Letter From The Headmaster (U.H.)
And now for still more discussion of Christian feasting.
If you spend more than a few weeks around ECS, you hear someone talk about feasting: Reformation Day, the Christmas Feast, the Fundraising Feast, feasting elements to the first and last days of school, the Fiction Festival…it doesn’t end. Nor should it. But the secular celebrations of Thanksgiving and Christmas don’t qualify for what they’re talking about. I’m talking about positioning ourselves to receive from our Father, who loves to give good gifts to His children.
Feasting is an important ingredient to the Christian culture we are looking to give our students. It’s handy, and it’s healthy. It’s a lot of other things, too.
Feasting involves hospitality. We welcome people to our table whether they are deserving or not, because this is how God welcomes us. And we put out candles and linens and sparkling glassware and good food because these people are special.
Feasting involves party planning. Though feasting is not always a big meal, it is sometimes. There are plenty of life skills required to prepare a meal for more than one person, and those are skills that will come in handy if our kids keep on partying unto the jealously and salvation of the unbelievers around them. Allow 45 minutes for the bread to bake; let the steaks rest but don’t let them get cold; figure on about 12 ounces of meat per person if you want leftovers; put the little fork on the outside for the salads; figure most people will want the Cabernet, but have a Chardonnay available; cook the veggies in a skillet on high heat for added flavor; master a delicious recipe for gluten-free cupcakes and surprise everyone; fold the napkins to look like swans. Good skills. Handy skills.
Feasting involves orienting praise. When we feast, we are thanking the Giver of good gifts, and sometimes we use words. Regardless, we use attitudes. We eat freely with thankful hearts, not selfish ones. This is often aided with good (even decadent) food and drink, with music and singing, with merriment and laughter, and by beauty…whether candles or colorfully-plated presentation.
This may sound over-the-top, but that’s sort of the idea. And if you want to see what it looks like, graciously executed with an economy of space and resources, you should come to our Christmas feast on the last day before Christmas break. Our juniors are doing their level best to give the Raggants a feast, even with standing room only in the Mead Hall. It will show plainly that feasting is more of a mentality than it is a presentation.
As a father of three Raggants, I am so grateful that my kids are building some feasting muscle that their father has tried to pack on when long past his muscle-building prime. Though they’re at a genetic disadvantage, they enjoy some serious chronological and cultural advantages. Also, they’re not alone; along with their friends, they’re swimming in waters that have been chlorinated with Feasting.
Done well, this feasting is fun, and it strengthens our witness and showcases the grace of God. When we feast, we boast in the Giver of good gifts. We glory in the favor of God…something that is ours in Christ that we did not earn and that we do not deserve. We are recipients not because of anything we have done, but only because God is gracious. This makes the cheesecake sweeter and the ham saltier. Like fine wine, it gladdens our hearts, and puts a song in our mouths.
One last thing that deserves its own column, but I’ll just mention in closing. It’s a short step from feasting to giving presents at Christmastime. Both are done in a spirit of thankfulness and of godly generosity. Like feasting, gift-giving should be done from a grateful heart…one that realizes what we deserve, and what God has given us instead.
I’m fond of saying that thankful people are more fun to bless. By our thankfulness and our own generosity this season, let’s delight the heart of God by making it fun for Him to bless us. May our heavenly Father look on our feasting and smile.
Risus est bellum!
U.H.
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