Today’s readings: Click on today’s date at http://www.usccb.org/bible/
Sabbath party
Friday, March 7, 2014
Friday after Ash Wednesday
Matthew 9:15
Jesus said, “Can the wedding guests mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them? The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast.”
Margaret has written about the Sabbath, “We have let it slip away from us as a vehicle for the regular personal celebration that focuses on the fact that GOD IS WITH US.”
In the newsletter from Samaritan Ministries, our alternative health “insurer,” Rob Slane says, “Rightly understood, the Gospel is joy, laughter, and liberty, not mealy-mouthed, grudging legalism.”
Jesus names us as the wedding guests. His invitation to the party is for me to come and personally celebrate his gifts of joy, laughter and liberty.  Here is the Sabbath promise – come, eat and drink, be happy! God sings, “Let my food be what you eat, my drink be what you drink. It’s free, and you will live eternally.”
When Jesus died, the party was suspended for three days. The Apostles’ Creed says, “Jesus … was crucified, dead and buried. He descended into hell.”
And then, “The third day he rose again from the dead.” The party resumed in full force, complete with the omnipresence of the Holy Spirit. As our son Marc shouted as he came running out of Sunday School so many years ago, “Jesus is alive!”
During Lent l fast. But not because Jesus is missing. It’s because I am missing Jesus. I’m eating food of my own making and drinking earth-liquor that finally makes me sick and poisons me. It’s not the living water.
I fast so I can find the party again, and re-discover the joy, the laughter, the liberty of Jesus.
This wonderful wedding, Lord, is where you bring out the best wine at the end, and we fly away. Let the counterfeits fade from sight, Jesus, and bring us into your light, your great joy, where the kingdom of God IS A PARTY!
http://www.christiancounselingservice.com/archived_devotions.php?article_id=1236
