Listening to the Resurrected One

Text: Luke 16:19-31; 1 Timothy 6:6-19

Listening is a very basic form of compassion and indeed hospitality. When we feel that someone has heard us we feel like we’ve been shown respect. Back in my seminary days I took a few pastoral care courses that were simply about listening. Believe me listening is a very hard skill to learn. No one is a natural at it. Even now after all the classes and years of experience I still wreak at letting people know that they’ve been heard. It’s very easy too. All you got to do is actually listen and then briefly summarize back what you’ve heard. The problem comes with the urges to give advice or to share an episode from your own life which are instinctual conversational devices we use to turn a conversation around to being all about me. Listening is a very hard skill to learn.

In the Bible listening or hearing is important. In pastoral care courses we were taught listening as a simple a conversational tool for helping some someone not only feel heard but also hear for themselves what they said. But, in the Bible listening involves doing. Someone may have heard the words you said but until they do what you asked them, they didn't hear you. Hearing is completed when the words that go forth from your mouth produce the desired response from another.

Looking hear at the Parable of Lazarus and the Rich Man, the reason this rich man was being tormented in Hades rather than standing at the side of Father Abraham was his failure to listen. His failure to listen to Moses and the Prophets and therefore not listening to God. His not listening exhibited itself in his ignoring the poor man Lazarus who daily lay outside his door covered in sores and hungry. If you were to read the first five books of the Bible and then the prophets you would quickly learn that listening to God involves taking care of the poor in your midst. This rich man did not listen.

Yet, there was more going on here than just some rich guy ignoring a poor guy who daily lay outside his door. All we’ve got to do is walk a few blocks in any town and we all will be guilty of that. The problem was that one child of Abraham ignoring the needs of another child of Abraham completely tars the revelation of himself that the Trinity wanted to give the world by calling the Old Testament nation of Israel into existence beginning with Abraham. The way of faith that the Trinity started with Abraham would be the Trinity's way of ultimately saving humanity from sin and death and restoring his image in humanity. The Trinity is the mutually loving and hospitable communion of God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit and humanity. Humanity was created in the image of God and therefore is supposed to be a loving and hospitable communion too, but we're not.

The first eleven chapters of Genesis, the true Old Testament, tells us that God dealt with humanity's not listening and being the image of God once before in the days of Noah when he all but destroyed humanity by flood. Yet, he vowed never to do it again. With Abraham in chapter twelve of Genesis, the New Testament begins. The Trinity called Abraham and told him to go to a land that he would show him for God was giving him a land and making him to be a great nation through which all nations would be blessed. Abraham went and his descendents became a great tribe in the land of Palestine. Yet, in time Abraham's descendents found themselves enslaved in Egypt so God delivered them with a mighty hand and made a unilateral covenant or treaty with them declaring, “I will be your God and you will be my people.” Having recently been delivered from slavery from Pharaoh they had no trouble giving their “amen” to that covenant and to living according to his ways as revealed in the Ten Commandments. Thus, the Triune God of grace gave them the Ten Commandments so that if they made these commandments the core of their community life they would not only be a blessing to all nations as the Trinity promised Abraham, but also they would in fact demonstrate that our God is the only true God who is steadfastly loving and faithful and an abundant provider. The nation that worshipped the LORD God would be abundantly provided for, always protected, and their community life would be just, fair, equitable and beautifully rich in neighbourliness. Moreover, by living according to the Ten Commandments they would reflect forth into the world the image of the mutually loving and hospitable communion of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit in whose image humanity is created.

So, back to the rich man, this rich child of Abraham's ignoring of Lazarus, another child of Abraham in his great need was an utter denial by this rich man of his own claim to be a child of Abraham and thus of being one of the people of God and therefore in this parable Jesus places him in Hades. The rich man in his power and greed cut himself off from being one of the family of Abraham thereby creating for himself an uncrossable chasm between himself and being in the bosom of Abraham with Lazarus.

