Feast

Christ, who made creation's harvest,

formed the riches of the seas,

take the little we have brought you:

Give it for the least of these.



Let our bread become a banquet,

loaves and fish a lordly feast

filling us with more than fragments:

Every hunger is relieved.



Look upon us with compassion

in our daily need for bread.

Crumbs would give us satusfaction,

yet you set a feast instead:



Goodly measures, packed together,

shaken down and running o'er,

every morsel mercy's treasure

dropping from your hand, O Lord.



Not to us or to our labors,

but to your abundance, thanks.

Now for us and for our neighbors,

take our off'rings in your hands.



Not to us you give your blessing,

but to all who hunger sore,

filling every hand that's empty,

overflowing more and more.

Milagre da “Multiplicação dos pães e peixes” (Mateus 14:13-21; Marcos 6:31-34; Lucas 9:10-17; João 6:5-15). Photo By © José Luiz Bernardes Ribeiro, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=16833907

Wedding

Then he said to his servants, ‘The feast is ready,
but those who were invited were not worthy to come.
Go out, therefore, into the main roads
and invite to the feast whomever you find.’
The servants went out into the streets
and gathered all they found, bad and good alike,
and the hall was filled with guests.
Matthew 22:1-10

The king has called his servants,
sent missives out:
The world shall cease its turning,
the stars burn out.

This shall be how the world ends:
not with a bang—
ah, no, but with a wedding
for Christ our king!

And look, the invitation:
It has your name.
Cast off your hesitation;
prepare the way!

Go not about your business:
There is no time!
The groom is all impatience
to drink new wine.

Put on your snow-white garment,
your wedding gown;
the firstfruits of the harvest,
your bridal crown.

Get up!  Come to the wedding!
Come to the feast!
Christ has made all things ready:
Sit down and eat.

Parable of the Great Banquet by Brunswick Monogrammist (circa 1525), location: National Museum, Warsaw By Brunswick Monogrammist – cyfrowe.mnw.art.pl, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=23207722

Feast

Now thus says the LORD of hosts:
Consider your ways!
You have sown much, but have brought in little;
you have eaten, but have not been satisfied;
You have drunk, but have not been exhilarated;
have clothed yourselves, but not been warmed;
And whoever earned wages
earned them for a bag with holes in it.
Haggai 1:1-8

You made this world to be our feast,
created and laid down in love,
and told your children, come and eat—
We did, and oh, what have we done?

We took and ate, but hunger grew
and burned unceasing in our flesh,
for what we took was not of you,
and all our feasting turned to ash

We planted, but we grew no grain;
we've eaten, but we hunger still.
Our endless labor brings no gain,
our hearthfire cannot warm the chill.

We drink, but cannot lift our hearts;
our gold has nothing good to buy.
There is no end to our false starts;
our thirst is never satisfied.

But all creation is your feast:
We walk the table you have set.
You made us for this eucharist;
you made us for your gift of bread.

Teach us, O Lord, to feast again:
Give us the water that is life.
Give us the voice to say Amen
to all that truly satisfies.

Floris Claesz. van Dyck 001 By Floris van Dyck – The Yorck Project (2002) 10.000 Meisterwerke der Malerei (DVD-ROM), distributed by DIRECTMEDIA Publishing GmbH. ISBN: 3936122202., Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=150586

The Older Brother

Now the older son had been out in the field and, on his way back, as he neared the house, he heard the sound of music and dancing. He called one of the servants and asked what this might mean. The servant said to him, ‘Your brother has returned and your father has slaughtered the fattened calf because he has him back safe and sound.’ He became angry, and when he refused to enter the house, his father came out and pleaded with him. He said to his father in reply, ‘Look, all these years I served you and not once did I disobey your orders; yet you never gave me even a young goat to feast on with my friends. But when your son returns who swallowed up your property with prostitutes, for him you slaughter the fattened calf.’ He said to him, ‘My son, you are here with me always; everything I have is yours. But now we must celebrate and rejoice, because your brother was dead and has come to life again; he was lost and has been found.’”
Luke 15:25-32

Should I devour your life as well,
as he has all these years?
Would you come running to me then
and shed these joyful tears?

I culled no fatling from your herd,
no firstling from your stall,
and thought to love was to be starved,
if I was loved at all.

Ah, yes, he has come back to life,
so you call for a feast.
Is that is?  Do I have to die
for you to run to me?

I tasted not one crumb of you
and hoped you would be proud,
while in his fire you were consumed
and wept to put it out.

Then strike the flint and set the flame:
My love is burning, too.
Half of the welcome feast I claim,
I who have stayed with you.

Half of the bread you break is mine.
If all your love is feast,
then pour me out the dregs of wine,
for I will sit and eat

Rembrandt, The Return of the Prodigal Son 1662–1669 (Hermitage Museum, St Petersburg) By Rembrandt – 5QFIEhic3owZ-A — Google Arts & Culture, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=22353933

Feast

Come, O Lord, and set a table
where the weary pilgrims rest.
Pour the promise that can save us;
break the everlasting bread.

When our hands are all but empty,
turn our morsels to a meal;
multiply them with your blessing
to a feast that never fails.

Let our hearts become your dwelling
by the bread that you provide;
change our spirits into wellsprings
running to eternal life.

Not from us but from your mercy
come the riches of the feast,
for the hungry and the thirsty,
for the last and for the least.

Not to us or to our working,
to our will or to our pride,
but to you we give the glory
for the feast that you provide.

Take the little we can offer,
take the loaves and take the fish:
Feed our souls and feed our bodies
with the bounty of your gifts.

Feeding the multitude. Armenian manuscript. Daniel of Uranc gospel, 1433. By Daniel of Uranc – Michel Bakni, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=98280902

Come, Sojourners and Strangers

Mashing up Ephesians 2, Psalm 87, and a few other things:

Come, sojourners and strangers
who pass through Zion's gate,
and sit down at the table:
Our welcome here awaits.

For Christ has torn the heavens
to sink into our deaths;
he gives himself, unleavened,
to us as broken bread.

Sit down to all he gives you,
for he prepared this feast.
Sit down to him, he bids you,
and let him wash your feet.

Then, baptized in his dying,
we rise into his life
and he, the grace supplying,
takes us to be his bride.

And we who had been outcasts
are honored at this feast.
Christ lays himself in our hands
and tells us, Take and eat.

We are exiles no longer
but citizens in him
who makes our shelter stronger
and comes to dwell within.

Marriage at Cana, 1561, By Jacopo Tintoretto – Web Gallery of Art: Image Info about artwork, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=15542127

Come All, Come All

For today’s readings, to the tune KINGSFOLD (“I Heard the Voice of Jesus Say”):

There was a garden, ripe and rich
and ready to our hand,
but we, too greedy in our reach,
were from its verdure banned.
Through barren wastes we restless search,
in every grain of sand,
to find the bounty we beseech:
Oh, God, restore our land!

The God of mercy hears our cry
and ready makes the feast,
lays out the tables on the height
with seats for first and least.
“Come all! Come all!” his angels light
about our hands and feet;
we turn and rend them in reply
and fight for sand to eat.

But still the feast is ready there:
rich food and choicest wines
set in a garden more than fair,
ripe wheat and dripping vines.
Come all! This message still they bear
who bear with God's design;
if we will but his garment wear
we welcomed are to dine.

Cast off, cast off the dusty gown;
scrape off the caked-on mud,
and see a servant kneeling down
to wash our hands of blood,
to wash the feet that fin'lly found
the road that leads to good.
Come all at last where grace abounds
and feast on angels' food!