The Goodness of the Feast
Growing up, my mother’s catchphrase was “It’s all good”. There was a sign on our kitchen wall, it was embossed on her key chain, it branded her coffee mugs. As a child, it seemed so simple. It’s all good. But as I grew older and my perspective on the world opened and shifted, I began to doubt if all was really good. Surely everything cannot be good? Surely there had to be certain events and actions we could not deem as ‘good’. And if it was not all good, what does that say about God?
The Psalm and 2nd reading remind us that even when things are bleak and we cannot see how anything would be good, God is with us. We can live without fear, without worry, because we know the power of God in our lives. God carries us through every moment of our lives, walking beside us in the valley of death, and climbs by our side on the highest mountain tops. With him and through him, all is well.
Similar to the “It’s all good” of my childhood, Philippians 4:13 has also taken on a large presence in the world of t-shirts, signs, and coffee mugs. It is a simple message – we can do all things through him who strengthens us! But just like, “it’s all good”, do we lose something in the simplicity of the phrase? What is not often seen on those t-shirts and coffee mugs is the surrounding verses, the ones Paul shares to help establish how he has been able to see that he can do all things through Christ who strengthens him. Paul speaks with an assuredness from his lived experience that allows us to see why the common phrase rings so true for him. Paul had been with and without, and he knows he can survive it all with God on his side.
.
Because of what we have experienced, we can know what it is like to feel God’s presence, to be able to live without that fear, and we can also know how it can feel to be far from God. The gospel shows what happens when we do not see God’s goodness when it is offered. When the wedding feast invitations are ignored or not taken seriously, the seats are offered to others who do accept the invitation. This passage always calls me to pause and reflect, wondering if I truly accept God’s invitation as fully as I can, or if I let it shuffle to the bottom of my pile. Just like “it’s all good, I sit in prayer and try to reach beyond myself to see the larger picture, where I can place my trust fully in God.
There is goodness in God, goodness in God’s presence in our lives, goodness in understanding how deeply we are provided and cared for. May we all remember the goodness of being invited to the feast.
Comments