Eucharistic meditation

Psalm 128:5-6: The LORD bless you out of Zion, and may you see the good of Jerusalem all the days of your life. Yes, may you see your children’s children. Peace be upon Israel.

We saw in the sermon this morning that the man who fears Yahweh can hope for a fruitful home, a home that recapitulates the garden of Eden within a fallen world. Each Christian home is a small garden where the new creation is taking shape.

But the Psalm ends not by talking about the family but by talking about Zion, Jerusalem, and Israel. The Psalm expands from the house of the man who fear Yahweh to the house of Yahweh – the temple house of Zion, the city-house of Jerusalem, and the national house of Israel.

As I mentioned in the exhortation this morning, the Bible places families in the context of a wider family, the wider family of the sons of God, the wider family of the people of God, the church. The blessed home is a home within Israel, and the blessing that the Lord pours out on the home is a means for blessing Israel, just as membership in Israel is a means for the blessing of the family.

And this means I have to qualify what I said in the exhortation. The family does not redeem. It needs redemption. But being redeemed means being caught up in God’s great act of redemption. Being saved is not a static state, but being swept up in the work of God. And so, by incorporation into the wider family of God, each individual family, fallen in itself, can become an agent for the redemption of creation. Each individual family can become an agent for bringing peace to Israel and to creation.

This is our ultimate hope, that the Lord of heaven and earth is not going to leave His creation to its own rebellion. He is going to redeem it. And the Bible describes this state of redeemed harmony as “peace.”

That harmony is exemplified at this table. At this table, creation itself – grain and grapes transformed to bread and wine – is harmonized with humanity, as humanity is harmonized with God. This meal is a portrait of our ultimate hope, the ultimate hope for our families, the church for creation itself. This meal is a portrait of the Shalom toward which all creation is moving. It’s a portrait of peace upon Israel.