When Paul and I got married, we had a second small reception in Northern Ireland for friends and family who couldn’t travel to England. Paul managed the menu. I thought he would know what people here liked, so I left him to it. At the reception, when we sat down to eat, large roast potatoes arrived first. I expected this – Paul loves his roast potatoes. What I didn’t expect was for it to be followed by more potato – Champ. I was just recovering from the shock of champ, when to my horror a third potato dish arrived – creamy Dauphinoise potatoes. I leaned over to Paul and said, “three potato dishes… three! What were you thinking?” Paul beamed at me and said, “Oh we like potatoes here… everyone will be pleased.”

I soon discovered that in Ireland people were welded to their potatoes, just as Sri Lankan’s were welded to their rice. Potatoes were so basic to life here, that during the potato famine in Ireland, people starved – or migrated – because of the shortage of potatoes. Potatoes, rice, bread – are all staples of various nations; I discovered that in Eritrea the staple is injera, a kind of flatbread. Staples are the dominant part of our diets; they supply energy and nutritional needs.

Jesus uses the metaphor “bread” because in Israel, flatbread (and wine) were staples. If Jesus had been Irish, he might have called himself the Potato of Life, the Spud from Heaven. If He had been Sri Lankan or Eritrean – he would have said “I am the rice of life, or the injera of life”!

Continue reading →