The Great Banquet

Jen, which is my wife, I'm Dan, we were binge-watching TV Friday night.

Early in season three of Homeland, there's an awkward dinner scene with a judgmental grandmother,

and it made me think how you find awkward dinner scenes all over TV and film and literature, right?

And like the ones that come to my mind immediately, like scenes from Downton Abbey or anything with Ricky Gervais,

and American Beauty, there's a great scene in Borat, so I hear.

Not that I've seen it or own it.

I also think of the Master Commander book series, they made a film of it, Lucky Jack Aubrey is the captain,

really amazing sailor, but a total buffoon in social situations and screws up every meal he's in.

And these awkward dinner scenes are ubiquitous all throughout fiction and literature,

because they take place all the time in real life, right?

They're totally believable.

And, well, then I immediately think of the time my parents met Jennifer.

They came to Akron, Ohio to see my graduate recital.

That occurred in the previous millennium.

And it was their first chance to meet Jennifer, who I had been seriously dating,

the first time I'd ever met or first time I'd ever introduced a girl to my parents.

And we sit down at the restaurant, order our food,

and my dad, my dear late father, who wasn't the most socially graceful person I've ever known,

and he asks Jennifer, so what's your GPA?

Now, honestly, you know, I didn't even realize how awkward that made things,

or how awkward that made Jennifer feel,

because I grew up with my dad saying awkward things in public all the time.

And I think for those of us who have, in a similar way,

for those of us who have heard and read a lot of stories about Jesus,

we forget how he makes some situations extremely uncomfortable,

but not because he lacks social grace.

I mean, he has a purpose.

In TV and film, awkward dinner scenes are used to further character development

and relationships, heightened attention for the plot.

And Jesus, too, uses this heated, cringeworthy dinner experience

to teach us something very important about the kingdom of God.

He says,

The kingdom is a feast.

This kingdom has come,

and those who would have been expected to receive the kingdom did not do so,

whereas the ones least likely to receive the kingdom actually did.

The invitation to the feast is an invitation to belief.

So we're going to look first at that invitation,

and then we're going to look at the obstacles to believing,

and then we'll look at the end, or the goal of belief.

The invitation to belief,

the obstacles to belief,

and the goal of belief.

So let's first look at what has led up to this point in the passage.

The very beginning of Luke chapter 14,

Luke 14 · chapter mention

we learn that Jesus is a guest at a dinner

at the home of one of the Pharisees.

Now, Pharisees were a religious slash political party.

They took very seriously the rules and laws and regulations for the people of Israel.

And obeying these rules was their way of expressing their love for God.

But over time, new rules piled on more new rules,

and it became very difficult to keep them all.

And the rules became a way of excluding those who were on the margins.

This would be Gentiles, women, children,

the sick, the poor, the lame.

So this dinner that Jesus is at

is occurring on the Sabbath,

or Saturday,

which was a sacred day.

Every week,

it was a sacred day of rest for Israel.

There's very strict rules about what you can and can't do on the Sabbath.

And one of those things that you cannot do is to heal.

You can't heal on the Sabbath.

Now, someone somehow came into the house

who had dropsy.

His torso would have been

bulging full

with liquids, fluids.

He probably had organ failure.

He probably would have been terminally ill.

And Jesus has compassion on this man.

But first,

Jesus asked the Pharisees on the Sabbath,

is it lawful to heal this man or not?

They don't answer.

And you could probably hear a pin drop and crickets and such.

And we can assume it was an awkward silence.

And then Jesus miraculously heals the man.

He sends him away.

And he says to the Pharisees,

Now 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 he drops the mic.

Then he decides to confront

all the dinner guests

who had scrambled for the places of honor.

And he chides them for their arrogance

in doing so.

And then to be complete,

in verse 12,

where we start this evening,

he makes sure everyone in the room

feels insulted.

And he turns on the host

and blasts him

for only inviting

respectful people

with the expectation

that the host

would receive similar invitations

from those respectful people

later on.

So, now,

everyone feels equally offended.

And to highlight

how awkward this gets,

Luke does us a favor

and he shows us

in the text,

in verse 15,

one of the guests

trying to say something

that will break the tension

or lighten the mood

or to change the topic,

he says,

Blessed is everyone

who will eat bread

in the kingdom of God.

Pass the hummus

or something.

And then Jesus says,

Thank you,

I'm glad you brought up

the kingdom.

And then he shares

this parable,

the parable of the banquet.

Now, in the parable,

the invitation

to the banquet

is the invitation

to enter the kingdom

and into relationship

with the Father.

To accept that invitation

is to believe.

That's what we learn

in the New Testament.

