Togetherness

For the first time since February 2020(!), we had in-person (outside) SBS Home Groups this week. When we started out, we saw home groups as a key building block - a way for smaller, neighborhood-oriented groups to connect deeply, even as we grow. It’s mind-boggling that after just three months of these groups, we had to take a 16-month hiatus! But they’re back. And when I heard reports from the other groups, the consensus was: wonderful.

Celebrating Garth’s birthday at a recent Home Group.

Sure, some tangible reasons played a part: delicious food, generous hosts, perfect weather. But what I heard, beyond those factors, was a simple and profound sense of gratitude, almost a reverence, in being able to dine together. That was my feeling at our group: delight to sit and linger at a table in the perfect June Spokane air and soak in togetherness.

I imagine we’re all having these sorts of moments these days, with neighbors and family and friends: sitting together, seeing each other, all that stuff that can sound corny until you lose it for a long time. It resonates on a deep level, because we are created to do this. God fashioned us for this kind of togetherness, and we experience it in a special way when we eat together. It is no coincidence that Jesus is most fully known in the breaking of bread (Last Supper, Emmaus Road).

We’ve gotten by fine these 16 months by dining “together” over Zoom, even going to lengths on occasion to deliver dinner before a virtual gathering to everyone in the community. We’re grateful for the tools to do that. But it’s not the same. This past Tuesday, we sat around the same physical table, smelled the same smells, ate the same food, spoke to one another with no feedback delay… in other words, we were a community embodied once again.