Jeremiah 31:7–14 • Psalm 147:12–20 • Ephesians 1:3–14 • John 1:1–18

We are still celebrating the Christmas season in the worship calendar. Our theme this Sunday is gathered by grace and sent with joy. In our call to worship, Psalm 147 celebrates the God who strengthens his people. This God blesses them with peace and sends out his word to renew the earth. The prophet Jeremiah echoes that joy, proclaiming a homecoming for the scattered. This is a gathering of the weak, the weary, and the wandering into a community of celebration and abundance. Paul’s letter to the Ephesians reminds us that we are chosen in Christ, redeemed by grace, and sealed with the Spirit. This is not for our sake alone, but to live for the praise of God’s glory. And in John’s Gospel, we behold the Word made flesh, full of grace and truth. He comes into the world to reveal the Father and gather us into God’s family. These passages declare that the good news of Christmas isn’t just that Christ has come. But we are also invited to be part of his mission — welcomed, blessed, and sent with joy to point others to God’s grace.

Reminder: This introductory paragraph is intended to show how the four RCL selections for this week are connected and to assist the preacher prepare the sermon. It is not intended to be included in the sermon.

How to use this sermon resource.

The Discipline of Feasting

Jeremiah 31:7–14 NRSVUE

(Read or ask someone to read the passage.)

For thus says the LORD: Sing aloud with gladness for Jacob, and raise shouts for the chief of the nations; proclaim, give praise, and say, “Save, O LORD, your people, the remnant of Israel.”

See, I am going to bring them from the land of the north, and gather them from the farthest parts of the earth, among them the blind and the lame, those with child and those in labor, together; a great company, they shall return here.

With weeping they shall come, and with consolations I will lead them back, I will let them walk by brooks of water, in a straight path in which they shall not stumble; for I have become a father to Israel, and Ephraim is my firstborn.

Hear the word of the LORD, O nations, and declare it in the coastlands far away; say, “He who scattered Israel will gather him, and will keep him as a shepherd a flock.”

For the LORD has ransomed Jacob, and has redeemed him from hands too strong for him.

They shall come and sing aloud on the height of Zion, and they shall be radiant over the goodness of the LORD, over the grain, the wine, and the oil, and over the young of the flock and the herd; their life shall become like a watered garden, and they shall never languish again.

Then shall the young women rejoice in the dance, and the young men and the old shall be merry. I will turn their mourning into joy, I will comfort them, and give them gladness for sorrow.

I will give the priests their fill of fatness, and my people shall be satisfied with my bounty, says the LORD. Jeremiah 31:7–14 NRSVUE

According to the Christian worship calendar, today is still part of the Christmas season. Christmas is usually a time of joy. It’s a season of reunions with friends and family, good food, and sometimes gifts. Holidays are usually a time of enjoyment, a time of pleasure.

Is pleasure a problem?

At times, we may feel that we overdid it on our enjoyment and pleasure. And this can lead us to make New Year’s resolutions.

Did you make any New Year’s resolutions this year?

People all over the world do. People promise themselves they’ll eat less, exercise more, and manage money better. People vow to finally learn that new skill they’ve been putting off. Every January, gyms fill up while dieting and budgeting apps surge in downloads. Many declare that this year will be different.

(Insert your personal or funny story here — something about how your resolution lasted two days, or how you once joined a gym just for the smoothie bar. Humor helps people lower their guard. It prepares them for a deeper truth. We all long for transformation, but we chase it in small, self-imposed ways rather than looking to the God who transforms us from within.)

Statistics show that only about eight percent of New Year’s resolutions succeed. By mid-February, the parking lot at the gym is empty again, and the budgeting app sits unopened. We slide back into our routines, maybe feeling disappointed in ourselves.

This can be a common pattern around the holidays. We indulge; we eat and spend extravagantly, but we may feel guilty about it. And perhaps it’s that guilt that leads us to make New Year’s resolutions, vowing to eat and spend less. Why do we do this?

Behind all this striving lies a deeper question. What do we believe God thinks about our enjoyment?

What does God think when we celebrate, when we spend time with friends and family, when we laugh and eat and give gifts? When we feast, do we secretly feel a little guilty? Do we imagine God frowning while we go for a second slice of pie? Do we imagine God smiling only when we’re fasting, denying ourselves, or striving harder?

Is God only pleased with us when we restrict ourselves? Does holiness mean perpetual seriousness?

God’s Surprising Command: Rejoice

To answer that, we turn to Jeremiah 31:7–14.

This passage bursts with life. God commands the people to sing aloud with gladness, to raise shouts, to proclaim and give praise. Why? Because the Lord is restoring his people. He’s bringing the exiles home. You see, the prophet Jeremiah is writing to the ancient nation of Isreal. And Isreal was in exile; they had been displaced or removed from their homeland by force.

