Epicurean Odyssey #2 - Brokenness

This morning at work I was preparing brunch for a group of 12 women. While I worked they were sharing of their stories, shedding tears, sharing their brokenness and in it finding healing from Jesus. Part way through the morning they shared communion together. The words “This is My body broken for you” were whispered to me in the kitchen. Perhaps the group of women in another room heard them too.

There was an immediate connection in my thoughts between the broken body of Jesus, offered for our freedom, and food addictions. Let me explain my thoughts so this doesn’t sound totally absurd. Part of this connection started with the article Bobbie wrote in remembrance of Me here.

Jesus took a loaf of bread and asked God’s blessing on it. Then he broke it in pieces and gave it to the disciples, saying, “Take it and eat it, for this is my body."
· Jesus body was “broken” in death, to give us life
· Through Jesus brokenness comes our wholeness
· Jesus broken body is symbolized in the bread in communion, and when we accept His brokenness for us, beginning a relationship with Jesus is the beginning of our journey to healing, wholeness and freedom.
· Our accepting of His brokenness is where we begin to fill the empty spaces in our lives.

In our brokenness we have internal empty spaces that long to be filled. Unable to find a safe place to share our brokenness, to be real about it, we pretend to be whole only enlarging the dark cavern of the soul. In this pretending the internal fragmentation continues and often the medication of choice is food. There are many ways to try and assuage this hunger and thirst of the soul; some of them considered socially unacceptable while others such a food are acceptable. In the Church food is very acceptable! Using destructive things to fill our hunger, satiate our thirst leaves a deeper hunger that continues to disguise our true brokenness. It is like “natural flavoring” in food. (Food was given to us for nutrition, for healing and for enjoyment. Food can also be destructive. Again I go to the authentic and unreal areas of food. Monosodium glutamate has no nutritional value whatsoever and it has highly addictive ingredients in it, being described as the nicotine of food and addictive. The label natural flavouring is in fact an MSG product. The Sapore Masquerade is another subject that Epicurean Odyssey will address in future.)

In the Beatitudes it says “God blesses those who are hungry and thirsty for justice, for they will receive it in full” Matt 5:6 NLT. What do we receive in full? For one thing I believe He gives us His presence in the empty spaces, removing the dark and replacing it with light. His presence that tells us He knows every injustice we have suffered. Hunger and thirst, like pain, make us vulnerable, and leave us broken. The soul longs for love, significance, meaning of life and the ability to participate deeply and passionately in it. Jesus offers life, abundant life to us but if I can’t see Him, touch Him, feel Him – is He tangible.
Food involves all the senses and so does Jesus offer of abundant life. When God seems to be intangible to fill the spaces, we reach for something tangible. Very often that is food, the easy to reach food that has little or no health value to it. In my own personal journey as I am becoming broken and vulnerable with God I am beginning to experience love, His love, with all my senses. This is what I am learning right now, where I am in my journey – experiencing God – as Abba, as my Beloved, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit, with all my senses! It is an amazing adventure of discovery.
Jesus body, symbolized in the broken bread of communion, offers us freedom. It releases us to experience food as good, healthy, tasty, artistic, beautiful, and something to be experienced in community with others. His brokenness invites us to acknowledge our own brokenness. In the acknowledging and humility Jesus comes with His offer of freedom, of living water, and bread of life for our internal vacant spaces. In that place of openness and vulnerability comes the freedom to walk with an honest open heart. This is the love that sets us free.

Jesus today I open myself to You, allow You even more access to the empty places inside of me. Let me hunger and thirst for what is life, not masking anything, but being open and honest with You. Prepare safe places for us to come with our brokenness, letting go of any façade. Bring humbleness and brokenness in Your Church so we accept Your brokenness as the food of life, and as our example to live by. Create safe places in Your Church so this Body on earth becomes that safe place and sanctuary and house of healing You have called it to be. Thank You Jesus for the reminder today of LIFE. Amen.