Comfort Food and Communion

Welcome to Expanding Your Faith, a podcast that tackles modern day issues with a focus on spirituality, with Bishop Greer Godsey, Reverend Mark Trim, and Bishop Ben Williams. Thanks for listening. Take a breath, open your heart, and let's expand your faith together. Hello everyone, and welcome to this edition of Expanding Your Faith. I'm Bishop Greer, and joining me tonight is Reverend Mark. Greetings, everyone. And Bishop Ben. Blessings to all. This evening, we were going to talk about the Rita's Manifesto and Nazareth Manifesto with Padre Ricardo, but due to the wildfires in Southern California, he is not able to be with us tonight, so hopefully we'll have him next Saturday to be able to do part two of that conversation. But tonight, we're going to talk about, well, a lighter topic. Comfort, food, and communion. This is meant to be a lighthearted episode about sharing our comfort foods and our experiences with comfort foods, our experiences with hospitality that kind of goes hand in hand with communion. When you have that kind of fellowship and meal together, it's kind of a symbolic form of communion. And so we're going to kind of talk about that tonight. I want to remind everyone that you can find our podcast at podcast. MyOCCI.Social or on Apple Podcast or wherever you get your podcast from. We've had some rather heavy topics this season so far, so this is a chance to slow down and just kind of view the lighter side of life. And food shows up everywhere in scripture and in ministry, man, and the wilderness, the wedding at Cana, the feeding of the 5,000, the last supper, the meal on the road to Emmaus. God just keeps showing up around the table every time you turn around. And so before getting into the theology of this idea, we're going to talk about food that feels like home to each of us and how food and hospitality show up in our ministries and in our lives. Just kind of kind of open the floor. I'll start. What kind of comfort food are you looking forward to talking about tonight? Mine is going to be about Chinese food in particular. What about you, Reverend Mark? Oh, gosh. See, I, oh, so comfort food to me. is something that is there in the word, the comfort. It's what I'm in my feels, I guess, but I understand some people look at it as favorite foods versus comfort foods. My favorite is going to be anything Italian. And if you're talking about dessert, it's going to be ice cream. ice cream for the churches, ice cream, social tomorrow. It just come out of the churn and into the freezer to thicken up. Excellent, excellent. Bishop Ben, which the comfort food you're looking forward to talking about tonight? Hmm. Do we have to talk about that? Anyways, and it's a comfort food for me is like, like pizza or maybe a subway sandwich, something like that. Very cool. I mean, nothing depends on my mood. Nothing wrong with that. So for me, Chinese has always been my comfort food. I love Chinese food, you know, and I can't really put my finger on any kind of family origin with it. Some of the first meals I had when I moved here to South Carolina, Georgia, were with Bishop Parker. And he would take me to restaurants I had never been to before. And before moving here in 2003, so you can do the math, I never had Chinese food. Never in my life. And so he took me to a buffet on Washington Road. It's not there anymore. It used to be called Shangri-La. Oh, yeah. Washington Road. Excellent, excellent Chinese restaurant. And I had my first experience with Chinese food. And for me, it was a combination of being able to sit there and talk with him, someone who was a kindred spirit and fellowship over a meal that just kind of stuck with me. And so whenever I'm depressed, whenever I'm upset, whenever I'm having a bad time, I like to munch on a little Chinese food to bring me a little comfort. And so that's always been an important thing for me, not just the food but the fellowship. That's why the MCC's dining night out are so important. Because it gives us an opportunity to have that food and fellowship moment. And I think it's so important. And also understanding that a lot of people don't have that opportunity to get together with family or friends or people that support and love them and share fellowship over food is vitally important. And it weighs on my mind quite a bit when I am considering this idea of comfort food. And so for me, one of the greatest things that shows that hospitality and sharing of comfort food is when we have potlucks at church, which the MCC does every month. And it is a wonderful time of fellowship and laughter and people being able to just sit and reminisce and bring their favorite foods, you know, and share their favorite foods with everyone else, which I think is amazing. One of the things that we used to do at St. Francis, and I've been seriously considering getting back into it, is to the Thanksgiving community meals where we get together at the church and have a community meal for people who don't have the ability to go anywhere else for the homeless and the poor community area to be able to come and