Look again at verses 12–13:

They shall come and sing aloud on the height of Zion, and they shall be radiant over the goodness of the Lord… Their life shall become like a watered garden… Then shall the young women rejoice in the dance, and the young men and the old shall be merry. Jeremiah 31:12–13 NRSVUE

This is not the language of restraint. It’s the language of celebration. We read about music, dancing, feasting, wine, oil, laughter, and joy. This is a party blessed by God himself.

What Jeremiah describes is not indulgence — it’s restoration. God gathers a broken people and fills them with joy. Then and today.

The Context: Consolation amid Judgment

Jeremiah is often called the weeping prophet. He spent most of his ministry announcing … well, bad news. He announced judgment, warning that Babylon would destroy Jerusalem and that God’s people would go into exile.

But right in the middle of this long lament comes a bright oasis. It’s what scholars call the Book of Consolation (Jeremiah 30–33). These few chapters shimmer with hope. God promises to rebuild, to renew, to make a new covenant written on hearts rather than stone.

In chapter 31, Jeremiah’s words overflow with sensory joy — grain, wine, oil, flocks, music, dance, laughter. God promises not just survival but abundance.

This is not just relief — it’s restoration into joy.

And that’s the heart of God.

The Trinity: Joy at the Center of the Universe

If you zoom out from Jeremiah for a moment, this theme connects to the very nature of God. The Bible reveals that God is not solitary or static. God is triune — Father, Son, and Holy Spirit — a community of eternal love.

Before creation, before history, before sin or sorrow, there was joy. The Father delighted in the Son; the Son rejoiced in the Father; the Spirit was the bond of their love. Joy, not judgment, lies at the center of reality.

Creation itself is an overflow of that trinitarian joy. The world exists because God wanted to share his goodness. Every sunrise, every meal, every song and friendship and taste of beauty is good. This good echoes the delight that has always existed within God.

Sin shattered that harmony. Sin turned joy into scarcity, love into competition, and abundance into anxiety. Yet God’s plan of redemption is not merely to save us from sin and death. God’s plan restores joy, bringing creation back into communion with its Creator.

That’s why Jeremiah 31 looks forward to something far greater than ancient Israel’s return from exile. It points toward the Incarnation. It points to the moment when God himself enters human history, not to condemn, but to feast with us.

The Incarnation: God Joins the Feast

Jesus’ first miracle in the Gospel of John was turning water into wine at a wedding in Cana (John 2: 1–11).

If you were God and wanted to announce your arrival in human flesh, what would you do? You might raise the dead or call down fire from heaven. But Jesus begins by keeping a wedding party going. He takes ordinary water and transforms it into extraordinary joy.

That miracle was not random. It reveals a little of what the kingdom of God is like. Jesus, the incarnate Son, comes to show that God is not a cosmic killjoy but the host of a divine banquet.

Later, people criticize Jesus for eating and drinking too much with sinners. Every meal Jesus shared was a foretaste of the great feast Jeremiah pointed to. It was a foretaste of the ultimate gathering of the lost, the healing of the broken, the celebration of redemption.

In the Incarnation, God joins the table. Jesus sits with us, saying, “This is my body, given for you.”

Feasting is not the opposite of holiness. Feasting is one of the purest expressions of holiness when it is rooted in God, in gratitude and shared love.

God Provides Lavishly

Jeremiah’s imagery of “grain, wine, and oil” is not only symbolic — it’s tangible. These were the staples of life in an agricultural or farming society. God is not embarrassed by the material world he made. He called creation good.

When Jeremiah says, “Their life shall be like a watered garden,” he echoes the abundance of the garden of Eden. The garden of Eden is the place Adam and Eve lived in the creation story, and it was described as a paradise. God is undoing the curse of scarcity. He is saying, “I will be your gardener again. I will plant you, water you, and cause you to flourish.”

This image also reminds us of the Spirit’s work. The Spirit in us brings flourishing, producing good fruit in us, like love, joy, peace.

What do you feel when you sit at a table with people you love, sharing a meal, laughing until your sides hurt? That’s a small taste of the Spirit’s life. The Trinity is joy shared; the Spirit is joy abiding in us, as close as our breath.

God Gathers the Scattered

See, I am going to bring them from the land of the north… among them the blind and the lame, those with child and those in labor, together; a great company, they shall return here. Jeremiah 31:8 NRSVUE

God is not content to bless the strong or the successful. His invitation list includes those in need who are more dependent on others because of a disability or pregnancy and labor. God’s invitation list includes the vulnerable, the weary, and the ones society overlooks.

God is a gathering God. The Trinity’s love always moves outward. The Father sends the Son through the Spirit; and through the Son the Spirit gathers the nations back to the Father.

The church is meant to embody that same gathering impulse. We are to be a community that stretches the table, adding chairs, making room for those who have been left out.

When we feast, we declare that God’s grace is big enough for everyone. The discipline of feasting teaches us to welcome the poor, the lonely, the marginalized. At the Lord’s table, there is no VIP section.

