Whom Shall We Invite?

(Rutgers, August 30, 1998; 22nd Sunday in Ordinary Time, y ear C )
Hebrews 13:1-8, 15-16 (NT, pp. 244, 245); Luke 14:1, 7-14 (NT, pp. 78, 79)
Unless otherwise indicated, quotations come from I'Building Community
Among Strangers," a churchwide study document (1997) developed by the
Presbyterian Church (USA) Task Force on Building Community Among Strangers
and circulated by the PCUSA Advisory Committee on Social Witness Policy,
100 Witherspoon Street, Louisville, KY 40202-1396

And Jesus said, "When you give a banquet, invite ... ' , (Luke 14:13)

Now, here's this morning's important question.
How are ~ going to end that sentence of Jesus's?
Whom shall we invite ... to our "meal”?
Who are we going to ask to join us
at the banquet that is our congregational life together?

That question is one asked of us in a major study document prepared
last year for our denomination, the Presbyterian Church (USA), by
a distinguished + diverse national task force of Presbyterians
that
includes 2 persons from our own Presbytery of New York City.
Don Shriver, retired President of Union Theological Seminary,
and Bob Washington, retired Dean of New York Theo. Sell.

Their study document dwells on the scripture passage that
our lectionary has set for us as today's Gospel lesson, on Luke 14
and Jesus' message about whom we should invite to dinner.
In reflecting on Luke 14, the study document urges us to.

"Think for a minute about the significance of dinnertime
[in our culture] .
When a family or a group of friends gather at the table
to eat a meal, there is much more happening
than merely the nourishment of bodies.

"[People's] sharing of food has deep and powerful connotations
reaching back to the beginning of human civilization.
"[It's the case that s]pecial meals [are hallmarks of all the important
holidays and rites of passage in our lives. What's more,
t]he daily family dinner. . . is an icon of the American ideal,
and the difficulty [that] modern families experience in having
regular dinnertime together is one of [our] major complaints
against [today's] hectic lifestyles...." [p. 31 of study document]

I know that Margaret and I thank God that we reared
our three children before we were called to the church vocations
that now prevent us from eating most dinners at home together.

"[So m]ealtimes ... can strengthen families and friendships,
but [on the other hand] they [can also serve to establish]
boundaries that distinguish [between] insiders [and] outsiders.

"Dinnertime can be a warm and loving time....
[but] the sense of togetherness found around the intimate table
can deteriorate into an attitude of 'us against them,'
[an attitude] that 'our family' or 'people like us'
are somehow better or favored by God,
while those who are [not present at] the table
[are of less consequence] .

"Some of us actually have been taught that
‘we are always kind and polite to those people,
but we don't sit down to eat with them.'

"[No, s]haring a meal [is a sign of] trust
[that grows out of a sense of belonging and community] ,
so [we do] not normally sit at table with ... enemies [or
even with those perceived to be quite different from ourselves] ...,

"[But when Jesus taught and broke bread with others"
he] did not operate out of a 'homogeneity' principle; that is to say,
he did not call persons of only one type to [eat with him],
and he did not expect his disciples all to be somehow
transformed into multiple carbon copies of each other.

"His teaching and his own example make it very clear that
[at God's table-that is,] in [the realm where God reigns ]there are
no distinctions made between persons of different genders,
[sexual orientations,] racial groups, ethnic groups,
or socioeconomic classes.
[On] the contrary, all nations and peoples are invited
to the Banquet [of God] ... ' , [p. 31 of study document]

Jesus invited women like Mary Magdalene and Salome,
as well as men like Peter and Bartholomew.
,
foreigners like the Samaritan woman and the Roman centurion,
as well as Jews like Lazarus and Mary of Bethany.

Also invited were those who spoke Greek like Philip,
as well as those who spoke Aramaic like Martha;

sinners like Zacchaeus and the woman with her alabaster jar ,
as well as the righteous like Nathanael and the widow of N ain;

the marginal like the leprous man + the woman with a flow of blood,
as well as establishment types like Nicodemus and
Joanna, the wife of Chuza [pr. Kyuza].

Welcome at table were the mentally ill like the Gerasene demoniac,
as well as the mentally keen like the Syrophoenician woman;
the poor like Bartimaeus and the widow with just two copper coins,
as well as the rich like Joseph of Arimathea and Slisanna;

and, of course, the children, as well as the adults.

All were invited to the banquet of God. For, "In the ministry ofJesus,
God [was] experienced as all-inclusive love...
.. . God is a God of graciousness and goodness
who accepts everyone [and invites everyone] and brings about
justice and well-being for everyone without exception."
[Elisabeth Schussler-Fiorenza, In Memory of Her, p. 130]

So at a sabbath meal in the home of a leader + teacher of the people,
Jesus said, "When you give a banquet, invite
the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind." (Luke 14:13)

"The poor, the crippled, the [lame] , and the blind
were the marginalized people of Jesus's time.
That is to say, society disapproved of them and excluded them
from full participation in the life of the community.

"The religious people of the time believed
that poverty, physical illness and disability were the result of sin,
and that the victims of misfortune were [therefore] responsible
for their own condition.
[As a result] , society felt [disgust rather than] sympathy
for the unfortunate and treated them [accordingly] .

