Excerpted from 2024 Lenten Guide: Terror and Amazement, a Lenten Guide for Lectionary Year B from the North Carolina Council of Churches.
Isaiah 25:6-9
On this mountain the Lord of hosts will make for all peoples
a feast of rich food, a feast of well-aged wines,
of rich food filled with marrow, of well-aged wines strained clear.
And he will destroy on this mountain
the shroud that is cast over all peoples,
the covering that is spread over all nations;
he will swallow up death forever.
Then the Lord God will wipe away the tears from all faces,
and the disgrace of his people he will take away from all the earth,
for the Lord has spoken.
It will be said on that day,
“See, this is our God; we have waited for him, so that he might save us.
This is the Lord for whom we have waited;
let us be glad and rejoice in his salvation.”
How much imagination do we have? Can we imagine “a feast of rich food, a feast of well-aged wines, of rich food filled with marrow, of well-aged wines strained clear” (v. 6)? Some of us have probably sat at a table resembling this image. But can we imagine enough rich food and well-aged wine for every single person in the world? We know there is enough food in the world to feed everyone, although distribution chains keep it from getting to some of the places where it is needed. That said, it’s not much of a stretch to imagine everyone at a table filled with food. It could be done.
Now, let’s take it one step further. Can we imagine everyone at the same table? Clearly, that would be an impossibly large table, but for the sake of imagination, can we imagine sitting down with the whole world. Would we sit down with those we’ve locked away in solitary confinement or sentenced to death row? Would we sit down with the refugees driven from their homes by war or the immigrants waiting in Cuidad Juarez to enter “the land of the free”? Would we sit down at a table of red hats and blue hats laughing and eating together?
This is the vision of Easter, the promise of the resurrection, a table for everyone. But not just a table for everyone sequestered into their own interest groups with their partisan policy agendas. No, a table for everyone together.
The promise of Easter is the promise of reconciliation. It begins with the resurrection, showing us the assurance of God reconciling God’s self with humanity, once and for all. Within this assurance, we are equipped to begin the work of reconciliation with others. Simply put, that means God sets the table and provides “a feast of rich food, a feast of well-aged wines, of rich food filled with marrow, of well-aged wines strained clear” (v. 6). All we have to do is sit down with all the others invited by God to sit with us. Can we imagine that?