This is our first celebration of the Lord’s Supper in the Advent season for the year of our Lord, 2010. And note that word celebration. When we celebrate God’s grace to us here, we are learning how to celebrate His goodness in every aspect of our lives, and that includes our orientation to festivals like Christmas. In The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, Father Christmas appears in the book to give gifts and to destroy winter. He distributes his gifts and moves on. We should learn to be much more like him. And who comes next, and what does she say? Correct, the White Witch comes next, and she says, “What is the meaning of all this gluttony, this waste, this self-indulgence?” In the White Witch’s words we hear all the echoes of the pious fussers, and stewardship-mongers, and finger-under-the-nose-waggers, and anti-consumerism advocates.
But what do we learn in this meal, set before us? We learn of God’s extravagance. We learn of His prodigality. We learn of His overflow. We learn that He doesn’t know how to stay with respectable limits. Do you call saving us staying within respectable limits? Not a bit of it.
Now He did not do all that so that we would learn how to show our gratitude to Him by imitating the devil. We do not imitate Father Christmas by acting like the White Witch. And so, if you are hearing these words of grace, then all through Advent, when given the opportunity to have a piece of fudge, you should make a point of having two. And why? Because you have come to this Table, and you have been welcomed here.