Even in Hades the rich man ignored Lazarus and was only concerned with his own concerns. First, he doesn’t notice that Lazarus had been healed. He just wants Lazarus to bring him water and this even after he had let Lazarus lay hungry at his own door. He still doesn't respect Lazarus as a person, a human being. Then he asks Abraham to send Lazarus to his five brothers to warn them, but Abraham refused saying, “They have Moses and the Prophets to listen too,” which they weren’t doing so the rich man insists that if someone from the dead would warn them they would surely listen. Abraham sternly says, “If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.” I think we know where this is going.

Putting this parable into its context, Jesus told it not to his disciples but to the Pharisees who were very devoutly religious people who also loved money and power and inage. The Pharisees like the rich man were not really listening to Moses and the Prophets even though they attempted to follow the Law of Moses to the tee. If they had been truly listening, they would have worked at legalistic observance of the Law but rather at being a just, fair, equitable, and faithful community that reflected the image of their God. They would have shared their wealth rather than just getting richer by means of twisting the Law the LORD God gave them to their own advantage and calling themselves blessed because of their legalistic obedience. Because of their love of power and money the Pharisees did not listen rightly to Moses and the Prophets nor could the good news of Jesus’ resurrection convince them to turn.

That’s enough talking about rich Pharisees from 2,000 years ago. What about us who have heard the voice of the resurrected one, who do listen to someone who has come back from the dead? What does listening look like for us the disciples of Jesus? First, we too cannot ignore Moses and the Prophets. Because we have heard the good news of Jesus death and resurrection with ears opened by the Holy Spirit we have been adopted into the family of Abraham and we as a church share the same blessing/burden that ancient Israel had as the people of God. We are to take the Ten Commandments and the prophets’ call to faithfulness and justice very seriously so that people can see what God is like. Jesus said, “It is easier for heaven and earth to disappear than for the least stroke of a pen to drop out of the Law” (v. 17). I would encourage you all to pick up your Bibles and read from Moses and the Prophets and let yourselves be addressed by them for by the gift of the Holy Spirit to you as those who share in the resurrection of Jesus Christ you have been given ears to hear them and hearts that are hungry for the words of the Word that are in the Bible.

In 1 Timothy 6:6-19 Paul gives us some very practical direction as well. Contrary to most TV preachers Paul says that godliness is not a means to financial gain. Rather, godliness goes hand in hand with contentment. We brought nothing into this world and we can’t take anything with us. Therefore, having enough is enough and in that realization one finds contentment. Love of money is the root of all kinds of evils and Paul urges indeed begs us to flee from all the materialism and consumerism that surrounds us and rather pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance, and gentleness. The Trinity has not called us to be his people so that we can act like the culture around us with cottages and cars and gadgets galore. He has called us to be faithful to him, to fight the good fight of faith keeping to our confession and acceptance of Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior. God will provide us with everything we need therefore we must in turn strive to be rich in good deeds, generous, and willing to share. We are to lay up treasure for yourselves in heaven. It may seem unimaginable but the good that we do now in this age and life will persist into the coming age when we too will be resurrected and there will be a new heaven and a new earth. Friends, take hold of this life that is truly life, take hold of your relationship with God the Father that is freely given to you through Christ Jesus the Son in the Holy Spirit. Pray, read Scripture, come to Bible study, initiate a means of outreach that we can all share in as a church, increase your generosity to others. Turn your backs on the materialism and consumerism that seeks to enslave you and be the free people of God for which he has purchased you at the cost of Jesus’ own life. Amen.

Worldy Wealth and True Riches

Text: Luke 16:1-13

           I have to admit that this passage from Luke has been one that I have puzzled over for years and if I weren’t preaching from the common lectionary passages for Luke I would avoid it all together. Without a question this passage deals with the difficult subject of wealth. Most ministers do not like to talk about money for various reasons. We do not want to give the appearance that the church is all about money nor do we want to upset those paying our salary. But, there's no excuse. Fully two-thirds of Jesus’ teachings in one way or another involve money. Therefore, it is not a topic to be shied away from.