share a Thanksgiving dinner together. Reverend Mark kind of does that. I'm going to brag on you for a moment. Everything's giving by inviting people to come over to his house who don't have anywhere else to go. And that's wonderful. And there are a lot of people who do that. There are a lot of people in the community and across the world that do that. Everything's giving. And I think that's a wonderful thing. So do you, Reverend Mark, do you and Bishop Ben, have any follow-up questions, reactions, or maybe gentle ribbing? Well, you know, I like that you brought up the fact about the potluck for the churches. But the one thing I do like is doing home services for people at home, because then when you invite, when you do the home service, you can actually have somebody, you can ask people to bring a meal or like a dish, like macaroni and cheese, but then have a potluck in the home as to the service. Right. That's kind of like a communion service in itself, because you're having the fellowship there within the home. And that's something that St. Mariam's does every week is they have an agape meal communion service. Right, with Father Liam. Father Liam travels to different homes of different people in the parish. and they have a small communion service and meal together. And it's a very well done thing. It's a very meaningful thing, not just for the people that are there, but also for Father Liam. It's very meaningful. Right, because it gives the community a chance to meet with him on a personal level, up close and personal, instead of him being behind the altar. That, that makes sense. That makes sense, Reverend Mark. Well, there's a lot to say here. I don't know which direction you want me to go just yet. The foods, meals and getting together. And for me personally is very important. I'm from originally from Chattanooga, Tennessee, a southern boy here. My grandmothers are all southern and parents southern. You know, food is a big part of our lives. It's just, it's just a lot. And it's important to our hip, my heritage, we just give you an idea. My grandmother would, if she met you and she met you twice, by the third time, she would know what your favorite food was and do her best to fix it. Now, if it was Italian, you were out of luck because she couldn't stand, she wasn't a cheese person. She used to work in a dairy farm growing up and she couldn't stand a smell. But anything else, she'd figure out what your favorite food was. And if she knew you were coming, she would have that prepared for you. So that's kind of my background. And to me, it's very biblical. When you look in the Old Testament throughout scripture, you find that when strangers wandered into your land, slash camp, wherever you were, that you were supposed to prepare and open your tent, your home, depending on the setup, your abode, you were supposed to open up your dwelling, your tents to them and allow them to come in. And one of the things as far as opening your home to them would be, of course, to allow them to sit at the dinner table. And, you know, so it's, it's, you know, when communion, I know we'll talk about this in a minute, when communion was brought up and instituted, it was very understandable. You know, the disciples had a very strong understanding of what Jesus is trying to do here. And it's probably one reason it blew their mind as far as the instituting of it. But you mentioned a little bit ago that we do, we do fellowships all the time at MCC and their vital, I believe, in the growth of the church. You know, when you feed people, some of their defenses come down. Some of their walls, if you will, come down. They lower some of those barriers and things that they have of those shields and so on, so forth. Take off the masks a little bit. Because food tends to relax people. You know, when you're hungry, it relaxes you. When you're hungry, it causes you to be pleasant. And so we do that, and how many times have you sat across the dinner table, even with some of the most confrontational moments, and food helped lower the very will in the room. And many people in our church have to know each other. It's our ice cream social for the for the summer. And I wouldn't be by some socials in the fall, ice cream socials in the winter, ice cream socials in the spring. I'm going to make that suggestion. I might get overruled, but at least we have it in the summer. And so it to me, you know, God knew that opening the table to individuals to each other would be a way in which fellowship was was realized. Absolutely. And a reminder that comfort food doesn't necessarily mean healthy food. And we take no apologies for that whatsoever. No. Not at all. You know, that's kind of the point is that is an opportunity for us to be human and just enjoy something that we enjoy. So, Reverend Mark, you want to share some of your comfort foods and the stories behind them? Yeah, I mean, again, raised southern. So we we knew more about unhealthy foods than we knew we know about healthy. And it's interesting because, you know, ice cream is my go to comfort food. It's it's something that gives me