Luke 14:16-24    Invitation to a New Year?s Banquet          E/DC   Jan.1, 2006

1.      I cannot come to the banquet, don?t bother me now, I have married a wife, I have bought me a cow.  I have fields and commitments that cost a pretty sum, pray hold me excused, I cannot come.?  This lively song by the Medical Mission Sisters captures our parable from Luke very well.  So here we are.  Invited to a New Year?s banquet.  Do you want to go?  Would you make excuses?

2.      Did you notice this banquet is by invitation only?  But look at the guest list ? actually we are all included.  That shouldn?t surprise us!  We are all invited ? because we are loved so much ? by God.  Imagine!  Most of us have known what it is to be loved ? perhaps not by the one we wanted, or exactly in the way we wanted, but we?ve been loved.  We magnify that sense of wonder many times and that?s how God loves us.  That?s the only, simple reason for being on the guest list ? we are loved.  So it has nothing to do with our own merit ? what we do.  In fact there seems to be a gracious lack of concern about merit.  That?s very good news.  It means we can?t earn an invitation.  There is a temptation, to feel not good enough it seems.  Certainly, if we try to add up what we?ve done ? there is always more, or better we could have done.  This parable reminds us again ? it is not what we do-but who we are ? one of God?s children that counts.  We?re family.  Of course, that doesn?t make entry easy ? or there?d be standing room only every Sunday!  Obviously it?s not easy to receive grace.

3.      Let?s look at our parable to see what prevented people from a whole-hearted ?yes? to God?s party.  Three groups of people are invited.  First those who had long known and served God like many of us.  They were the religious of the day ? respected and knowledgeable.  The second group were the poor, the crippled, the blind, and the lame.  Considered the sinners and the outcasts ? still family, but some thought their situation in life showed they were unworthy ? but they too, shockingly were invited and welcomed.  Next, because there was still room, the servants went outside the gates ? to those really outside of God?s family ? according to some.  As Non-Jews, they were considered totally outside God?s care.  And they were welcomed.  Just as God welcomes each one of us.  So this raises for me a humbling question about who our outcasts are.  Could we convincingly invite a prisoner, a homeless person, a person with Aids and their family into God?s kingdom and our sanctuary, assuring them they?re welcome?  Who would be hard for you to invite?  Jesus said there is no one I leave out.

4.      Our parable points out clearly that the ones who were excluded were for one reason only ? they excluded themselves!  They were invited ?they excluded themselves by their choices.  God will not force us ? for even when the servants were told to compel people to come in ? they were to use all the persuasion they could ? but the choice was still theirs.  We are never bound hand and foot and dragged into God?s presence.  We must make the choice and make it over and over again.

5.      According to our parable, the wrong choice was made because the folks were too preoccupied with other things.  They preferred the things of this world to the friendship of God.  And so they began to make excuses.  Now these were all important things.  We all need food produced, appropriate technology and significant work, homes and meaningful relationships.  They are only foolish choices in their timing and their priority.  Those poor folks just didn?t understand the seriousness of the situation.  We?d not be so foolish ? or would we?  What are our excuses?  Sometimes, unfortunately, we too become preoccupied with the way we make our living, with our cars, possessions and homes, or our families.  We will participate in God?s kingdom, we say when our career is established, our home paid for, our children grown.  And we miss the present strength, joy, fellowship and service that could sustain our days and give even more meaning.  Perhaps our excuses are that we got too much religion, or the wrong kind, as a child.  But we can let that go and find a way to grow in faith now.  We may be too tired but then we miss the best re-creation there is.  Our excuses may be that there are too many hypocrites in church ? but what better place, because at least here we can hope for conversion!  And what one of us isn?t blessed with mixed motives and a struggling for truth?  Or we may have been badly hurt, but we need constantly to be aware that the hurt comes from people and circumstances, not from God.  Whatever, or how good our excuses, our parable reminds us that these three excuses given are all good ? they are just not the best.  Our hardest decisions come between the good and the best ? the kingdom of God.  What would be the hardest thing for you to set aside to participate in the kingdom when asked?

6.      Another striking element of this parable is the reversal.  There is surprise in the Kingdom of God.  The situation is totally reversed.  The invited are not there, those considered uninvited are.  Imagine!  The religious leaders and people who believed themselves the ?good? people are out and the outcasts and sinners are in ? because they could accept God?s kingdom.  The church is on very shaky ground whenever it becomes the establishment.  There is the danger of becoming complacent, self-serving and exclusive.  We cannot sit back on our past laurels and say that?s how we always do it!  There are difficult questions we may disagree about.  What is meaningful worship?  What kind of things ought the church to be about?  We seek to continually learn to love and communicate with each other in our differences and truly be the church together.  We need to be open to God?s leading, lest we too be surprised about who is in ? or out!

7.      And there?s a huge sense of urgency.  In Jesus? amazing way, he uses the extraordinary within the ordinary.  A banquet is rather ordinary.  That all the guests would refuse to come is not.  It brings us up short to see there?s something important ? urgent here.  ?Go out quickly.?  The urgency is because of God?s great love and need for us.  But it?s actually for our good as much as God?s need.  The urgency comes because we can become too hardened, too bored, too full of guilt, too complacent, and cut ourselves off from the Life God longs for us.  Why would we wait?

8.      Why indeed would we wait?  We are promised joy as an integral part of the kingdom.  Often when Jesus described the kingdom, he used pictures of great joy.  The kingdom is like a shepherd rejoicing ecstatically when he finds a lost sheep.  A woman overjoyed when she finds a coin from her dowry.  A father gazing longingly down the road for a straying son ? and then running in joy to meet him.  So why do you suppose with all these joyful images, we reject the kingdom because we think it will spoil our fun?  We wait till we do everything we want first, and miss our greatest joy.  Jesus called the kingdom a banquet, a party.  A place where there is enough for all, and the unique joy of a special occasion.  Perhaps we have such a hard time thinking of the kingdom as joyful because of our background or the dull way it?s been presented with shoulds and fears to keep us in line.  It?s high time we lay those aside and hear from Jesus that it is a banquet.  Not of course an anything goes banquet.  Anything that hurts me or anyone else is not ok.  This kingdom is inclusive of all and there?s a deep concern for justice.  Out of love we know each person digging out of the rubble of a flood as our own friend.  Out of love, we share the pain of discrimination against our non-Caucasian brothers and sisters and work with them for justice. 

9.      We know well that kingdom-folk are not immune from pain.  Some of you are experiencing dark valleys right now.  But the banquet image still holds.  For we have known the deep joy of sitting down to a meal with the right family member or friend, even in the darkest of times.  Many have known the sense of being borne up and carried by the love of family, friends and God when it seemed nothing could get us through.

10.  What a compelling parable for New Year?s Day!  New Year?s Day, like birthdays, give us the opportunity to recognize that time is indeed passing.  We often take stock of the past year or years with the recognition that certain things must be set right.  We also look ahead to consider the future, perhaps making specific plans so we may indeed accomplish our goals.  This parable holds up the invitation for us to enter God?s kingdom as we enter this new year.  Without excuse, simply because we are loved and wanted, expecting to be surprised by God.  May 2006 be the year of your whole hearted ?yes? to God?s invitation.