Steamed blue crabs

The fellowship committee has made some terrific plans for this summer. There’s so much fun to be had, that I’ve worked my travel schedule around so as not to miss more of them than necessary. Of all their plans, I’m not sure which will be more fun: the baseball / fireworks outing or the “St Marks steamed crab feast” coming later.

Part of the reason why the fellowship committee chose a crab feast for one of their events is that Maryland steamed blue crabs are not so much a meal as an experience – an experience to be shared with others, an experience fraught with unlimited possibilities for laughter, conversation, and story telling.

A steamed crab feast goes like this: talk, talk, whack! listen, pick, laugh, pick, taste, whack! laugh, pick, listen, pick, taste, tell a story, pick, pick taste, whack! talk…

The truth is that there is far more laughing, talking, story telling and listening than there is eating. Steamed blue crabs are messy, expensive, and mostly inedible. they make a great party, but an inefficient meal. When we’re done, we’ll throw away more shells, scales and innards than we’ll have consumed meat. it takes a lot of work to get a mouthful. But we will have told so much, listened so much, and laughed so much that we finish the feast better friends than when we began. It’s as though God created blue crabs primarily for the purpose of fellowship.

By contrast, consider the potato chip. Potato chips are cheap and easy. They are readily available, nearly ubiquitous. They can be found in any supermarket or convenience store, most gas stations and many vending machines. No fuss, no muss, no work -- but also, no health. They contain very little nutrition, and are loaded with all the things we wish we wanted to avoid. Easy to find, easy to eat. And easily eaten alone. Pop open a bag, devour the lot, toss the bag away. One may eat a bag of chips, alone in the dark. No fuss, no muss, no friends required.

It strikes me that Christian faith and spirituality are more like a crab feast than like a bag of chips. Perhaps we would prefer it to be the other way around: we’d like our faith to be easy, simple and convenient. Pop open the door to a church building, walk in, walk out, no fuss, no muss, no friends required. But true faith and spirituality are not like that. God does not offer convenient, easy faith. God invites us to become conscious, intentional followers of the One who carried a cross. True faith and spirituality takes a lot of whacking and picking. True faith takes time and effort. True faith leaves a lot of mess and waste. It’s expensive rather than cheap. It requires work, thinking, choices, and friends. Convenience is not part of the package.

But along with whacking, picking, time, effort, and mess, there is a lot of story telling, listening, and laughing in the effort to experience true faith and spirituality. And in the end we have become better friends than when we began. this is the way it should be, for the Christian faith was never about the individual, but always about the people. For God so loved the world.

One may eat a bag of chips, alone in the dark. No fuss, no muss, no friends required. But the Christian faith always was, and always will be, a fellowship meal rather than a convenient snack.

Christ our passover has been sacrificed for us.
therefore, let us keep the feast!