great joy. I can I can have basic vanilla or I can embrace, you know, chocolates and caramel is one of my go to added for it. But lasagna, pizza, just about anything Italian. One of my favorite meals is a good steak and baked potato. You know, good old, good old fashioned, turns to sugar type of baked potato when you eat it. And and food was a huge part of growing up because we I mean, we had birthdays, you know, my family gets together for birthdays all the time. And there's always cake and ice cream. My granddad was the huge ice cream person. So I always saw him eating ice cream. Before we go to bed, my grandmothers, we had cereal, cereals of big thing going to bed. Her, her go to was corn flakes and bananas. chop up bananas and put them in her corn flakes. That's how she ate cereal. But she had all of the grandkids favorite cereal and mine was Captain Crunch growing up. So she had all of our favorite cereals. And, you know, sometimes I do those practices, even as an adult, I, you know, I remember growing up and moving out and living in my own place and telling myself, you know, what you can have Captain Crunch anytime you want, because you're a grown adult and you live on your own. And that's right. Practice that I keep to this day. But that's one of my favorite comfort foods. And, you know, I have a bunch of holiday foods as the, you know, from Thanksgiving to from fall to Thanksgiving to Christmas that I have to have, you know, of course Thanksgiving, you got to have your dressing a good and I finally have learned to make decent dressing. I'm thankful for that. And then, you know, during the holiday Christmas season, it's always eggnog or hot chocolate. So, and then when the winter rolls around, you got to have a good soup here and there. So, yeah, and I enjoy sharing those things. I enjoy knowing what people like when they come over to our house. holidays are about the only time I can entertain because I'm just so busy. But I love doing it during the holidays and blessing other people. And just to me, sharing that table brings great joy to me. Share it. Watching other people connect while they're sitting at my table and connecting with people that they ordinarily wouldn't connect with is wonderful. Having family over is wonderful. It's a lot of work, but it's a labor of love, in my opinion. So, that's a good segue there to my next question for you, Reverend Mark, and that is you want to discuss a little bit about how food is a way for LGBT people who have been rejected by biological family to find and rebuild a sense of chosen family around a shared table. I think we probably in our community get it better than anybody because of the, you know, the push we get away from our traditional family, our gatherings, where, you know, even if we come to a family gathering, we have to not bring our partners or not bring up who we are, you know, speak with a deeper voice. whatever the case is, you know, with a family member, don't upset aunt or uncle, so and so don't tell grandmother this. So we have a lot of obstacles and hurdles sometimes to overcome in our family gatherings. Some people just are never invited back to family gatherings once they come out or affirm who they are as a person, you know, whoever they are. whatever the case may be with the family member, they aren't allowed to go back. So, we crave relationships. I was talking to someone just a little bit ago before I came on with you. I was telling them, I said, we're designed for relationships. God made us for connection. Some people have a lot of connections. They can do, you know, all those sanguine personalities and those outgoing individuals. They can connect, you know, other people. They really connect to just two, three, one person. But we're all designed for those connections. And when it comes time for celebration, when it comes time for moments of remembrance, we generally gather at a table. And sometimes people from the LGBTQIA community find themselves at an empty table. And we have to work harder to make those connections with other people that are broken, with other people that are going through difficult moments. And that can be hard because if we do something that's traditional, you know, serve a particular dish or something, it reminds them of something that they've lost with a family. You know, maybe, you know, one of the things that we used to do for birthdays is we get together and we had hot dogs or hamburgers and then you'd have ice cream and cake for the birthdays and, you know, that tradition. Well, you know, maybe somebody had that tradition. They get kicked out of their family and they go to a birthday and they do the exact same thing. It could be difficult for them because they're remembering what, you know, that family that rejected them. And so it can be hard to navigate all those things. And when you're bringing in and chosen family or you're bringing in people that are, you know, each one of us have that story of separation. It can be hard to, you know, to mesh. And what you try to focus on is, hey, this is something new. This is something brand new. This