Preface and Introduction
Preface
Can God really prepare a table in the wilderness? When He struck the rock, water gushed out and torrents raged. But can He also give bread or supply His people with meat? Psalm 78:19–20
Who knows not Love, let him assay And taste that juice which, on the crosse, a pike Did set again abroach; then let him say If ever he did taste the like. Love is that liquor sweet and most divine, Which my God feels as bloud, but I as wine. George Herbert, “The Agonie”
Thy Table’s set with fare that doth Excell The richest Bread, and Wine that ever were Squeezd out of Corn or Vines: and Cookt up well. Its Mannah, Angells food. Yea, Heavens Good Cheer. Thou art the Authour, and the Feast itselfe. Thy Table Feast hence doth excell all wealth. Edward Taylor, “And Gave It to His Disciples”
We see children born gray-headed … We do not die with age, but we are born old … We see the death of Death itself in the death of Christ. As we could not be clothed at first, in Paradise, till some creatures were dead … so we cannot be clothed in heaven, but in his garment who died for us. John Donne, “Sermon XXV”
I will remember the works of the Lord; yes, I will remember Your wonders of old. I will reflect on all You have done and ponder Your mighty deeds. Psalm 77:11–12
The heart must be first cast into the mould of the gospel, before it can perform a worship required by the gospel … Restoration to a spiritual life must precede any act of spiritual worship. As no work can be good, so no worship can be spiritual, till we are created in Christ. Stephen Charnock, The Existence and Attributes of God
This booklet is part of a series called Ecclesial Liturgies for Christian Pilgrims. In this series, we offer resources that help facilitate the corporate worship of Christian churches. By design, these resources are meant to engage the Christian community in communal spiritual formation. While each resource has its own unique shape, the collection of liturgies as a whole aims for consistency in its core characteristics. In this way, each community guide is marked by scriptural, theological, communal, and formational components. As tools for the church, the guides are scripted to facilitate God’s people through community gatherings, festal celebrations, special services, or holy seasons.
The Bible describes the church as a pilgrim people—“strangers and exiles on the earth” (Hebrews 11:13; cf. 1 Peter 2:11). Upon belief in Christ and repentance from sin, Christians commence a journey of faith in which they progress toward an eternal homeland, traversing this transitory life on earth with an eye on everlasting life in the world world to come. As “fellow citizens with the saints and members of God’s household” (Ephesians 2:19), the Christian community belongs to a “city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God” (Hebrews 11:10). The journey of faith is a communal endeavor. The ancient Israelites were outfitted with hymns (Psalm 120–134) to support them in their pilgrimage to the holy city of Jerusalem. Similarly, Christian worship equips the church for her journey to the eternal city of Zion.
Liturgy—ordered corporate worship for collective spiritual growth—serves the formation and witness of the church. In as much as the church is to do the work of evangelism, the church herself is an evangelistic witness through the gathered life and worship of God’s people (cf. Acts 2:42–47). The corporate recital of kerygmatic and creedal truth is both an act of collective confession and a profession of public witness (cf. 1 Timothy 3:14–16). The godly ethic of the church resounds evangelistically as the people of God adorn the gospel message with lives of good works (cf. Titus 2:1–14). Retelling biblical stories and rehearsing the larger scriptural metanarrative is a means for the church to remember the substance of her faith and to reenact this truth to the watching world (cf. Psalm 78:1–72). As the church occupies her missional trenches, she must be furnished with doxological armory. This is the humble aim of this series. The collective worship of the church—be it gathered together in one locale or dispersed as a diaspora people—is the vital foundation for the church to grow into maturity and sustain her missional witness. This approach to worship connects us with the people of God in the past, present, and future. Celebrating God’s redemptive work, the church realizes her participation in the community of faith which at once local, global, and heavenly. As we sojourn in the wilderness of this world—with its sufferings, hardships, and tribulations—our corporate worship makes us ever aware of God’s mighty deeds and reliable words. In this way, Christian liturgy for the church recalls God’s work of redemption, strengthens us in our faith pilgrimage, and discloses visions of our glorious future.
