By Nicholas Tangen
Of soup and love, the first is best.
– Spanish Proverb
Lent is for me, the most wonderful time of the year. It’s the part of the church year where we don’t avoid the minor keys, where we face the reality of our own mortality and the power of the cross, and maybe most importantly, where it’s the season of soup.
Like many churches, my own congregation, Gustavus Adolphus Lutheran Church in Northeast Minneapolis, hosts soup suppers before Wednesday evening worship during Lent, with a handful of members volunteering to bring in a pot of soup to share each week. So far this Lent, I’ve had a wide variety of soups at these suppers, including Turkish Lentil, Potato Leek, several varieties of chili, Chicken Noodle, and many more.
Lenten suppers, and the soup often served at them, is a tradition dating back to the ancient church. Christians have long fasted during Lent, eating only at sundown, and allowed only bread, salt, vegetables, and water for the evening meal. There’s not too much you can make with those ingredients, except soup.
“Soup can be a comfort on cold evenings, a way to practice fasting as a spiritual discipline, and a catalyst for community building.”
In recent years many have thoughtfully pushed back on the practice of fasting, especially when it feeds into toxic moralizing about bodies, weight, and appearance. Fasting loses its spiritual dimension when it becomes attached to these dangerous ideas about body image.
But I am convinced that fasting continues to be a meaningful spiritual practice in the Christian life, as a way to expose ourselves to “… the distance between self-control and the compulsion to self-satisfaction,” as Sister Joan Chittister recounts. Practices of self-discipline like fasting allow us to face our own desires, to reflect on what is essential, and to be reminded of our dependence on the love of God.
LENTEN SOUP SUPPERS and their fare aid in the fast of the season by providing simple meals that stretch a few ingredients to feed a multitude. But more than that, create a space for the common table. Chittister in her book Wisdom Distilled from the Daily says: “At the common table, … we are taught self-control. There is only so much of the vegetables to go around. Everyone must get some. No one must take too much of anything. Nothing should be overcooked. Nothing should be wasted. Nothing that has been prepared for us should be rejected. Here, discipline and fasting are made real.”
Scripture is overflowing with stories centered on the common table. Just in the Newer Testament, we have stories like the feeding of the 5,000, the Wedding at Cana, and Jesus making breakfast on the beach for his friends. For the two friends on the Road to Emmaus, it’s not until gathered at the table that they realize they are in the presence of the Risen Christ. In fasting and the common table, we too open ourselves to the miracle of Christ’s presence in the face of our neighbor.
“Building community around the table confronts the epidemic of loneliness and isolation in our neighborhoods and builds the kind of social capital that contributes to the common good.”
In that spirit, my own congregation has extended an invitation to our neighbors to join us for our Lenten Soup Suppers and have been overjoyed to host and extend hospitality to a number of community members. The image of congregants and neighbors breaking bread, telling stories, and building community fills me with so much gratitude and so much joy. Building community around the table confronts the epidemic of loneliness and isolation in our neighborhoods and builds the kind of social capital that contributes to the common good. It’s a small representation of the feast of victory we’ll sing about on Easter morning.
Soup can be a comfort on cold evenings, a way to practice fasting as a spiritual discipline, and a catalyst for community building. It’s cheap and it’s easy to make. It’s a small, but powerful way to practice the presence of Jesus in community during Lent.
Here’s an old and simple recipe I’ve made often during Lent, from Twelve Months of Monastery Soups by Victor D’Avila-Latourrette:
St. Basil Soup
Ingredients
6 tablespoons of oil of your choice
1 large onion sliced
½ lb mushrooms, sliced
2 celery stalks, sliced
2 carrots, sliced
2 quarts of water
2 bouillon cubes of your choice
salt and pepper to taste
chopped parsley
(I’ve been known to add white beans as well.)
Directions
- Wash and slice the veggies.
- Pour oil into soup pot. Add the veggies and sauté for 2-3 minutes, stirring constantly.
- Add the water and bouillon cubes. Cook the soup slowly in a covered pot over low heat for 30 minutes. Add salt and pepper and chopped parsley. Simmer the soup for ten minutes and serve hot.