take this bread

at the heart of Christianity is a power that continues to speak to and transform us.

what i found wasn't about angels or going to church or trying to be 'good' in a pious, idealized way. it wasn't about arguing a doctrine-- the virgin birth, predestination, the sinfulness of homosexuality and divorce-- or pledging blind allegiance to a denomination. i was, as the prophet said, hungering and thirsting for righteousness. i discovered a religion rooted in the most ordinary yet subversive practice: a dinner table where everyone is welcome, where the despised and outcasts are honored.

i just knew i wanted to experience meaning and connection

what i heard, and continue to hear, is a voice that can crack religious and political convictions open , that advocates for the least qualified, least official, least likely; that upsets the established order an makes a joke of certainty. it proclaims against reason that the hungry will be fed, that those cast down will be raised up, and that all things , including my own failures, are being made new. it offers food without exception to the worth and unworthy, the screwed up and pious, and then commands everyone to do the same. it doesn't promise to solve or erase suffering but to transform it, pledging that by loving one another, even through pain, we will find more life.

faith, for me, isn't an argument, a catechism, a philosophical 'proof.' it is instead a lens, a way of experiencing life and a willingness to act.
as the Bible says: taste and see.

sara miles