"Parallels may be seen in our own society's attitude toward
persons with HIV/AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases,
persons who depend on welfare, unwed teenaged mothers,
[gays and lesbians,]
and even persons who are noticeably overweight.

"Society in general regards each of these conditions as the
consequence of some moral failing, whether sexual promiscuity,
laziness, or lack of self control, and therefore
persons ... in these situations [often find themselves
discriminated against] and cut off
from active participation in the community.

"In addition to the categories of persons who are blamed
for their own alienation from society,
persons of different racial and ethnic backgrounds also
[have been] excluded from societies in the past
and generally continue to be excluded today,
simply because they 'are not like us. ,
[In the Jewish] society of Jesus'[s] time,
. this meant the Samaritans and all Gentiles.

"In both [Jesus's] time and ours, distinct boundaries exist
between 'the right sort of people' and 'the wrong sort.'
In the conventional view, offering assistance [to the latter]
through [indirect channels like] charities [is all right] , but
to invite 'them' home to dinner ... is quite another [matter];
one simply does not sit down and eat
with certain types of people." [p. 32 of study document]

But Jesus invites all people to the banquet of God.
The banquet to which Jesus commands us to invite all kinds of
people is on the one hand quite literally a meal,
but it is also, of course, a metaphor-a metaphor standing for
the community of Christ's followers that we call "the church."

Whom shall we invite to become part of our church?
According to Jesus: everyone without exception, but most
particularly those we would not normally think of .
inviting.

"The fact of the matter is that most people simply prefer
to worship and socialize with ... people who are like themselves.
[For example, r]are is the congregation that combines
blue-collar and white-collar people,
let alone [an even wider span of socioeconomic classes or]
any significant mix of different racial groups [, sexual
orientations,] and ethnicities." [p. 34 of study document]
Rutgers Church has made a good start in welcoming a diversity
of peoples and seeking to make worship genuinely multicultural,
but it's only a start; we don't yet have any laurels to rest on.

Racially, Presbyterian congregations across the nation are composed
of an overwhelming 93.2% white folk and only 6.8% people of
color .
Indeed, this disgraceful imbalance is such a matter of concern
that the General Assembly has established for our
denomination the goal of becoming at least
20% people of color by the year 2010.

Rutgers' membership is already 19% racial/ethnic,
but that is not nearly what we could or should be
given the demographics of New York City.

I should note here, however, that in the September issue
of our denominational magazine, Presbyterians Today,
it is the page-8 photo of the strong black face of Rutgers' own
Claudia Hall that offers the only significant sign of relief
from the all-white image Presbyterians continue
to project to the world throughout this magazine
but particularly through the disastrous choice of
a cover photo to portray Presbyterians at worship.

But at least there's a really great photo of Claudia in the magazine,
and you'll all want to look at my copy on your way out.

As for Presbyterians' welcoming of persons of all sexual orientations,
our denomination keeps no statistics, as you might well imagine (!),
but Rutgers is nationally recognized as a leader
in the inclusion of gays and lesbians.

But let us not be overwhelmed by pride or satisfaction.
Rutgers' banquet table is not nearly so wide open as Jesus's was.
And I believe our weakest area of inclusivity is socioeconomic;
here we have a really long way to go in order to duplicate
Christ's embrace of poor + rich + everyone in between
not just as the beneficiaries of our outreach
but indeed as full members of our community.

Three weeks from today, September 20th, is Homecoming Sunday,
and I believe Jesus wants each and every one of us to be busy
during these next 21 days inviting people to come at 11:00 am
to join us for the worship of God
and to stay on for our pot-luck luncheon,
which will be its own kind of banquet,
and which will be followed at 2:30 by
an Anthem Festival presented by our choir .

Whom shall we invite?

Well, of course Jesus wants us to invite to our banquet
our family and friends and those who are, quote, "like us.”,
But here's the thing: Jesus also wants us to go out
into the streets and lanes and invite those who are
different from ourselves, and most especially,
those who are radically different from ourselves.

Whom shall we invite?

How about the people you run into almost every day
and don't think much about:
the token clerk, the newsstand attendant, the waitress,
the bank manager, the security guard, the mailwoman,
your boss, the policeman, the homeless person,
the cashier, the woman using her food stamps,
the man walking with a cane,
the blind woman next door,
the man with AIDS at the next desk?

Christ challenges us to fill up our banquet table this September 20th
with the full diversity of God's people.

Wouldn't it be wonderful when we gather that day for our potluck
luncheon if we were to find on the tables not only those Anglo
favorites of roast turkey, corn on the cob, and apple pie,
but also "grass baskets filled with fry bread
and bright pottery bowls with tortillas, rice, and beans,
and delicate dishes of sushi, tofu, and curry"?
(pp. 14-15 of the study document)

Wouldn't it be wonderful when the doors swing open to be greeted
not only by our intimate friends and families but also by people
we've never before talked to or even met and
whose clothes are unlike anything we've ever worn? (p. 15)

Homecoming Sunday, September 20th, is just three weeks away. ,
Whom shall we invite?

Let us pray.

O God, who can compete with the diversity of Your banquet
table ? But we're going to try. , In the name of Jesus, Amen.

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