a thrill of hope
the weary world rejoices
About now, the airwaves are crammed past to their point of bursting. Everywhere you turn, some vendor is hawking their goods. All vowing their wares are that missing ingredient to finally make your life definitely happy, healthy, and handsome.
We’ve all been let down by these empty promises enough times to hear them with suspicion. However, neither are we immune from their claims either. Our longing for something more than what’s peddled in the ads is so deep that we can’t help but give those tired old sales pitches a hearing. And often, even our hard-earned money.
Today, though, of all days, God adds a voice to that already crowded marketplace. Numb though we may be becoming to all those propositions out there, God adds one more to the litany. This offer, though, has a different ring to it. This offer, so says God, promises to truly satisfy! This offer is the one to which all our earthly merchandise is but a mere shadow. What’s more, unlike all those other so-called deals out there, God promises to hand over the real deal for nothing! In fact, that’s what makes God’s offer so valuable, that it’s given free of charge!
How’s that for ear-catching? Not only does God not charge a thing for the goods, but it’s also the very fact that God hands it all over for nothing that makes it so priceless!
Strange though this might sound, it’s actually a paradox that’s baked into the very fabric of reality. Despite how we insist that anything worth having is worth working for, we all know that the very best things in our lives are the ones that came our way freely. And one of the very best depictions of this is the 1987 Danish film, Babette’s Feast.
This is a highbrow reference, by the way! Babette’s Feast won the Oscar for best foreign film. And it’s based on literature, too. A short story by Karen Blixen, who also wrote the popular, Out of Africa.
Babette’s Feast takes place in the 19th century, in a remote Danish village founded by an ascetic preacher. The founder of this little sect advocated a renunciation of all earthly pleasures, viewing them as a distraction from the eternal Jerusalem. Austere though such a life may be, it was not without its charms, particularly the pastor’s two daughters.
Those two were so capable, in fact, they regularly received entreaties to leave that little village. Out of faithfulness of their father, though, they turned them all down. They even remained after their father’s death, choosing to serve that little he founded. Although, over the years, the congregation has fallen into bickering and backbiting.
One night, though, a bedraggled woman turns up at their door. A refugee from Paris, there at the suggestion of a friend. The woman, Babette, had been told she would find safe harbor with those two sisters. Babette tells them she can earn her keep, offering to work as their housekeeper. Although the sisters want to help, they explain they cannot. They can’t afford to pay for a housekeeper. Babette is so desperate for trustworthy accommodations, though, she offers to work for free.
Moved by pity, the sisters agree. And if they were capable, Babette is twice as much. Although there’s now an extra mouth to feed, the sisters find what little they have stretching further than ever before. In no time at all, they fall into a happy little rhythm of life together. And after a few years, the sisters and the rest of the community, too, come to be quite reliant upon Babette.
All that is interrupted, though, when word comes that Babette has fallen into a small fortune. At that, the sisters begin to fear Babette will leave them. While the sisters are wondering how they’ll manage without Babette, Babette goes to them with a request. She wants to prepare a proper french meal for a party the sisters are hosting in honor of their father. Although the sisters have their reservations, they feel they have no choice but to grant Babette’s request.
While this might sound pleasant enough to us, for the sisters, it represents a threat to everything their father espoused. As lavish ingredient after lavish ingredient arrives, the sisters begin to fear the meal is nothing more than an opportunity for the flesh. Eventually, in tears, they go to the congregation, apologizing that they’ve put everyone at risk of temptation. Hearing that, everyone agrees to take the meal as if they had no sense of taste.
Somberly they all gather. As the host Babette has hired seats everyone at a well-made table, it becomes clear the guests have their work cut out for them. And while they put up a good fight, in the end, they’re no match for the sumptuous feast. As the fine wine and rich cuisine are served up, the guest’s defenses break down. The banquet works its magic on them. As a viewer, you watch as the diners turn down the glass of water for another sip of wine.
Despite their best attempts, what the sisters feared most comes to pass. Only, instead of falling into sin, the diners fall into reverie. In fact, as the meal washes over them, the guests themselves are transformed. They let go of old gripes and offer each other new tenderness. Once the meal is over, they all gather around the well like little children, hold hands, and sing songs as the snow gently falls upon them.
Chastened by Babette’s generosity, the sisters go to thank her. They embrace Babette, telling her how much she means to them and how much they’ll miss her once she’s gone. At that, Babette tells them she has no plans of leaving. She says she has no friends or family left in Paris. And what’s more, she has no money, either. Aghast, the sisters ask how this can be. They ask about that fortune Babette just came into. With little more than a shrug, Babette tells them she spent it all on that opulent meal she just served them.
…Of its own, that meal was truly splendid. But what made it so satisfying was the sheer graciousness of it! The way Babette gave everything to that little community with no thought of return! It wasn’t how much that meal cost that made it so rich. It was that Babette gave it for nothing! And that, Isaiah prophesies, is nothing less than everything God has set before you today!
God has held nothing back from you, not even the beloved Son, the Christ-child! And in Jesus, God has spread before you all the riches of eternity! And what’s more, God has done all this without any thought of return! Reform your life, or don’t! God has given it all regardless of any of that! This is no transaction. This is salvation! Grace itself!
As Luther says in his reflection on Mary’s song, “In giving us the gifts God gives only what is his, but in his regard and grace God gives you his very self.” And in Jesus Christ, and the rich meal of salvation in his body and his blood, given to you without price, God gives you nothing less!
And if that rings out to you today, good! If you’re hungry and thirsty for that kind of promise, even better! It just means you’re finally ready for everything God has to give this Christmas. Which is good, because Christ has already brought everything and eternity to the Christmas feast of grace he serves up to you. And, he serves it all up on account of his own holiness, graciousness, and love!
Ear-grabbing. Isn’t it?
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