We’ll continue our six-week worship series, Tasting Resurrection, this week by reflecting on lessons from the Gospel of John and a Netflix series called Chef’s Table. Each week focuses on a story from John and a chef featured in the first season of Chef’s Table. This week we turn to John 10.22-30 and Francis Mallmann.
Outline for Tasting Resurrection
• April 3: John 20.19-31 & Massimo Bottura
•April 10: John 21.1-19 & Dan Barber
•April 17: John 10.22-30 & Francis Mallmann
•April 24: John 13.31-35 & Niki Nakayama
•May 1: John 14.23-29 & Ben Shewry
•May 8: John 17.20-26 & Magnus Nilsson
Francis Mallmann is South America’s most famous chef. Having been classically trained in France by others at the age of 40 he returned to his home of Argentina to get in touch with his roots and to find his own language of cooking. His language became based in fire and the uncertainty of cooking over open flames. Now in his 60’s and looking back on that time and his rediscovery of fire he said: “I didn’t invent anything really. I just went down to my knees, looked around and remembered all the tools from my childhood. I looked around a bit into the mountains and saw what the natives had been doing. I grabbed all that and I started cooking with it. But it was very slowly. It was a process that took the last 20 years. I feel that I just started. There’s so much more to do because fire is such a fragile and beautiful thing…. It’s very fragile. I love it. I’m learning a lot still” (Chef Francis Mallmann: ‘Fire Is Such a Fragile and Beautiful Thing’ The Splendid Table. Web. 09 Apr. 2016).
Reflect on a time when you have eaten food that was cooked on a grill. How was the fire created? Who tended the fire? Who grilled the food? How did the grill master know that the food was “ready”?
Read John 10.22-30 .
The people gathered around Jesus say, “If you are the Messiah, tell us plainly (v 34).” Talking “plainly” about things that are inherently complex or even beyond our understanding can be quite misleading to the hearer and even demeaning to the discussion. The trouble with talking plainly about the things of God is that the things of God are the opposite of plain. God grasps us; we do not grasp God. Jesus’ life and teaching point us toward God but our individual task is to support ourselves and others in tasting resurrection for ourselves.
Try to “talk plainly” with someone you trust about the state of your soul and how God is grasping you this week. How do you feel you are doing as an individual in growing in faith and supporting others to do the same? What is one way you would like to be challenged to grow in faith this week? Consider sharing this with someone who will hold you accountable.