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Sep 17, 2025 06:00am

Hungry for Food or Hungry for Christ?

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The Glorious Potluck

Casseroles line the counter. Chicken spaghetti, Mexican chicken, beef and rice, poppyseed chicken, and green bean. A plate of Mrs. June’s famous handmade egg-rolls, golden brown and piled high. Roast beef and fried chicken. Mashed potatoes, fresh corn off the cob, and the creamiest mac and cheese. Let’s not forget the crockpots. Soup beans, fresh-from-the-garden purple hull peas, chicken and dumplings, and smoky short ribs. And that’s just the start of it. There’s fresh, sliced tomatoes and cucumbers, broccoli salad, deviled eggs, and coleslaw. They had to set up two separate tables for the desserts! Strawberry cake, three kinds of pie—coconut, peanut butter, and pecan—brownies with caramel drizzled on top, and strawberry shortcake.

It’s a dream come true.

But the line is long—I’m talking out the door, down the ramp, and along the building long. Surely, there will be enough.

In your mind, you’re hoping that all will follow potluck etiquette. A little of this and a little of that. It’s not an all-you-can-eat buffet. You want to yell, “Save some for the preacher in the back!” And good grief, are they already going back for seconds when you haven’t even gotten your first plate yet?

By the time you reach the counter, it’s been almost picked clean. No more fried chicken. No more roast beef. But hey, there’s some hash brown casserole left on the spoon you could scrape off.

When you set your plate on the table, the one with a little macaroni and tomatoes, the gristle from the short ribs, and some green beans, your fellow potluck-goers, with their mouths full, exclaim, “Is that all you’re eating?”

Why I oughta… 👊🏻

Potluck etiquette. It’s a real thing. This is supposed to be a fellowshipping meal. Yet we’ve turned it into a race to be first in line with an empty stomach and a gluttonous mind.

This was a problem in the Corinthian church too.

1 Corinthians 11:20–22
“20 When you meet together, you are not really interested in the Lord’s Supper. 21 For some of you hurry to eat your own meal without sharing with others. As a result, some go hungry while others get drunk. 22 What? Don’t you have your own homes for eating and drinking? Or do you really want to disgrace God’s church and shame the poor? What am I supposed to say? Do you want me to praise you? Well, I certainly will not praise you for this!”

Sometimes we forget the reasoning behind the things we do. The Lord’s Supper was supposed to be a time of remembering what Christ had done for the church—how He gave His body and poured out His blood for the salvation of mankind. But within the church at Corinth, it had become something far different.

When they celebrated the Lord’s Supper, the church gathered together for a feast beforehand. A fellowship meal, like our potlucks. This was supposed to be about coming together and sharing in the love of Christ. Whether you had much or very little, you were considered equals at this meal. But some weren’t practicing good “potluck etiquette.” The first in line were greedy and taking all the food for themselves. They were gorging themselves on the food and wine to the point that some were left to go hungry.

There was nothing unifying or truly fellowshipping about this meal. How could they participate in the Lord’s Supper with a pure heart after this?

Paul stepped in with correction to remind them of the reason behind the meal, to encourage unity among them, and then to give clear instructions on how the Lord intended communion to be taken.

As followers of Christ, the key is to “follow” His example. Are we putting the needs of others before our own? Is our focus on Him and His mission to share love and forgiveness with the world, or on our own pleasures and benefit?

Are we hungrier for Christ or for blessings?

To learn more about following Christ, go to follow.lifeword.org. Become His true disciple and then become a disciple-maker. Now in Spanish at follow.lifeword.org/spanish.