Donald Heinz writes,
Isak Dinesen’s short story and later film, Babette’s Feast, describes what is surely meant to be a consummate sacramental meal. A refugee who had been a famous chef in Paris but now does humble housekeeping for two spinster sisters in Scandinavia, (and who are) devotees of a severe Christian sect, has won the French lottery. With every exotic ingredient shipped in from Paris, she spends her entire winnings on the most fabulous meal imaginable, which she convinces the sisters to accept in honor of their sainted father. The little congregation invited to the meal, together with the sisters, conspire ahead of time to say No to divine delight, by not allowing themselves actually to savor any taste, lest it overwhelm the palette of their sanctimonious piety. So they manage to miss the presence of God in the incarnation of a Paris chef dressed as a humble servant and giving all she has (Christmas: Festival of Incarnation, 135)
In our message last Sunday, Matt wondered about how some of the commercialization of Christmas by the Capitalist system might need to be rejected in order to truly experience the Incarnation of God. But, how might we miss God’s presence in the commercial culture around us by our own harsh judgements of commercial expressions? Where might we find God’s story in a “secular” scene this week?
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