God's Victory Banquet Welcomes Everyone
Daily Scripture
Isaiah 25:6-9, 1 Corinthians 15:50-55
Isaiah 25
6 On this mountain,
the LORD of heavenly forces will prepare for all peoples
a rich feast, a feast of choice wines,
of select foods rich in flavor,
of choice wines well refined.
7 He will swallow up on this mountain the veil that is veiling all peoples,
the shroud enshrouding all nations.
8 He will swallow up death forever.
The LORD God will wipe tears from every face;
he will remove his people’s disgrace from off the whole earth,
for the LORD has spoken.
9 They will say on that day,
“Look! This is our God,
for whom we have waited—
and he has saved us!
This is the LORD, for whom we have waited;
let’s be glad and rejoice in his salvation!”
1 Corinthians 15
50 This is what I’m saying, brothers and sisters: Flesh and blood can’t inherit God’s kingdom. Something that rots can’t inherit something that doesn’t decay. 51 Listen, I’m telling you a secret: All of us won’t die, but we will all be changed— 52 in an instant, in the blink of an eye, at the final trumpet. The trumpet will blast, and the dead will be raised with bodies that won’t decay, and we will be changed. 53 It’s necessary for this rotting body to be clothed with what can’t decay, and for the body that is dying to be clothed in what can’t die. 54 And when the rotting body has been clothed in what can’t decay, and the dying body has been clothed in what can’t die, then this statement in scripture will happen:
Death has been swallowed up by a victory [Isaiah 25:8].
55 Where is your victory, Death?
Where is your sting, Death? [Hosea 13:14]
Daily Reflection & Prayer
The Hebrew prophet Isaiah pictured that God’s fully restored rule would be like “a rich feast”—the way rulers in that day marked victories. The prophet was confident that God promised to “swallow up death forever” and “wipe tears from every face.” God’s banquet was for “all peoples,” “all nations,” “the whole earth.” This Advent, remember: the baby in the manger came to defeat death itself—the ultimate victory Isaiah foresaw. The apostle Paul quoted Isaiah to emphasize that Jesus’ resurrection confirmed Israel’s hope for God’s defeat of death.
- By Jesus’ day, many of Israel’s religious leaders believed only they would be guests at God’s great final banquet. They’d missed a crucial part of the Messiah’s work. Scholar Patricia K. Tull noted, “In one of many expansive visions in Isaiah, God is imagined preparing a banquet not just for the elders on Mount Sinai, nor even for Judah, but for all the nations.” * Does your hope for God’s “banquet” reach beyond your own church, nation or ethnic group? Can you embrace God’s generosity?
- We can think of Jesus’ messianic work in three “tenses”—past, present, and future. Jesus saved us (past) by his life, death and resurrection. Jesus saves us (present) as we yield ourselves to him each day and join in his mission. The glorious future hope God’s people have always held is that Jesus will save us as God fully establishes God’s reign with no more tears and brokenness. How can you include all three tenses of salvation in your celebration of this Advent season?
Prayer
A daily reminder from Pastor Hamilton: Our hope is that tonight or tomorrow morning, continuing through Christmas, each of you will, either in the morning or at night, take the time to write down three things you are thankful for. You might write these in the form of a thank you letter to God, or simply write down a journal entry.
Prayer: O God, what mystery and what love there is in the message that in Christ you did all that’s needed to accomplish my eternal salvation. Help me set aside any remaining fear, reservation or rebellion, and trust myself fully to your salvation. Amen.
GPS Insights
Leah Swank-MIller
Leah Swank-Miller, who serves as Pastor of Care and Director of Student Ministries at Resurrection Overland Park, wrote today's Insights. A Kansas native, she has been a professional actress for nearly two decades, and she loves to see the vastness of God’s creation through theatre and the arts. Leah graduated with an M. Div. from Saint Paul School of Theology. Leah, Brian, and their two children love to play tennis, golf, soccer, and board games.
A teenager told me once about her family’s tradition the week before Christmas. They host what they call a “Leftovers Feast”, a big potluck dinner at their home, but the rule is: you can only bring someone who doesn’t have a place to go. A neighbor who lives alone. A teammate whose parents are working late. Someone new to town. Kids who wouldn’t normally cross paths suddenly find themselves sitting around the same crowded table, laughing, swapping stories, and trying each other’s food.
The teen said the moment that always gets her is when people start to relax—when the shy kid at the end of the table finally smiles, when the newcomer realizes they’re not an outsider anymore, when the room fills with warmth that can’t be faked. She said, “It feels like Christmas is happening right there at the table.”
That—right there—is Advent. That is the victory banquet in miniature. That is what Jesus’ coming means for the world.
The Christ child gathers unlikely people in unlikely places. He turns strangers into guests. Guests into friends. Friends into family. His birth begins the banquet where the invitation doesn’t depend on who you are, how much you know, or what you’ve done—it depends only on God’s love.
Methodists believe in prevenient grace—the grace that reaches out before we reach back. That means the invitation to God’s table is never based on status, perfection, or spiritual readiness. It is God who sets the table, God who extends the welcome, and God who prepares a place for each person. In Jesus, we see that welcome embodied: the shepherds and the wise men, the poor and the powerful, the overlooked and the honored—all drawn to the same child born in a manger. Everyone has a place.
Advent reminds us that God’s kingdom is not something we earn; it is something we are invited into. So, as we journey through Advent, we remember:
Jesus came to make room. Jesus is still making room. And Jesus will one day bring all of creation to the table where no one is left outside.
Because the story of Jesus’ birth is the story of God saying, “There is room for you… Yes, YOU.” It is a celebration not of human achievement but of God’s redeeming love.
© 2026 Resurrection: A United Methodist Church. All Rights Reserved.
Scripture quotations are taken from The Common English Bible ©2011. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
References
* Patricia K. Tull, study note on Isaiah 25:6-10a in The CEB Study Bible. Nashville: Abingdon Press, 2013, p. 1129 OT.
