Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts. . . .

— Acts 2:46

For a time, our church received donations of day-old bread from a bakery nearby. An elderly man from a neighboring church would pick up the bread and bring it to us on Sunday mornings. Some of it, however, was too tough for his church members to eat, he said, because many of them couldn’t afford dental care and were missing teeth. They could enjoy soft breads, but not the bagels, artisan loaves, and so on. So I suggested that some members in our church might like the breads that their members couldn’t use, and the elder thought that would make a great arrangement.

Early each Sunday morning, he dropped off a few gigantic bags of bagels and seedy artisan loaves, joking each time that this was his gift for “the church of the strong teeth”—and every week without fail we laughed about it. He saved the soft bread for his congregation, and our young people ate bagels after the morning service—and then also each morning throughout the week. This became a regular part of our Sunday gatherings. Our churches became closer because of it, and in a very real way we “ate together with glad and sincere hearts.”

Acts 2 gives a glimpse of the early church and how they gathered for worship and ate bread together. When we break bread together with glad hearts, we remember Jesus and take part in the joy shared by those early followers.

Jesus, by your Spirit be present among us as we break bread together. Amen.