Ruth Hofman

This service was prepared by Ruth Hofman, pastor of Grace Christian Reformed Church, Grand Rapids, Michigan. She based it on a service originally planned by Lorraine Land for the congregation at First Christian Reformed Church, Toronto, Ontario.

My mother seldom let us off with easy answers. After the Bible reading that followed family meals, she would often wonder about the meaning of an obscure text by peppering our family with "why" questions:

Why does God act like a general in an army that is responsible for slaying thousands of Israel's enemies?

Why would God ask for the human sacrifice of Abraham's son, after the manner of pagan religions?

Why does Jesus curse a fruit tree for having no fruit in a season in which it was not meant to bear fruit?

Spending their day pinched into street shoes or treading dusty ground with only a flap of leather to protect them, feet fulfill an unflattering, though necessary, function. Feet are not glamorous; they are the workhorses of the human body. In fact, to some of us, they are an embarrassment when not housed in footwear. Ceremony that exposes our bony, chubby, knobby, ugly smelly, or crooked feet is to be avoided. It is a quaintism, we think, that we can do without.

Gail Ramshaw. Chicago: Liturgy Training Publications, 1991.122 pages; $8.95 (paper).

An appropriate subtitle to the book Words Around the Table is "Reflections on the Words and Deeds of the Sunday Eucharist." In the book, Gail Ramshaw has sought to expand the readers' thinking concerning the mystery of the supper of our Lord.

Everett Tilson and Phyllis Cole. Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1990. 220 pages.

Martin Thielen. Nashville: Broadman Press, 1989. 239 pages.
Reviewed by Ruth Hofman, a student at Calvin Theological Seminary, Grand Rapids, Michigan.