All Are Welcome
This is the sermon I preached on 8/28 at St. Timothy and St. Mark Lutheran churches. The text was Luke 14:1, 7-14.
Are we all familiar with Tupperware? We all know how Tupperware
is sold. Someone has a party and invites friends to come to the party and buy
stuff.
Have you ever been to a Tupperware party? What are your two
biggest fears about going to a Tupperware party? The first is that you’re going
to be asked to hold your own party and the second is that you know everyone who
is at the party is going to have their own Tupperware party later on and you’re
going to be invited. Although Jesus is not talking about Tupperware in today’s
gospel, he does talk about parties and whom to invite and whom not to invite.
And where do we find Jesus in today’s gospel? We find him attending a meal.
Much of the action in Luke’s gospel takes place around meals.
Jesus is either going to a meal, at a meal, or coming from a meal. Jesus always
appears to be eating. He’d fit right in with our congregation, wouldn’t he?
True to form, Jesus topples the status quo for mealtime etiquette
in the same way he turns everything else upside down.
From the very first verse of our gospel lesson, Luke gives his
readers plenty of clues to let everyone know that this will be no ordinary
meal. The host of the gathering has status. Chances are the others gathered
around the table were those of similar status. The host is a Pharisee and we
know the kind of run-ins Jesus has had with them. And to make matters worse,
this meal was on the sabbath. Haven’t there been other times Jesus has caused a
stir on the sabbath? Finally, Luke tells us that the Pharisees are monitoring
Jesus and his activities. They want to make sure that the law is observed just
so.
In Jesus’ time,
one would be invited not necessarily because the host liked you, but for other
reasons such as the host can honor his wealthy patrons, to whom he is indebted,
he can repay his clients or put them in his debt, he could broker new
relationships and generally maintain contacts with his whole network.
So...why was Jesus invited? Besides the fact that the Pharisees
wanted to keep an eye on him, He was a pilgrim en route to Jerusalem. Jesus was
a noted teacher, so in that respect his presence would carry some weight. We
must remember too, that not all Pharisees were alike and some did like Jesus.
The status quo of society in Jesus’ time excluded the poor. The
poor and outsiders don’t help with the social advancement of working one’s way
up the ladder of success because the poor cannot reciprocate. Jesus said, “For
all who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will
be exalted” (v.11). Who is it who does the humbling and exalting? Not the
individual and not the host, but God.
From Jesus’
perspective, who should and should not be invited to a feast? Jesus lists four
groups whom the host should not invite:
friends, your brothers, your relatives or rich neighbors. Jesus leaves them out because they could
reciprocate the invitation. Four groups whom are to be invited are the poor,
the crippled, the lame and the blind. These people were not only unable to
reciprocate socially, they were the ultimate outsiders. According to Jewish
law, they were even forbidden to serve as priests.
Meals and banquets are a metaphor of relationships in God’s
reign. Jesus included everyone. He did not exclude the religious in order to
include the common people and sinners and he did not exclude the common people
and sinners to include the religious. Jesus welcomes all into the kingdom of
God.
What does this mean for us? Jesus challenges us to open our eyes
and see those who are pushed outside our own circles, those who would be deeply
grateful to be included in the larger community. When we invite the outcast, we
will catch a glimpse of the way things will be in the reign of God, not because
we have condescended to welcome those "beneath" us; just as “the way
we’ve always done it” excludes outsiders in our churches today; rather, because
Jesus has changed "the rules." (Kathryn Huey)
The New Testament understanding of hospitality is not just
providing for the needs of the poor and disabled, but to develop a relationship
with them. Writing a check is easy. Getting involved in someone’s life is not.
Jesus directs us to invite outsiders to dinner—to the unending feast of God’s
love. We are to not only give to the
food pantry or send over food to a neighbor, but we are to develop
relationships with the people we are serving. How can you help someone if you
don’t know their needs? The New
Testament word for hospitality literally means “love of a stranger” (Fred Craddock).
Life in the kingdom of God is the reverse of our expectations. Hospitality is
not reaching out to people so they will join our church and we won’t have to
struggle so much financially.
We often think of ourselves as hospitable people because we do a
lot of entertaining, but that isn’t necessarily God’s idea of hospitality.
Jesus teaches us that hospitality is welcoming those who cannot reciprocate.
Noted teacher, Fred Craddock sums things up this way:
In the kingdom,…God is always host, and
we extend God’s invitation to those who cannot repay. After all, who can repay
God? Jesus…is calling for behavior that lives out this conviction about the
kingdom;…inviting to table…those who
have neither property nor place in society…these, too, are kingdom people”
(Fred B. Craddock, Preaching Through the
Christian Year: C, 394).
Amen!
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