September 1, 2019 - Twelveth Sunday After Pentecost - Concerning The Least, The Last and The Lost

The Gospel in today's lectionary is Luke 14:1, skips verses 2 through 6 and concludes with verses 7 through 14. Verses 2 - 6 may have seemed redundant to those constructing the lectionary since this is another Sabbath healing and there was a Sabbath healing last week.

Yet the malady of the afflicted person often relates to a spiritual malady that the people, to whom Jesus is teaching, need help to overcome. Jesus may heal someone who is blind while subtle signs are presented that others are blind to those suffering around them,

Here the man's sickness is dropsy, a condition now called edema, characterized by an excess of watery fluid collecting in the cavities or tissues of the body, frequently in the stomach, hands or feet. It is easy to see that the Pharisees, gathered for the sabbath meal and who watch Jesus closely, are "swollen" by their own spiritual pride. Certainly Jesus notices how they are vying for places of honor at the table that comes from pride or wanting recognition.

For me this is a reason to read the verses the lectionary can sometimes skip when reaching for a meaning of a Gospel passage. The healing of the man with dropsy helps the realization that Jesus is telling the parable to help heal the Pharisees of their spiritual malady rather than describing how places of honor may be assigned in the kingdom of God.

Consistently Jesus concerns himself with the people who would normally be considered the least, the last and or the lost in the world. When Pastor Ray preached he emphasized how the host, in this Gospel, calls those invited to the wedding banquet friend while at the same time Jesus goes on to say "When you give a luncheon or a dinner, do not invite your friends or your brothers or your relatives or rich neighbors, in case they may invite you in return, and you would be repaid. But when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind. And you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you, for you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous." When the righteous are resurrected the stranger will recognized as a friend.

There is a whole honor / shame system that was different in the time Jesus lived than it is now but that is not to say we don't have our own honor and shame systems at work. All these systems make it hard to accept God's extravagant welcome. Invitation to a wedding banquet or feast is often used by Jesus as a metaphor for the kingdom of heaven, Today Pastor Ray preached that this invitation is in the same spirit as in other parables. Imagine that this invitation is to your own wedding. You are about to be joyously united with God's desire for you when coming into the kingdom. Or imagine, if you will, the lost prodigal son may be coming home to dinner and, surprise!, it is you.

Luke 14 continues with The Parable of the Great Dinner. After the owner of the house tells those he invited the dinner is ready and they give their excuses cannot come the owner of the house becomes angry and says to invite the least, the last and the lost listing the same people as in today's Gospel reading, ‘Go out at once into the streets and lanes of the town and bring in the poor, the crippled, the blind, and the lame.’  And the slave said, ‘Sir, what you ordered has been done, and there is still room.’ Then the master said to the slave, ‘Go out into the roads and lanes, and compel people to come in, so that my house may be filled.  For I tell you, none of those who were invited will taste my dinner.’

Rather than going to the owner of the house's feast, each of those initially invited have another worldly concern or are married to another. They are worried about things other than the owner's feast and do not see their way clear to accept the invitation. They are not prepared to join in the celebration that has now been made ready. And this, so often can be us, paying attention to our worldly concerns and not understanding the invitation God makes to us.

Jesus wants us to recognize the kingdom of God is ready so we can join in the feast today. We don't need to assume we must wait for some future time to be a participant and we don't need to strive to be better before we join God's celebration. We are invited to the marriage. We are the strangers who will always be recognized as friends.