Spirituality of Crawfish

This past Sunday Evening I had a profound spiritual experience. It wasn't at church. We had a lovely evening worship service at church. We sang to the Lord, and I talked about fasting. Ironically, most people must have been fasting from Sunday Evening church because most of you were at a feast across the street. As soon as church was done, Sarah and I joined in on the feast as well. A couple in our church hosted a crawfish boil. I love crawfish. I grew up going to crawfish boils as crawfish literally were crawling all around the area I grew up in. There were all kinds of people there. People from our church, our community, family members, and new friends. Kids were running around, jumping the pool, and playing with each other. Parents were enjoying the friendship and fellowship and of course the crawfish. People reconnected with one another. Older people were there. Younger people were there. Church people were there. Non-church people were there. It reminded me of a story in the Gospels.

Jesus had just called Matthew, a tax collector, to come and follow him as a disciple. Before they set off on the road though, Matthew threw a party. There were young folks there. There were old folks there. There were good Jews and tax collectors there. There were sinners and saints. In the middle of it all was Jesus. Many of Jesus' greatest spiritual stories and lessons came over a party at a dinner table. I think that is what I love about the picture of Jesus given to us in the Gospels. While he made it a regular habit to worship in the synagogue, He found just as much spirituality in a party as in the church. Maybe we in the church ought to learn from Jesus and see God outside the church. Like at a crawfish boil.