Moses’ Guide to Post-pandemic Parties

How biblical guides to feasting teach us to fear God.

When I walked up to my church’s outdoor Easter service, my first thought was a joyful one: “I have missed this so much.” But my second thought was much more unsettling: “I forgot how much I missed this.”

The pain of the pandemic has extended to every part of our lives. Some have lost loved ones. Some have lost jobs. Once-in-a-lifetime celebrations have gone uncelebrated. And many churches have made excruciating changes to our worshiping life. For some congregations, that has meant moving most of what we do away from in-person gatherings and on to the Zoom meetings, livestreams, and conference calls that have dominated our waking, working, and worshiping hours.

Such necessary, difficult decisions have wreaked a great deal of havoc on our lives. But in that moment at my church’s first outdoor gathering, I discovered that some of the damage done has been less obvious. The decision to lock down our churches was a necessary act of neighborly love in difficult times. But humans weren’t made to worship God in isolation. Doing so for an entire year may well have damaged us in ways we’ve yet to fully understand.

The CDC’s announcement that vaccinated Americans can stop wearing masks much of the time is just the latest reminder that, while the pandemic isn’t completely behind us, life is beginning to return to something like normal. While many Americans are prepping to make up for lost time with a “roaring ’20s” style return to social life, the church has an opportunity to embrace something far better: a feast of epic proportions, eaten in God’s presence and alongside our neighbors, a feast that overflows into a just, merciful, and generous way of life. ...