Old Testament - Feast 03/13/09
Jesus’ table fellowship was a distinctive part of his ministry. Two strands in the Old Testament impacted this practice and gave it added meaning. They arose from the Wisdom and Prophetic traditions. Ecclesiastes is a relatively late Wisdom book. It contains no prophecy, covenant or worship – instead it writes about how to live well. Eating and drinking are things of goodness of which God approves. Ecclesiastes 9:7-10 describes food and wine as pleasures in this life that passes all too quickly. Death is ultimate and the best we can hope for in this life is good work and a good wife/husband, a respected name and food and drink to give us pleasure. (See also 8:15 and 5:18). Food is necessary for life; good food provides much of life’s satisfaction.
Proverbs (Chapter 8-9) personifies Wisdom. God’s wisdom wishes us to live well and do well. In Ch9:1-6 she invites people to come and eat – a metaphor for learning wisdom. She urgently invites people to her table, sending out her servant girls as messengers of the invitation. Her “bread and wine” are wisdom that brings life.
The prophetic tradition develops the idea of the Messianic banquet – particularly the prophet Isaiah. Is 25:6-10 – Zion is the focus of the prophecy. It becomes the location of the future feast that the Lord will provide for all peoples. A feast of “rich foods and well-aged wines,” plenty for all. At this feast death will be destroyed forever. In 2nd and 3rd Isaiah this banquet is linked to the Messianic figure who will bring it about – the Servant . In Is 55: 1-13 the prophet invites everyone who thirsts to “come to the water”. This passage mirrors Wisdom’s call in Proverbs. Here the two traditions begin to merge, Wisdom’s feeding with life and Prophecy’s hope for universal life.
While there is no table fellowship as such in the Old Testament, the significance and function of food is recognized. It is used as a metaphor for learning and becomes a symbol of future hope and promise in a time of scarcity. The Messianic feast becomes the occasion for the overcoming of death. Jesus builds on each of these themes. Isaiah 65:17-25 contains one of the most beautiful images of the Old Testament. A vision of the golden age when premature death is abolished, when people will inhabit houses they have built, when the wolf will lie down with the lamb and the lion will eat straw like the ox, and “they shall not hurt or destroy on all my holy mountain”. This is an image of the earth at peace and with plenty, without a hint of supernatural dualism. It is the biblical hope for the future and completes the prophetic arc. But one more passage takes it a step further: Chapter 66: 5-13 where Zion is portrayed as a mother and as Wisdom – nourishing and life-giving “from her consoling breasts.” Feeding is now intensely personal and relational. Also time collapses – birth takes place without labor, the future is immediately at hand. The passage teaches us to live within this collapsed sense of time, replete with blessing. See also Revelations 21:5-6; 22:16 -17 where these themes of being nourished in God’s city are reprised. Christian hope is for this world transformed, not for some “spiritual” world in the heavens.
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3 comments:
Linda! This is great. Thanks for showing us the traditions of table fellowship in the OT. What are your thoughts on how inclusive the Lord's Supper is? Should only Christians be invited - or is the table open to all? Or, is the table open to all, but first one has to you agree to x,y, and z Christian doctrine?
Adam, thanks for the response! Good to know there is someone out there...
At Wood Hath Hope we have struggled with the idea of Eucharist for quite some time. Perhaps more than any other symbol it has become loaded. For some it is sacrifice, with all the associated hallmarks. For others it is inclusive, but it seems empty of meaning. For others it is all about the liturgy - a performance where aesthetics become the most valued thing.
Initially we avoided celebrating the Eucharist - daunted by the task of trying to address these pitfalls. We had a few attempts to create a meaningful Eucharist that fit with our non-violent theology - but these never seemed to feel quite right.
In recent months we have finally found peace with the Eucharist. This happened when we stopped focusing on the words and actions of Jesus at the last supper. This seems counterintuitive because the words of Jesus at the last supper are what it has always been about - the most important bit! We moved away from the words of institution and placed Jesus' final meal in the context of his broader life and in his relationship with his Father and with us. We thanked God for the person Jesus that we have come to know through our Bible study - for his healing, his words, his wisdom, his great love, his spirit... The Eucharist became a symbol of our love and thanksgiving for him. Through the Eucharist Jesus feeds us - with his wisdom, spirit and love.
So in answer to your question - if the Eucharist itself is understood a different way - as a thanksgiving for the person Jesus, who transforms us, then those who come to the table become self-selecting. No-one need be excluded because only those who have fallen in love with Jesus and choose to celebrate his life (and his life in us) will want to be there. All are invited to the feast.
Peace - Linda
If we look at the Eucharist as a verb rather than noun, something we do rather than a thing we have, then the issues take a different perspective. The sacrificial understanding is the classic basis for thing-type eucharist—the priest’s share, God’s share, the people’s share. A completely open table fellowship does not escape from this if it’s simply handing out goodies from a pile of goodies. And a liturgical performance (Linda’s other category) is still very much a thing if it’s an aesthetic we come for week by week.
Liturgy (which means basically “people-work”) begins in the eucharist with the word, then after comes the meal. We seem to have got down to a one-to-one mechanical relationship. I think we need to spend much, much longer with the word. Years in fact! In a community of reading and study and practice. Breaking through the encrusted dualist Greek meanings, getting down to Jesus, down to the humanity-changing humanity Jesus brings in all his multiple poetries of the gospels. Then when the community begins to experience and move together in this new humanity it’s already doing eucharist. The meal follows seamlessly. And of course any other human being is invited to walk straight in to sit down at the table of new humanity.
Tony
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