"Hallelujah! I give thanks to God with everything I’ve got – wherever good people gather and in the congregation." (Eugene Peterson – The Message – Psalm 111:1)
We are approaching a weekend – a long weekend – set aside for celebrating as a country what we have, who we are, and most importantly, the foundational ideas we hold; which are, principally, "that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness." They are indeed worth celebrating. Hopefully the weekend for all of us will be marked by good friends and fellow citizens gathered around a table of food and drink, giving thanks and celebrating "with everything we’ve got". But as significant as this weekend is for us as citizens of this country, it pales in comparison with the gathering every weekend around a table of celebration as citizens of heaven.
There are, however, common threads between the weekly, and I would argue daily, gathering of the good people of God and the good people of this country. The threads include people gathered who hold a common belief, the celebration of freedom (the idea of freedom celebrated at the two tables are related but also quite distinct), and people gathered around a celebratory meal. It is the common meal that is the strongest link. It is the common meal that provides the most common opportunity to express what we are made for – joy, celebration, and the giving of thanks as we realize God’s goodness and blessings in our lives.
God in his infinite wisdom has ordered our life together as brothers and sisters in Christ around a common table meal; but not just any meal, rather one that reminds and communicates everything God has done for us through his Son. And it is, principally, a meal not only of reflection – remembering and understanding its’ meaning – but of celebration marked by giving thanks with, again, "everything we have got".
But we often find this difficult. Either we are stilted in our celebration, afraid or unwilling to enter into thanksgiving with shouts of hallelujah, or we force it, attempting to create each time the same over-indulged experience. Which brings me back to the daily common meal. Perhaps we would be better prepared and practiced for celebration at our weekly gathering around the Lord’s Table if we gathered more often as family and friends around common meals (all are an opportunity to stop, give thanks, and celebrate). What I don’t mean here is the almost soulless exhortation we often hear to eat more meals together as a family, which often end up as hurried attempts at community squeezed into our busy and self-important lives, providing a paucity of leisure and little opportunity for others outside our family to "pull up a chair".
What I am suggesting are more celebratory meals, approaching the scale of some planned for this Fourth of July weekend, but occurring on a more regular basis, even weekly, open to others outside our immediate family or friends. If done right, they cost us; not only in preparation and openness, but most significantly in time set aside for leisure, or in the words of Psalmist, involving "everything we have got".
Vincent of Saragosa
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