The Apostle Paul

wrote in his letter

to the church in Rome,

and this letter

is in the Bible,

it's called Romans.

Paul writes,

If you confess

with your mouth

that Jesus is Lord

and believe in your heart

that God raised him

from the dead,

you will be saved.

For with the heart

one believes

and is justified.

And with the mouth

one confesses

and is saved.

In the book of Acts,

Paul, the same,

and Silas

were in jail

in Philippi.

And the jailer

asks them,

Sirs,

what must I do

to be saved?

And they said,

Believe in the Lord Jesus,

and you will be saved,

you and your household.

Now, in this parable,

there's two separate groups.

There's the group

that refuse the invitation

to the banquet,

and then there's the ones

who are ultimately invited,

and they come to the banquet.

The first group

is the group

you would expect

to have accepted

this invitation.

And we can infer

that Jesus is referring

to the religious leaders,

the insiders,

the respectable ones,

the ones that at the time

seemed closest

to the kingdom.

But in the end,

it's the outcasts

who accept.

Now, the Pharisees

would not have missed this.

The crippled,

the lame,

the blemished

were forbidden

to go behind the veil

that cordoned off

what's called

the Holy of Holies.

It was the deepest place

in the temple

in Jerusalem,

and it was where

the presence of God

dwelled,

and those with blemishes

were not allowed there.

But Jesus says

that now

everyone has access,

which is great.

That's you and me.

The Father has no prejudices.

Anyone can come

as they are,

even as an utterly poor,

utterly sinful,

and utterly unlovable person

who cannot understand

what God can see in him.

The fact is,

there isn't anything

in anyone

that makes him worthy

to be a member

of God's family.

But God makes him,

God makes something

of him or her.

He makes that person

his beloved child.

So,

which group

do we belong to?

Well,

the fact that we're

sitting here in church

worshiping God

makes us religious insiders.

So,

we should read this parable

and hear a warning

to earnestly follow God

without lame excuses.

And I'll get to those excuses

in a minute.

But if we've already

accepted God's invitation,

if we are God's children,

then that makes us

the second group,

doesn't it?

Like,

we are the lame,

the crippled,

the blemished.

This parable

reminds us

that we are nothing

apart from God's grace.

We were outcasts

and aliens,

deeply blemished.

And only through

God's gracious invitation

are we made members

of his family

and of his kingdom.

And when we understand

that fact,

it gives us the power

to show grace

and the power

to show hospitality,

the kind of hospitality

that Jesus admonished

his dinner host to have

in verse 12.

Now,

as an aside,

but this is an important aside,

this is one of many places

in the Bible

where hospitality

is linked

with justice.

Do we want to extend

justice and mercy

to the world's

disenfranchised

and outcasts?

Well,

extending that justice

and mercy

means having them

in our home

at our dinner table.

Do we think Advent

should be a church

that is more welcoming

and diverse

at 5 p.m.

on Sundays?

Yeah,

and it should be,

absolutely.

But how diverse

are our dining rooms

at 7 p.m.

on weekdays?

this conjoining

of hospitality

and mercy,

by the way,

is one of the key

organizing principles

for our core groups.

Our core groups

are structured

to be a place

of welcome

to outsiders,

a place we can invite

people into the life

of our community.

And this is how

we show hospitality

as a church,

one of many ways.

So,

we've seen that

people of all types

are invited,

but not everyone

accepts the invitation

to the banquet.

Now,

you may have found

the excuses

in the parable

kind of musing.

I kind of expected

Tommy to chuckle

as he read him.

they're meant

to be so.

They're meant

to be absurd.

Jesus is making a point.

He's ultimately saying

that every excuse

we would give

for not entering

the kingdom

is pretty lame.

But those excuses

spring from somewhere,

right?

And so,

having looked

at the invitation

to belief,

I'd like to now

look at obstacles

to belief.

I'd like to look

at two obstacles,

namely,

our own desires

and our own assumptions.

You'll notice

that these excuses

have to do

with possessions

and affections.

Do these people

refuse the invitation

because of skewed thinking?

No.

That's not right at all.

The reason they rejected

the invitation

is that they have

skewed desires.

They didn't desire

to be with the host.

They didn't desire

all the great stuff

that the host

would have given them

at the banquet.

They had disordered loves.

This is why

true belief

is to be accompanied

by true repentance.

In the book of Acts,

when the apostle Peter

is asked how to accept

God's invitation,

we heard it earlier tonight,

Peter answers,

repent and be baptized,

every one of you,

in the name of Jesus Christ,

for the forgiveness

of your sins,

and you will receive

the gift of the Holy Spirit.

