Pot luck

"We are never more at home than around the table", said a former pastor of mine. And the friendly warmth of people gathered in a joint luncheon or dinner is almost palpable.

I do confess, though, that sometimes my system is later disturbed by what I have fed it. "Why is it that people eat food in church that they wouldn’t eat anywhere else?" asks Lillian Daniel in her Theolog posting, "Potluck Gourmet". Garrison Keillor said Methodists had a secret longing for macaroni and cheese. Me? I like food. Someone once asked me if there was anything I did not like to eat. I paused only slightly and replied, "Well, there's a very bitter Filipino green vegetable ..." Laughter ensued, though I was serious.

The word "potluck" can have either a positive or negative connotation, you know. If you arrive too late at a buffet, you have have to be content with "pot luck".

I am reminded of my wife's shrewd coining of the phrase "'Choose your own' dinner" for a meal of leftovers. The kids got to select exactly which leftovers they wanted. Of course, the first to choose had the best array of the potluck offerings. But all of them seemed to relish the idea of getting a choice in what they ate. Clever, very clever, she was.

Lillian, pastor of a Congregational Church, says when she gets to heaven, she'll want a good old Midwestern Congregational Casserole.

So ... are there any types of food that you just will not eat at a Pot luck supper? Or do you arm yourself with an antacid tablet? Do you tend to "pig out", eat reasonably sized amounts of just a few dishes, or take small portions of as many dishes as possible?

Should a future posting be about treating our bodies as temples?