is a fresh start. This is living in something completely different to experience. And try to encourage people to embrace what they have in front of them versus what has passed behind them and may no longer be available to them. And so that, you know, our gatherings can be somewhat of a challenge, but they can also be very rewarding and extremely healing. - Absolutely. And I so enjoy the gatherings that we have, you know, both at church and, you know, in the public. The dining night outs are fabulous because we get to go to a different restaurant every time. And I've been introduced to foods that I have never seen or heard of before. So, you know, it's been a wonderful adventure. And to be able to see people light up and enjoy getting together is also a blessing. So it's a wonderful thing really is. Bishop Ben, tell us about your comfort food and the story behind it. - Well, I remember the first time I found out the pizza was, I was doing a, I was doing a, doing my seminary school training was becoming a priest. And dad had said, you know, what do you all like? for food, you know, after a hard day of classes and training we had, he says, what do you all want for food? And we all sugar head like we don't know. And we're used to having whatever we have in our homes, you know. And then he said, well, what about pizza? And I said, well, what kind of pizza? Like are we ordering out or are we cooking in? What are we doing? He says, no, we got a kitchen, why order out? So we went down the stairs to the dining hall and on the hall, he had some skills that we didn't know he had making pizza. So we ended up having pizza and we were sitting on the table, fellowshiping and having a good time. And I remember there was a lady did not in the back door, you know, we had an alley, back home, had alleys in our hometown. She's not in the bed, there was a seminary. I got to answer the door. And she said, no, she was a homeless lady. And she says, do you have room at our table to feed us? I said, sure, come on in. You know, and we all fellowship together, you know. And for me, that always reminds me that, you know, we're eating at a table. What about the people that don't have a place to eat or fellowship or even call home? To eat at home in peace and in safety. There's always made us going to be hungry. It reminds me of when we were on the Zoom call, me and you, but remember, one of our priests, he had a bag of peanuts that this body had to eat for today. One little bag of peanuts. Absolutely. And that's why I was saying earlier, you know, it's, it's so important that we honor those times because there are those that don't have that opportunity. Don't have that chance. So as an old Catholic bishop, Bishop Ben, any thoughts on how sacramental theology and ordinary table fellowship relate? That's a good question. And it does relate because when Jesus was at the Last Supper, what was he doing? He was fellowshipping with his disciples, right? Right. And at the same time, what did he institute? The Holy Eucharist. Right. So it does, it rings for, it was a meal. I'm pretty sure before he did the Eucharist, he had a full size of four meal with his disciples. Right. It combines everything together. It really does. Yes, it does. Absolutely. And this thing, you mount the Eucharist all the time, change how you think about everyday shared meals. It does. You know, you sit there and as you're eating your meal, like I said, you know, you can read to me, you and Reverend Mark, you know, we have time to fellowship with our congregations. We attend the fellowship with our brotherhood. And, you know, we choose to have our families, chosen families. So it all combines together. But it helps me when I'm saying eating a meal, I think about the people that don't have the food. But I also think about what Jesus instituted on his last meal. Because the meal we're eating could be our last meal. We never know. So very true. So very true. I want to share one of my favorite stories about a group gathering, excuse me, in our jurisdiction. And it was a trip that I made with a couple of other bishops up to St. Miriams back when they were in their previous location before they purchased the church they're in now. And we were up there for confirmations to confirm a bunch of students. And now mind you, the majority of these parishioners at St. Miriams are Philadelphia born and raised. So there's that. And most of them are Italian Catholics. So when I say there was pasta for miles, there was pasta for miles. Which is not the best thing for a a person with diabetes like myself to have. And they have food just out the water. So every kind of pasta you could think of, every kind of dish you could think of. And I went through and I got a little bit of this and a little bit of that and tried to sample a little bit of everything. But it was becoming increasingly obvious that was not going to happen. I was going to die if I kept it up. So I went and sat down and I was eating. I'll be darned if some of the older ladies in the parish didn't start bringing plates of food to my table. Bishop, you need this. You