Gathering in Irving Park July 21, 2019
Text: Luke 14: 12-23
This morning we meet Jesus, the story teller. For some of us – we’ve heard many of his stories, for others of us, this might be the first time we’ve heard one of his stories. For all of us, he has a way with words and images, a way of taking us somewhere we didn’t know we were going, a way of ushering us into strange new worlds. Jesus releases his stories into the world, trusting they carry power for life – power to heal or awaken, power to change our minds, our ways, even our world’s future.
In the story I’ve brought this morning we encounter Jesus while he is a guest at a dinner party. Looking around the table at what seems to be a gathering of people all cut from the same cloth, he says to his host,“Next time, when you give a luncheon or a dinner” and its easy for us to image ourselves hosting a party for our family members or friends, “next time you’re having a party invite the poor, the disabled, the lame, and the blind.” In other words, invite the people it would never occur to you to have at your table. It’s his way – to ask us to entertain the notion of inviting into our lives those who are different from us, those who might be of a different race or culture or religion, those who just might face misunderstanding and prejudice and fear.
But in case we don’t really get what he’s on about he tells us this story ... Someone was giving a great dinner party, and sent out many invitations. Now the time came, the meal was prepared, and the host sent out his servant to announce, “Please come, everything is ready now.” But those who had been invited, every last one of the them, something else had come up for them, and so instead of coming to the dinner, they sent their regrets. When the servant reported this, the host was very angry… all this food ready to eat, all this work … and they’re not coming?!” But notice what he doesn’t do. He doesn’t send out his servant to re-book a later date. He doesn’t, in a rage, sweep the glasses off the banquet table, or begin hollering at the staff. Rather, he re-imagines the whole thing … he begins to see a whole other crowd at the table …and he says to his servant, “go quickly! Go to the streets and lanes, bring in the poor, the disabled, the blind, the lame.” When the servant comes back reporting that there is still room at the table, the host says. “I want my house to be filled! Go again … to the back alleys, under the hedges, the porches … widen your search … and anyone who hesitates, encourage them to come!” There’s this eagerness on the part of the host, to see the party he’s newly imagined become a reality. He dreams of a party where there is a place for everyone, and there is enough for everyone!
With this story Jesus holds up a vision of another way … a way characterized by community, a community with a place for everyone, a community where the stranger becomes a friend. Jesus’ way is characterized by compassion, by the possibility of new beginnings, of hope for a different future. Jesus has a way of being that is attuned to grace –attuned to God’s generous provision. It’s a way that leads us to trust that there is enough; it’s a way that invites us to trust that we are enough; enough even for the sacred task of making room for the stranger, of making room in our hearts and in our community for everyone.
Jesus uses the image of a banquet to describe his vision for our common life. He could have just as easily used the image of a
neighbourhood picnic. His vision means inclusion, welcome, grace, provision. His vision is one of a picnic to which all are invited,
even and especially those who least expect to be included. No wonder his story telling evokes such longing; no wonder he sets our imaginations free for something more.
Today, at this picnic he invites us into a new world, a world where strangers are invited to the party. Today, he invites us to experience how boundaries that divide can be broken down as we share music and food and fun together. Who knows what might happen? Who knows what might happen if you shared your picnic with a complete stranger, or grabbed a second hot dog and offered it to someone you’ve just met.
Anything can happen at a picnic –
What if today we allowed ourselves to experience what it is to pushes back the boundaries so that we find ourselves sharing our lives in ever widening circles.
May it be so.
