Who's on the Guest List?

SCRIPTURE TEXT:  Luke 14:12-14, Rev. Monte Marshall

This morning’s scripture passage raises several intriguing questions:  If we were to plan a party, who’d be on the guest list?  For those of us who have thrown parties in the past, who was invited and who wasn’t?

Now I’m not really into to party planning, but from what I hear, if you’re going to throw a good party it’s important to pay attention to the guest list.  There’s even an internet site that offers Tips for Making Your Guest List.[1]  The advice is for couples planning weddings.

This is one tip: “Design your dream list.  “When you start building your list, jot down names of everyone you could ever imagine attending your wedding, from old camp friends to that funny third cousin you met once at a family reunion.”

Here’s another tip: “Make some cutting rules (and actually follow them).”  For example: “If neither of you has spoken to or met them or heard their name before, don’t invite them…If neither of you has spoken to them in three years and they’re not related to you, don’t invite them…If there’s anyone who’s on the list because you feel guilty about leaving them off…don’t invite them.”[2]

So these are some helpful tips for making a guest list from the internet.  In this morning’s gospel reading, however, the “tips” that Jesus offers for filling-out a guest list are radically different.     

Luke’s story is set on a Sabbath day.  Jesus is eating a meal in the house of a leading Pharisee.  The other guests are watching Jesus intently.  Jesus challenges the religious leaders present at the meal by breaking a cherished religious law.  He heals a person on the Sabbath.  The religious leaders are speechless.

When Jesus notices how the dinner guests are vying for the places of honor at the table, he tells them a parable that ends with this punch line: “For all who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.”[3]

It’s at this point that Jesus challenges the host of the party: “’Whenever you give a lunch or dinner, don’t invite your friends or colleagues or relatives or wealthy neighbors.’” 

How shocking!  What kind of a helpful tip is this?  What’s wrong with inviting these kinds of folks to dinner?  They seem to be natural fits for the guest list. 

Jesus answers the question.  These folks are wrong for the guest list, Jesus says, because “’They might be able to invite you in return and thus repay you.’”  This tit-for-tat exchange creates a “party circuit” that maintains a circle of relationships formed through social connections, family ties and similar economic circumstances.  The problem with this “party circuit” is that it excludes so many people. 

And the very ones who are excluded from the “party circuit” are the ones Jesus recommends for inclusion on our guest lists: “those who are poor or have physical infirmities or are blind.”  These are the rejected ones, the outcasts, the marginalized.  These are the folks we’re to invite into our homes and welcome around our tables.  These are the folk who are unable to play the tit-for-tat game within the “party circuit.”  These are the folks who can’t pay us back for our hospitality.  But Jesus says: “’You should be pleased that they can’t repay you, for you’ll be repaid at the resurrection of the just.’”  In other words, when the excluded are included on our guest lists, we’re in for a blessing.  I would suggest that the blessing is already ours because when we act for justice, we’re living the resurrection life in the here-and-now!  In fact, this is what it’s like to live within the reign of God!

A Canadian Roman Catholic named Jean Vanier beautifully summarizes the meaning of this morning’s text in a video entitled We Need Each Other.  Vanier is a founder of L’Arche, an international federation of communities in 35 countries for people with developmental disabilities, and those who treat them.  Vanier asks: “What is Jesus saying?”  He then explains: “If you remain in your clan, your little group, your tribe—the tribe of friends—the tribe of family—then you will remain closed up with your defense mechanisms and protective systems.  And what Jesus is saying is let your protective mechanisms fall down.  Open up and get out of your clan and meet those being rejected and put aside.  You will discover something.  Your defense mechanisms will start coming down.  And then you’ll discover what it is—what it means—to be human.”[4]

Now I thank God that Travis Park United Methodist Church has all kinds of people on its guest list.  Our doors are open to everyone.  We all share together in the life of this church.  All are welcomed around the communion table, and around the tables upon which food is set and around which fellowship is shared, week-in and week-out. 

I have never before been part of a church whose guest list is as diverse as ours.   And I have never before been part of a church that does what we do.  The reign of God, as proclaimed by Jesus, is visible among us.  So I continue to pray this prayer:  “Gracious God, send us the people that no one else wants and make us ready to receive them with hospitality and love?”

But as far as we’ve come as a congregation, there are still hearts to be changed; there are still defensive mechanisms to be overcome; and there are still protective systems to be dismantled. 

This suggests to me that our individual guest lists matter.  They matter because the rejected, the excluded and the marginalized are more than a mission project—they are human beings and beloved children of God worthy of meaningful relationships.  They matter because it’s time for us to form friendships with those so often ignored or rejected.  They matter because it’s time to move beyond the barriers of race, clan and class to connect more deeply with one another so that we learn to laugh together, cry together, dream together and struggle to together.    

So let me tell you a story that illustrates what this kind of personal transformation looks like.  Ralph and Colleen were engaged to be married.  They had met while working together in a ministry with the poor at their church. 

Initially, these two were planning a run-of-the-mill, traditional church wedding, but then, in a Bible study with friends one night, their plans changed. 

The text they studied was our text for this morning:  Luke 14:12-14.  The Spirit must have been moving that night because Ralph and Colleen received the message of Jesus in Luke’s story as good news rather than bad news.

So this is what happened:  For their wedding, Ralph and Colleen sent church buses to the poorest parts of their city to find the homeless and the poor.  These folks were invited to the wedding as distinguished guests.  The meal at the reception was prepared in their honor.

When Ralph and Colleen registered for their wedding gifts, they went to Target.  The items they put on their wish list were coats, hats, gloves and sleeping bags.  The gifts were to be given away at the wedding to the guests. 

After the ceremony, the newlyweds went directly to the reception hall, got behind the serving table, and dished up the food for their guests.  It was a lively wedding.  The meal was excellent, the hungry were satisfied, there was joy all around, and God must have been well pleased![5]

Now I know that there are tips to found on the internet for making guest lists.  But the “tips” Jesus offers are radically different because they strike a blow for justice and serve to turn the world—our hearts—and our guest lists—upside down.  So I wonder:  After this morning’s encounter with Jesus, who will be on the guest list for our next party?  May God’s will be done!  Amen.