need to try that. You need to eat this. You know, we can't let you go hungry Bishop. And I'm like, I'm full. I don't need any more food. They just kept shoving food at me. I felt like I was going to have to crawl out of there to get away from them. It was crazy. But it was so wonderful. It showed so much love and care and concern that they wanted to make sure I was taken care of and had plenty to eat. And it was a great time. It was a great time of fellowship for everybody. But that's one of my favorite stories from one of our gatherings. Do you have a favorite story from a gathering Rivermark? Oh, there's a lot. I mean, I Yeah, I mean, there is so many. I have to go back to my grandmother again. She just it was she she loved to serve other people and how she served what she knew to do was to feed them. And it was her goal to know what made you happy as far as a food was concerned. And she would find that out. And she would just inundate you with that. I mean, I would come to see her. She lived in Chattanooga and we lived down here. So I would go see her and she would have a box of, like I said, cat and crunch. And then she would send a box of at home. And then she had another one in reserve of that box. And so, you know, my nephew, my oldest nephew, he loved bacon and honey, she had all kinds of bacon when we would go up to visit and he would just eat bacon all the time because that's what she would make. And, you know, knowing that her thing that I loved and she made sure that I had it every time I saw her was homemade. banana pudding. She would make it from scratch. She would she'd made it for years and she had a special container that it would go in that was only for the banana pudding. And everybody knew that when we came up, they would get fresh banana pudding. Because that's what I liked. And I loved it so much and that one day, as I got older, in my late teens, I asked her, I said, would you teach me how to do it? And it took a long time for me to learn how to do it. But with just the way she did it, because her pudding was made from scratch, but that pudding was so smooth. And if you know anything about making pudding, it can lump up on you. But she knew how to make it right. And so I, it took me a long time to figure that out. I finally figured it out. I thought I had some grand revelation. And I told her what I had learned. And she was like, well, yeah, that's what you do. She just, she was just like, I knew that. And so, but, you know, she, she wanted me to learn it. And so I learned how to make it. And it's almost identical to hers. And so when I share it with other people, one of the first things, particularly my family, one of the first things they'll say is, either just like or almost like grandmothers. And that brings joy knowing that I was able to, you know, share that because she shared it. She taught us. And that, again, that's one of my favorite gatherings is all the ones in which she would be there to make sure that you had something that you loved. And, you know, that's, that's why I try to do that for other people is to make sure that they're enjoying when they come over into my home that they're comfortable. And I think that's something that we should strive to do is to make our homes a place in which people can come and they're comfortable because they can open up and be themselves. They can open up and, you know, maybe they don't have a place in which they're able to relax. And I think that that's the same principle that God wants us to do when we go into sanctuary with community is we want to be able to relax. We want to be able to not fall asleep in the pews unless the pasture is really bad. But, but that's the principle. That's why there's a table set before us. That's why Psalms 23 was written for us. Not, you know, I know Psalms 23 is often quoted in funerals, but it has very little to do with death and way more to do with life and how God intends us to live. And so, but I believe that that's the way we should be when we come gathering as God's children is that we're relaxed and we're open to the spirit to talk to us. We're open to the message that's coming from the scripture, a message that invites us to set at the table, not because you know, it's the thing that we do out of ritual, but because we belong at that table. And, you know, I know when I go to my father or my mother's house that, you know, I'm not just invited, but I belong there. Same thing with my sister. She knows because she's got a key to my house. She knows she belongs at my table. And I think that that's what God wants us to do when we're showing that hospital. And that's a, that's a, that's a huge rabbit trail to go down as far as hospitality goes and scripture, but I think it's very important. Certainly. When we share at table that people know that they're, but, you know, and some of the, so I hate not being invited to a table. I hate, you know, just maybe you know, showing up at a table. If I don't feel invited into the table, that is one of the hardest meals. That's one of the most uncomfortable moments for me is when you don't feel