September 9, 2007

Proper 17/18C
Deuteronomy 30:15-20; Luke 14:1, 7-14

"Come in for dinner" ...

In our reading from the Hebrew Scriptures this evening/morning, Moses is wrapping up his farewell sermon to the new generation of Israelites who are about to cross over into the land they have been longing for their whole lives. Moses won't be going with them. Like every anxious parent releasing his young adult children into the world, he's overdoing it on the last-minute advice.

This is what it comes down to, he tells them: "Look: there's life and there's death. There's obedience and there's idolatry. There's blessing and there's curse. Choose life."

That sounds like the advice that makes eyes roll at my house: "Use your good judgment!" I call out to my thoroughly capable and level-headed 20-something children when they take my car out onto Highway 5 and beyond. Like Moses, I'm probably overdoing it.

I can and do pray that my loved ones stay safe out there in the fast lane, and I trust that their heavenly Parent holds them in the palm of that divine hand, where they are always safe, whatever their circumstances. Nevertheless, their lives -- like mine - are shaped at least in part by a string of choices - theirs and the other guy's.

Life, it turns out, is the greatest design challenge of all.

Especially in our culture of overabundance, where the alternatives we face are many and some of the most dangerous ones wear the most attractive disguises.

In the clamor of the many gods who want a piece of us, will we hear God calling to work with God in designing a different kind of existence for ourselves...what writer David Goetz calls a "thicker life", "a life lived well spiritually", a life in which we have learned to see that reality is not flat, but thick, deep, full." A life in which we use more of "the bandwidth for our God-consciousness"...

Well, we're here at church, aren't we? so I guess we did hear some kind of call. Stirred up and drawn by God's holy, healing Spirit, we have come to check out for ourselves the rumor of God's grace. We're here - weary, many of us, from an over-full first week back at school and the old grind, longing for something nourishing to get us ready for the week to come. By choosing to come here this evening/morning to worship and to participate in the life of this Family of faith, we've made a choice: we've chosen life over death. We've said "yes" to the blessed life, maybe in part because the "good life" the world's been hawking has disappointed us.

The blessed life God offers us is not found on a cafeteria line, where we choose from a menu of ala carte program choices, and only those with tickets get to sit down with their food. The blessed life - the thicker life, isn't fenced in either by our discrete choices or some divine lock-step plan, but lived richly and deeply in creative freedom. It's powered by a full-course, sit-down dinner, a feast at which Jesus is both host and main course...and there's always room for one more around the table.

In our reading from Luke's gospel, Jesus is at a dinner party and he's acting the part of the outrageous guest...again. He turns from rattling the cage of his dinner companions to giving his host lessons in hospitality. Here he comes up with a truly terrible idea. "Next time you have a dinner party," he says to Mr. Faricy, "Don't invite anybody who can pay you back. Don't ask anybody who can do you any favors. Ask the poor, who don't know how much you spent on the hors d'oeuvres, only that they are delicious. Ask the crippled and the lame, who won't be dancing around wondering which chair to choose but will be grateful to sit down. Ask the blind, who won't be watching over your shoulder to see who else is coming. Ask the powerless. Ask the empty. You won't believe what a party you will be letting yourself in for."

Jesus would probably like the story from a few years ago about a couple who were making wedding plans. They met with the staff at an expensive hotel to plan their reception - a dinner of finest food served on the best china, elaborate decorations, a big band, the works. They laid out $30,000 to pay for it. Then the groom got cold feet, and called the wedding off. The would-be bride was furious! She went to cancel the party.

The caterers consoled her but they also said, "You signed a contract. You can either give up the money or go ahead and have a party." The woman thought about it and decided to have that party. You see, she had once been homeless and down on her luck. So she sent her invitations to all the homeless shelters and mission outposts in Boston, and they partied with the tuxedoed waiters, feasting and dancing the night away. The only change the woman made in the original banquet plan was this: She changed the meat to boneless chicken...in honor of the groom!

September has descended on us like the crew of Extreme Makeover to re-arrange our days, re-purpose our lives, intensify our living. The time has come to leave our leisurely games of Red Rover on the lush green grass of our backyards, and get back to the world of work and school.

But first, God calls us in to dinner. In the kingdom of God, Christ sets the banquet table, and all God's children are on the seating chart. In the economy of the Lord's Supper, the feast of God's radical grace, there is enough life-giving food and drink for all who come. For children with backpacks and grownups with briefcases. For you and for me. For the men and women who hang out at Our Saviour's Shelter and Hope House in El Salvador. For families who live in their cars. Especially them.

No matter what we have done in this life, whether noteworthy or notorious...No matter what status we have enjoyed, no matter what fine tables we've been seated at...no matter what our failings have been...we are all no more and no less than forgiven sinners, strangers welcomed in as guests by a gracious Host, the God who calls us all in for dinner...

Forgiven sinners to whom Jesus says "Come..." "Come as you are. Come empty, come thin, come raggedy. Come early, come late...Just come! Come home. I've saved you a place right here beside me at the table."

The Rev. Kristie Hennig
Chanhassen, Minnesota

1. Elizabeth Huwiler in a sermon.
2. David L. Goetz, Death By Suburb, pp. 11, 13, 20.
3. Martha P. Sterne, "Abundant Life," www.religion-online.org/showarticle.asp?title=625.
4. Lindy Black in her blog, home/twcny.rr.com/lyndale/Pentecost%2014C.htm, attributes this story to Phillip Yancey. I think I remember hearing it in the media when it happened not many years ago.