Toward the end of your book, you describe an event in which you served avocado toast for women at The Center. Can you talk about the theological significance of offering something as seemingly “extra” as avocado toast?
There was this discourse on social media about how, if millennials want to buy houses, they should stop buying gourmet coffee and avocado toast. It triggers this inherent belief that there are certain things that only people with wealth should get to have, and everyone else should be happy with whatever meager things they are offered until they’ve ascended economically. Again, it comes back to this idea of the prosperity gospel.
To counter this narrative, I decided to make and serve avocado toast to the exact people others believed shouldn’t have it or didn’t deserve it. So often when we provide resources for people who are poor or experiencing homelessness, we believe beggars can’t be choosers. That they should be happy with whatever we offer them, even if it’s something we wouldn’t want to eat. But God provides in abundance. We have all we need if we could learn to steward it properly. The gospel says we’re all children of God and we all deserve not only for our needs to be met, but to live in ways that contribute to joy and flourishing.
We equally deserve that because of who God is and because of who God declares us to be.
This article originally appeared here.