           There are several puzzling aspects of this parable. First, why is the dishonest or unrighteous manager or rather steward in the end commended for cheating his master. His master fires him for cutting himself in on the profits. Yet, when he learns he will loose his job and to keep from having to get a real job he lets his master’s account holders reduce their debt so that he can live for free in their homes. No matter which way you turn, the master is loosing his wealth so why commend the unrighteous steward? Second, why does Jesus tell his disciples to use their worldly wealth or rather their unrighteous mammon to gain friends for themselves so that these friends will welcome them into their eternal homes? And finally, this one more blunt than puzzling, Jesus tells his disciples that they cannot serve both God and wealth for they will inevitably love and be devoted to one over the other and the primary affection will likely be mammon.

Well, I think the key for unlocking the puzzling aspects of this passage lies in the last part of verse eight when Jesus says: “For the people of this world are shrewder in dealing with their own kind than are the people of the light.” And then again in verse sixteen: "The Law and the Prophets were proclaimed until John. Since that time, the good news of the Kingdom of God is being preached, and everyone is forcing his way into it.” So, God entrusted the light or the grace of proclaiming the Law and the prophets to the management of the ancient Israelites. If you read through the Old Testament one thing that stands out is that the Israelites time and again prove themselves to be unrighteous stewards. They forget the Law and murder the prophets and then turn away from God and worship idols to the extent that the community life in ancient Israel is an abomination before the Triune God of grace where as the prophet Amos contends.  Amos accounts that the wealthy in Israel in his day were buying the needy for slaves at the price of a pair of sandals. God repeatedly had to pass judgement on his people for their idolatry and its effects on the poor in Israel. He even sent them into exile in Babylon for their unrighteous stewardship of the light he had entrusted to them.

In Jesus day the scribes and the Pharisees were the primary ones in Israel trying to be the people of light that the Trinity intended ancient Israel to be. They thought that because they were blood descendents of Abraham all they had to do was obey the law of Moses to the tee and they would have a place in the Kingdom of God when the Messiah came whom they expected to come at any moment. Unfortunately, they ignored the prophets and twisted the Law (usually to their own financial advantage) and worse they became legalistic, self-righteous hypocrites. The Pharisees were largely wealthy hypocrites who thought that the Lord had blessed them with wealth because of their obedience to the law and worse they looked in judgement at those who were not as they were.

Now, in this parable of the dishonest or unrighteous steward, ancient Israel and more specifically the Scribes and Pharisees are the unrighteous steward who has lost the task of proclaiming the light of the Law and the prophets and must give an account for his stewardship of it. In self-righteousness, they had been hogging its benefits for themselves and not being the blessing to the nations that the Trinity had promised Abraham that his descendants would be. Jesus’ message for them in this parable, for they heard it too, is that mercy is the way into the kingdom of God not trying to force one’s way in with some hypocritical show of self-righteousness. This is why Jesus commends the shrewdness of the dishonest manager. Reducing the account holders’ debts was an act of mercy. The Scribes and Pharisees would be as shrewd if they would show mercy to the “sinner” rather than condemnation.

Moving on to the disciples, to us Christians the Trinity has entrusted the light of the grace of the Kingdom of God. To speak of the kingdom of God is to speak of the Trinity's presence and reign among his people, the followers of Jesus. To proclaim the good news of the Kingdom is to say that God in his infinite mercy has come to dwell among humanity; first God the Son as the man Jesus of Nazareth, and he continues to do so now through the Holy Spirit dwelling with and in us. Therefore, we invite all peoples to come and live accordingly and living accordingly is sharing life in community with others where the peace of Christ is really present, where there is genuine mutual affection for one another arising out of personal knowledge of God the Father’s own steadfast love and faithfulness.

