"Rejoice, O Jerusalem: and come together all you that love her: rejoice with joy, you that have been in sorrow: that you may exult, and be filled from the breasts of your consolation."Another designation is "Refreshment Sunday" - a bit of a respite in the midst of Lent as it is the "middle" Sunday in the season.
Yet another manifestation is the use of Rose colored vestments and paraments - another way in which the Lenten mood is lightened.
More significant than any of these is the idea swarming around in out texts for today. Joshua 5:9-12 recounts a Passover observance in the Promised Land, marking the transition of the Israelites from a nomadic to a people of place and from dependence on God for sustenance to their new life as an agrarian society, one capable of providing for themselves. Luke 15:11-32 is the parable of the Prodigal Son, well known in its own right. The younger son has demanded his inheritance, gone off and squandered it in sinful living, is forced to (gasp) work for a living, and realizes that his father's servants live better. He resolves to go home, confess to his father and ask to be treated as one of the servants. His father sees him coming and with great rejoicing organizes a banquet and treats his son royally. Psalm 32 rejoices in the forgiveness of God. Paul's words to the Corinthians in 2 Corinthians 5:16-21 speak of our reconciled relationship with God through Jesus sacrifice on the cross.
A rabbi friend says that Jewish festivals can be characterized by three simple sentences:
"They tried to kill us. We survived. Let's eat!"Neither of today's feasts quite fit that model. It's more like:
Jesus died. Jesus reconciles us to God. Jesus feeds us all.Two feasts and forgiveness. You see, we are God's prodigal daughters and sons. We fail at living into our identities as Children of God. When we come to God's table seeking forgiveness and transformation, we open the door to let God teach and lead and mold us to God's purpose. Our weekly trip to God's table is a banquet prepared for us, welcoming us home, and declaring us to be God's treasured children. It is through our confession of our failings and feeding on Jesus' body and blood that we are saved and transformed into the new creations of which Paul speaks. The Collect of the Day frames it all:
"Gracious Father, whose blessed Son Jesus Christ came down from heaven to be the true bread which gives life to the world: Evermore give us this bread, that he may live in us, and we in him."And so we lay our failings at Jesus' feet, confident of God's forgiveness, open to transformation, and knowing we will all be fed.