like you're welcome or belong. And too many people in churches feel that way. No, I agree 100%. So why does food keep showing up as a setting for some of God's biggest moments? Like the man in the wilderness, the wedding at Cana, the feeding of the multitude, the last supper, the resurrected Christ eating fish on the beach and cooking breakfast for the disciples in John 21. Well, I think that part of that is because God understands a couple of different things. One, I think that Martin Luther King Jr. put it best, you know, you cannot preach the gospel to someone whose stomach is louder than your words. You know, we have to take care of some ice physical needs. before we can attend to their spiritual needs, you know, and God understands that concept. And so you see time and again, Jesus feeding people and then teaching them, not the other way around, not teaching them and then feeding them. And sometimes I think we get that in reverse today. And we, we want people to sit through the sermon first and then be like, well, now we'll feed you. Now that you've listened to my sermon. And so I think that that's an important thing to remember is that God cares for our physical needs first, before our spiritual needs. What are your thoughts, Reverend Martin? I think it's 100%. I think it's an ego for us to sit there and say, no, you got to come in here and listen to me first. And while I believe what I have to say, we'll minister to them and bring health and healing to their spirit and maybe put them on a path for healing in their minds. It's hard to hear when you're hungry. It's hard to hear when you're weak because you're not having food. Opening, you know, giving of substance, you know, we have a hard time relating to that in America right now because we're so blessed. We have so much food. There's so many places on the corner. of our streets that we can go in and grab a biscuit, you know, a donut or something. And we don't think twice about it, you know, within a mile of my house, there's probably nine places to choose from to eat. And that doesn't include the grocery store. And I have two of those within the mile of my house. And so it's hard for us to lock into that concept that when we give of food, when we give of our substance, when we give of our table, that that's something sacrificial. But we're opening our hearts to the people. We're opening our arms and our hands and we're releasing something. And God is about releasing things. God is about us releasing our burdens. God is about releasing our cares. God's also about us releasing our food and our substance to one another, particularly to those that are at least among us and to one another. And so it's important for us to to know that and to receive that and to express that. And, you know, there's there's people that all they're thinking about is, I don't know if I will make it through the day, because I don't have substance, particularly in other countries. And for us to sit up there and bloviate for 30 minutes, or to expand for 30 minutes, you know, I don't care if you're sitting there eating a donut. Maybe your spirit will catch a couple of things that I'm saying, eat your donut. And I believe Jesus would do the same thing, you know. And I mean, he got mad. Jesus got mad when the disciples was like, just send everybody away. They're hungry. And he got grieved about it. And he's like, no, we're going to feed them. And this is on us. We brought them all the way out here. So I mean, yeah, I mean, our message captivated them and brought them here. Let's see what we can do. You know, and some churches can do a lot. You know, some churches can only do a little something, you know, and that's why the scripture says, if you give a prophet water in my name, then you can receive that prophet reward. And so just a cup of water sometimes is all we can do, but we should do something. We can do something. Okay, here's a light party question for everybody. Maybe God likes a good meal too. Maybe he says something about how ordinary physical embodied comfort is not post spirituality, but wrapped up in it. What do you think one of God's favorite foods might be? Are you asking me? I'm asking any of you. I wouldn't know to be honest. I wasn't there. I mean, ice cream, obviously. Ice cream. fish. Fish and bread. Oh, don't be so super spiritual, their bishop and come on. Maybe he had a maybe he had a hot dog and a hamburger. There we go. It's a french fries. I believe God gave us the wisdom and the knowledge to learn how to make those things. So that's why I'm landing on ice cream. Right? I was doing your discussion, remember, Morgan, and it hit home because I was thinking, you know, we say here and we hear the words and we hear what people are saying. And people come to mass and they come to your service on Sunday mornings. But do they truly hear the words of the communion table is open to all. We are not the gatekeepers. We are the ones we don't know. They come in because they're hungry, spiritually hungry to get fed. Do they truly hear the words? They're welcome. Full stop, no askers. No, no asking what