March 2024 York, Pennsylvania
Introduction
Introduction: In Defense of Feasts
Come, all you who are thirsty, come to the waters; and you without money, come, buy, and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without cost! Why spend money on that which is not bread, and your labor on that which does not satisfy? Listen carefully to Me, and eat what is good, and your soul will delight in the richest of foods. Isaiah 55:1–2
Yes, God turns our fasts into feasts, and we are glad in the midst of our sorrow; we can praise and bless his name for all that he does. Charles Spurgeon, “Sad Fasts Changed to Glad Feasts”
By design, this meal is symbolic, sensory, communal, confessional, liturgical, and participatory. The Bible does not prescribe this meal. For Christians, only one meal—that of Communion, the Lord’s Supper—is a commanded ordinance. This meal alone we are obligated to practice on a regular basis. Nevertheless, feasts and community meals provides a rich and visible context for faith formation. A meal centered on the passion and crucifixion of Christ, this Good Friday fellowship is symbolically and scripturally scripted to highlight major redemptive themes contained in the Bible.
As Christians, we feast as pilgrims in terrestrial exile. Christians who remain on earth know that “here we do not have a permanent city, but we are looking for the city that is to come” (Hebrews 13:4). Exiles and strangers on the earth, believers are “looking forward to the city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God” (Hebrews 11:10). The Christian life is a sojourn of faith, traveling “to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem … to myriads of angels in joyful assembly, to the congregation of the firstborn, enrolled in heaven” (Hebrews 12:22–23). Like God’s gracious provision for Israel in the wilderness beyond the Red Sea (Exodus 15:22–17:7; Numbers 11:1–35), so God sustains and strengthens his people for their wilderness journey during their earthly lives.
The pilgrimage of faith is a life of table fellowship. As a peculiar people, Christians adopt unique practices to nourish their faith. Food, feast, and table fellowship are not only common occurrences in the biblical record, they are a main thematic spine upon which the redemptive metanarrative runs. In regards to Christians, the shared life of the believing community is rooted in faith-filled table fellowship. Whether one looks at the biblical panorama or the essential teachings of the faith, one will find the meal at a central place.
When God created the world, he provided food for his creation (Genesis 1:29–30). Tragically, sin entered the world through a defiant meal of disobedience and unbridled appetites (Genesis 3:1–7). When God liberated Israel from Egyptian slavery, he inaugurated their life of freedom with a meal (Exodus 12:43–50; 13:3–16). God established his covenant relationship with his people around a meal (Exodus 24:1–11). Inscribed in the Law, God commanded the Israelite community to celebrate its covenantal life with God and each other through seasonal festal celebrations (Leviticus 23:1–44). Exemplifying a ministry of grace and compassion, Jesus feasted with tax collectors and sinners (Matthew 9:10–11). Prior to his crucifixion, Jesus celebrated a final meal with his disciples (Mark 14:12–25) and instituted this meal as a regular practice for subsequent generations of believers (1 Corinthians 11:17–34). The early Christians gathered around meals (Acts 2:42–47; 20:7–12). Around the table, Christians have remedied some of our greatest conflicts (Romans 14:1– 15:7; 1 Corinthians 8:1–13; Galatians 2:11–14) and enjoyed some of our deepest bonds (1 Corinthians 10:23–33).
With longing and expectation, we look forward to a marriage feast in which God’s people will be brought in union with Christ (Revelation 19:6–10). Foreshadowed by the fruit of the land of Canaan (Numbers 13:1–33; Joshua 5:10–12), Christians look forward to a joyous feast that will usher in the culmination and consummation of God’s promises. In anticipation of this last feast, Christians look to the future with longing such that all feasts in our transitory life—be it individual or corporate, family or ecclesial, ordinary or festal—remind us of the future feast God will prepare:
On this mountain the Lord of Hosts will prepare a banquet for all the peoples, a feast of aged wine, of choice meat, of finely aged wine. On this mountain He will swallow up the shroud that enfolds all peoples, the sheet that covers all nations; He will swallow up death forever. The Lord God will wipe away the tears from every face and remove the disgrace of His people from the whole earth. For the Lord has spoken. Isaiah 25:6–8
While we look forward to eschatological feast, we are much more like those who have experienced God’s gracious provision—a divinely supplied feast—in the wilderness: Israel in her desert exodus (Exodus 15:22–17:7), David in escape from Saul (1 Samuel 21:1–9), Elijah in flight from Jezebel (1 Kings 19:1–8), or Jesus in spiritual battle with Satan (Matthew 4:1–11). In this way, the present feast is a feast for Christian pilgrims, simultaneously enduring harsh realities of the present life and embracing the certain hope of the life to come. That is, this is a feast for those in the wilderness of the Christian life, looking for the glorious city to come!