PARTY MESSAGES

Luke 14: 7-24

       With the 4^th of July coming up this week, the good weather of summer finally here (or soon to arrive), birthdays, weddings, anniversaries, picnics, and reunions—this is a time for parties.   I’m sure nearly everyone likes parties.   To get together with friends or family is fun.   To celebrate together is one of the greatest joys of life.

       It is true that Jesus often went to be alone in prayer and meditation.   In that regard we sometimes see Jesus as a private person.   But he also spent a lot of time with people in celebration.   He joined in public gatherings, enjoying the association with ordinary, everyday people.   In our scripture reading in Luke we see Jesus again at a party, a feast.   And we hear him telling about three parties, with a message for us in each one.

      The first story was told because of an observation Jesus made—that some of the guests at the feast Jesus was attending were choosing the best places to sit, scrambling to grab the prime seats.   So Jesus told a story about some people who went to a wedding party.   Most of the guests were seated when a “pushy” person came in, who saw the table beautifully laid out and rushed up to sit in the best place where everyone would notice.   All was well, until another person came in who was really the most important guest and the host had to say to the pushy person,  “Give this other person your place!”   The pushy person’s face must have blushed in embarrassment as he slinked to the seat of least honor while everyone watched.   Jesus closed this story with these words:   “All who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.”

      Honors cannot be taken but can only be received.   That may be the most obvious meaning of this first story.   We should not scramble for honor; it has to be earned and, if it’s earned, it will be given to us by others, without our having to grab for it.   This comes from the recognition that if we are great, our greatness comes not from us but from God.   John Ruskin once wrote these words:   “The test of a great person is humility.   I do not mean, by humility, doubt of one’s powers.   But really great people know that the greatness is not in them but through them.”

      But at a deeper level, Jesus is talking about the example we are as Christians.  Other people watch us to see what sort of life we live.  Jesus was full of humility and encourages us to be also.  At the last meal he had with his disciples, he even washed their feet.  He said that we are to be an example of service to others.   “Whoever wants to be first must choose to be last of all and be the servant of all.”

     Yet there is an even deeper meaning to this story.   Jesus was talking to the Pharisees who believed their own self-righteous goodness earned them favor with God and placed them in an exalted position in God’s eyes.   However, the coming of Christ shows a totally different righteousness, a reconciliation with God which comes with recognition of sin, repentance, and reliance upon the mercy of God in Christ.   Jesus had nothing but rebuke for people who did not acknowledge sin but relied upon their own so-called goodness.   Jesus had nothing but welcome arms for those who confessed that they had no right to special status before God and therefore cast themselves completely on God for mercy.   It is this meaning in Paul’s words:  “It is by God’s grace that you have been saved.  In our union with Christ, God raised us up with him to demonstrate the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.   For it is by God’s grace that you have been saved through faith.   It is not the result of your own efforts, but God’s gift, so no one can boast about it.”

       The second party story Jesus tells is about the invitation list.   He says when you comprise the guest list don’t just include friends and family.  Instead, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame and blind.   There is no great generosity in being kind to people who can or will pay you back.   To invite and entertain those who can and will pay back is pleasant and profitable; but to invite those who cannot repay is compassionate.   To invite those who can pay back may be selfish; but to invite and give to those who cannot pay back is remembering that God sees and loves all of humankind, including the unfortunate, the downtrodden.   To invite and give to only those who can repay may be to seek a quick human reward.   But to invite and give to those who cannot repay is to trust that God will be the giver of reward.

      Now you may laugh at me and call me a sucker because of what I’m about to tell you.   That’s okay—it wouldn’t be the first time.   When I lived in Port Townsend, a young man who had just gotten out of prison and lived with his wife and baby in an apartment directly across the street from the church, came to me with a request to help him get started in a business.   He had designed some greeting cards, done the art work himself.  They really were beautiful cards, very attractive with meaningful inscriptions.   He spent a couple hours telling me how he had come up with the ideas, written the messages, created the moving illustrations—showing me the ones he had finished and some he was working on.   He was full of confidence that, given a way to market the cards, they would sell.   He had lists of card shops and companies, printers, and so on.   He just needed the capital to get started.   Could the church help him?

      I was skeptical—not of his product but of his ability to carry out all the steps needed to sell what he had created.   Nevertheless, he was in need of a boost, somebody to believe in him.   So I told him I couldn’t act for the church in lending him money but I would personally lend him $400 and that I realized I was taking a risk and may never see the money again—even though he was sure he could repay it soon.   I told him I believed in him and in his honor to do the best he possibly could.