That’s why the Incarnation matters so deeply: Jesus didn’t gather us while standing far from us. He entered our world, took on our flesh, sat at our tables, and shared our hunger. He gathered us from within.

Our call, then, is to become a people who gather. To host meals where strangers become friends, where joy becomes a testimony of God’s goodness.

God Redeems

For the Lord has ransomed Jacob and has redeemed him from hands too strong for him. Jeremiah 31:11 NRSVUE

The language of ransom and redemption echoes throughout Scripture. It’s the language of exodus, of leaving slavery. It’s the language of freedom from being slaves to sin. It’s also the language of the Cross.

When Jesus stretched out his arms on Calvary, he redeemed us from the hands too strong for us. What was too strong for us to overcome on our own? The powers of sin and death.

And notice again: the outcome of redemption is feasting. Notice how many acts of God’s deliverance in the Bible end with a meal. As you read the Bible, see how many you can find. Here’s a big one: the risen Christ is known to his disciples in the breaking of bread (see Luke 24: 30–31).

Feasting, then, is not a distraction from redemption — it’s a proclamation of it. Every time we gather around a table in gratitude, we echo Jeremiah’s vision. God has redeemed us, and we are free to rejoice.

God Satisfies

I will give the priests their fill of fatness, and my people shall be satisfied with my bounty, says the Lord. Jeremiah 31:14 NRSVUE

Satisfied — that’s a powerful word.

Our culture runs on dissatisfaction. Every advertisement whispers, “You need more.” We scroll endlessly, comparing our lives to others. We consume, and yet we hunger still.

But Jeremiah announces a different reality: my people shall be satisfied. God is enough. His grace is enough. His presence is enough.

When we practice the discipline of feasting, we learn to see the world as gift, not possession. We stop clutching and start blessing. We move from scarcity or not enough to sufficiency or enough.

In Christ, satisfaction becomes a reality, not a slogan. As Jesus told the woman at the well, “Whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst” (John 4:13 NIV).

The Missional Table

Here’s the missional turn: feasting is not just personal enjoyment! It’s evangelism in embodied form.

When the Church gathers around the table, it witnesses to a hungry world that there is a place where joy and justice meet. Our potlucks, our shared meals, our celebrations are missional acts when they’re open to the outsider. They say, “Come taste and see that the Lord is good.”

We can be a community that knows how to celebrate without excess, to enjoy without excluding, to give thanks without guilt. When people encounter us, they encounter the character of God.

In a world fractured by loneliness, cynicism, and fear, a joyful church is a missionary miracle.

Practicing the Discipline of Feasting

So how do we cultivate this discipline?

1. 1. Receive joy as grace. Don’t feel guilty for delight. Every good gift comes from above. The laughter of children, the warmth of friends, and the beauty of creation are sacraments of divine love.
   2. Include others in your joy. True feasting is always shared. Invite those who might not have a place. Invite neighbors, single parents, refugees, students, and the elderly. When you make space for them, you reflect the hospitality of the Trinity.
   3. Remember the Giver. Feasting without thanksgiving leads to idolatry. But when gratitude frames our joy, our hearts stay soft.
   4. Balance fasting and feasting. Fasting sharpens desire; feasting fulfills it. Both disciplines teach dependence on God.
   5. Feast missionally. Let your celebrations point beyond themselves. Point to our saving God, to the coming kingdom, to the great wedding banquet of the Lamb. Every table can become an altar.

The Incarnate Host and the Coming Feast

When Jeremiah spoke these words, he was imagining a future restoration. He couldn’t yet see how far God’s promise would go.

But in Jesus, that promise takes flesh. The God who once spoke through prophets now sits among his people. The Word becomes flesh and dwells with us.

Every meal Jesus ate, every loaf he broke, every drop of wine he poured revealed God’s heart. “I will turn their mourning into joy; I will comfort them and give them gladness for sorrow” (verse 13).

And the story ends where Jeremiah’s vision points: in Revelation 19, at the Marriage Supper of the Lamb. This is where all this is headed. There, the redeemed from every tribe and nation will gather around the table of the triune God.

There will be laughter, music, and abundance. No more tears, no more guilt, no more hunger. Only joy that never ends — the eternal feast of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

Conclusion: The Feast Has Already Begun

So, maybe skip the self-punishing New Year’s resolutions this year. Instead, make this one: to practice the discipline of feasting. Resolve to recognize and rejoice in the lavish grace of God.

As Jeremiah described, God is gathering, redeeming, satisfying. And he is doing it through Christ.

The Trinity’s eternal joy is spilling over into human history, one meal, one song, one act of shared delight at a time.

So, eat your bread with gladness. Drink your wine with a grateful heart. Welcome the stranger. Dance when the Spirit stirs you. For the Lord has said, “My people shall be satisfied with my bounty” (verse 14).

The feast has already begun. Amen.

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