Editor’s Note: The following appeared in the March/April issue of Nurturing Faith Journal.
Two years ago, L’Appartement 4F, a French bakery, opened a few blocks from my house in Brooklyn. The lines have stretched around the block ever since. Moms with strollers, couples with dogs and people in Birkenstocks line up before the bakery opens each day. When you see a long line, you figure it must be incredible.
One of their best sellers is the miniature croissant cereal, Petite Croissant Céréale, which is $50 a box—more than I have ever paid for a box of cereal.
Jeanette Settembre writes: “They require a lot of time and work. They roll them out, shape them into this teeny, tiny triangle and roll it like a regular croissant. After being shaped, the diminutive croissants, weighing about a gram apiece, are dehydrated, rolled in cinnamon-sugar and baked fresh. Each box contains around 250 mini croissants, each around half an inch in length. They are not only adorable, they also remain remarkably crunchy in milk and have a shelf life of two to three weeks” (New York Post, 9/1/22).
They must be good. They sell out every day. The cashier told me I should get in line early on a weekday if I wanted one—and she made it clear I would only be allowed one.
The tiny croissants get most of the attention, but the almond croissant stuffed with raspberry ganache is delicious. When people line up for baked bread, they wait because it is good.
For most of us, bread is a mystery. We buy it at the grocery store in loaves that come in plastic bags. If, on occasion, we bake it at home, we often use a bread machine, which feels like cheating.
Jesus knew it is hard to make good bread. Imagine Jesus as a 6-year-old child in the kitchen, standing at his mother’s elbow, watching her hands slip yeast into flour, kneading the dough and shaping the loaf. The miracle happens daily, with a timing only his mother can decipher. The moment she hands him the finished loaf to take to the table where the family is gathered is Jesus’ first vision of heaven.
Imagine Jesus as a 30-year-old trying to help his students understand God’s love. He thinks, “What if every time we smelled freshly baked bread, we remembered that God’s love permeates the world like the smell of baked bread fills a kitchen?”
Jesus says, “The kingdom of God is like yeast that a woman took and mixed in with three measures of flour until all of it was leavened. Then she waits while the dough rises, on its way to being bread.”
According to Jewish tradition, when the Messiah comes, he will feed all Israel. In the Gospels, Jesus feeds Israel and the Gentiles, too. A significant part of Jesus’ life was giving away bread. The kingdom is about sharing bread.
Imagine Jesus as a 33-year-old, sitting at the table with his friends. The end is near. Jesus wants to give them something memorable, concrete and holy. As they eat, he takes and blesses the bread, breaks it and passes it to disciples who will deny and betray him.
Jesus says, “Take, eat. Whenever you smell bread baking, remember how much I love you. Remember how much God loves you. Remember how much you love one another.”
Waiting in line for the bread at communion is different than waiting in line at a bakery. We do not talk in line at the Lord’s Supper. We stand solemnly. We step forward when a gap opens in front of us. We are not sure where to put our hands. At our sides, maybe? We look around, but not too much. Mostly, we look straight ahead.
We think about what it means. We think about God welcoming everyone in a line that stretches back 2000 years, churches through 20 centuries, countries all over the world and Christians of every stripe, all lining up to receive God’s grace.
The bread must be good if people stand in line for it.
We think about forgiveness, the forgiveness we have been given and the forgiveness we share. We think about the people in line with us, the ones we love and those we do not know. The line moves slowly, but, finally, we are handed a tiny piece of bread that tastes like God’s love.
Senior minister of Plymouth Church in Brooklyn, N.Y.