Filled

The Tavern at the End of the World

Children’s Sermon

11 October 2026

Good morning, guys. I’ve got a question for you. What are some of your favorite foods? Are you more of a meat-eater, or maybe you have a sweet-tooth? My uncle used to say that pizza was one of those foods that you just eat until it’s gone, no matter how much there is. And he was a skinny guy.

I have a few too many favorites. I do love a good meal. But what can I say? Life can be hard and food is good. I think that’s why faith, food, and family go so well together. The dinner table, or the kitchen, or the church should be a place of safety and sharing and joy—even when we’re in a rush.

In the time of Jesus, people had less to eat. Meals were enough to keep you alive and keep you going, but rarely did anybody eat until they were full. That was saved for special occasions. And usually the big special occasion, the big feast, was a wedding!

Weddings went on for a week or more, and everyone was invited, the whole town. It was a big, public affair, like a holiday, with meat and wine and bread. And everybody celebrated; everybody had a good time. Everybody was fed.

The prophets of the Bible tell us that the way the world is, is not the way it ought to be, not as it was meant to be. God doesn’t want anyone to go hungry. God doesn’t want injustice or evil or even death. And Jesus came to set it right, to defeat death, to forgive sins.

Someday, the whole world will be what it should have been all along, and that will look a lot like a wedding. There will be rich foods and laughter and joy. Everyone’s invited. No-one will go hungry. And no matter how many guests, there will always be room for more.

Until that day, as Jesus tells us, our job is to be a foretaste of that feast to come. We are to live like we’re already at the wedding. We are to welcome the stranger, and clothe the naked, and feed the hungry, and free the captive, and teach the ignorant, and rebuke the cruel, and forgive the repentant, and always speak truth to power.

We are to take that beautiful future, that promise, and to make it real now, to the best of our ability—not because we have to earn our place at the table, but because joy is always better when it’s shared.

Sound good? Okay. Let’s pray.