| Our reading from the Greek Scriptures comes from the Gospel
of Luke. While eating at the home of a Pharisee on the Sabbath
Jesus challenged the norms of his host and the guests four
times! Jesus has already healed a man on the Sabbath—challenging
everyone to consider whether healing, saving, is more important
than the command not to “work” on the Sabbath.
Then he spoke about the humility guests should display at dinners
such as theirs by sitting at a lower place than their rank
at the table. Quickly he turned to the duty of the host to
invite the poor, the crippled, the lame and the blind instead
of their family, friends and colleagues, who were sitting at
table that day, in order to fulfill biblical hospitality. Jesus
teaches that hospitality and generosity are to be given without
expecting anything in return. He ends, “you will be blessed
[for your hospitality and humility]…for you will be
repaid at the resurrection of the righteous. The last challenge
he issues at the dinner is today’s text and it comes
in the form of a parable responding to a guest’s platitude,
a saying, to ease the room’s tension. |
| One of the dinner guests, on
hearing Jesus’ teachings, said to him, |
| “Blessed is anyone who
will eat bread in the kingdom of God!” |
| Then Jesus said to him, “Someone
gave a great dinner and invited many. At the time for
the dinner he sent his slave to say to those who had
been invited, ‘Come; for everything is ready now.’ But
they all alike began to make excuses. The first said
to him, ‘I have bought a piece of land, and I must
go out and see it; please accept my regrets.’ Another
said, ‘I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I am
going to try them out; please accept my regrets.’ Another
said, ‘I have just been married, and therefore
I cannot come.’ So the slave returned and reported
this to his master. Then the owner of the house became
angry and said to his slave, ‘Go out at once into
the streets and lanes of the town and bring in the poor,
the crippled, the blind, and the lame.’ And the
slave said, ‘Sir, what you ordered has been done,
and there is still room.” Then the master said
to the slave, ‘Go out into the roads and lanes,
and compel people to come in, so that my house may be
filled! |
|
| Luke 14:15-24 |
| Jesus’ parable of the great dinner or banquet clearly
relates that all kinds of people are welcome to come to God’s
table. In fact we are to welcome people who are different from
us, even to beg them to join us in experiencing God’s
great banquet. |
| Is there anyone you would hesitate to invite to church? |
| Is there anyone you think might not be welcome? |
| I believe our ability to invite others into our faith community
is hindered because we are not sure if the whole of who we
are is welcome. If we aren’t sure we’re fully welcome,
then how can we have the confidence to invite others to the
banquet feast? |
| Fred Craddock has written, “In the kingdom [at the
great banquet] God is host, and who can repay God? Jesus is
therefore calling for kingdom behavior, that is, inviting to
table those with neither property nor place in society. Since
God is host of us all, we as hosts are really behaving as guests,
making no claims, setting no conditions, expecting no return.” The
word translated “hospitality” in the scriptures
literally means “love of a stranger”—this
is what God has done for us through Jesus! The Spirit calls
together Host and guests to sit at table together! “The
clear sign of acceptance, of recognizing others as one’s
equals, of cementing fellowship, is breaking bread together.
This parable yells to the church “No one is a project!” We
are all God’s guests of grace, given new life through
faith. (1) |
| In a reflection called “Party Time,” Susan Jones
remarked, “We know a party when we see one. But we also
know that not all parties are the same. Like the towels in
the guest bathroom that are there to be admired but never touched,
some parties focus more on display than on people. Other parties
are known more for who is not invited than who is. Some parties
are held to celebrate, others to commiserate. As diverse as
parties can be, they all have one thing in common: their purpose
and tone are set by the host.” (2) |
| God is the host of the great dinner Jesus tells us about
and God has chosen to make a radical invitation. The Host has
opened the banquet feast to the streets---and even beyond the
city walls---to those previously locked outside the gates at
night! The table is spread for all to come regardless of their
stature, physical appearance, skills or economic standing in
society. |
| So what keeps you from coming to the great banquet, from
coming to church, as you are? What holds us back from celebrating
God’s gift of nourishment, healing grace and love? What
can and can’t we bring to church? |
| We are going to enter a meditative time for reflection on
how welcome we feel bringing all that we are to church. You
are invited to make table tents with qualities about yourself
on them (about three each). I’ve made some as examples.
Then we are going to show symbolically which parts of ourselves
feel welcome, for whatever reason, and which parts feel less
welcome. If we feel we can bring a quality openly to church
we’ll place our tent close to the communion table or
even on it. If the quality is one that we do not feel is welcomed
at church or it has been made uncomfortable at some point,
the quality goes farther away from the communion table. |
| After you’ve placed your own qualities, you are invited
to walk around the whole space and notice what the tents say
and where they are. Children are welcome to participate, adults
can help them! I’ll illustrate this sacred journey through
sharing and placing my qualities. |
| - “Minister” (on table as you all voted me in
and have welcomed me) |
| - “The Only Single Young Working Adult” (Middle,
no community of my own age, yet not ostracized) |
| - “Questioner/Seeker” (near back-It’s been
my experience with the church, any church, that too much seeking
and questioning will get you snubbed for not being “faithful” or “believing” correctly!) |
| - “Newcomer” (near table, I feel welcome as a
new person to the area, it is ok to be a transplant here) |
| Please take three table tents and a writing instrument. Discern
some of your defining qualities and judge how comfortable you
are with bringing them to church. Then place them and walk
around in silence, reflecting on what others have written. |
| (5-8 minutes for reflection) |
| Come, wander back to your seats, for “everything is
ready now.” |
| “We remember that on the night Jesus was betrayed,
he invited his disciples to share a meal with him, people who
were not perfect, people who made mistakes, people who were
confused, people who often didn’t get it when Jesus told
them something, even people with the capacity to betray Jesus.
But he invited them. He invited this imperfect, searching group
of people to his table--every part of them, even the parts
that they weren’t proud of or didn’t understand,
was invited to join him at the feast! In the same way Jesus
invites us, today to bring all of ourselves to his table to
receive.” (3) |
| As we stand and sing “I Come with Joy” our ushers
and communion servers are going to gather all of our qualities,
all of these parts of ourselves from every corner of the room,
and bring them to their rightful place of welcome on the Lord ’s
Table. |
| (All the table tents were gathered and the congregation |
| celebrated the Lord’s Supper together) |
| Amen |
| Beth E. Godfrey - September 3, 2006 |
| Central Presbyterian Church, Geneseo, New
York |
| (1) Fred B. Craddock, Interpretation: A Bible-Commentary
for Teaching and Preaching, Luke. Ed. James L. Mays.
(John Knox Press: Louisville, 1990) 177-180. |
| (2) "Party Time," Susan Pendleton Jones. Commentary
from The Christian Century, September, 1999. At Religion
Online. |
| (3) This quote and the general idea for this communal interactive
sermon time came from Session Six, “Who’s Invited?” which
can be found in Talking Faith: An Eight-Part Study on Growing
and Sharing Your Faith by Heather Kirk-Davidoff and Nancy
Wood-Lyczak (Chalice Press: St. Louis, MO, 2004). I also want
to thank the Rev. Ellen Johnson who shared the use of this
book with me in her congregations. |
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