The Masbia Project -- FPC sermon excerpt

The restaurant is called Masbia. That’s the Hebrew word for “satisfy.”

It is located in Queens, New York. There are three more restaurants in nearby Brooklyn, close to the area I visited last month as part of my training in community organizing.

What’s unique about the Masbia restaurant is that it is cost-free. It is a place where impoverished Jews in need of kosher meals can eat. But it is no mere soup kitchen — at Masbia, guests sit at cloth-covered tables and are served by waiters, five nights a week.

Eating kosher is very important to many Jews. Other Jews respect the kosher dietary laws, but joke about them. They say that according to Jewish dietary law, pork and shellfish may be eaten only in Chinese restaurants.

The idea for the Masbia restaurant came from a man named Mordechai Mandelbaum. His friends describe him as an extraordinarily good person — in fact, they call him “crazy good.” His house is like a soup kitchen, constantly filled with guests, poor people who stay with him and his wife.

One night, while studying Jewish writings and schmoozing, he and his friends decided that they needed to create a more formal way of feeding the hungry. Mr. Mandelbaum donated the initial seed money, and Masbia was opened in the year 2005.

The first night, eight people were served dinner. Six months later, the restaurant was feeding up to 120 patrons each evening. Since then, Masbia has continued to expand, and currently the four restaurants provide dinner to more than 500 people a day.

The first followers of Jesus created a kind of Masbia Project in the city of Jerusalem. They were all still Jews, although they had come to believe that Jesus was the Messiah. Like Mr. Mandelbaum and his friends, they developed a formal way of feeding the hungry. The Book of Acts tells us that they “devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.” They sold their possessions and goods and distributed the proceeds to all, as any had need. They “broke bread at home and ate their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having the goodwill of all the people” (Acts 2:42-47).

I find it amazing that so much of the life of the first Christians revolved around food. The breaking of bread appears twice in Acts 2:42-47, and linked to this simple act of hospitality are so many other good activities: Teaching, fellowship, prayer, sharing with the poor, praising God. The result is that the church got bigger and healthier, as the “the Lord added to their number those who were being saved.”

The very same can happen today, if we follow the Christians of Jerusalem in practicing hospitality. Christian Hospitality can satisfy our deepest needs, help us to serve the poor, and enable our church to grow.