Sharing the Feast
3rd Sunday in Lent - 2010
Psalm 63.1-8 Isaiah 55.1-9 Luke 13.1-9
A woman in a village was surprised to find a fairly well dressed stranger at her door asking for something to eat. “I’m sorry,” she replied, “but I have nothing in the house right now.”
“Not to worry,” said the amiable stranger. “I have a soup stone in this satchel of mine: if you will let me put it in a pot of boiling water I’ll make the most delicious soup in the world. A very large pot, please.”
The woman was curious. She put the pot on the fire and whispered the secret of the soup stone to a neighbour. By the time the water began to boil all the neighbours had gathered to see the stranger and his soup stone. The stranger dropped the stone into the water then tasted a teaspoonful with relish and exclaimed, “Ah, delicious! All it needs are some potatoes.”
“I have some potatoes in the kitchen,” shouted one man. In a few minutes he was back with a large quantity of sliced potatoes that were thrown into the pot. Then the stranger tasted the brew again. “Excellent!” he said, but added wistfully “if we only had some meat this would be a tasty stew.”
A woman rushed home to bring some meat that the stranger accepted graciously and flung into the pot. When he tasted the soup again he rolled his eyes to the heavens and said, “Ah, very tasty indeed, if we had some vegetables it would be perfect, absolutely perfect.”
One of the neighbours rushed off home and returned with a basketful of carrots and onions. After these had been thrown in too, and the stranger had tasted the mixture, he said in a voice of command, “Salt and sauce.” “Right here!” shouted someone. Then he called out for bowls for everyone to which everyone ran home to get their bowls. Some came back with bread and fruit.
Then they all sat down to a delicious meal while the stranger handed out large helpings of the incredible soup. Everyone felt strangely happy as they laughed and talked and shared their very first meal together as a community. In the midst of the celebration, though, the stranger vanished leaving behind the magical soup stone so that they could have the most wonderful meal whenever they wanted.
This old, familiar story reminds us of the importance and joy of being together in community in human life. Of course, such is not red hot news here in Australia where people have been joining together in restaurants, coffee shops and pubs to share in a deeper experience with one another for some years now. Those of us who frequent the local shopping centres’ coffee and not-quite-fast food cultures know that food is much more than fuel, and like the stone soup, can join people together to tell stories and share experiences which uphold us on this very common journey that we travel together.
But one thing we might miss is that such gatherings can be occasions when as well as sharing one another’s company we are also sharing together more deeply in the life of God. Over and over again in Scripture the fullness of our relationship with God is so often described as a feast that people come from the north and the south and the east and the west to take part in. From the 23rd Psalm’s assurance to us that the Lord “prepare(s) a table before (us) in the presence of (our) enemies and anoints (our) heads with oil; (our) cup overflows”; to Jesus’ many parables which describe the kingdom of God as a wedding banquet, or a feast, or a party where many are invited, yet they put in all sorts of lame apologies because they don’t know what they’re missing; to the celebration of the Eucharist where heaven and earth and God and God’s people are united in holy communion we are given a lot more than a hint that eating and drinking together has the potential to be a sacred experience.
Our Psalm for today puts an individual’s perspective on this. The writer describes life without God as like being lost in the bush somewhere northwest of Arkaroola with no food or water: “my soul thirsts for you; my flesh faints for you, as in a dry and weary land where there is no water.” But that’s not the last word. The Psalmist has found God in the experience of worship and a whole new perspective on life has opened up: “My soul is satisfied as with a rich feast” (or with “fat and fatness” as the non-health conscious, cholesterol-challenged early Hebrew puts it). “My mouth praises you with joyful lips…for you have been my help, and in the shadow of your wings I sing for joy. My soul clings to you; your right hand upholds me.”
Isaiah 55 picks up on this abundant and graceful feast of God and shows how it can apply to the whole of a community. This chapter which we heard this morning is the ending of what is called 2nd Isaiah; it was written about 40 years after the Babylonians had defeated the Southern Kingdom of Judah and hauled off the upper crust of Jewish society to exile in Babylon; those who were left behind were mostly pressed into slave labour gangs. It’s not a very pretty picture, certainly not one where there was much hope on offer.
But the prophet promises these people in exile and slavery that their present reality is not to be the last word. Against all the evidence God is on the move and a new and triumphant day is coming when the nation will be re-established and it is described as a…you guessed it…feast! “Ho, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and you that have no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price…eat what is good and delight yourself in rich food”. Now these were all items that were only available to landowners in that day and age and so the exiles and the slaves were given to know that as bad as things might seem to be a new day was coming. And so it came to be.
Yet this abundant feast of God’s love was, and is, not to be the exclusive experience of the honoured guests. Those who are invited have the call and commission to invite others. In the 23rd Psalm the sheep don’t lay around being waited on; they are led. And where they are led is into the “paths of righteousness”, that is living justly so that others can make their way to God’s table. Just so, the prophet Isaiah would proclaim to the oppressed people, who were soon to taste freedom, that they “shall call nations” – that is “lead the nations” to the grace and compassion of their God. And that same charge, to invite people to the abundant feast of God is to be ours as well.
Our gospel reading for today talks about that. In the parable of the fig tree we are asked to reflect on the fruits we are producing as we seek to extend God’s rich invitations, and Christ’s abundant life to others. To put it in a nutshell, so to speak, this story paints God as the landowner, Jesus as the gardener and, well, who do you think as the non-productive fruit tree. The owner thinks that the tree has had more then enough time to bear fruit and wants it cut down. The gardener intervenes and wants the opportunity to give this delinquent plant some extra care to see if that will bring forth the long-awaited figs. The request is granted but it is clear that this isn’t reprieve isn’t going to go on forever; one more season without results and that will be it.
Almost my entire ministry has been spent in churches where the ability to bear fruit has been often restricted by sometimes very limited resources; I was in one three church parish where they thought they were rich when they had $1000 in the bank. Consequently I’ve been known to daydream now and then down through the years about how nice it would be not to always have to struggle in order to make ends meet, cutting out one good project after another in order to make the budget balance.
Of course Enfield is in a very different place than that; we have very strong resources and the pressing question for us is how we best use our extensive assets. It may come as a surprise that I find this to be every bit as challenging as trying to make ends meet. Here in this church I often find my mind turning to those words of Jesus which bring our position into clear focus: “From everyone to whom much has been given, much will be required; and from the one to whom much has been entrusted, even more will be demanded.”
We have been gifted with this special community here on the corner of Main North Road and Park Street that has so much going for it from location to the gifts and graces of its members to its assets. These gifts come with a tremendous responsibility: not to simply use them up on any number of causes and projects, good as they might be; but to do the hard yards of discerning what the big picture of our mission is here in the shopping centre and then directing all of our strength towards its fulfillment. And as the parable of the fig tree reminds us we don’t have forever to do it so let us strive to be the fruitful people we were created and meant to be. Amen.
© Alan Biglow 2010
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