       Now you are expecting a Paul Harvey “Rest of the Story” type ending, aren’t you?   Like the man’s name was Mark Hall and Mr. Hall started a little greeting card company called Hallmark.   And he paid me back a thousand-fold.   Well--- no Paul Harvey ending here!   His last name was not Hall or Hallmark.   Months went by and a year or so.   Then he and his family suddenly moved.   I haven’t seen him since.   Some time later, though, I did stop in at the Port Townsend Police Dept to ask if they knew him or what happened to him—and sure enough, I was told he was back in prison.

      But I gave to him believing that, even though I may lose now, I trust God’s ultimate justice and the rightness of love—extended in such risk.   And I have been repaid over and over again by the loving acts of kindness of other people—like yourselves.  

      The bottom line of Jesus’ story for us who call ourselves Christians is that we should act toward others as God has acted toward us.   Even while we were sinners, God sent Jesus to be the means for our forgiveness, the means of life for all who choose to accept and follow Christ.   God gave to the undeserving;  God gave to us.   God’s kindness goes out to those who can offer nothing in return—nothing but love returned to God by giving it to others.   To act in the way Jesus is promoting in this story is to enter into the very spirit and purpose of God.   And he promises that God will repay your unselfish kindness in the end.   Every kind and loving deed will find its ultimate reward.   I believe it.

       And finally Jesus tells a sad party story.   Someone gave a large dinner party and invited a lot of people.   It was customary there in those days to have two invitations, one announcing the party well ahead of time, the other coming at the hour all preparations were completed and the party ready to begin.   We do that too, in a way.   We send out the first invitation, then call a day or two ahead of time to confirm it, to get a final count.   The guests in the story had apparently accepted the first invitation, but when the second one came, they begged off.   Did you ever ask someone to do something and at first they agree—then just before the event, you call to confirm it and they say,  “No, I’m sorry.  I forgot to call you.  I cannot come after all.  I have to stay home and wash my hair, or I have to stay home and watch my digital clock, or I’m going to eat jello and see how fast my fingernails grow.”   Or some other reason, more believable than these.

      Here in Jesus’ story all the guests said,  “Sorry, we can’t come now, for we are busy with something else.”   Their excuses were not so obvious as the ones I’ve given, but they were still excuses.   One said,  “I have bought a piece of land and I must go and see it.”   He probably could have waited a day.   Another said,  “I have bought five yoke of oxen and I am going to try them out.”   Again he could have waited, especially since he had already committed to come to the party.   The third one’s excuse was, “I have just been married and therefore I cannot come.”   I can hear you out there:   “Oh, how sweet!   What a romantic!   He wants to spend time with his bride!   Got to give that man a honeymoon!”   But not so sweet if you understand this culturally.   The man was likely referring to the Jewish law that stated that a man must remain at home during his first year of marriage.   That’s why he said,  “I cannot come.”   But this man in Jesus’ story was misinterpreting the law.   It meant simply that a newly married man was not obligated to military service or being called by his country in some fashion that would require him to move away from his family.   It did not mean he had to stay within the confines of his house and cut off all social contacts.   Again, this was a convenient excuse.   He could have gone to the party.

       So the host of the party sent his servants out to the streets and alleys, the country roads and lanes to invite others.

      This is a pericope of history, of the Lord’s call to all people to accept God’s invitation.   The first invitation went out in the person of the prophets.   Now in Jesus God’s most personal invitation was given.   Those who rejected God’s invitation by making excuses were too preoccupied with their own lives to respond to God’s call.   That’s what this is all about.

     It is so easy to make excuses, to avoid our obligations to God, to skirt our vows, to refuse to see that God has a claim on our lives, a claim shown so graphically and powerfully in Jesus’ death on the cross.   Just as we hear the invitation given at the Lord’s table before he goes to the cross.   God is gracious and will receive all who answer the invitation.   But remember—it’s an invitation, not a court order.   Those invited may not come.   In Jesus’ story, they then miss out on the kingdom banquet.   As the parable says,  “They will not taste God’s dinner.”   They choose—God does not choose for them.   If it was God’s choice alone, they’d come and enjoy.   But they choose, instead, to stay home from the party.

      In brief summary, what did Jesus teach us in the “party” stories?  First, as Christians, we ought to be humble, not thinking “me first,” but graciously accepting the grace of God and living that way with others.   Very simple—but not so easy.   There are plenty of opportunities for us to act with gracious kindness to others as God has graciously acted toward us.

     Secondly, we can show our love for Christ and our humble acceptance of him who gave himself for us by reaching out and giving to those whose positions or wealth or abilities cannot pay us back.   Freely give and you will freely receive—and freely live.

     And finally, we should be very careful that we aren’t molding excuses and passing up God’s call to us to serve or minister in certain ways.   God’s invitation has come in Christ but we must respond to it.   Our opportunities are many.   God calls us to take advantage of the lives given to us.   Each day is a precious gift from God to give back in loving kindness and service, in celebration of life.   This communion table proclaims it.   God has given us the invitation ---- so let’s party!

                                                                          AMEN