Eucharistic meditation

1 John 2:15: If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.

As we've seen this morning, John poses a stark either/or choice. Our lives are directed by our loves; what we love determines what path we take in life. Ultimately, there are only two choices: We either love the Father and walk in the light and life that He offers, or we love the world, and stumble through life in deep darkness.

That's the same choice that we are faced with at this table.

This is the Father's table, which He offers to His children. Out of His eternal love for us in Christ, He has given us His Son as food through His Spirit. He gathers us together at this table as His people. Through this table, we become more and more deeply attached to our Father, and come to know Him and His Son more and more intimately.

Yet, this gathering at the table is also a separation from the world. Paul says that we cannot eat at the table of the Lord and the table of demons without arousing the jealousy of our good Husband who invites us to this table. And in the Reformed view, the sacraments have always been seen not only as means of grace but also signs of our distinction from the world. Every week that we sit down at this table, we are committing ourselves once again to love the Father and not to love the world.

If you come to this table, that doesn't mean you're automatically going to cultivate love for the Father. Some ate and drank in the wilderness with Moses, but died before reaching the promised land. But, regardless of how you live this week, something has happened here. You have eaten and drunk at the table of the Lord, at His marriage feast. And if you go from this table to spend the week flirting with or seduced by the world, you do it as someone who has spent Sunday morning at the Lord’s table. That can only arouse the jealousy of God, and, as Paul says, you are not more powerful than God, are you?

But we have better hope: Remind yourselves often this week that you have eaten at the Lord's table, and, reminding yourself of this, avoid every table of demons; renounce all the seductions that the world offers, and find your delight here, in the Son who was given by the Father through the Spirit.

posted by Peter J. Leithart on Sunday, October 15, 2006 at 08:15 AM

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