• Introduction [show picture on projector]
  • Jesus talks about a banquet and says that if we are giving one, to invite the poor and disabled
  • Have any of us ever done that? I haven't.

• Scripture scholars talk about the nature of a parable
  • Not meant to be taken literally
  • Rather we look at one story and draw parallels to the story of our own lives
  • It is an extended metaphor

• But maybe the scripture scholar said that because he finds it inconvenient to actually do what Jesus actually says

• The banquet image is used a lot in Luke's gospel
  • Jesus has been described as eating his way through the gospel
    • He is at table with people nine times
    • He discusses eating on three other occasions
    • He features eating prominently in at least four of the parables

• The banquet image is a very traditional one in the scriptures
  • It is not new with Jesus
  • But he gives it a new focus

• Every meal in Luke's gospel has greater significance than about eating and drinking with others
  • It is about the eternal banquet that God offers to all of us

• And today the gospel parables are really focused not so much on eating
  • Rather on our relationships and what constitutes right relationships with God and each other

• There are two parables set in the context of one meal at a Pharisee's house

• The first teaches about our relationships with each other
  • It's about knowing ourselves in relation to each other

• It talks specifically about humility but in the most fundamental sense of humility, understanding and seeing ourselves in a truthful way

• God is the host and we are all invited to the banquet

• But it is God who invites
  • And God invites all, regardless of our station in life or our individual merit

• In God's eyes we are all equal
  • We have value in and of ourselves. It is not given to us by another.
  • We do not have equal talents and abilities but we are equally loved by God

• We need to recognize and accept each other in that same understanding

• It is God who has raised us up and given us dignity.
  • If we are really truthful-humble-we know we are all lacking and inadequate
  • God has raised us up.
  • But God has also raised up all the others invited to the banquet with me.

• There is little room for jockeying around for better positions and more honors for myself
  • We have a common origin and a common destiny and that should keep us all humble

• Concretely we always need to be aware and be careful that our liturgies here
  • Are signs of the banquet
  • Are open to all and that all feel invited

• If we truly understand how God relates to us, then we know how we as disciples must relate to each other
  • Having first been invited and welcomed ourselves, we are bound to offer the same invitation to others

• The second parable speaks about our relationship with God

• God invites us all to the heavenly banquet
  • We are invited without reservation or exclusion
  • The invitation is given not to the worthy but to those who would respond

• We don't deserve the invitation but God raises us up by welcoming us to his house and his family and his dinner

• How do we offer thanks?
  • First by coming and participating in God's banquet
  • But we don't bring a bottle of wine or box of cookies or some ice cream
  • Instead we need a transformation of our hearts

• This parable is about the company God keeps
  • Nobles, kings, ambassadors, country directors, NGO staff, business people, consultants, scholars, students, husbands and wives are all welcome
  • But God also opens the table to the disenfranchised and the disabled

• In practice that means we as Christians must be open, loving, inviting to:
  • The nerds and non-athletes at school
  • The boring and the neurotic at work
  • The nagging or insensitive at home
  • The gays and lesbians, those who are different wherever they may be
  • The Republicans or Democrats or whatever politicians are in your country

• They are all invited to God's banquet and we must create a space and find room for them with us

• Coming back to the words of Jesus about inviting the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind to a dinner with us
  • I'm still a bit uncomfortable to say that it's ONLY a metaphor and never meant to be taken literally

• I had a seminary classmate who struggled with his fondness for going to the movies and the needs of the poor people who lived around the seminary in Baltimore
  • He resolved the conflict by giving the cost of a ticket to the poor each time he went to a movie

• What if we set up a tent on the street in front of our house and invited the poor?
  • Not necessarily the neighbors since they-living on the same street-might be as well off as we
  • But the ai-jai ladies¹, the bread sellers on bicycles, the motordupe drivers², the guards, the glue-sniffing kids, the beggars at the corner

• What if we invited all of them to a meal some evening?

• It could be interesting

¹ Women, often with children in tow, who push handcarts through the streets looking for useful trash and discards ("ai-jai") that they can sell to make a living
² Motorcycle taxi drivers