The Kingdom of God is about community, people bearing with one another and bearing one another up in the love of Jesus Christ. The end of chapter four of the Book of Acts gives a staggering image of what this community of the Kingdom of God looks like: “All the believers were one in heart and mind. No one claimed that any of his possessions was his own, but they shared everything they had. With great power the apostles continued to testify to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and much grace was upon them all. There were no needy persons among them. For from time to time those who owned lands or houses sold them, brought the money from the sales and put it at the apostles' feet, and it was distributed to anyone as he had need.”

This passage from acts describes beautifully what Jesus meant when he told his disciples to use their worldly wealth to make friends for themselves so that these friends may welcome them into the eternal dwellings. Sharing what wealth we have with others according to need to the point of exhausting it is Jesus rule for the handling of wealth in his kingdom. This is what he is speaking of when he tells his disciples “whoever is faithful with a little will be faithful with a lot”. After all, the wealth that we have really is not our own. We, our very selves, belong to Jesus Christ. He has bought us not with a pair of sandals but with his own blood. We are his beloved slaves and everything we have is his own wealth which he has entrusted to us. If we are not faithful in sharing the worldly wealth that is at our disposal and which we have gained through questionable motives, how can we expect God to entrust us with the true riches of his kingdom: the peace of Christ and joy in his Spirit, the sure and certain knowing of God’s love, and genuine Christian community. I may be stepping out on a limb and sawing behind me, but Jesus seems to indicate here that in the Kingdom of God there is a direct correlation between generously sharing wealth (to the point of exhausting it) and truly receiving the riches and richness of the Kingdom of God in community.

To conclude, for the people of ancient Israel and those like them who are stuck in hypocritical self-righteousness learning mercy by showing mercy is the first step into the kingdom. The basic lesson in mercy comes from knowing that Jesus died for us taking our sin and death unto himself in order to end our sin and death and the gracious result is that the Father’s love for him and his love for the Father are freely given to us by and in the gift of the Holy Spirit that we might live in the new life inaugurated in his resurrection from the dead. It is only by the Trinity's presence with us making us alive by bringing us into himself that we can proclaim that the Kingdom of God is at hand. Yet, for those who know this basic lesson in mercy and who strive to live accordingly the problem is wealth for the love of wealth threatens our God-given community. If we are not faithful in our stewardship of the worldly wealth entrusted to us by sharing it according to each other's need even to the point of exhausting it, how can we expect the Triune God of grace to entrust us with the true wealth of the Kingdom of God, his very self in Christian community? Jesus meant it when he said we cannot serve both God and wealth. In Acts chapter five right after Luke describes the wealth of community among the believers he tells of Ananias and Sapphira who fell dead at the Apostles' feet because they lied to the Holy Spirit and to the community because they held back for themselves a portion of a land sale they had promised to give to the community of believers. They fell dead because of the love of wealth and the hypocrisy of wanting to appear generous when they were selfish to the core. Here in the Kingdom of God sharing wealth more than anything defines faithfulness. So friends, be faithful with what the Trinity has entrusted you and prove yourselves worthy of the true wealth of God’s grace, peace, and mercy which abides among you freely. Amen.

Have You Ever Been Lost?

Text: Luke 15:1-10
          Being lost is not a good feeling.  We’ve all been there before.  I can remember a few times.  The first was when I was a child. Somehow I became separated from my mother in a department store.  I wandered around a few minutes scared and crying wondering if I’d ever see my mom or even go home again.  Then a sales clerk spotted me and took me to the Customer Service desk and solved my dilemma and my mother’s by paging mom.  

