KINGDOM OF GOD: HOSPITALITY SALLY BRYANT LUKE 14:15-24 JULY 2, 2017

Transcription

1 KINGDOM OF GOD: HOSPITALITY SALLY BRYANT LUKE 14:15-24 JULY 2, 2017 Today is the beginning a new series looking at the kingdom of God and runs the month of July. If you haven t heard, Gabe is off this July working on upcoming sermons. The next two Sundays we ll have Reggie McNeal, a nationally known Christian speaker, author and lecturer. The last two Sundays in July, we ll have Richard Reaves, recent member at SFC and recently retired senior pastor at Santa Clara First Baptist. You may know that church as they put on the Bethlehem project every December. Richard has also been a key leader in the welcome ministry. Today we re going to look at the kingdom of God by looking at the parable of the great banquet found in the gospel of Luke, chapter 14. I thought it might be fun to share a factoid with you from the Guinness Book of World Records. Think for a moment of the largest meal you have ever eaten. Was it at Thanksgiving? Superbowl Sunday? Have you ever eaten so much that you swear you are about to burst? Can you imagine eating 16 pounds of food in one sitting? Well the largest meal eaten by one person was in 1985 when a 23 year-old-woman ate the following: one pound of liver, two pounds of kidneys, eight ounces of steak, two eggs, one pound of cheese, two large slices of bread, one pound of mushrooms, two pounds of carrots, one cauliflower, 10 peaches, four pears, two apples, four bananas, two pounds of plums, two pounds of grapes and two glasses of milk all totaling 16 pounds. Please do not try this at home. The woman actually died from this. In 2013, the largest meal to be prepared in the world is believed to be a whole camel stuffed with a lamb, stuffed with chicken, stuffed with fish, a traditional Bedouin meal provided for a wedding feast. Anyone hungry? 1

2 Jesus tells this parable of the great banquet while attending a grand banquet. This parable is like the third act of a play. The first act is that Jesus has been invited to a banquet at the home of a Pharisee on a Sabbath. They set a test or trick for him, bringing before him a man with dropsy, asking if it is legal to heal on the Sabbath, knowing perfectly well that their interpretation of the law says it is not. Jesus heals the man and asks them, Which of you, having a son or an ox that has fallen into a well on a Sabbath day, will not immediately pull him out? And they could not reply to these things. Jesus then tells a parable about a wedding feast. And then we get to the parable of the great banquet. The parable is aimed at the religious elite. Everyone gathered around the table is wealthy. They are the 1%, if you will, of religious life in Jerusalem. The starting point of the parable begins when one of the men sitting around the table, perhaps made uneasy by Jesus healing and pointed comments, seeks to introduce a statement all can agree with: Blessed is everyone who will eat bread in the kingdom of God! We see in this statement the idea of the banquet as a symbol for salvation is an old one, stretching back deep into the Hebrew scriptures. The idea of the sacred meal with God is deeply embedded in the old testament. Think about Psalm 23 God prepares a banquet for us. Isaiah mentions this banquet, in chapter 25: On this mountain the LORD of hosts will make for all peoples a feast of rich food, a feast of well-aged wine, of rich food full of marrow, of aged wine well refined. And he will swallow up on this mountain the covering that is cast over all peoples, the veil that is spread over all nations. He will swallow up death forever; and the Lord GOD will wipe away tears from all faces, and the reproach of his people he will take away from all the earth, for the LORD has spoken. It will be said on that day, Behold, this is our God; we have waited for him, that he might save us. This is the LORD; we have waited for him; let us be glad and rejoice in his salvation. This is one of my favorite scriptures. In this scripture, we see the inclusion of Gentiles. The feast is for all peoples, all nations. However, the man who makes the statement at the dinner table, hoping to move the conversation back into socially appropriate bounds, finds he is in a very different conversation than he imagined. Jesus then tells this parable. 2

