Dear Family at Christ Community,

       On Sunday we will hear the Gatherer teach us that “it is better to go to the house of mourning than to go to the house of feasting” (Ecclesiastes 7:2). Although shocking, this proverb does not contradict his repeated invitation to enjoy God’s gifts. Instead, it warns us about the danger of using God’s good gifts to avoid the hard realities of sin and death in this fallen world. These are weighty realities that are difficult to face. We need a “ballast of assurance” to face these weighty realities head on. So, as you prepare to come to the Table, ponder Jesus’s promise to bring us home to His Father’s house in John 14:1-3:

“Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me. In my Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also.”

       Jesus’s promise to prepare a place for us in His Father’s house enables us to face sin and death without abandoning hope and joy. Yes, the Gatherer is right to warn us that death “is the end of all mankind” (Ecclesiastes 7:2). And yet Jesus speaks an even better word to us: death has been defeated and our forever home is with our God! Although we have not yet arrived at our Father’s house, already Jesus invites us to feast with Him at His Table. Come to the Table ready to experience it for what it truly is: a foretaste of the joy to come when Jesus takes us to His Father’s house—a house where all mourning will give way to everlasting joy with our God!

Yours in union with Christ,
Matt