I’ve decided that my posts on Sunday’s will deal with different elements of the Lord’s day. They may be anything from simple quotes to more editorial type posts. In any case I hope that you will find restfulness as well as plentifulness in our Lord’s Day.

The Lord’s Day should, for a Christian, be a day of resting and feasting. A day to celebrate all the good that the Lord has granted to us.

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Being a good host when having people over on the Lord’s Day is an important part of both the resting and the feasting.

In ‘The Fellowship of the Ring’, J. R. R. Tolkien portrays the Medieval incarnation of the host, in the form of Barliman Butterbur, patron of The Prancing Pony:

“Off he went at last, and left them feeling rather breathless. He seemed capable of an endless stream of talk, however busy he might be. There was a bit of bright fire burning on the hearth, and in front of it were some low and comfortable chairs.

“In a twinkling the table was laid. There was hot soup, cold meats, a blackberry tart, new loaves, slabs of butter, and half a ripe cheese: good plain food, as good as the Shire could show, and homelike enough to dispel the last of Sam’s misgivings (already much relieved by the excellence of the beer)”.

We meet Butterbur again in ‘The Return of the King’, when the hobbits revisit The Prancing Pony, discover that “no change for the worse had yet come upon the beer and the victuals”, and go on their way with this uplifting farewell: “I don’t doubt you’ll soon set all to rights. Good luck to you. And the oftener you come back, the better I’ll be pleased.”