September 24, 2017
Marrying
off a son is much different than marrying off a daughter and I have done both.
There is a lot more involved when your daughter marries. Most recently,
some of you know, my son was married in August. While I was part of the
wedding planning I didn’t take a huge role because of the logistics of where we
live – he and his wife in NJ - and the distance of the wedding, it was in
France, because she and her family are French. I’ve learned that many traditions are similar in a French
wedding but some aren’t. Like, for instance, there is no rehearsal dinner
but there is a seven-course meal at the wedding reception that is served
throughout the night well into the wee hours of the morning. The cake at the
end of the affair, around 2:30ish, maybe 3:00 am finally comes out with two lit
sparklers on the top!
Most
everyone who had received an invitation responded with a yay or nay, and it’s
no surprise that most of the US invitees declined because of the
distance. That made it easy for Dan and Laura to decide who made the
invitation list in the first place. Everyone did who was important to
them! Sorting out who was going to sit with whom however was a bit dicey
on the other hand with the English speakers and the French speakers, but it all
worked out and of course there was a table for the ‘misfits’, these are folks whom
just really couldn’t be placed at any particular table because well, they just
couldn’t.
Another
French tradition is the day after picnic. I thought it was just going to
be family and friends who finally rolled out of bed around 11 am or noon, but
no, that wasn’t it at all. While there were friends and family certainly there
who enjoyed the prior evenings festivities, the picnic the next day was for the
people whom they aren't as "friendly" with, so most of the extra
people were colleagues of Dan’s and Laura’s dad from the French office.
So while you wouldn’t invite them to the wedding (there are always
limits) you would invite them to a relaxed, informal and fun celebration the
next day. This too was catered with a chef cooking up all sorts of
delicious meats on the grill all afternoon.
Who’s in
and who’s out always is a factor when having a banquet and making up the guest
list. In fact hosts generally take
a lot into consideration and consternation when making up a list, that’s why it
is ALWAYS incumbent upon the invitee to – répondez,
s'il vous plaît. RSVP,
Please reply.
For most
all of chapter 14 in the Gospel of Luke Jesus talks in parables about dinner
parties and wedding banquets. In fact the Jesus of the Gospel of Luke is
preoccupied with eating. ‘There are more references in Luke to eating,
banquets, tables and reclining at tables than in any other of the Gospels.’[i] Food is something that we all can
connect with, he knew it and so it’s here, around the table, that he teaches,
reproves, and provides fellowship and discourse.
Here now
the words of Jesus in the 14th chapter of Luke….
One
of the dinner guests, on hearing this, 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. For I tell you, none of those who were invited will taste
my dinner.’”
Let’s put
this in context because it will make more sense. Just before our passage for today we have two scenarios: in
the first Jesus is going to the house of a Pharisee on the Sabbath for a little
dinner. Shabbat dinners are different and special above the rest of the
week’s dinners. And on the way he stops to heal a man with ‘dropsy’, most
likely edema. The Pharisee’s are aghast that he would heal on the Sabbath
but Jesus sets them straight. He asks, ‘If your child or your oxen fell
into a well wouldn’t you rush to help them out?’ Of course, they had no
response. In this passage Jesus teaches that there are always exceptions
to every rule, the Pharisees didn’t have a corner on the market of prohibitions.
The
second scenario is the parable of the wedding feast. It was once again the
Sabbath, but this time it was not about some sort of Sabbath infraction that
Jesus had made. He was at a Shabbat meal and he was people
watching! He watched the guests spar over seats at the table. (They
must not have had name placement cards) Jesus seizes the parable-telling
moment and he jumps on it, he goes all ‘Emily Post’ on them. All meals in
antiquity were subject to regulations based on a hierarchy of the patron-client
relationship.
Jesus’
instructions, simply put….If you’re the guest - don’t sit at the head table,
sit at another table maybe even the table by the kitchen door. It’ll save
face for both you and your host if you’re in the wrong seat and saving face was
important. So a big helping of
humility is in order. If you’re the host - don’t invite those who can
repay you, oh no, that’s too easy. Invite people who could never repay
you, even if their lives depended on it.
So this brings
us to the parable that we just heard.
It
was the custom back then when giving a dinner, to invite an exact number of
people. Because there were certain
rules for killing an animal and the meat would have needed to been eaten right
away, so to back out of an invitation would have been downright rude and
inconsiderate. And again
without going into it the two excuses that the potential guests gave for not
coming to the banquet, they were flat out lies because their customs dictated a
different set of rules than what the potential guests tried to pull over.
It would
be ‘those people’, the poor, the crippled and lame, the blind. Invite
them, give them a treat and never mind that you won’t get invited over to their
house. You’ll get a blessing, don’t worry. Maybe you’ve even
entertained angels without knowing it as the author of the Book of Hebrews
reminds us. (Heb 13:2) Humility, humility, humility.
So he
orders the slave to invite the outcasts, the poor, the crippled, the
blind. He did and there was still
room at the table so the owner instructs the slave to go out into the streets
and compel them to come in so that his house may be filled. Filling the house with complete
strangers who could never repay your back? This is radical hospitality. This is what we will be doing in January with Abraham’s
Tent. We are offering shelter to
12 men who will never be able to pay us back nor do we want them too. We have a
warm place and food to offer and they trust that we will treat them with
dignity and respect as equals in this game of life. Radical hospitality is not
quid pro quo. It is to simply
offer and give.
Fr. Daniel Homan, in
‘Benedict’s Way of Love’ says, “Rather
than viewing any person in terms of how they benefit us, radical hospitality
means accepting the person with no thought of personal benefit.”[ii] He
means that radical hospitality is to accept others for who they are not
for who we want them to be and isn’t that what we fundamentally want too? Don’t you want to be accepted and loved
and offered community just the way you are? I do. Don’t you just want a place to connect with others and
to enjoy their company and be welcomed?
I do. A place where I don’t
have to conform to someone else’s expectations or perform in a way that is just
not me. I most certainly do.
We, as a
church, can offer programs until Jim Zeoli’s cows come home. Programming might entice people to come
but they won’t stay long if we don’t find a way to offer ourselves as a
community of loving, accepting and supporting people. Radical hospitality is found in relationship pure and
simple. It is opening up space in
your heart for someone else to enter and for you to humble yourself so that
others might accept your beautiful soul.
Our
scripture today invites, even implores us to a higher understanding of the
kingdom of God. It is a place of unconditional love for you and me and
for everyone else too. There is plenty, there is no need to fear.
God’s abundance is real. God’s
mercy, grace and truth is genuine.
And we are invited to partake in this banquet. There is a place with your name on it, you will never be
left off the invitation list or just on the picnic list the next day. That’s just the way our God is.
All God
asks is that we RSVP!
May the
teachings of Jesus shake us out of our complacency.
May God
open our hearts to a broader level of understanding.
May the
Spirit breathe hope and love in us toward our brothers and sisters in the
journey.
Amen.
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