Good News for Chick-Fil-A

"Rise and Rise Again Until Lambs become Lions."

This was the saying Robin Hood's father coined to try and portray his idea of equality between the nobility and peasants. I went and saw Ridley Scott's portrayal of the hooded vigilante, and I thought it was a really entertaining flick that was filled with action coupled with background information on Robin Hood. I would say it is Gladiator-esque; but since Gladiator is the greatest movie of ALL time (therefore receiving 10 out of 10 stars), I would say Robin Hood receives a solid 7 stars. It was a little slow in the middle of the movie, but it was just building up the plot. So go watch it!

So I have seen 4 movies in the last two weeks for a grand total of only $20! Two of the movies were only 3 dollars a piece because i went to the drive-in theater, and the other two were matinees so they were a little bit cheaper. I don't know about you guys but every time I come out of the dark theater from watching a 2 hour movie, I feel like I enter a new world. It feels like I have been in my own little world for 15 years. Sometimes I come out of a movie and I think to myself, "Who is the president?", "What year is it?"..."Have my twinkies reached their expiration date yet?" The dark theater can play tricks on your mind but don't be fooled...Its 2010 and Obama is president and Twinkies will never expire.

Speaking of food, I do not think there is anything better in the world to bring people together. More specifically, I think it can be said that food brings about the most genuine, intimate time of fellowship. If you think about it, every family gathering is centered around the table. For family reunions, there is usually a potluck or barbecue. You might get together with your families for holidays like 4th of July or Christmas. Now even though there are extracurricular activities going on (shooting fireworks and opening presents), there is a meal that is shared that brings the family together. And if you are at the Landis house on Christmas, you get two great meals...A great breakfast and an amazing dinner.

I think the best conversations I have had with people are at the dinner table in the cafe. Of course, all of those conversations have not serious. Actually I am willing to bet only a handful of them were serious, but intimate fellowship is not always serious. It is about being involved in the presence of other people through conversation and life experiences. If you are not enjoying any fellowship of any kind, you are like superman without the sun, like Doug Funny without Patty Mayonnaise, or Jennifer Aniston without Charlie Landis. Fellowship is a necessity for humans. This can easily be seen in Genesis 2 when God says, "It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him." Now in this specific context, God is going to make woman to fulfill Adam's desire for fellowship, but this is a great example of how important it is for people to be in fellowship with other people.

Now getting back to one of my favorite things in life...food. The correlation between food and fellowship goes all the way back to the Garden of Eden. Just like food brings people together in the most intimate fellowship, food was the reason fellowship between God and man was crippled. It was Eve that ate FRUIT (or as a man from my home church so eagerly argues, "Its a pomegranate, and if you teach anything else, it is wrong!") from the tree of knowledge of good and evil that hindered God's presence with man to no longer be what it was before. Their fellowship was broken. But when you look at the New Testament, we see a different picture when it comes to God and man with fellowship and food.

Jesus, the God man, came to earth to restore that broken fellowship between God and man that was destroyed when our first parents ate the fruit. Jesus restored the possibility of fellowship between man and God when he died on the cross, and it ultimately becomes man's choice whether or not to come into the relationship with true fellowship. But when Jesus was walking on the earth about 2,000 years ago, he often used a meal to develop fellowship. The most intimate meal Jesus shared with his disciples was the Last Supper in John 13. Jesus knows his time to die is soon approaching, so what does he do? He shares a meal with his close friends. After he resurrects from the grave, Jesus appears to Peter and what does he do? He has a meal with Peter that reinstates him as the Rock (Mt. 16:18).

Jesus also pictures heaven as a great fellowship meeting around a meal. In Luke 14, Jesus tells the parable of the Great Banquet where a master told his servants to round up all the guests for his banquet but all of them had poor excuses, so the master invites everyone else to his table and says, "I tell you, not one of those men who were invited will get a taste of my banquet." Jesus is giving us a picture of heaven, and he describes it as a meal.

The last place I want to look at in the New Testament is Revelation 3:20 where the Apostle John is writing down the words of the Resurrected Jesus to the seven churches. To the church in Laodicea, Jesus says, "Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens my door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with me." Jesus WANTS to fellowship with these people by having a meal.

Now all this talk about food is music to my ears. I love food...probably a little too much, but I just think it is great how food can bring people together. So the next time you are sitting around a group of people sharing some Chick-fil-A fries or eating a home-cooked meal (Only 5 more days until no more cafe food!!) just remember how awesome and important that fellowship can become.

Oh yea, I am graduating in 5 days...AHH!!!