Feasts & Banquets

"On this mountain the Lord Almighty will prepare
    a feast of rich food for all peoples,
a banquet of aged wine—
    the best of meats and the finest of wines.
 - Isaiah 25:6

I'll be honest, I don't really like banquets. I remember the first banquet I ever went to, a friend spent the entire evening explaining the many and various banquet rules.  I couldn’t just eat each bite with a different fork (there were 3 to chose from!), no each fork had a special job to do: one was for salad, one for the main course, one for dessert.  Now what’s the fun in that?
The thing about banquets is that its all about the show.  Everything has a special rule and you progress through the banquet as if its an elaborate performance.  In my experience, I was so worried about following the rules that I never really enjoyed the food, the company, and the celebration itself. To me, a banquet ruins a good thing with all its regulations.  
And you know what, I don't think that this just happens at banquets.  There seems to be a natural human tendency to take something great and turn it into a burden.  Financial security becomes greed, love becomes lust, marriage becomes adultery, and politicians become extremists.  Again and again we take blessings and turn them into something destructive or painful. We’ve become blind to the Good News that is being offered to us day after day.    

Here's a few more verses from that Isaiah passage:
"On this mountain he will destroy
the shroud that enfolds all peoples,
the sheet that covers all nations;
God will swallow up death forever.
The Sovereign Lord will wipe away the tears
    from all faces;
he will remove his people’s disgrace
    from all the earth.
The Lord has spoken."   - Isaiah 25:7-8

This is the deep promise of our faith.  We believe that God will remove people's disgrace, wipe away their tears, and swallow up death forever.
 
Christ has lifted the shroud that enfolds us all.  Death has been swallowed up forever.
May we rejoice in the promise of the resurrection and learn to embrace all the blessings that Christ extends to us each and every day. Amen.