GREETINGS TO THE FEASTING FELLOWSHIP OF CHRIST THE KING!
Followers of the Risen One, I’ve been hung up on the idea of feasting for 50 days. Easter is not just a day. It is a season. What does it mean for us to feast for 50 days? I’m playing around with the idea if you haven’t noticed.
For the kids it’s easy. Easter Sunday and the next Sunday they got chocolate crosses. Last Sunday, they got full size candy bars. Their eyes widen, delighting to have a chocolate choice over the usual fruit chews or dumdums. Our kids are easy to feast with. It's harder to have adults widen their eyes in surprise. We’ve seen so much but a baby or children have a way of widening our eyes. New life, new birth has a way of widening our eyes with delight. What widens your eyes in delight? What do you feast upon this season of Easter?
Jesus, the first born of the dead, widens our eyes and our vision and we give thanks. What I am gleaning from our assigned lessons in this season is that feasting has to do with giving thanks as we lift up our cup of salvation. We give thanks to God for our lives and for the new life that is ours through Jesus. We give thanks to God for an empty tomb, for Jesus living so fully into our humanity and showing us how to rise to new life as we follow Jesus, our risen Lord and Savior.
Jesus was revealed to some disciples in the breaking of the bread. Enter the feasting season by sharing a loaf of bread together by breaking it apart, remembering and celebrating what Jesus did in the giving of his life and the return of his life to us and to God.
Acts 2:42 tells us the baptized devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. All of this would have been common for the Jewish community – fellowship, breaking of bread and the prayers. The new part of this would have been devoting themselves to the apostles’ teachings. Break some bread in fellowship, pray together and learn something new about Jesus.
The apostles are the sent ones. We too are sent into the world. Think about what new thing you could teach the world about Jesus. Can you point out some of Jesus’ redeeming work in our lives?
Christ is risen! Our eyes are wide open, and we are delighted with the gift of Jesus’ new life among us. It is something to behold. It is a delicious feast and a story we love to tell!
Bold Inquisitive Belief Loving Expansively,
Pastor Connie Spitzack
