Jesus just said that when we host a dinner party…
How many of us have ever invited a homeless person to our dinner? Homeless are still kind of a social untouchable in our world today too aren’t they?
How many of us plan to do this because we just heard it when the pastor brought the Bible down and read it on a Sunday morning in church?
Does this book have the power to transforms our lives and our dinner party plans, or do we plan to go back to whatever we were doing before we came and heard it?
I don’t know about you, but I don’t plan on changing my plans very much because of some Scripture reading I heard. I’m looking forward to relaxing later with the people I love...and like. Not with strangers. And certainly not with strangers who smell and have sad stories. I’m just being honest.
How many are with me on that? Let’s forget about this particular passage in the Bible. Let’s take care of ourselves. And let’s plan on going back to our week, after church here, and doing what we do. If I’ve got a little change left over, maybe I’ll give that to a homeless person. Or if I’ve got a little food in a to-go box, sometimes I’ve given that away to someone begging on the street outside the restaurant.
This passage doesn’t register. I mean, we can understand it intellectually, and sing a song or two about it, but we don’t really need to act on it, do we?
For Luke to record this account for his early church community implied that there were people with wealth in the early church — people who were capable of helping their neighbors in need. There were people like us. Jesus’ searing words zero right in on us today, 2000 years later. So now it’s time to rationalize and explain to God why we don’t share our riches more. Why we take care of ourselves.
I’m not going to do that out loud up here (too ashamed). I think we can all explain pretty well why we don’t just “sell our possessions and give the money to the poor” (which Jesus says too over and over)...
What I am going to tell you, is that even while we stumble in this way (and so many ways), our God does not.
We have a God who always invites the poor and the lame, the blind and crippled. In spite of my selfishness and my laziness and my ignorance, I can still stand here tell you in faith and in freedom and in confidence that God always has a homeless person at the dinner party! And not just one — not just a token homeless person — to make a cool statement. God has all homeless people to the table. And not just people with no money, God also invites people with no health care, and people with no health! People who have no legs, who can’t see. People with breathing machines. People coughing and infected with all kinds of disgusting diseases. God invites them to the banquet! And not just the sick and the poor, God invites people who you and me would call weird. [I’ll let you fill in the blanks there.] Different hair colors, different skin colors, different ways of decorating their bodies, different relationships, different politics, different heroes than you and I have, different hopes and dreams and allegiances. Are you getting a picture of this? God invites the whole spectrum to the party!
God invites people who don’t go to church every Sunday. God invites people who don’t go to church any Sunday. God even invites people who don’t even believe! God invites people who believe a different way! Did you know that? They’re there too!
God invites people who have committed crimes. [pause]
God invites people who have careers and bosses that call on them to do awful things, immoral things, hurtful things to themselves and to others, and to the world. And God invites their bosses too.
I might not want to invite them. You might not want to invite them, but God does. Our love and our welcome might be imperfect, but God’s is perfect. Are you getting a picture of this banquet hall? Can you see it?! Oktoberfest’s got nothing on this party!
God invites the quiet types on the outskirts. Those who feel alone and afraid — those who would rather look at their phone than talk to you. God goes over to the corners...and invites them.
God even invites the our non-human neighbors. Dogs and cats, pigs and rats, elephants and bats! Did you know that? We don’t like animals at our dinner tables, but God’s arms open wide to welcome them. Dan Erlander, one of the previous pastors here, draws and writes about a word that is used in the book of Ephesians: ana-kephal-ai-o-sas-thai.
“Beautiful word which the writer of Ephesians used to celebrate what God is doing in the universe - uniting, gathering up, bringing together everything with Christ as head. The word (translated “gather up”) comes from ancient mathematics. The total of many separate numbers was called the anakephalaiosasthai. This number gathered all of the other numbers into itself. This is the work of Jesus Christ - to gather together every part of the universe to bring everything together in one harmonious household.”
God invites the animals...and the plants...and even the dry earth that won’t grow anything but cactus.
And what about you? What about me? Can you see yourself there too? Are we welcome at this feast, even though we might struggle to invite pretty much any of these others on this list to our dinner parties? Is there a chair for us too? Are welcome too?
You bet we are. AMEN.
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