So now in our passage

in Luke,

when the host

sends out his servants

inviting us to the banquet,

inviting us to the banquet,

the servants aren't going to tap

on the screen door.

They're going to knock

on the thickest,

concrete,

steel-reinforced wall

of our house.

Accepting God's invitation

and living as members

of his kingdom

means tearing down

those walls,

giving up those things

that we love

more than God,

the simple things,

even the good things

that we make idols out of.

But in our modern age,

there's something

that informs

both our desires

and our beliefs.

And this is the second

obstacle to belief.

You could say

it's our culture

or it's our assumptions

or it's our presuppositions.

Perhaps the best word

for this

is to call it

an imaginary,

a social imaginary.

Because of the culture

we live in,

art,

media,

education,

politics,

with all of its

background assumptions

and narratives,

we,

all of us,

believers and skeptics alike,

for the most part,

imagine the world

the same way.

Our social imaginary

is the stuff

we assume

about the world

before we think

reflectively on it.

We absorb it

from birth.

We swim in it

every day of our lives.

And it's difficult

to imagine

the world otherwise.

It's what it means

to live in the West.

Our imaginary

has a big influence

on our beliefs

and our actions

and our desires.

This imaginary

is a source

of constant cross-pressure

for beliefs

and skeptics alike.

So for Christians,

it means often

we experience doubt.

500 years ago

in the West,

it would be very difficult

to not believe

in the transcendent,

but now Christianity

bears the burden

of proof

instead of being

the given.

Our culture

now presents

a way of looking

at the world

where it's possible

to do life

without God.

As a matter of fact,

our culture

has thrown off

God completely

and thrown off

everything else

that might claim

an external authority

over our lives,

whether it be

the Bible

or the church,

etc.

Our culture

would say

the highest authority

is the self.

This way

of imagining

the world

is the ocean

we swim in.

It's unavoidable

and there's no going back

and we're exposed

to it from birth.

So take my boys

as an example.

Now, there's a lot

of things I could have used

as an example of this,

but I'm going back

to when we were children.

I'm taking their child

as an example.

At dinner time,

our family

often goes through

the children's catechism.

And the first four questions

of the catechism

are who made you?

God.

What else did God make?

God made everything.

Why did God make you

and everything else?

For his own glory.

That's my favorite part

when my five-year-old

says that.

Now, how can we glorify,

how can you glorify God?

And the answer is

by loving him

and by doing

what he commands.

Very simple.

And so,

as a family,

we tell ourselves

during dinner

that we have

an outside authority,

an external authority,

and that's God.

But before dinner

even starts,

it wouldn't be uncommon

for us to turn on the TV

or the neglect division,

as we call it,

at our house,

and for the kids

to watch one of their

favorite shows,

which happens to be

Pokemon.

Did anybody watch?

No, I'm not.

Okay.

All right.

And so,

there's very different

Pokemon shows,

and one of the theme songs

for this particular show

goes like this.

And listen carefully.

It's not always right

or wrong

as long as your spirit's strong.

It's not always win or lose.

It's the road you choose.

The answer is within.

It's not always black and white,

but your heart

always knows what's right.

Let the journey begin.

Pokemon!

That's...

Just something for all you

and nephews

and godsons

and boys

to look forward to.

Girls might watch us.

I wouldn't know.

I only have boys.

So,

we grew up

with this

constant tension

between

exclusive humanism

and our faith.

And you could say,

well, Dan,

why don't you just have

your boys watch

something else?

Fair.

Yeah,

maybe we could,

but

you can't escape this.

If you grew up

anywhere west

of the Ural Mountains,

you are going to get this

from birth.

this tension

between

exclusive humanism

and our faith

often causes doubt

in every one of us.

And I think we can all

empathize

with that.

And it's an obstacle

to belief

for all of us.

And then faithfulness,

so then,

faithfulness

requires

practices

like prayer

and scripture reading,

contemplation,

confession,

tithing,

fasting

that regularly

shape,

regularly

shape

our imaginations

and our desires

so that we,

as Christians,

would desire

the love of Christ

above all things.

Now,

if you're a skeptic,

you may have suspected

that it works

the other way

as well.

for you too.

You too

live in this

cross-pressure.

That though the West

has thrown off God

and religion

and moral absolutes

and replaced

all of that

with a different

set of assumptions

about the universe

and meaning

and human purpose,

that the transcendence

still haunts

our imaginations

and it's difficult

to account for it.

But it's there,

right?

And it often feels

like a sense

of loss.

