Feasting in Faith

• 
• 
• 
• 

Currier & Ives., Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

As a Protestant Christian of the “low church” variety, I recognize that something is missing in my tradition. We celebrate a couple of the Christian holidays—Christmas and Easter mostly—we mention a few others, and some are completely lost on most Evangelicals in America. While I don’t necessarily see this as a theological problem, it does create a longing for practices that draw my attention back to the work of God in Christ throughout the year. One of the ways that I have sought to help my family and friends is by taking the holidays celebrated in my American culture and using those themes to guide our reflection back to the Word of God.

For the last several years the biggest way that my family has done this is celebrating New Year’s not as the world celebrates it, but as I think God intended us to think about the new year. Maybe it is because of my personality or my upbringing, but the pagan culture of excess on New Year’s Eve has never held my interest. Is this how God would want us to mark the passage of time? Revelry and drinking and celebrating secular music are not the things I think of when I look for the answer to that question.

Looking to the ancient past

Instead, we have looked to the Old Testament to see the kinds of feasts that God prescribed for the Israelites as our inspiration. On New Year’s Day, with the dawn of a new year, we take time to remember and thank God for his faithfulness in keeping his covenant with Noah to uphold the seasons (Gen. 8:20-22). We also take from Lev. 23:9-14 the meaning of the feast of firstfruits and apply it to our New Year’s meal. Yes, this was originally a harvest meal, but in our current culture we have become disconnected from the traditional agricultural times and can acquire whatever food we want whenever we want it. So we have decided to set aside the first day of the year as a time to remember and celebrate God’s goodness in providing for us each day of the previous year and our trust that he will provide for us in the coming year.

But what does our New Year celebration actually look like? Usually this feast takes the form of our family inviting another family to join us for a celebration of God’s faithfulness, provision, and protection. We will read a Bible passage about God’s provision and ask everyone to share something that they remember God doing or providing in the previous year. Then we share a meal together, but not just any meal. One thing that separates this meal from others is that it is a feast of trust in God, like the feast of firstfruits. So we intentionally make this a meal that is finer than any other meal of the year. We buy and eat the best meal that we can afford, and maybe even a little bit more than what we can afford, to remind us that God is the one who provides our daily bread, not our budget.

Looking to our eternal future

The best meal that we can provide might be better than the best someone else can prepare, and it is certainly not as good as others can provide. For us, the biblical principles directing this feast are not traditions or laws that must be followed exactly, but the posture of the heart is most important. What has the Lord done for you? How has he provided for you? And how can you show your thankfulness and trust in him? For my family, we know that God has provided abundantly for us—even if we do not have a lot left over at the end of a year. So we take time to share what God has done in and for us, we show hospitality to others, and we feast, anticipating the marriage supper of the Lamb in faith that God will provide until he brings us home.

Timothy S. Radcliff is the pastor of CROSSroads Bible Fellowship Church in Elverson, PA, a doctoral student at Westminster Theological Seminary, and the husband of CH managing editor Kaylena Radcliff.