          Another time was when I was living in West Virginia.  Route 219 is the main north/south route where I was and there are roads that turn off of it and run down by a river or through a small valley and then return a few miles on down the road.  Stephen Hole Run Road was one such road.  It turns off and runs alongside the Greenbrier River a few miles and then joins back up.  One afternoon I was going home heading north on 219 and decided to take an alternate route.  So, I turned off onto Stephen Hole Run Road and headed east a bit and came to a fork in a turn in the road.  If I had turned north I would have stayed on Stephen Hole Run Road, but I went south because being on gravel road the turn north just looked like somebody’s driveway and I wasn’t yet to the Greenbrier River.  I knew  Stephen Hole Run Road followed the river and I thought I needed to get to he river before turning north.  Well, is what you get for thinking sometimes.  So, I was now unknowingly heading south when I finally came to the river all the thinking I was heading north; but the river was flowing the wrong way.  I was heading downstream when I should have been heading upstream.  That threw me.  I then realized that I had no idea where I was and things weren’t making sense, so I began to get panicky.  I didn’t occur to me to just turn around and things would work themselves out.  I just kept following that road thinking I would sooner or later come out at my destination of Buckeye.  After passing a stretch of hunting shacks I came to a little town called Swego which had a paved road with yellow lines in which I knew had to go somewhere and it did back near Hillsboro where I started in the first place. It was no big deal, but being lost on mountain roads is stressful.  You don’t know where you’ll wind up and when you do wind up somewhere it may be that you still have no idea where you’re at.

          Then there are times in life when we just get lost on the big scale; those times when we lose ourselves, don’t know who we are or what to do or where to go.  Things are going just fine and then something happens.  Whether it was we failed to pay attention, missed the signs, missed the right turn or flat out took a wrong turn, we just know we’re lost; not knowing what’s going on, how we got there, or what direction we should take.  We can even find ourselves in a dangerous and costly situation.  It is a fearful thing when we hit a moment in life when we don’t know where we’re at, how we got there, and how to get out of it.  Have you ever been lost?

          Being lost is a crisis of faith.  One of the things they teach you in scouting and military training and so forth is that when you are lost don’t panic rather believe in yourself and trust that you have been given the right knowledge and skills to find your way out.  Believe in yourself.  Sometimes that works, but not always.  The kind of lost I’m talking about leaves you unable to trust your own instincts because they contributed to getting you lost in the first place.  It calls you to question who you are because who you’ve been is a large part of why you’re lost.  The kind of lost I’m talking about is the kind that makes you look deep into yourself and say, “I've messed up terribly.  I’m a sinner.  I’ve done my best and all I’ve done is hurt others, failed others, failed myself.”  Only by faith in God, only in knowing his steadfast love and faithfulness do we find our way out of this lostness.  Have you ever been lost?

          The amazing thing about these parables is the way Jesus describes how God goes after the lost.  He doesn’t go after them to get them with divine punishment.  Rather, he goes like a shepherd searching for a lost sheep and when finding it he invites his friends for a celebration.  Shepherds really do leave the flock to go in search of the one sheep that is missing.  To us practical people that seems like a risky, if not stupid, thing to do.  Why risk all the sheep for one?  Well, sheep are very social animals and if they get separated from the flock they will get quite anxious and panicky and cause a great disturbance that will attract predators.  If the shepherd doesn’t act fast to find the lost sheep it will certainly be eaten.  I presume the rest of the flock will be safe for they will stick together and any predators that are out there will be after the lost sheep because it’s easy prey.  For the shepherd to simply write the lost sheep as a loss would be foolish.  It would be like my mother writing me off for dead when we got separated in the department store and going home to console herself by gathering together the rest of the family to grieve.  The shepherd diligently searches for the lost sheep knowing that it is not a lost cause and when he finds it he throws it upon his shoulders to give it a sense of security as well as to keep it from running off again and then he celebrates.  So it is with us and the Triune God of grace.  When we are lost the Trinity doesn’t write us off but rather seeks diligently for us and when he finds us he comforts us and there is celebration.

