This week is one of our culture’s high feasts. We may lament that many do not know what Christmas really means, or they have bent it into some other strange meaning, but the fact remains quite a striking one—this time of year, every year, the birth of Jesus Christ is marked and celebrated. Other contenders and Johnny-come-latelies like Kwanzaa don’t really know what to do. Christmas really has a lot of momentum behind it.
One of the reasons our culture has drifted from a right understanding of Christmas is that the Church has drifted from a right celebration of this meal here. As Christians we have the privilege of feasting in the presence of God every week. When we come to other annual celebrations, like Thanksgiving or Christmas, we are not out of shape. We know, and practice, the reality of celebrating before God.
Now this is not to say that the Lord’s Supper is simply training for events like Christmas—not at all. The Lord’s Supper is central, not the other way around. But it is to say that this kind of memorial meal, that we are privileged to partake of every week, shapes and drives our behavior the rest of the week, and the rest of the time. Culture really is religion externalized. It is here, in the worship of God, that your religion is shaped and formed. It is there, out in the world that the cultural forms grow up around the real faith of God’s people. If we have a problem with how badly the whole thing out there has gone off the rails, then the first place to address the problems is here. So come in true faith, eat and drink.