3 Read Luke 14: Let s consider the culture surrounding this parable. Invitations were carefully delivered, and once accepted, were considered binding. The host would start fattening the selected animals, and they would be butchered the day of the banquet. This was not running to Whole Foods to see what was available. There was no refrigeration. Food killed and cooked had to be eaten right away. The guests who accept the invitation were duty bound to attend, so when the servant comes to say the supper is ready, it means come now. We are ready to eat. It s like we are at someone s house enjoying appetizers, the host/hostess says dinner s ready and we walk into a beautifully set table loaded with dishes. To make excuses at the last minute is the height of rudeness, a major slap in the face to the host. Let s look at the excuses. No one buys a field in the Middle East without knowing every square foot of it. Every water source, stone walls, trees, paths and anticipated rainfall are well known long before a discussion of a purchase price is even begun. These items were included in the contract. The purchaser will also know the human history of the plot of land. The few plots of agricultural land are so crucial to life in this part of the world that these plots had proper names. The process of buying land is long and complicated and often stretches over a number of years. There s no online trading or Amazon purchasing here. Secondly, banquets are held in the late afternoon, after the day s labors are over. People didn t travel at night unless it was a matter of life and death, so the host is supposed to believe that he is planning to go out of town at dark? If the guest wanted the host to believe him, he might have said, I ve been negotiating this field for months and the owner has suddenly insisted that we settle tonight. This would have preserved the honor of the host and maintained the relationship between the host and the guest, but he seems to be intentionally insulting the host by offering an obviously false excuse. He is telling the host that this piece of land is more important than his relationship with the host. The second guest says he must inspect oxen. Again this is a transparent excuse intended to insult the host. Testing the oxen takes place before they are purchased not after. We see that each excuse becomes more culturally insulting. The first excuse involves land, and land 3

4 is holy. The second excuse involves animals, and animals are unclean. The guest is saying to the host, these animals are more important to me than you are. In spite of the rudeness of his excuse, he is still civil and asks to be excused. The third guest doesn t even bother with this. Let s give him the benefit of the doubt and assume he has recently gotten married. However, the wedding was not that day, or probably even that week or month. No village can stand two grand events at once. All the guests would be at the wedding. Furthermore, in Jesus day, men did not talk about their women in public. Women and men did not mingle socially in that day. Banquets took place in the afternoon. In effect, this guest is saying, Yesterday I said I could come, but this afternoon I am busy with a woman who is more important to me than your banquet. This is intensely rude in this world. He s giving an x-rated excuse in a world that doesn t talk openly about sex or even about women, and he doesn t even ask to be excused. This is guaranteed to infuriate even the most patient of hosts. The host s anger is natural. He has been publically insulted. Please note, this anger is justified. It s the expected social response, but his response is grace not vengeance. He could have escalated this and sought revenge for the insults. Instead he sends his servants to the outcasts of the village the poor, maimed, blind and lame from the city. They are part of the community although ostracized from community life. Remember the book of Luke (4:18) tells us that Jesus came to proclaim good news to the poor; to proclaim liberty to the captives; to restore sight to the blind; to set at liberty those who are oppressed; to proclaim the year of the Lord s favor. In this parable, we see Jesus inviting them to share in the great banquet. When the servant returns to his master saying there is still room, the master tells the servant to gather guests from those who were not part of the town. Some may have been beggars who gathered along stone fences or hedges, perhaps like the homeless in our day seek shelter under freeway overpasses. Others are perhaps travelers from other lands. When the host says, Compel them to come to the banquet, he does not mean forcibly convert them. He is acknowledging that those who feel undeserving will need to be convinced the invitation is genuine before they can accept it. On first exposure, grace is 4

5 unbelievable. The recipient of the invitation will feel, They don t really want me. Impossible! Perhaps they just want to make fun of me. The messenger who delivers such an extraordinary invitation will have to find a way to convince the invitee/outsider that indeed they are wanted. At SFC, we believe in practicing Life in God, Life with Others and Life for Others. We ve been invited to the most extraordinary meal invited into intimate relationship with the creator and sustainer of the universe. How do we respond to this invitation? Let s look at this painting from the Italian renaissance. It s the Coronation of the Virgin by Filippo Lippi. Now for those of you who are champions of orthodoxy, this isn t a theological statement about Mary. What I want us to notice today is where most people s attention is. Do you notice how many are looking away from the main action? Here s Jesus at the top of the picture, giving his mother Mary a crown, and most of the people in attendance are focused on something else. As we consider our invitation to the banquet, where is our attention focused? Are we making excuses to not show up? The parable makes two points. One is, what are we doing with the invitation we ve been given. The second is we ve been commissioned to invite others to this amazing feast. I want to recommend a book: The Art of Neighboring by Jay Pathak and Dave Runyon. In this book, they say, When Jesus was asked to reduce everything important into one command, he said, Love God with everything you have and love your neighbor as yourself. What if he meant that we should love our actual neighbors? You know, the people who live right next door. Jesus has given us a practical plan that has the potential to change the world if we put it into practice. The reality is though that the majority of Christians don t even know the names of most of their neighbors. I get it. Life is full. There seems like there is never enough time for the things that must get done much less hanging out getting to know your neighbors. Because of the pace of life, it s too easy to live a life of isolation. You ve heard me say this before, but loneliness is rampant in our society today. It s being described as a public health 5