           The next parable that Jesus tells is that of a woman who has lost a coin.  In Jesus day it was rare for a woman to have money at all.  In this case she had ten drachma’s or ten day’s wages strung on a necklace.  One fell off and became lost.  Does she right it off as a loss?  No.  She lights a lamp so that she can see into every corner and starts to thoroughly clean the house until she finds it.  Once again, so it is with us and God when we are lost.  He turns on the light of his love, indeed his very presence with us and searches us out, cleaning our hearts as he goes until we know we have been found.  God seeks us out when we are lost and he doesn’t come bent on punishing us.  Rather, he comes diligently searching to return us home or he comes diligently cleaning removing the sin in our lives until we know we’re found and then it is cause for celebration.

          Being found leads to repentance.  Repentance has gotten a bad rap since the Middle Ages.  We think of it as having to clean up our act to get ourselves right with this individual voyeur God who seems so far off so that things will go well for us.  Yet biblically, repentance comes only after the Trinity has sought and found us and then being found by God in his steadfast love and faithfulness we spend our days seeking after him.  The New Testament Greek word for repentance actually means to become "with-minded"; to change one’s mindedness, to change one’s pursuits, one’s direction in life, to change one’s way of thinking.  It is to go from the panicky anxiety of being lost to having faith.  Repentance is faith; faith based on knowing that God is steadfastly loving, faithful, and with us.  When God in his steadfast love and faithfulness finds us, the encounter creates faith in us which brings about repentance, a seeking after this God who has found us.

          Friends, our God is a God who keeps company with sinners, with the lost.  It is okay for one’s life to be a mess, to be lost; for it is when we are lost that God is seeking us and when he seeks, he finds and it is miraculously good.  Amen.

Party the Jesus Way

Text: Luke 14:1-24

Perdita Felicien of Pickering, Ontario on August 28, 2007 her twenty-seventh birthday won the silver medal in the women’s 100 meter hurdles at the World Track and Field Championships in Osaka, Japan. When later interviewed she commented, “I knew in my heart of hearts I had won a medal because I had to on my birthday. I kept saying, ‘God please. I have been working so hard and if anyone needs to be rewarded, it is probably me.’ I am so happy. This medal is as good as gold to me.” She went on further to say, “I haven’t had a bad year. I have been truly blessed. If someone had predicted in June the top three, the top five, I don’t think they would have said Perdita. It’s not about what other people think. It’s about what you have in you.”

Now please don’t take what I’m going to say as a judgment on Ms. Felicien’s character. She has all the right stuff…for an athlete, particularly hurdling. If I were a motivational speaker I would hold her up as a prime example of someone who has found what she’s gifted to do and gone after it 100 percent. She’s a winner. But…umm…this is hurdling we are talking about. I don’t see in the grand scheme of things how this world is any better because athletes devote their lives to the pursuit of standing on a podium to have a medal placed around their necks. The same is true when we devote our whole lives to something we’re good at for the sake or reaping the rewards. This is simply idolatry of the self. It gets even worse when we say that God has blessed us with wealth and success because we worked hard and deserved it. This delusion of find what you’re gifted at, do your best, and if you’ve got the right stuff on the inside you will be rewarded is the predominant value being taught the young people in our culture since the 1960's yet it is little more than idolatry of self and utterly at odds with the core value of humility in the Kingdom of God.

Let me use this passage from Luke to make the case. Jesus is invited to a Sabbath meal at the home of a very important Pharisee. The Pharisees believed that the Messiah would soon be coming and in order not to suffer judgment one had to be the best Jew one could possibly be. Ethnically speaking, they believed they had all the right stuff on the inside. They were children of Abraham, God’s chosen. They had the Law of Moses straight from the mouth of God. All they had to do was be the best at observing it. Indeed, they found loopholes that made being obedient quite profitable. Unfortunately, they began to compete with one another and look down their noses at those who were not Pharisees. They had this arrogance, “Look at me God. I spent 1,000 shekels on this fine robe for standing in the temple praying.”

