I want to talk with you today about “Feasting”
Any “rich or abundant” meal is a feast. It is a day and a time to “eat sumptuously.” Often times a “large meal” is referred to as being a feast. To feast is to “eat heartedly.” A feast is usually something that is elaborately prepared! It is a gift.
People do not sit down and enjoy foods and conversation anymore.
If we do – it is “going out with friends” and we are the ones “being served” by others…usually in a noisy restaurant somewhere…
And you have to be ever mindful, that the server wants to turn over the table and move on to the next reservation. So much for conversation!
Today, who has the time to clean and cook; invite and host; sit around and eat; and leisurely converse – with family and friends?
WHO?
And then, there is always the cleanup involved afterwards…
It is way too much preparation! Way too much work-period!
Not only did a menu and dessert have to be planned and prepared for, but so did the shopping and the timely execution of preparing and making the meal itself.
And getting ready, besides…
So therefore, it is no longer “a priority.”
So feasting is not what it used to be.
There was a time when people set aside certain days for feasting and gathering.
Say: Christmas and Easter, Thanksgiving or New Years…
But today, sadly many of these days have fallen by the wayside, as well.
We want what is fast, convenient and efficient, and even use the language of “getting it over!”
Reservations are fine, JUST FINE!
Today, everything is on the “run.”
Remember the days when people would actually sit around the table and joke about unloosening their belts? Or falling asleep and napping after the “big meal?”
Remember a time when tables were elegantly set, complete with fresh flowers and candles?
Or, when the “good china” or the “real silverware” was used…instead of paper plates and the daily silverware?
There was a time when – “every holiday feast” was like a moment out of a family holiday photo in “Life Magazine.”
I can remember Grandpa used to say we go to church on communion Sundays to “feast on the Lord” and that phrase always stuck with me! “Feasting on the Lord.”
And then he would say — and on those other Sundays (when communion wasn’t served) we would “feast on the Word of God.” “Feasting on the WORD.”
I always liked the way he thought!
He would say that “anyone who goes away hungry — it’s their own “dang” fault.” The feast is laid out, the invitation is given and the table is set before you.
But I can still remember having to sit alone in the pew – while they went up and humbly knelt around the altar…because I was too young…and I was the wrong kind of Lutheran. So I guess that was my own “dang fault.”
Thank God this table is “open”…and the feast is celebrated three times a week…every time that YOU ARE HERE.
Sometimes there are circumstances that attempt to block us from receiving and we have to do everything we can to overcome those obstacles to get to the “gift” or to the “feast.”
Sometimes it is the feeling that WE are NOT WORTHY ENOUGH. Ick! That’s bad theology!
That is a common “misconception.”
I have NEVER BEEN WORTHY and that’s why it is offered to me!
Many mistakenly believe that they are “too flawed” to receive the “bread of life” and the “cup of salvation.”
Well, as I was taught, it was because of our “flaws” that Jesus did what he did.
We have to “open ourselves” to receive the gift. You have to WANT IT!
We have to make “the effort” to come to the table.
We have to BELIEVE in the POWER of the MEAL, the CUP and the WORD.
We have to believe WE ARE WORTHY “of the feast.” Because the BREAD OF LIFE, himself – has made us worthy…
It is his meal, his feast, his house and his invitation and there is always more than enough…AND THERE ARE ALWAYS LEFT-OVERS.
So come to the TABLE, consider yourself INVITED and WORTHY and FEAST with us today! Amen!