All Saints' Day 2018

Isaiah 25:6-9

Whether or not it is to your personal taste, we are a nation obsessed with food programmes on tv. This week saw Ruby Bhogal, Rahul Mandal, and Kim-Joy Hewlett go head-to-head in the final of the Great British Bake-Off [no spoilers here as to who won]. And Bake-Off is the perfect example of the genre, because it is about so much more than the food. We come back, year after year, to consume the contestants. True, the haters, internet trolls, devour and spit back out. But the rest of us enjoy a leisurely feast, morsels of lives beyond the tent, titbits of interaction and unseen footage. We take the contestants to our hearts, to our bellies, to our bones, and we are nourished by the milk of their human kindness, in giving of themselves. Who couldn’t love innocent, neurotic Rahul, a fish so painfully out of chowder?

Our reading from Isaiah are among the most striking and surprising verses in the Bible. Imagine this: watching the BBC News Channel as report after report comes in from all around the Middle East: Tom Bateman reporting from Jerusalem; John Simpson reporting from Iraq; Lyse Doucet reporting from Jordan; Lyse Doucet reporting from Syria; Emmanuel Igunza reporting from Ethiopia; Orla Guerin reporting from Egypt; Lyse Doucet (again) reporting from Saudi Arabia; Jeremy Bowen reporting from Lebanon — and then, as if unable to stomach any more, suddenly switching to Channel 4, and Sandi Toksvig and Noel Fielding presenting Bake-Off.

The LORD is producing his show-stopper: making an exquisite feast for all the peoples, full of flavours, demonstrating great technical ability. Just hearing him describe what he is attempting is enough to make our mouths salivate in anticipation. And, of course, it’s all about the presentation, too. He spreads out a table-cloth, stretching out wide enough for all the surrounding nations to sit down together. A common-ground. The shared experience of death, the table cloth that becomes a shroud, or the shroud that becomes a table cloth. Because, you see, this imagery is not so different from what comes before after all: imagery of impending judgement followed by restoration for all the nations.

And then, in a most unexpected twist, God also eats, not the feast but the table cloth. Slowly, savouring every bitter mouthful, he swallows it up whole. Drawing it into himself. Drawing those sat at its edges closer together. And when all that is left is the size of a handkerchief, and the people are now drawn very near, he takes the corner and wipes away their tears, before the final gulp. And the people, amazed and astonished, will say, ‘we waited for the LORD, only to find out that it was the LORD who waited on us!’

This is not a vision of heaven as pie in the sky when you die. This is a vision of the kingdom of heaven grounded in the almost-upon-us; and in a thoroughly, corporate, bodily experience of tingling taste-buds, culinary triumph, award-winning wines; and of salty tears and gut-wrenching sense of never being good enough, wiped away. This is a vision of our being collectively judged and, potentially, rewarded in the here-and-now: where the challenge set is, will you humble yourself to be served by the LORD of hosts, or will you refuse? If you exalt yourself, you will be brought low; but if you humble yourself, you will be exalted.

This is a Bake-Off vision of the drama building and the tension mounting as the clock ticks down; of taste-testing the finished product; of Star-Bakers and Being-Sent-Home; of tears welling-up in Kim-Joy’s eyes before the judges; and Ruby’s determination to keep going, for tomorrow is another day, a fresh start; and Rahul, who seems unable to eat affirmation and assimilate its goodness into a healthy self-esteem — and an audience of 8 million viewers still keeping faith, holding on to the hope that eventually he’ll get it, the salvation we long for him. This is Rahul, and Ruby, and Kim-Joy, as representatives of the Great British public in 2018.

This is also Mary’s song, “He has shown strength with his arm; he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts. He has brought down the powerful from their thrones, and lifted up the lowly; he has filled the hungry with good things, and sent the rich away empty” (Luke 1:51-53). And this is Jesus, sitting down with his disciples and a multitude on a mountain, and declaring, “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled” (Matthew 5:6).

The thing about prophetic revelation concerning the One who was, and is, and is to come, is that we are always in the moment. In the midst of international turmoil, the fall and rise of nations and displacement of peoples, the LORD is still preparing his table. Still baking the finest bread, still selecting the finest wine. Even now, spreading out — and swallowing — the table-cloth; even now, wiping away our tears and taking away our disgrace. Today, and every today, we might experience both the longing and the consummation. Each time we gather together with our neighbours, from far and near, around the Lord’s table we are given a taste of the kingdom — and then sent out to extend that table into every place, every encounter. Today, as we come, we give special thanks for all those women and men who have come before us, and by whose example we respond in our time. Let us be glad and rejoice in his salvation.