What Feast of Love!

While they were eating, Jesus took bread, blessed it, broke it, and gave it to the disciples and said, “Take and eat. This is my body.” He took a cup, gave thanks, and gave it to them, saying, “Drink from this, all of you. This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many so that their sins may be forgiven. I tell you, I won’t drink wine again until that day when I drink it in a new way with you in my Father’s kingdom.” Matthew 26:26-29 (CEB)

The film, Babette’s Feast, is the story of two sisters, Martina and Philippa. Their father is the founder and pastor of a pious religious community in a coastal town in Denmark. The two sisters have embraced this religion of their father and the community even though in making their choice they have given up their dreams of romance and fame.

All of this changes when they take in a boarder, Babette, from Paris. Babette is a refugee--the result of the French Revolution. Babette becomes their cook. She also becomes their salvation, providing them with better-tasting and healthier meals, all at less expense.

After winning a French lottery, Babette insists on cooking and serving a banquet for the sisters and the religious community in honor of the anniversary of their father’s death. In the scenes leading up to the banquet, the community has dissolved into fractious, petty quarrels. 

Our clip starts tonight in the banquet scene. Let’s watch.

At this Last Supper, where twelve gathered to remember their master, who they were, and what they were to be about, it was the artist--the chef--who called forth the spirit of joy. What had worried them for so long - am I truly forgiven? - was realized anew as the bounty poured from the kitchen. This food was the visible sign of the abundance that they had dared not believe in...How could God ever forgive that sin? Who could ever really know me and still love me? Their faith was ruled by a level of scarcity that was consistent with the harsh land where they lived, the stale bread they were accustomed to eating, the bland soup that usually filled their bowls. Their belief was that their abundance would come in heaven. Not the possibility that this abundance was already in their midst.

The members of community also weren’t surprised by harshness, or regrets, or quarrelsome pettiness. We can often accommodate evil without much trouble. What confounds them--and often us--is goodness or love. It was this gift freely given that disturbed them, that was so unsettling to them. 

This is what the Lord’s Supper is about. If you think it is simply about forgiveness, you miss the complexity, diversity, and richness of this sacrament. Why else do we have so many names for it? Lord’s Supper. Holy Communion. Eucharist, Sacrament of the Altar. 

It is here, at the table, where freedom, joy, and sorrow hang together in a delicate balance. Where we experience each other and the whole church, past, present and future. Where we experience God’s abundance, Christ’s presence, the forgiveness of sins, a deepening of our faith. And it is here, where we hesitantly sit down to feast and here, at the table, where we hold close to the promise of Psalm 85, that here “Mercy and truth have met together. Righteousness and bliss shall kiss one another.”

Amen.