luke 24:13-35) made that ‘table hospitality’ clear for the early Christians. These two followers of Jesus did not expect to actually see Jesus along the road talking with them. But when they shared their table and he broke the bread, a symbol of sharing, they immediately realized this was the risen Jesus.
When Jesus had vanished, they said to each other, “Were not our hearts burning within us while he was talking to us on the road, while he was opening the scriptures to us?” Then the two rushed back to Jerusalem and told the disciples what had happened to them and how Jesus had been made known to them in the breaking of the bread.
The revelation of the risen Christ came to them in the breaking of the bread.
(Break the unsliced loaf of bread in two and hold up the halves.)
Let us pray:
Risen Christ, you are often closer than we think – present in the walking, in the wondering, in the breaking of bread. Open our eyes this day to recognize you. Whether in sanctuary or kitchen, in pew or at the dinner table, let us find you again. And may our hearts burn with joy as we walk with you. Amen.
In the Emmaus story, the risen Christ was not recognized in the miracle of resurrection, but in the meal. The meal was not miraculous, it was quite ordinary. But the followers of Christ had their memories jogged back to all the times Jesus had revealed his mission and message over a simple meal at a shared table.
I want to share two stories of tables I have had shared with me.
‘Cricket in the Greens’
At the Mountain T.O.P. mission, the youth groups who come to volunteer are divided up into teams of 5 or 6 people, and each team has a project each day to work. The staff members each have the responsibility of coordinating the projects for several of those teams. This meant meeting the client and understanding the project, then explaining it to the team, coordinating the tools and materials to get it done, and then going by the project once or twice to check on the team.
One day I stopped by a project at the home of ‘Granny’ Shook to check in with the team that was working there. When I got there they were sitting on her front porch and eating the lunch of sandwiches and chips that they had taken with them.
Shortly, Granny Shook came out the screen door with a steaming hot pot of turnip greens and set it down on the table on the porch. She said, “I wanted to make y’all a big lunch, but these greens were all I had. I hope y’all will enjoy it.” Then she went back into the house to get some plates and forks.
Granny Shook did not see very well, so she didn’t see what we all saw. There was a big black cricket lying dead on top of those turnip greens. The youth were horrified! You can imagine the looks on their faces. Most would not think of eating turnip greens in the first place, but the dead cricket on top just made the situation ridiculous. There was no way they were going to eat, but they did not want to reject Granny Shook’s effort to show her appreciation to them. I had to think of something fast.
When Granny Shook came back out with plates and forks, I quickly apologized to her and told her that we only allowed our mission teams to eat the food that we sent out each day because of allergies they might have. (That was half true – we always told the clients that the team would bring their own lunch so they would not think it was their obligation to feed them.) Then, I told Granny Shook that even though the team could not share the turnip greens, I love them and there was no rule that kept me from enjoying them. I proceeded to load a plate. As I turned to sit down, I flicked the cricket off the top. Then I ate the greens as the team looked on with amusement.
Later, that evening in camp, I sat with the team as we talked about the significance of the meal Granny Shook had shared with us. Even though only I ate the greens, we agreed that we had all experienced the love of Christ. As for me, my heart was warmed – and it wasn’t the cricket.
(Later that summer, as I sent other teams to help Granny Shook, I emphasized to her that she should not feed them!)
‘Sancocho de Pata de Pollo’ Table
On another occasion, I was with a mission team in Panama – way up on the Western end near the border with Costa Rica.
After two day’s journey getting there, our hosts greeted us with a hearty dinner. They served cheecha - a concoction of mostly orange juice, pan – loaves of bread they had baked, and a big pot of some kind of stew. It was wonderful and plentiful. The stew was made up mostly of root vegetables and strongly seasoned but very tasty. We asked what it was and were told that it was Sancocho de Pata de Pollo. They did not speak English and our Spanish was sketchy at best, but we recognized Pollo, the Spanish word for chicken. Someone said, “I think pata is the word for foot.”
When some of us dipped the ladle into the pot for seconds, one of the men raised up a big chicken foot! That was when we realized that the only thing “chicken” in the stew was the foot. It was indeed Chicken Foot Stew, a traditional Panamanian dish for poor people whose diet was mostly the root vegetables they grew in the hot dry climate.
Those weeks, as we ate at the table provided by those Panamanian cooks, we remarked about their faith as we built a conference center and church for their ministry. And our hearts burned within us as they shared their table and their expressions of Christ that rose above the language barrier.
These two tables stand out in my memory because they make me laugh each time I think of them. But there have been so many more tables where we or our hosts have broken bread and the conversation has gone to matters of church and then, inevitably to matters of faith.
In these many occasions, like the table in the home in Emmaus, the meal has not been miraculous – it has been quite ordinary. But Christ has come to us in the sharing of a table over a meal. Breaking bread has become, for me, symbolic of a tangible opportunity to share the love Christ – and sometimes talk about living our faith.
Our Monday night men’s study group has been reading a book by Barbara Brown Taylor entitled “An Altar in the World.”
The author is very reflective about how common experiences can become practices that help us discover the sacred in the ordinary things we do. She explores things like paying attention, getting lost, being in community, saying no, feeling pain, and saying blessings. These, for her, are all altars in the world where we can learn to live with purpose, pay attention, slow down, and practice reverence.
Meditating on the scriptural story of the walk to Emmaus has reminded me that sharing a table and breaking bread can also be altars in the world. Just as we encounter Christ’s spirit when we break bread and share the cup during Holy Communion, if we are intentional, the sharing of a table and a meal can be a sacred time and Christ can be revealed even if it is simply experienced within the warming of our hearts.
I want to leave you with two questions on which to reflect:
· Where have you recently recognized Christ’s presence? Was it in a conversation? At a table?
· How might you invite someone into sacred conversation or simple table hospitality this week?
Christ is present in the ordinary. Whether in sanctuary or kitchen or restaurant, in pew or at the dinner table or lunch counter, let us seek the Spirit of the Living, Loving Christ again. And may our hearts burn with joy as we walk the journey of faith together. Amen.