Fast From, Feast On

Have you ever gone to a Redbox and been amazed to see a flat out awful counterfeit version of a popular movie? I recently discovered a truly ludicrous "mockbuster" - the title and artwork were designed to fool the less discerning into believing they had rented the newest Disney hit. Nothing but disappointment in that house tonight. I shouldn't be surprised: for every true, good, and beautiful thing, there exists a counterfeit. This is even (especially?) true when it comes to the habits of grace. We have a true gift for the shaping of our souls in the cycles of feasting and fasting that have been handed down to us through the ages. Even a cursory glance at pop culture reveals the parody versions of these are binging and purging.Like feasting, binging is all about excess and extravagance. I’m not one to pine for “the good old days,” but anyone over the age of 20 remembers what it was like to wade through a season of television over several months, having even each individual episode regularly interrupted by commercials. One was forced to digest large amounts of content slowly and patiently. Now, we are given high quality content in massive chunks to consume at will, with many of us spending the weekend to “catch up” on an entire series. I like television and I’m not here to decry the advent of streaming services. I just want to point out the subtle but dangerous difference between binging, which is common, and feasting, which is necessary. Binging says, “I need to get as much as I can of the best that I can while I still can.” It represents an economy of scarcity. That’s not the Kingdom that’s coming. Feasting, on the other hand, is (or ought to be) the ritualized, generous sharing of a common table and the plenty of the land with all who would come. Binging is about consumption: it sees the content as an end in itself, a thing to be ingested, that is one’s best chance at satisfaction. Feasting is about consummation: it looks toward something outside itself, standing as a sign and symbol of a hunger that will ultimately be fully satisfied at a table prepared for us. Each is excessive and extravagant, but only one is a gift to the human soul.This brings us to fasting, and its shadow twin, purging. We’ll look at this at length on Sunday, but a few words here would be helpful. You may be familiar with the popular horror series, The Purge. I won’t go into the details, but suffice to say, “horror” is the correct genre classification for it. Purging looks at the past with regret and says, “I’ve got to change myself, as quickly and violently as is necessary.” It looks ahead to the future and says, “perhaps I can earn another feast if only I’m miserable enough for long enough to justify it.” It’s a tragic outlook on life. Fasting, in contrast, looks at the past and says, “I have seen plenty before, and it was not by my hand.” It looks at the future and says, “This longing I have goes deeper than my body. One day I will be fully satisfied, body and soul, but not by my own hand.” Fasting is a discipline that says with Christ, “My life is about more than momentary relief. I can wait.”The cycle of binging and purging is one of regret and shame, but the cycle of feasting and fasting is one of joy and sorrow. We will not escape pain in this life, but we can receive it punctuated with pleasures that point to an extravagant lover and moderation that looks to a gracious provider. We don’t have to celebrate the liturgy of the world, with its binging and purging, which testifies only to our guilt and shame. As we celebrate the last feasts of the Epiphany season and move into the Lenten fast (with its own smattering of Sunday feasts for relief!), let us remember that we have been given an opportunity to celebrate a life that looks to Christ alone for its meaning and ultimate satisfaction.In the meantime, here are a song and an album I’ll be feasting on in this season:Fast From, Feast On, by Page CXVI from the album, Lent to Maundy ThursdayLamentations: Simple Songs of Lament and Hope, by Bifrost ArtsSee you Sunday to celebrate the Transfiguration of Jesus!- Josh