The Great Banquet

The Great Banquet

Sermon held at the Lutheran Church of Eureka, Elsies River,

2^nd Sunday after Trinity, 1 June 2008 at 09h00

Texts: Proverbs 9, 1-10, Ephesians 2, 17-22, Luke 14, 16-24, 1 Cor 9, 16-23

Sermon text: Luke 14.16-24

Jesus tells us a parable about how we should relate to one another as Christians. He clearly refers to the Kingdom of God and how we as a community of Christians live and come together, that is the same as talking about the church. The way we live together will also influence the world.

What can we learn from this parable on the great banquet? We could just as well talk about a party, a gathering. How do you do it? Who is invited? And how are you seated? Typically in South Africa you would perhaps have a table of honour for the people due to whom the party is organized in the first place. You would not approach that table unless you know that you are supposed to sit there. For the rest people would sit down together with those whom you somehow know and couples would stick together.

A formal dinner in Sweden would be somewhat different. There is an old rule saying that if you are engaged you would sit together with your fiancée, but if you are married you would have someone else to the table; the rule is known throughout society so any wedding for example would be done in such fashion. The good thing about it is that you would meet new people and if you have a good host he or she would have thought out a nice mix at the table.

At one such occasion a couple of years ago I and my wife were planning such a dinner and the following conversation could be heard from us:

This South African lady does not know anyone in the party but she has quite a sense of humour; let’s put her next to that Swedish priest who is so quick to laughter. And we did; the evening came and we could both see and hear that these two, sitting next to each other talked and talked and laughed and laughed.

Wherever you are you will find that there are certain rules that are inevitable and the hosts will have to play a leading role one way of another. The most radical part of Jesus’ parable probably is the fact that in the end the house master has to invite those who cannot invite back…

Think of it, our way of doing things is most of the time not like that. Typically we may end up in a pay-back system that we somehow become trapped in: those who have invited us should be invited back and so there is this social obligation making it difficult to break out into new ventures, inviting those who never would be able to return that invitation.

How should we then understand the banquet Jesus is talking about?

According to Luke Jesus is with the Pharisees and what he says could not possibly have been to their liking. It is about healing on the Sabbath, as they were very strict about not doing any practical work on that day. Then there is the advice about who sits where at table when invited to a party. It all has to do with honour, recognition and humility. In the parable Jesus is having the Kingdom of God in mind. It is not for us to say who is honourable, who is to be paid respect and be given recognition, it is for us to stay humble. The Pharisees had drawn up precise rules as to how their group should be organized and who would be welcome; Jesus was on collision course with them no doubt. To him the Kingdom of God had much more to do with those who did nor afford to return the invitation, those who were helpless and needy, those who were disregarded by the world.

In other words, the parable on the great banquet is about how God wants to go about inviting us to his kingdom and it is also about how the church could reflect this in her life.

In the verse before our text (Lk 14.15) one of those who sat at table with Jesus in the Pharisee house said: “Blessed is he who shall eat bread in the kingdom of God”. This comment triggers off the parable and shaped the way it was told. Jesus wanted to say among other things that no one could take for granted that he or she already belonged there. It was in the end a matter of a preferential option.

First the servant went out to remind of the invitations. One should then recall that people already had an invitation and only now came the word from the servant that everything was set for the feast, please come. It is only now that people start having excuses, which of course is devastating to the host as everything is prepared and it is now too late to change menu, the amount of food etc.

They all have their excuses, one had bought land, another yokes of oxen, another just got married. So one must understand that the master of the house got a rage, he got very angry: what was planned to be a joyous occasion threatened to become an empty hole of nothingness.

Therefore, he said to the servant, go out into the streets, the back yards (where things are divided up in small holdings or shacks) and bring in all those miserable ones, the poor, the hungry, the blind, the lame; and there was still room so the servant had to go out once more, even further afield and compel and urge people to come to the banquet.

Naturally at this point in time there would be no space or food left for those who had declined to come but who again might have had second thoughts about this turning down the invitation.

What do we learn from this parable?

It is about preferences; we have to choose, once and for all. If you bought a piece of land, God should still be your first priority. If you just acquired oxen or a tractor or a new car, God should still be your first priority. If you just got married, you should rush to God for his blessing. But the challenge remains there all the time: there are those who have so little, of the kingdom if invited, so not without reason Jesus could also say, “the first will be the last and the last will be the first”.

We can also learn that nobody is necessarily excluded from the kingdom other than by own choice and that is perhaps the tragedy of human life. We may know what is best for us but we don’t do it, we don’t move in that direction as we know we should.

The kingdom is as radical as this: it is about a universal inclusiveness, as Jesus came to give his life not for the church but for the whole world (John 3.16), which is the same thing as to say that this kingdom banquet is universally applicable. This condition our church is also called to reflect.

What is the message of Jesus Christ to us in Cape Town at this time and moment with regard to this parable?

There are three things that I want to highlight here. And everything now said presupposes that a Christian cannot be xenophobic and that is by definition. The letter to the Hebrews says that we all are strangers, in a similar way to Jesus who had to suffer and die outside the city gate: “for here we have no lasting city, but we seek the city which is to come” (Hebrews 13.14). One could perhaps also add that the last few weeks there have been many in Cape Town who have longed for that heavenly city.

First we must remember that those of us who are blessed with a full life of commitments, be it about land, means by which work could be done (yoke of oxen) or family, we are indeed invited to the kingdom. We, however, have to be careful not to come up with excuses when the real call comes. We may not take the risk of excluding ourselves. We are called to bring what we have to God so that he can bless it, for the better of the whole kingdom.

Secondly, we must remember that we still have the poor amongst us. They have perhaps been Lutheran for generations and they are there and they are loved by God. The church is asked to consistently call the government to account for not doing enough for the poor. The church itself can do a lot more. Perhaps only when the churches together start talking about and doing restitution will there be a way by which the church as a whole could make an impact. We have to, as it were, clean up our own back yard first. We can only do that in a meaningful way when also the rich churches come in together with the poor churches to do something.

Thirdly, we are also called to serve the stranger in our midst. He or she is not really a stranger, whether it is an African or not. We are all God’s people. Therefore the last 2 – 3 weeks in South Africa can teach us a lesson. That lesson is: only when every local congregation welcomes at least a few strangers or immigrants or refugees, in her midst will we prove that we are sensitive to the parable that Jesus is telling us today. And only when our local congregation are welcoming these people from the outside will we be truly the church and probably, only then will we be able to overcome xenophobia in Cape Town and in the country.

It would be easy to criticize us in the churches for neglect, for not really bothering about these people who are now here, many of whom are doing a good work and in fact contributing to the economy as well. We have not done enough and there is need for some soul searching.

However, it may be even more important to say that the whole of Cape Town, where the churches seem to have been the main actor, has in a remarkable way responded to this parable of Jesus. When it became clear that thousands of people had been chased away from their make-shift homes, because they come from other African countries, the churches of Cape Town have been a central part of this act of opening the doors at all costs. Perhaps without knowing it, the church in Cape Town and all others who work in the same spirit, have been demonstrating the basic idea of the Jesus parable: it is the homeless, the stranger, the outcast, the marginalized that are directly invited, yeas even urged to come to the great banquet.

Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit. As it was in the beginning, is now, and will be for ever. Amen

(Hans S A Engdahl 2008-06-01)