If you're a skeptic

and you're haunted

by this sense

of transcendence,

it perhaps feels

like the first line

of Julian Barnes'

memoir,

the first sentence is,

I don't believe in God,

but I miss him.

Isn't that great?

I don't believe in God,

but I miss him.

Or perhaps you feel

the tension that

Maurice Sendak

felt at the end

of his life.

Do you know who that is?

He wrote

Where the Wild Things Are,

a committed atheist.

And in an interview

with Terry Gross,

he was reflecting

on all the people

he's loved

and who had died

in his life.

And you have to hear this.

He says this with tears

and with like

a deep fragility.

He says,

I don't believe

in an afterlife,

but I still fully expect

to see my brother again.

It's just heartbreaking to me

to like see

and feel that tension,

but that's the tension

between the imminence

and the transcendence.

I don't believe

in an afterlife.

I'm a complete atheist,

but somehow

I feel like

I'll see my brother again.

Do you feel

that cross pressure?

I think everyone

in this room,

everyone in this room

feels it.

All the time.

Whether we subscribe

to the Christian faith

or are skeptical of it.

we all share

the same imaginary

and it's an obstacle

to belief

that we need to take

very seriously.

Jesus would contest

not just our worldviews,

like what we think

about the world,

but he would contest

our culture's imaginary.

And he would present

a different one.

He doesn't do it

through definitions

and propositions.

He gives us pictures

and he gives us stories.

He gives us parables

so that we would

not just think differently,

but that we would

imagine differently

and desire differently.

This is, by the way,

why we've entitled

this sermon series

Imagining the Kingdom

and not

explaining the kingdom

or defining the kingdom.

The kingdom is a field

in which seed is sown.

The kingdom

is a vineyard.

It's a pearl

of great price.

It's a tiny mustard seed.

It's a banquet.

At the center

of this imaginary

that Jesus presents

is the king.

And this is our

third point,

that God,

the king himself,

is the end

or he's the goal

or he's the telos

of our belief.

He's the sower

in the field.

He's the master

of the vineyard.

He's the host

at the banquet.

At its core,

the kingdom of God

is not a state

or condition

of this world,

not an ideal order

of nations in life,

but the kingdom

centers around a person,

the king,

God himself,

who is the source

and sustainer

of everything

that happens.

For us,

who are members

of the kingdom,

he is what we desire

more than anything.

For those of us here

who are skeptics,

I would suggest

he is the one.

He is what haunts

your imaginary.

He is the transcendent.

He is what is

ultimately beautiful.

He is behind the beauty

that for some reason

makes us catch our breath

when we see

a stunning landscape.

He is behind the beauty

that makes us weep

when we hear

a Mahler symphony

or see a riveting film.

His Holy Spirit

is the well

of spirituality

that we crave

when we realize

there has to be more

than just this material world.

And he is why

we crave justice.

Because we know

instinctively

that there's something

broken about this world

and it requires

somebody like him

to fix it

and to set the world

to write.

And that is the story

of the universe.

The story

that must be true

as J.R.R. Tolkien says

because it is

the most beautiful

of all fairy tales.

It's the story

that we tell

every week

when we gather here

and celebrate

this meal together.

It's this story.

The world

was created perfect

and we were created

to enjoy God.

But we rebelled

against God

and that

broke everything.

Ourselves,

our connection

to the Father,

our connections

with each other,

the environment,

as Radiohead sang,

everything is broken.

but through the life,

death,

and resurrection

of his son,

Jesus Christ,

we are restored

to God.

And through his Holy Spirit,

we are made

into new creations

and are promised

a world

that will one day

be made new again,

a new heavens

and a new earth

where there will be

a banquet

with the Father

that will last

into eternity.

This is what he invites

all of us to.

If you've never

accepted that invitation

but would like to,

please talk to me

or to Tommy

or to any of our

prayer ministers

who stand up here

during communion.

We would love

to pray with you

and to talk you

through how to

accept that invitation.

Let's accept

that invitation

to join him

at his banquet

right now.

Let's pray.

Father,

we do look forward

to celebrating

with you

throughout all eternity

in the new heavens

and new earth,

everything having

been made new,

all tears

wiped away,

our sins

wiped away forever,

death conquered,

a lifetime of joy,

peace,

no war,

no refugee crises,

no refugees

stuck in a van

in Austria

or washing a shore

in Libya,

no random shootings

at gas stations

or on news broadcasts,

a world made new.

God,

that's the story

that we cling to

as your children.

We thank you

that you made that possible

through your son Jesus,

through his life,

his death,

his resurrection.

We celebrate that now

at this table.

Thank you for inviting us.

We gladly accept

your invitation.

We pray in Jesus' name.

Amen.

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