The Danish short story and movie Babette’s Feast…
is a story replete with themes and undercurrents that I have neither the
cultural or historical knowledge to unpack…
but at base, it is a story of generosity and transformation.
It
is the story of a quarrelsome pietist sect of Lutherans in the Juttlands,
a barren deserted strip of land
—who are transformed when a French cook, Babette, who has been living with
them as a servant for 14 years, performs an act of profound generosity
—she spends a fortune, all she has, to cook the community a proper French
meal,
the most sumptuous of feasts.
Transformed too, Babette,
receiving from this community refuge and stability as her country
is engulfed by chaos, revolutions and counter revolutions.
Both Babette and the Pietist Community
taste what it means that, “Mercy and truth have met together.”
Feast and community come together as something magical, holy, simply put,
good.
The
film makes me wonder about the sorts of feasts we partake in,
the meals we meet in life,
the sorts of communities we are formed by.
I wonder about the feasts we have tasted.
Let us pray
There are certainly feasts of
Death and Dissatisfaction.
Before Jesus feeds the 5,000+, Herod holds his own banquet.
A tense meal, of that I’m sure.
Everyone walks on eggshells—even Herod…
Brittle
bristling Herod, criticized by Jesus’ cousin John,
has thrown him in jail, and then,
at this party, to prove that he’s still in control, not some prophet,
Herod
gets pushed into saving face by John losing his head…
holding onto power, even if it means beheading a prophet of God.
Not
satisfied with doing the deed, Herod shows off, he brings the Baptist’s head to
the buffet; the Prophet’s head is placed among the Hors d’oeuvres.
Yes,
a grewsome feast, the sort of meal that runs counter to all those parables
Jesus preaches about the Kingdom of God and its gentle fruitfulness.
And
we’ve tasted such feasts, have we not?
I know there
have been times when I’ve pour myself into blackholes,
all for nothing,
or for some sideways reason I could barely fathom even at the time…
Times
when it almost seems like we want to reverse the proclamation of Isaiah so that
it reads:
“Pay heavy price for frustration, spend like a drunken sailor to hollow out
your stomach with hunger. Starve for evil and be disappointed in poor emptiness.”
Yes,
there is always a tendency to try and shoehorn this world into “If/Then” paradigms
—If I do X, then you’ll do Y…
it’s simpler, easier to control…
at least until you get entangled in the inevitable tit-for-tat failures
that comes with the mindset of gnawing scarcity
and favors placed like traps.
A bitter taste, all that…
but friends, there is also a “because/therefore” paradigm,
“Because I am a prophet of the God who offers water to the thirsty,
food to the hungry, therefore eat what is good, delight in rich mercy.”
A faith founded on God acting first, last, and always.
There is another feast
—Jesus, upon hearing of his cousin’s death, goes to a deserted place,
perhaps not unlike the Juttlands where Babette’s Feast took place.
He is fleeing, and he is mourning.
He goes there to be alone (at least that’s my Introvert reading of Jesus’
actions)
and is met with 5,000 men
—and probably four times that many people, when you count women and children—20,000,
each in their own deserted places,
their own sufferings and their own sicknesses…
And Jesus Christ is moved in his
flesh
—literally in his guts.
Isn’t that the ministry
of God incarnate
—his whole life and ministry is God being moved in the flesh,
a God with guts!
The
place where Jesus takes his sorrow, is transformed…
he transforms mourning into compassion.
Christ,
moved in the flesh—offers that which is needed—the needful things of humanity
—healing sickness, hunger ending fish and bread.
Provision, a feast, even in awful times!
“We
should send them away, right?”
“No,
trust that God is a because/therefore God—give them something to eat!”
Hear
me well, abundant, compassionate, grace filled feasts are not only possible,
but the will of God!
Jesus does not flee in his mourning, but, like Moses or Elijah,
provides a meal, like Manna in the desert.
In
that deserted, and then filled place,
Jesus prompts the Disciples to be good stewards
—coaxing a generosity that has an astonishing multiplying effect
—We have nothing…
yet somehow we have everything.
God is glorified when his bounty is received!
The Kingdom of God, if you didn’t
get it with his many stories
—Parables of:
-Sowers and wheat,
-mustard seeds and great hauls of fish,
-both buried treasure & pearls found in deserted fields
—is now described not with words, but with deeds.
The
Kingdom is one man’s heavy heart, becoming healing for the many.
The
Kingdom is Christ’s mourning, turning into recovery for the crowd.
The
Kingdom is disciples claiming they have nothing, and Jesus showing them what
they have.
The
Kingdom is 5 loaves and 2 fishes, blessed, broken, shared with 20,000,
and so much abundance that there are leftovers!
Blessed, broken, shared
—pointing to what is to come
—a feast of remembrance and renewal
—the making of an agreement between God and a people,
creating a community.
Remembering Passover,
re-membering, putting together again, a people
—a last meal that created a lasting community,
one that we belong to even today!
A feast that points to the Eschatological
Banquet
—the Great Feast at God’s Table at the Culmination of All Things;
where cups overflow and we dwell forever.
A feast we eat in anticipation of, every Sunday, when we gather and say, “Taste
and see that the Lord is good.”
There is a taste of it…
like Babette’s feast, when mercy and truth kiss, it is holy and good.
Friends,
profound generosity and gathering community, blessed by God,
they become a transformative meal,
a Feast like no other.
Amen.