religion you are part of your part of. Do they truly hear the words? And do they truly understand what it means? They're welcome to the table no matter what. I mean, I I think I think it's a I think it's a prove me moment. I think it's a show me moment because so many have been shown the door have been shown the hands up. You know, even, you know, I'm an ordained minister. I have been for years and and I start thinking about it now and I'm like, Oh, wow, I've been here for a while. And but I go to I can go to some denominations and they throw the hand up even at me saying you can't receive communion. It's an exclusive thing for just a select few. And so I think we have to show them by inviting them to the table. And there are people in our church who receive communion now, but for a long time didn't because they didn't feel worthy. They didn't feel welcome. They weren't sold on the message because they were given that hand up No, you are you love the wrong type of person. You make us uncomfortable. Forget about God, but you make us uncomfortable. Therefore, that's a no for you. And so I think we have to continually show them and invite them in. It's like a wounded animal. When you you have to sometimes be slow, slow, slow with them before they catch on. And then once they catch on, I mean, they're, you know, they're there for life. But it's getting them to buy into it. I hate to be, you know, capitalistic in my terms there. But you have to buy into it sometimes. And you have to give them the opportunity. I can say that you belong, you belong, you belong, you belong. Until somebody grabs the hand and pulls you up there. No, I get that. I understand that all too well. So I think I know the answer to this forever. Mark. But what is one dish each of you would like to have at the wedding feast of the lamb purely for fun? Was one dish you'd like to see at the wedding feast of the lamb? Go ahead, Reverend Mark. That's rude to just limit it to one. Probably probably my sister's lasagna. That's good. Yeah, it's so good. It's so good. I would like to have black pepper chicken. I'd say tamales. Ooh, tamales, tamales. Yeah, tamales. Yeah. I'll be lighting up that throne room. I tell you. Yeah. Right. All the angels will be, you know, doing their wings in the opposite direction. That's right. fully hair out of the room. We're clearing out the blaze. That's right. So I wanted to mention a couple of people commented during the live sister Tracy Ann said some of her comfort foods were southern food, fried chicken, greens, most beans, fried green tomatoes, fried potatoes, that sort of thing. That's that is definitely true southern food cuisine right there. right. There's some good comfort food. And Tom over on TikTok, I think said ribeyes. Yes, you did. Ribeyes. Ribeyes. Yeah. I love a good ribeye. Good ribeye. You can't pass that up. You really can't. My family in Florida. I have family in Northern Florida and they're all super southern. Their thing is stewed tomatoes and rice. That's a big thing for our family. Oh, yeah. Stute tomatoes and rice is good. Food tomatoes and rice and pork chops. Oh, I love me a good pork chop now. Yeah. Long as it's not cremated. Right. Let's just let's just say that side of the family has high sodium levels. Right. Right. Well, I want to recap because we're nearing the end of the night. It flew by. Why didn't I tell you what? Comfort food is not trivial. It's tied to memory, to family, to hospitality and ultimately the way God keeps showing up around tables throughout scripture. And of course, I want to encourage you all in the comments when this podcast is posted and you have an opportunity to listen to it. Post your favorite comfort food and your table story on the postings on social media and on our website. As always, if you have any ideas for topics or comments or questions you'd like to have answered, you can always send them to bishop Godsey@myocci.org or use the contact form at our st. Francis.org. As always, you can catch us at podcast.myocci.social as podcast with an S at the end.myocci.social. An Apple podcast or wherever you find your podcasts, we're live every night Saturday night at eight p.m. Eastern time on you now.com four slash Bishop Greg and TikTok at symbol expanding your faith. I want to thank Reverend Mark and Bishop Ben for being here tonight and sharing this wonderful night with us. Thank you for having us. I appreciate it. It's always a pleasure to host these and to have you all with us. And so I hope that you all will have a good comfort food evening. Get you something good to eat. And I hope you'll join us again next time when we once again attempt to expand your faith. Keep shining bright, my friends. find us online at podcasts.myocci.social and our st. Francis.org. Follow us on Facebook at expanding your faith. Our producer is Bishop Ben Williams. Expanding your faith is an outreach ministry of St. Francis Parish and outreach in Augusta, Georgia. Produced in cooperation with the Metropolitan Community Church of our Redeemer in Augusta, Georgia. Until next time, keep expanding your faith. (upbeat music)