Jesus said: I am the . . . spaghetti of life?

Allow me to post a glimpse into our life as a house church.

When Jesus said, “I am the bread of life,” he compared our basic need for daily sustenance with our ultimate need for him.  It’s not a far stretch to think that in another cultural context, he would have used a different food analogy (though I think it still would have been a food analogy).  For those areas of the world for whom rice is central to their daily diet, Jesus would be the “rice” of life.  For others, he may have been the potato.

On Sunday evening at our house church, we were studying John 6 where Jesus tells people that he is the bread of life, and that we have to eat of him in order to live.  Tennille and I were working with the kids this evening, and so we took the kids over to our side of the house (we live in a duplex) and together we made bread. It was a bit of a zoo as we had a total of 11 kids (we had a few visitors!), but it was fun and the kids were so engaged! They love mixing the ingredients and seeing it all get worked together.

And now, let it rise!

We ate our meal back with the adults while the bread was rising, then came back and proceeded to knead it and prepare it to rise a bit more, then bake. While the bread was baking, the kids colored and we all listened to John 6 from The Bible Experience and then discussed what Jesus meant by “bread of life.” In the course of the discussion, we talked about staple foods like rice, potato, seal meat, wheat and meat that people around the world eat daily. We also talked about foods that we most often eat in our own personal families (the top bids were spaghetti, oatmeal, meat and potatoes). So, the question is asked: would Jesus say he was the “spaghetti” of life? Or the “potato” of life? How is Jesus the person–the food–we need most?

We then proceeded to write a song about Jesus being the bread of life,

They all washed their hands . . . we think.

 incorporating much of what we discussed into the song, including the staple foods of each of our families. The kids loved the song, especially when we all said “Yum! Yum!” with enthusiasm at the end!We took the fresh bread over, and it was served as our communion meal.

Warm, fresh from the oven, served to all during our communion time

  The kids and I sang our newly written song for the whole crew, much to everyone’s enjoyment and (I hope) edification!

We are so enjoying our experience at house church, especially as we explore new ways of integrating the teaching into the living of our daily lives together.

"in the Janson house, you are the spaghetti of life"