Soup's On!

A friend of mine once told me about her family’s recipe for Hamburger Soup. “It’s just like the vegetable soup,” she explained, “but it has ground beef in it. A whole lot of ground beef.” I laughed. That’s exactly how we eat it at our house, except we don’t call it that. It wasn’t until I had a few years on me that I realized the soup I grew up eating was not Vegetable Soup, per se. It’s more like Meat Soup with a Few Vegetables, but we just call it “Soup.”

As I write this, there is a huge pot of soup cooking on the stove. It’s good soup-eating weather, kind of grey and chilly outside. I know in a few minutes, it will be ready, and I will go to the kitchen. I’ll pick out a bowl from the cabinet and ladle the soup into the bowl, allowing as much juice as possible to drip back down into the pot. (Don’t ask; I know it defeats the purpose of having soup. It’s beyond explanation.) Then I’ll grab something to drink and head for the dining room.

What if I show up to the table without a spoon? What if we were eating something else and I forgot my fork? Naturally, this has happened before, and I have gone back to the kitchen to retrieve the utensil. What if I didn’t have a spoon or a fork? What then?

Twice on Sunday and once on Wednesday, the elders have afforded us the opportunity for a spiritual feast. We are all cordially invited to feast on the riches of God’s Word. Showing up to Bible Study and Worship without a Bible in my hand would be like my showing up to the dining room table without a fork!

One thing about our congregation that has always made me proud is the sound of pages turning when the preacher calls out a scripture reference. I notice this because for a while, he asked the congregation, “Where’s your sword?” I can’t really turn to the passage and read along when I left my Bible at home or in the car, can I?

Remember how the writer of Acts described the Christians at Thessalonica? He said they “received the word with all readiness, and searched the Scriptures daily to find out whether these things were so” (Acts 17:11, NKJV). It seems to me that two things were at work here: one, they paid attention to the lesson (and may have read along, but that’s hard to know since the printing press wasn’t available yet), and, two, they went home and re-studied what they had just learned to make sure it was the truth.

II Timothy 2:15 says, “Be diligent to present yourself approved to God, a worker who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth” (NKJV). The King James Version says “Study” instead of “Be diligent.” Both imply work on our part. Let us be like those Christians at Thessalonica – eager, prepared, and working to grow spiritually! (Not to mention, show up for the feast on Sundays and Wednesdays. What good is food to you if you’re not there to eat it?)