If your holiday season was anything like mine, food was
involved . . . too much food: food I love, food I crave, food I hate, foods
that are strange, and best of all - new foods! The occasions were many: school
parties, parties by friends, work parties, church and family gatherings. I know
that dieting is on many people’s resolution list, but I say, “Let us feast!”
And here is why.
When I hear the word feasting, I think of holidays, wedding
receptions, and of course, Renaissance fairs and turkey legs. I was recently
reading an article about historic Jewish feasts by Carmine Di Sante, and I
learned a few principles that I thought could apply to our modern day feasting
as well.
A feast celebrates the positive character of existence. In
the face of evil and pain, feasts proclaim the goodness of creation and the
freedom to enjoy the world because God made it. It is in this sense that a
feast becomes a rejection of the negative of the world around us. Life is full
of hardship, poverty, sickness, and death. When we feast, we are renouncing the
current state on this planet and celebrating what is to come with our blessed
hope.
Feasting is a time for rejoicing and sharing. Deuteronomy
16:14 states, “You shall rejoice in your feast . . . and the stranger and the
orphan and the widow who are in your towns.” Rabbi Elie Munk made this
commentary on the passage:
When we eat and drink, it is our
duty to provide the necessities for the foreigner, the widow, and the orphan,
that is, for all who are in need. Those who double-lock their doors and eat
only with their own families, without helping the unfortunate, will not
experience the joy of the mitzvah (the commandments in the Torah) but “only the satisfaction given by their
meal.”
It seems that the blessing comes when we enjoy the fruits of
the earth and then share it with those around us. One is a means of taking,
paired with a means of giving. Christ also speaks to us about a wedding feast
where we are invited for eternity, and he asks us if we will wear the clothes
of his righteousness.
This brings to mind the line from an old hymn, "All
Things are Ready," by Charles H. Gabriel, which begins:
“All things are ready,” come to the
feast!
Come, for the table now is spread;
Ye famishing, ye weary, come,
And thou shalt be richly fed.
Who will you be feeding this year? Will you accept the
invitation to the feast? As we are beginning this new year, and whether you are
dieting or not, I say, “Let us feast!”
Richard Hickam
No comments:
Post a Comment