The changing taste of food

During our childhood we have a number of distinctive likes and dislikes when it comes to our choice of food. Some of these carry through into our adult years. I am still somewhat leery of aubergines / eggplant or whatever name you know it by. Imagine if you will trying to eat boiled aubergine, the best description is perhaps (pardon the graphic) "swallowing glutinous snot". This I imagine would put most people off the vegetable for life. We are also aware or should be that taste changes as we mature and even as a result of hormonal change within the body. I know this because I have had to manage the consequences on a monthly basis. Our taste and our ability to digest a meal is often determined by our experience, our age, our hormonal status, etc. If this is the case then what does the bread of life taste like to you?

In scripture we are given to understand that the bread of life is the word of God and the presence of Christ within our midst. The author of the letter to the Ephesians, Paul or a disciple, is clear what the taste of life is when played out in the world (Eph. 4.2-3). Yet, it is also clear that the author is of the opinion that the recipients of this letter are no longer children and have grown into adulthood within the faith journey (Eph. 4.14). However, as we have seen our taste and our ability to consume, digest and even utilise food is determined by our physical and hormonal and emotional disposition. No matter how hard I try I am always somewhat averse to eating aubergine because of my early interaction with this food. I suspect that we are also coloured in our preferred digestion of the food of life by those who have come before us. Occasionally we have to revisit our understandings in order to ensure that what we have been fed is the true food and is lining us up to function as a whole as a community. How are we to know what is good to eat?

Do we really know what the bread of life tastes like or have we seasoned it too much?

Usually we are taught by our parents and by those who are older than us. No matter what culture we come from the food that we eat is prevalent in that culture and we soon know what is good and what is not. Our tastes change as we know but we often come back to what our families and parents gave to us. In our faith journey we are only as good as the food that we have been given in the past and the actions of those around us. If we have seen true love and neighbourliness being given then we are likely to mirror this in our own lives. But what happens if the food for our faith journey has shown us a different aspect one that does not increase love but rather one that ensures bitterness and division as normality within the Church family.  Our immediate reaction is to say no way not possible. Then if that is the case why have we not got those who are younger present worshipping God in places of worship? Is it perhaps that they have seen fallacy in action rather than love, have they heard words that have enticed without actions to form reality?

If we are conformed to Christ we will taste those things which are good, we will be drawn to those things that sustain. To often the food that we have had in the past colours our palates and if that food has been rich and misleading in flavour we may not recognise the simplicity of God's message. We may find that the food that has been disguised by the flavours of the server are not the simple flavours that come with God's love. Is it any wonder that we do not go for food when we have previously been poisoned? How do we recover from food poisoning? We go back to the simple foods of the nurturing family that we came from and begin again. We take each step slowly. Expanding our tastes so that we retain the simple flavours of Christ's loving presence as we engage with others around us.