Well, Jesus comes to the man’s house and all eyes are upon him, watching him closely. The first thing he does is heal a man with dropsy. Dropsy is edema, a disease where the body has an excessive build up of fluid and appears extremely swollen. One could shake the belly of someone with dropsy and hear the water slosh. We should take note that Jesus’ healing of the swollen man on the Sabbath serves to address the swollen pride of the Pharisees. If they really understood Sabbath then their swollen pride would be healed. Instead they used the Sabbath as an opportunity to dress nice and look important and let the world know they were the righteous ones.

Next, Jesus under heavy scrutiny notices the guests were choosing the places of honour at the table. So he teaches from the Book of Proverbs, “Do not put yourself forward in the king's presence or stand in the place of the great; for it is better to be told, ‘Come up here,’ than to be put lower in the presence of a noble” (25:6-7). Obviously, if they were serious about obeying the Law they would know that it is to be obeyed in humility rather than this show of working hard to put oneself in the winners circle before others. The king is the most honoured person and people serve the king wholeheartedly because of who the king is not for the reward they think they have earned. In actuality, Jesus the scrutinized was the most honourable person at that dinner and should have been invited by the host to sit in the most honoured place. Instead, it was the guests who started jockeying for seats of honour. That’s kind of ludicrous. So, Jesus instructs the host that he should rather invite the blind, poor, and lame; those who could never repay him his kindness for the Lord will repay those who are kind to the poor (Pr. 19:17). Besides they would make better guests than these buffoons who think themselves deserving of honour (Pr. 14:20).

Next, a man stands up and having picked up on the clue that Jesus was really talking about the Kingdom of God says, “Blessed is anyone who will eat bread in the Kingdom of God!” That was probably a catch phrase among the Pharisees who strove so hard to earn a place at the feast table in the kingdom of God. They would have been all sitting around there saying, “That’s me. That’s me. I’m going be sitting at the big table in glory land.” So, Jesus tells them a parable of a feast where those who had been invited kept making excuses not to come so the host sent his servants out onto the highways and byways to find guests and he fills his feast tables with the underbelly of society; the losers, not the winners; the people who didn’t have the right stuff on the inside; the people who weren’t gifted at anything and really didn’t try hard enough to succeed.

The way one gets into the kingdom is by invitation. We are not put in this creation to figure out what we are good at, give it our all and if we’ve got the right stuff, succeed. We are here to say yes to the invitation to come to the feast where Jesus Christ is Lord. To party Jesus’ way is to live under his Lordship, to be his slave. In the previous two chapters in Luke Jesus has given us some instruction in this area. He says to beware of hypocrisy. Beware of greed in all its forms. Give all your possessions to the poor and don’t worry about what you will wear and eat and drink. The Father in heaven will take care of you. Lastly, to always be watching for that opportunity to serve and always expecting Christ to return at any moment.

I don’t know about you, but to me these teachings of Jesus about the lifestyle of his disciples stand completely opposed to our winner’s circle way of life. Moreover, if Jesus were to take notice of things here at our party we would soon discover that we are those who have been invited to the feast but are making excuses not to go so that we can justify our lifestyle. Saying “I believe” and coming to church on Sunday and working hard to be good and successful people isn’t the Kingdom party. To get into the Kingdom party we have to come to grips with the fact that we all are blind with respect to knowing God, lame and crippled when it comes to obeying, and poor when it comes to giving of ourselves. Not a one of us deserves a place of honour at the table. Oddly, these are the kind of people Jesus has decided he wants at his party not a bunch of showy success stories. He wants to party with people who actually live according to the faith that he has freely given us by living a lifestyle that’s modelled after him and his taking up of the cross. He’s invited us each to the Kingdom party meaning he's chosen us each to be his disciples not for us to show how successful we can be at whatever we do. He’s chosen us because he wants to have a feast. Be wary of the excuses you make. Telling Jesus, “Sorry I didn't take up the cross, Lord, because I was too busy being successful” doesn't cut it. Be wary of the trappings of your lifestyle that makes you bow and bend in service to the idol of your self. How goes it with each of you and the Lord? Truly, how high is his invitation to the Kingdom party on your list? What needs to change? Amen.