What's The Fusion About?

Fusion is a new old chic word that most people thought they knew the meaning of. Well I should say they knew what the idea was, maybe not the actual definition. When you used to mention fusion people would immediately think of nuclear fusion. Again they may not have understood it well but they had heard it enough to recognize that the two went together. Today if you mention fusion you will get a number of different responses. People may talk about a car or they may talk about business or they may talk about food. The dictionary definition of the word is that it is a fusing or melting together. A union of different things by or as if by melting; blending. Nuclear fusion is defined as, “The process by which two or more atomic nuclei join together, or fuse, to form a single heavier nucleus. This is usually accompanied by the release or absorption of large quantities of energy.” And here I thought nuclear engineering was supposed to be complicated. I mean it’s not rocket science, well then again maybe it’s harder. But I digress. For foodies fusion has become the new word that gets everyone excited. Fusion Cuisine is defined as the combining of elements of various culinary traditions which not being categorized per any one cuisine style, and can pertain to innovations in many contemporary restaurant cuisines since the 1970’s.” Quite clearly not nuclear science, but it tastes a lot better.
Now if you have read this blog before you know I am not going to talk about nuclear fusion that would just lead to confusion. You know that I am going to talk about fusion cuisine. If you are going to talk about fusion cuisine you have to mention the name of Richard Wing, who in the 1960’s combined French and Chinese cooking at the former Imperial Dynasty restaurant in Hanford, California. Unfortunately for Richard he was not good at marketing himself and so has become a footnote in culinary history. I mean have you ever heard of him? Here is a name that you have heard, Wolfgang Puck. Wolfgang, the short chef from Austria, is the most famous pioneer of fusion cuisine. Puck’s restaurants are known for combining foods from different countries into new dishes. From Chinese and Italian, to Japanese and French you name it, Puck has probably done it. The result of fusion cooking has been new recipes and new tastes that people had never experienced before. Where cuisine used to be regional it is now becoming global. The lines between Italian, French, Vietnamese, Japanese, Indian, and whatever regional food you want to name, have begun to disappear. Another good illustration of this is Bobby Flay who has never lived outside of New York City and yet cooks Southwestern U.S. food with a California – New York understanding. This movement has traveled down to those of us who cook at home as well. My wife and I have taken her fantastic spaghetti sauce and have southwesternized it by adding chili powder to it among other things. I won’t tell you the other things, that’s a secret.
Fusion also applies to the human race. If you live in a larger city like I do you see this all the time. The Europeans are not just hanging out with Europeans anymore and neither are the Asians or the Hispanics or the Africans. To take it a step further the Europeans are not purely Europeans anymore and neither are Asians or the Hispanics, or the Africans purely Asian, or Hispanic or African anymore. In my family we have seen a wonderful fusion happen over the years. My close family of my wife and children and brothers and sisters-in-laws and nephews and nieces includes people with ancestry from Europe, Asia, Africa and South America. Many of those family members are products of at least two of those different regions. The result, a very interesting blending of cultures, languages, music, art, and yes food. I was eating Japanese noodles with a side of baked potatoes and a salad containing seaweed long before Puck came around. I love the fusion in my family because it makes life interesting.
So what’s my point? Fusion is important in the church as well. The early church struggled with that. It was primarily a Jewish church. It was not an easy thing to let the Gentiles in because they were different. Their food was different, their music was different, and their choice of words was very different. God had to perform a miracle to convince the church leaders that God wanted this done. This fusion thing has been a hard thing for the church to swallow throughout its history. Many of the church bodies that we have today came into existence because of ethnic differences instead of doctrinal differences. That is why you see historically black churches or historically Polish churches you name it. People groups through the years have found it easier to worship with people like them, but this is not the way God intended it. Jesus’ constant prayer for the church is that it be one. Paul talks about how now because of Christ there is no difference between Jew and Gentile and you could apply that to every people group. I have worshipped in churches that were primarily full of people from Africa, from Poland, from India, from Mexico, and I have spent my life in churches that are full of people primarily from Northern Europe. I have enjoyed all of those experiences and learned from them, but at the end of the day I have always thought something was missing. God was there, but the representative church as a whole wasn’t. It needed some fusion. Even though I grew up in a part of the country that is primarily of European stock I have always loved diversity, probably because from an early age my family was diverse. I really love diversity in the church. Unfortunately diversity is largely lacking in the church today. As someone once said, I forget who, Sunday morning is the most racially divided day of the week in America. I hope someday that will end. I don’t know how to end it, I don’t have a plan, but I do hope it ends. I love walking into a church and seeing people from all around the world in it. I think it is a little glimpse of heaven. In heaven there is only one church and it is the ultimate fusion church, everyone thrown into one pot and stirred up. Fusion, let’s let it happen.