reflecting the fullness of the son

once a month we celebrate a full moon pizza party. it is part of our experience and expression of church. a very good friend who is also a follower of Jesus challenged me on it because they were concerned that it was a little too similar to the way NOS expressed church at times. being put in same sentence as NOS is nothing new to me and i value this friendship highly and i am glad it has the strength and trust to allow for such questioning. it was also a really positive question for me becuause i was able to process my reflections on our full moon pizza party in a way i hadn't fully done before. below is my response to my friend's enquiry:

for us it is a way of stepping into one of God's rhythms, that of the moon. in the bible God said to celebrate/recognise the new moon and then in the NT he says not to worry about it but we wanted to get in touch with some of these things but the full moon was easier to get the kids into, in a visual way and pizza is like a full moon because it is round and pale (before toppings!!). it is a time when friends and community come together and bring and share their toppings and some poeple bring dough too. there are so many reflections on it that excite me and lead me towards Jesus and the Father. such as:

-the full moon is the moon's full reflection of the sun which leads me to consider what it looks like for us to fully reflect the son.

-coming together to eat is something Jesus did much of, with believers and those who did not yet believe. he also welcomed the hospitality of those who did not yet believe and i enjoy sharing food that is the amalgamation (right word?) of the hospitality of believers and non believers.

-it is a time of wonderful conversation, laughter, children playing and general catching up which seems to happen less and less in reality now that facebook and other online forums are so popular.

-weekly pizza parties are something our friends andrew and debbie jones have always done for as long as we've known them (6 years). the jones' and the pizza parties always inspired us amd so in creating our own pizza party ritual it feels like we are joining in corporate fellowship with them as our faith community/tribe.

-also, as i think about the full moon i become more aware of the moon in general and finding myself engaging with one of the first rhythms God created connects with my spirit.


i think the next step for me is to get my head into the biblical framework for this bit of our church. when God leads me clearly through lots of confirmation from different sources i don't feel the need to look it up in the bible. but maybe this would be a good discipline to get into, undertaken with a big handful of grace - it's not like i sit around twiddling my thumbs looking for things to do with my day!