October 6, 2013

Have you ever had one of those days when everything seems to go just about as well as it can for you?  For me, they are not all that common, but they do occur.  I’m talking about those days, which when they are over and you are preparing to head to sleep, you think back and find yourself saying, “You know, I was a pretty good husband today.  Managed to do the right thing, say the right thing, at the right time. “  Or “ I was a good parent,……responsible child……, caring friend.”   “I did my best at my job today, …I was a good worker,……a supportive colleague………an effective boss.”    At the meeting tonight, “I think I was a faithful deacon,……a responsible trustee.,……a dedicated Christian educator.”  

            I trust you get a sense of what I’m getting at; to have a day in which we feel good about having lived our life as fully and faithfully as possible.   The kind of day in which we get a sense that we haved lived in a way that is pleasing to God, content with our part in the creation, living our life as faithfully and fully as we can.    As I say, they can be rare, but are indeed fulfilling.

            Well, I believe that this day, World Wide Communion Sunday, is a day with great potential for us as a congregation to experience “that kind of a day” in our worship.  To begin, we hear the wonderful prophesy from Isaiah, the words that speak of the Messianic banquet, that is both a promise and a goal.  Isaiah assures us of that day that is coming when the Lord of all peoples will make a great banquet; of rich food filled with marrow filled bones and well-aged wines to savor and enjoy. 

            And this promise of the Messianic banquet is the promise of that day and time in which our heart’s greatest needs will be fulfilled.  For the hungry, the day is coming when food will be plentiful and satisfying.  For the lonely, the day is coming when we will gather at a banquet feast where a spirit of community will be ever present and hearts will be filled with love.  For those estranged from others dear to them, hold on to the hope of the day that is coming when the joy of reconciliation, the satisfaction of wounds being healed, will be ours to glory in.  And for the grieving, the promise is made of that day and time, when death will be swallowed up forever and tears will be wiped away, once and for all.

            We have the pieces in place, the table is now set, for “that kind of day”; a day in which the cries of the disciples to Jesus, “increase our faith” will echo in our hearts.