On Feasts and Thanksgiving: 23.11.2017

Exodus 24:1-11
Isaiah 25:6-8
Matthew 14:14-20

I.

And to Moses He said,
     ‘Go up to God, you and Aaron, 
          Nadab and Abihu, and seventy elders of Israel:
     Prostrate yourselves at a distance.’

And Moses came near on his own, up to God;
     But they didn’t come near — the crowd
          Didn’t go up with him.

Moses came and he said to them everything God declared,
     Everything God prescribed.
With one voice the whole nation answered. They said,
     ‘All of the things God declared, we will do.’

Then Moses wrote all God's declarations, 
And got up at dawn,
     Built an altar beneath the mountain,
     And twelve pillars for the twelve clans of Israel.

And he sent the young men of Israel.
     They brought up offerings
     And they slaughtered oxen, sacrifices of peace to God.

And Moses took half of the blood
     And he put it in basins,
     And with half of the blood he spattered the altar.

Then he held God’s written pact
     And read so the people could hear. 
     And they said: ‘All of the things God declared, we will surely do.’

Moses took the blood, spattered the people, and said,
     ‘Look: the blood of the pact God carved out with you
     In all these words.’

Then Moses went up, and Aaron,
     Nadab and Abihu, and seventy elders of Israel,

And Israel saw their God.
     Under His feet there was something like sapphire pavement;
     Something like heaven in clarity.

And on the finest of Israel’s sons
     He did not put his hand.
     They beheld God.
     They ate and drank.

II.

God with his legions will make a feast,
     For all the nations,
     On this mountain,
Of fat things.
     A feast of fine wine and fat cuts of meat,
     Fine, sophisticated wine.

And he will devour, on this mountain,
     The veil that veils over all nations,
     The shroud spread across every race.

He will devour death in battle-fury,
     And God, my lord, will wipe tears off of every face.
As for the accusation of his people,
     He will banish it from the earth —
     For so God declared.

III.

And when Jesus emerged he saw a big crowd, and felt for them, and healed the weak among them.

It got late, so his disciples came up to him and said, ‘this place is a wasteland and it’s past time to go. Send these crowds away so they can get back to town and buy food.’

But he said to them, ‘they don’t have to go: you give them something to eat yourselves.’

They said to him, ‘all we’ve got here is five pieces of bread and two fish.’

So he said, ‘bring them here.’

Then he had the crowds lie down in the pasture. He took the five pieces of bread and two fish, looked up to heaven, and praised God. He broke the bread and gave it to his disciples, and the disciples gave it to the crowds.

They all ate and had their fill, and they gathered up twelve baskets full of the extra scraps.