THE FEAST FOR ALL
Peace – Christ’s peace – is a place at the table The Resurrected Lord comes to offer peace to his followers. That peace is not merely the absence of conflict, but the presence of justice. As the hymn says, “God will delight when we are creators of justice and joy.”
When Christ called on his followers to offer forgiveness in his name, he was inviting them to make room at the table for those for whom society has found no room. The day of Resurrection is not our private joy, to be hoarded and conserved. It is a magnanimous gesture proclaiming a place at the table for everyone.
I belong to the Southern Poverty Law Center, dedicated to fighting injustice and intolerance through the legal system. It is despised by some. Perhaps it is so hated in that it fights for a place at the table for all of God’s children, and some of us just don’t want to share that place Such peace as our Lord demonstrated can be costly.
The peace of God doesn’t square with the ways of the world In our communion liturgy, we sing that God would “Gather the hopes and the dreams of all.” We ask that Christ would “grace our table with his presence, and give us a foretaste of the feast to come.” The peace of Christ we share as we come to the table is the foretaste of the feast to come. It sets a place at the table for all – saints and sinners, just and unjust, abuser, abused. The table is a place for a mindset of mercy and a new way to live together. Easter celebrates this new era in the life of God’s people – the breaking in of the peace of God.
So, today we sing and shout, Alleluia Christ is risen For we believe and live as though there is, indeed, a place at the table for all of God’s children.
O Christ of New Life Help us to celebrate your resurrection by living the foretaste of the feast to come through your peace and justice. Amen.
The Rev. Dr. Thomas Hallstrom
