Ice Cream and Jesus

Tonight we'll gather in the chapel for a time of fellowship - eating ice cream. I love ice cream, probably a little too much. I like to eat a lot of ice cream every night before I go to bed, which highlights why I haven't really lost a lot of weight even though I have picked up my exercise program. But I love ice cream. And I love hanging out, especially when we can hang out in an environment that is non-threatening and inviting.

Some may ask what ice cream has to do with ministry. I guess you could say, "not much". Unless you count the notion that we are gathering together, in an effort to create bonds, so that we might learn from one another and grow in faith with each other, and eventually work together in service on some project. Then ice cream has everything to do with Jesus.

I don't anticipate tonight being like a story in the Bible. You gotta figure out of all of the stories that spoke of Jesus eating with people and going to parties and stuff, there had to be a hundred that don't mention him hanging out at all. The ones that are talked about in Scripture are there since something profound happened - someone anointed his feet, or he overturned a question by the Pharisees. But more often than not, Jesus ate with his friends, talked about their day, what the teachers were teaching, and the upcoming festivals. And there is no mention of those times in the Bible.

I feel certain, though, that those times were very sustaining for Jesus and the disciples - perhaps more so than the ones we can read about. So in that fashion, ice cream has everything to do with Jesus.