Party Time

This morning we spent some time thinking about the implication of the fact that Jesus calls the Christian life “blessed”—it is the happy life. Grouchiness and crankiness have no place in Christian discipleship. How do we go about cultivating a life of rejoicing? The place to start is right here at this table each Lord’s Day. I’ve said before, and am saying again—the Lord’s Table is the paradigm—the model—the pattern for all of life. This thing we do each Lord’s Day is to inform everything else we do. Here on the first day of the week, the rest of the week is directed by what we do in worship, worship which culminates in the celebration of the Lord’s Supper.

Our Lord Jesus was repeatedly accused of being a “drunkard” by the Pharisees, the sourpuss cranky grouches of his day, because Jesus came “eating and drinking”—everywhere he went he was feasting. But Jesus said that his coming meant it was party time—the coming of the Kingdom means that life for those who are Jesus’ disciples is a wedding feast. After Jesus ascended into heaven and sat down at the right hand of God the Father—the party didn’t stop. In fact, that’s when it really got going! Instead of walking among his people himself, Jesus sent his Spirit to dwell in us—in the church—so that now the party has gotten a great deal bigger. We are a little flock, and we rejoice to eat together each Lord’s Day—but we are not alone. Because of the Spirit we are feasting and rejoicing and delighting in the Lord with all the Saints, in heaven and on earth, from every age, and in every place. Each Lord’s Day we come to a festival that is bigger and more delightful than anything the world could imagine. So if you want to learn what it is to live the happy life—to live the life in which even mourning and persecution is counted as blessed—to live the life in which dour crankiness has no place—then come, and enter into the joy of your Lord. For he sings for joy to have you here with him, and calls you to learn that the coming of the Kingdom means that all of life, the life set apart for following our Lord as one of his disciples, is blessed.

This is the Lord’s table…