6 hazard. Scientists are finding that loneliness changes the human genome in profound, longlasting ways. Loneliness is a greater predictor of early death than obesity. Jesus stresses hospitality to the stranger perhaps because of his personal experience of being a stranger in a strange land. Jesus reminded his disciples to practice hospitality, saying, I was hungry and you fed me, I was thirsty and you gave me a drink, I was homeless and you gave me a room, I was shivering and you gave me clothes, I was sick and you stopped to visit, I was in prison and you came to me. Then the righteous are going to say, Master, what are you talking about? When did we ever see you hungry and feed you, thirsty and give you a drink? And when did we ever see you sick or in prison and come to you? Then the King will say, I m telling the solemn truth. Whenever you did one of these things to someone overlooked or ignored, that was me. You did it to me. Jesus has very strong words to say to those who do not do this. Romans 12:13 tells us the mark of the true Christian is to extend hospitality to strangers. Hebrews 13:1-2 reminds us to show hospitality to strangers, for by so doing, some have entertained angels without knowing it. James, the brother of Jesus, urges us to action, saying, What good is it if you say you have faith but do not have works? And John, the beloved disciple, encourages us to love, not in word or speech, but in truth and action. He reminds us to love one another, because love is from God. We love because God first loved us even when we were estranged from him. 1 Timothy 3 says overseers, those in church leadership, must be hospitable. We have been given a commandment. We have been empowered. How do we start to live into this command to love our neighbors? Here s a story from Art of Neighboring. When we don t know our neighbors, it s easy to get the wrong idea about one another. There was a man who had a neighbor whose house was run down. The garage door was falling off the hinges. Two dead cars sat out front, so he called code enforcement, and officials came by and ticketed the house. A few days later, he was talking to a neighbor about that blighted house. Yeah, the neighbor said. The woman who lives there lives alone and her mother has cancer. She is trying to hang on to her job 6

7 while taking care of her mother, who is dying from cancer. She s spending every free minute at her mother s bedside. You can imagine how the man felt. God calls us not to judge but to love our neighbors to put our love into action to turn anger and rejection into a radical invitation to grace. In your guide to worship, you have a grid. Think about your eight geographically closest neighbors. They can be on your street, behind you whoever is closest to you geographically. Now, how well do you know them? Do you know their names? Anything about them? Where they work? What sports team they cheer for? Do you know anything more about them? Anything about their dreams, hopes, fears or spiritual beliefs? If you are like most of us, you don t know your neighbors well. About 10 percent of people can fill in the names of all eight of their neighbors. About 3 percent can fill in line B for every home. Less than 1 percent can fill out line C for every home. If you want to love your neighbor as yourself, here are a few preliminary steps to start with. 1. Pray for your neighbors. Ask God to give them favor at work, in their marriages, with their children. Ask the Holy Spirit to speak to them in their love language, to remove any false understandings they may have about God. 2. Look for ways to say hello without frightening them by coming on too strong. If you ve never said more than hi to your neighbor in passing, you may want to start to build a relationship over time. 3. Realize that building relationships takes time and may never result in conversion. Changing hearts is the role of the Holy Spirit. We are not trying to make friends so we can witness to them. We are becoming friends in order to show the love of Jesus to them. Remember Augustine said to preach the gospel at all times and if necessary, use words. How can you show love without words? Jesus invites us to the banquet. Until his kingdom comes in fullness here on earth, we access the banquet through prayer, worship and life with other believers (Life in God and Life with Others). We invite others to the banquet through loving them, praying for them, being their friend without expectation of gain (Life for Others). Our excuses, like those in 7

8 the parable, are often lame. When you hear anger, angry, think sorrowful loss. According to the cultural mores of the day, the host could have escalated this into war, but he chose to respond with grace. 8