Celebrate!

In celebration of the Risen One I include here a short summary I wrote for the end of the Celebrations study.

What does it take to make the world happy? To give our world life and peace?

Is it for everyone, each to have everything? A mind-boggling concept. And yet it seems the principle we collectively go on.

Or, is a happy world a real party where everyone shares everything? Jesus worked on this latter model.

He demonstrated it in practice, calling people together around his table, around the food he provided. He was the master of the feast, giving everyone a seat, and through his attitude of unconditional welcome he brought about a world where everyone shared everything.

There was always enough and more. And when there just plainly wasn’t enough, just a few loaves and fishes, he worked a miracle, bringing forward a new cosmos of limitless gift.

This was where he was, in his mind and his body, in the Father’s kingdom of endless giving. And so, now and again, he brought it forth to view in the world of hard facts. With a feast in the desert.

What happiness that must have been! To be there among the stones and thorn bushes where only scorpions lived and migrating animals might pass, and suddenly an absolute abundance, a feast for kings and queens! A real holiday, a Sabbath!

And the same thing happened for the outcast, the worthless ones, those excluded from the righteous kingdom. Jesus welcomed them for no reason except this was the character of his Father's kingdom. Reaching out in absolute giving to those who had nothing to give. The only condition, that you joined in the same thing, the giving, not trying to rebuild a personal castle in this new grace-filled terrain.

Then, on the last night of his life, he sat down to eat one final time. He turned the sign of the feast to what it always implied, his presence at table, his love for all who came. See this bread, it is me! And now it is me in a new way. Because of tomorrow I give you everything of myself, with nothing held back. An endless feast of love.

Come, come, let us eat and drink. Let us learn this wisdom and live!