Feasting Together
Our first annual donor banquet was a success! My deep gratitude to everyone who came out to celebrate and tour our atrium. It was a great kickoff to the momentum that will carry us through the rest of the summer to September 15, when we will re-open the atrium for regular Sunday gatherings. I’ll be posting more information about that soon!
I woke up yesterday morning with energy and gratitude ready to invest into preparing our banquet. Before the tables were set and the food was simmering away on the stove, my heart poured into a letter to our supporters. If you were not able to attend last night, know that we missed you. Here is my meager gift of words in honor of you.
Welcome, Friend.
I am so glad you are here. This evening was designed as a gift to you.
This meal reflects the atrium we are here to celebrate: an intentional, sensory space made possible by the hands of a community who believe in the transformative power of open welcome & offering our very best.
I also have in mind a story Jesus told: ”The Kingdom of heaven is like a king who prepared a wedding banquet…”*. A wedding spares no expense, in order to reflect & honor that which it celebrates. The feast in Jesus’ story becomes an open invitation, not because it was careless or sub-par. (Ultimately, the meal was not about the guests, but about the host!) When the King’s intended guests did not come, the vagabonds did. The hungry, homeless, forgotten, likely dressed in rags, dirty, odorous. I wonder: did their presence disfigure the meal? Or did the meal’s beauty transform the guests?
Tonight’s meal, the meal in Jesus’ story, the atrium (itself a table set with a “banquet”), even the Eucharist where we remember the Bread & Water of Life offered to everyone (John 6, John 3, John 4), are windows through which we glimpse the Marriage Supper of the Lamb (Revelation 19) at the end of all things.
Through these parables & practices, we remind ourselves & each other of a real Invitation to a real Feast set with real Food that offers real satisfaction.
It is a gift to remember & be reminded with you, not only tonight, but every time (through the atrium or otherwise!!) we co-create the Kingdom of the King who sets the Table & says “Tell those who have been invited that I have prepared my dinner: My oxen and fattened cattle have been butchered, and everything is ready. Come to the wedding banquet” (*Matthew 22).
