Having been involved in church their entire lives, my sons have grown up experiencing the gastronomic wonders of covered dish dinners. This, they feel, has earned them the right to be considered experts on that great American church tradition known as “food and fellowship.”
Though they are hearty, super-sized young men, my guys are not crazy about church dinners. As little kids, they used to say everything at church potlucks “was green and smelled funny.” Of course, at that point in their lives, they wanted to eat cereal or chicken nuggets for every meal. Their food repertoire has expanded since then, but for some reason, they still aren’t overly fond of the sights, smells and tastes of church dinners.
One of the Crum brothers’ theories about potluck dinners is that if you analyze the basic ingredients of most dishes typically brought to these feasts, you will discover that they are built upon foundations of Cool Whip or cream of mushroom soup. Cooking for church dinners, according to my sons, simply requires the ability to creatively dress up a can of mushroom soup or tub of Cool Whip.
That is, of course, a slight exaggeration. After all, where would modern potlucks be without Kentucky Fried Chicken, Stouffer’s macaroni and cheese or Mrs. Smith’s pies? Nevertheless, the Crum boys stand by their theory.
At our church, we have large warming units where folks store their casseroles and other baked delicacies until church services are over and the dinner begins. My son, Ryan, theorizes that while stored in these warming units, all baked things morph into what he calls a “unicasserole” and come out smelling and tasting the same. While they are warming side by side together, Ryan speculates that ingredients and smells from the various dishes intermingle and adopt the same identity.
To hear Ryan expound on his unicasserole theory makes me suspect that his brain has surely been chemically altered by overexposure to cream of mushroom soup and Cool Whip. But as bizarre as these theories sound, they do lend themselves to some spiritual parallels.
Perhaps we, as Christians, really should have the same basic ingredients. Not cream of mushroom soup or Cool Whip, but ingredients like faith, honesty, trust, humility, obedience, integrity, love and a hunger to know God. We certainly have different personalities, gifts, strengths, weaknesses and quirks — and thank God for that — but when you get below those, you should find some common good stuff.
And like Ryan’s “unicasserole” theory, as long as we’re all packed in this warmer we call life, for better or worse, we do tend to rub off on each other. The ingredients that make up our character – vices or virtues – tend to jump over and influence those around us.
The bad news is that if you’re choosing to sit in a warmer and rub elbows with those who are on a destructive path, there’s a pretty good chance you’ll end up looking and smelling like they do. The good news is that if you’re hanging out with those who have yielded their lives to God’s direction, you’re a whole lot more likely to allow God to mold and shape your character into the character of Jesus.
Next time you clutch your plastic utensils and line up for a covered dish dinner at church, keep a couple of things in mind: We all need a good foundation – not Cool Whip or mushroom soup – but the ingredients that God adds into our lives as we grow in Him; and be careful about who you park next to in the warmer of life — the only good unicasserole is one that looks and tastes like Jesus.