Feast

A feast, a lavish feast--pause. Close your eyes. What do you see? Smell? What do you taste and enjoy? How does your body feel? What does it do for your heart and feelings?

God compares his Word to a feast, to honey. So what do we as teachers, writers, pastors, leaders give to others to eat? How do we prepare the feast? Or fundamentally, do we ask people to come and eat, or to cook?

The text is John 13, where Jesus washes his disciples’ feet. Perhaps the pastors’ tones echo wonderfully in a grandiose church building, fall on a few ears in a smaller stain-glassed church, are projected through blue lights and screens and microphones, or are echoed in the church in Africa, or shine in the bright blue of a Central American church--no matter where, Christian leaders face the same question: what will we give those entrusted to our care?

John 13 is preached. There is a compelling introduction about a story of how a random act of kindness made someone’s day that warms all hearts. It is well structured and well-elaborated. The main course: “Whose feet are you washing? Go, wash feet this week.”

You walk to another congregation, and sit down in the folding chairs, rough benches, or pews.  To your surprise, John 13 is preached here as well. The main course: “Jesus washed his disciples’ feet, foreshadowing his love to the very end on the cross, his ultimate act of servitude for his people. Cleansed and washed by him, we are new and have new hearts by which we can wash others feet. Let Jesus wash others’ feet through you this week. Celebrate what he has done by giving that gift to others.”

You have listened to two sermons. But how did you eat at both? What is the lingering savor in your mouth? Were you invited to cook or to eat?

From the Dominican Republic, Pastor Sugel Michelen invites pastors to prepare a feast for their congregations (although he doesn’t use that metaphor) in his book From and Before God:  A Practical Introduction to Expository Preaching. Well structured, it begins with theology to theory to step-by-step. It is filled with deliberate examples, making it a feast in itself.

Who is this book for? Certainly for Christian leaders who have any form of teaching, whether it be pastors or not. But even the lay person will be moved from a passive recipient to a greater understanding of what is going on when we listen to sermons, why it is important. One will move to a connoisseur--not to judge, but the connoisseur is better able to appreciate, to take in, to relish. And isn’t that what Sunday’s Word should be for? Not a chance to get the kinks out of your fingers by doodling, but to relish the feast God gives? In addition, for one’s own Bible study it is helpful.

The strengths are many: practical, filled with examples from the Word and fresh insights, but most of all, it is Christ-centered. It is Christ that is the Word, the Spirit of Christ who delivers the Word. It is Christ in whom we meet the revelation of God, and all revelation must come through him. He is the way, and there is no other. May all who read ponder, hear, and rejoice in our Lord and Savior.