(You Gotta) Fight For Your Right (To Party)! ~ Luke 14:15-24

¹⁵ When one of those at the table with him heard this, he said to Jesus, “Blessed is the one who will eat at the feast in the kingdom of God.” ¹⁶ Jesus replied: “A certain man was preparing a great banquet and invited many guests. ¹⁷ At the time of the banquet he sent his servant to tell those who had been invited, ‘Come, for everything is now ready.’ ¹⁸ “But they all alike began to make excuses. The first said, ‘I have just bought a field, and I must go and see it. Please excuse me.’ ¹⁹ “Another said, ‘I have just bought five yoke of oxen, and I’m on my way to try them out. Please excuse me.’ ²⁰ “Still another said, ‘I just got married, so I can’t come.’ ²¹ “The servant came back and reported this to his master. Then the owner of the house became angry and ordered his servant, ‘Go out quickly into the streets and alleys of the town and bring in the poor, the crippled, the blind and the lame.’ ²² “‘Sir,’ the servant said, ‘what you ordered has been done, but there is still room.’ ²³ “Then the master told his servant, ‘Go out to the roads and country lanes and compel them to come in, so that my house will be full. ²⁴ I tell you, not one of those who were invited will get a taste of my banquet.’”~ Luke 14:15-24

In one episode of the cringe-worthy and funny t.v. show, The Office, Kelly, an Indian employee at the paper company Dunder-Mifflin, invites her office co-workers to a celebration of Diwali, the Hindu Festival of Lights. Her ever-clueless boss, Michael Scott, somehow believes that the party is an Indian version of Halloween and subsequently brings his girlfriend Carol dressed as a cheerleader while he sports an extra papier-mache head, which he quickly removes, after recognizing his mistake. He didn’t understand what kind of party this was.

Our story from Luke finds Jesus at a party when an anonymous guy declares “Happy is the one who will party in the coming of God’s kingdom.” He’s clearly a fan, even offers a proper beatitude but Jesus’ response appears to question this easy declaration– “You say this but do you truly understand this party. Do you want to actually come to this party? Do you know what kind of party this is?” So Jesus tells a story.

What sort of party does God intend to throw? It was looked forward to by so many and many held a variety of beliefs about the messianic banquet that was spoken of by the likes of prophets like Isaiah (see Is. 25:6-8). A lot of people had different ideas: some stressed the judgment of non-Jews by vicious plagues, others imagined a victory party after a violent rebellion which pushed the Romans out of Palestine, others argued for a more religious party that would occur only after the exclusion of Gentiles and the ritually defiled or physically handicapped.

Who was right? According to Jesus, what sort of party is this?

         

          1.    First, this is a party where everyone is invited.

Many scholars mistakenly refer to this story as a parable of rejection highlighting vs. 24 in which Jesus declares, “²⁴ I tell you, not one of those who were invited will get a taste of my banquet.’” The problem with labeling the story in this way, however, is that it misses the major thrusts of the parable that everyone is invited – the three invitations suggest that no one is left out: rich and poor, healthy and sick, town and country, lame not lame, seeing not seeing, etc.

Historically, when we place Jesus’ own teachings alongside the many others that existed at the time what comes through so strongly is that Jesus’ party is one of inclusion and embrace rather than exclusion. Jesus ate in the presence of people normally on or beyond the borders of respectable society but he also ate with rich people and religious people. Everyone was welcome. And this was a major challenge to the world in which he lived which carefully sorted out people with the belief that eating with some might get you infected by their bad behavior or physical ailment much like our modern fears about contagion.

When we consider the fact that the handicapped are also invited as guest another historical, cultural feature becomes very important. It was not odd, actually, to have marginal people at banquets in the ancient world. They were often compelled to come but not as guests but for the purpose of entertaining the guests by their deformities or bizarreness – think Ripley’s Believe it, Or Not! For example, Pliny the Elder, a Roman author and contemporary of Jesus, recounts the story of a wealthy woman named Gegania who, when purchasing an expensive Corinthian chandelier, also received for free a hunchbacked slave named Clesippus who was “also of a hideous appearance.” Pliny records that Gegania hosted a banquet in order to “show off her purchases,” both the chandelier and Clesippus who she made appear naked “for the mockery of the guests.”

So Jesus’ party stands in contrast to the parties of the past as well as the parties of the present that so many of us experience. I imagine that there is not one person here who doesn’t have a story of exclusion and mockery akin to the likes of Clesippus. When I was in the sixth grade I was bussed to a school almost an hour away from my home. Everyday that meant two-hours of navigating the social mine field of Jr. High in close quarters. One day a number of my friends began to talk about a club they had formed – whispering to each other about it, offering a secret handshake, planning sleep over meetings, and even giving it a name – the Chinchilla Club. Okay, I thought, the name was dorky but given that I was pretty low on the social ladder I wanted to join. Besides, these were my friends. So after about 10-days of hearing them talk about the club I finally mustered the courage to ask my friend Bill if I could join. He promptly shouted out to the bus: “10 Days! It took him 10 days to finally ask to join. Who bet close to 10 days?” You see, there wasn’t a club at all. They simply wanted to see if I was desperate and silly enough to want to be part of such a club. Friends, I’m 47 years old and this story still brings a lump to my throat. And some of you have experienced such a story at church. But I’m here to tell you, in the name of Jesus, that exclusion and mockery are not the party to which you have been invited. Everyone can come.

          2.    Second, this is a party where some refuse to come.

While everyone is invited to this kingdom banquet the reality, Jesus says, is that there will be ones who will not come. What’s notable are two surprising features about this group.

First, in Jesus’ story it’s the religious people who choose not to come. I’ve already said that this is sometimes called a parable of rejection but again it seems critical to point out that no one is actually rejected. The excluded in vs. 24 are not the rejected but the self-excluded. I don’t hear vs. 24 so much as a judgment but a statement that names a particular reality - these will not eat because they would not come. Their absence has nothing to do with the host but falls back upon their personal refusals – their excuses. And this leads us to the second surprising feature of Jesus’ story. They make their excuses with Scripture. They use scripture in order not to join. Now, we need to remember that Jesus is telling a story, engaging in a bit of theater, and not recounting reality per se. Yet, it’s interesting that he chooses to link their excuses with three made in Deuteronomy.

New Testament scholars point out that the three excuses mentioned in vss. 18-20 loosely mirror or directly mention those from Deuteronomy 20:5-7 and discussed in subsequent Jewish commentaries: bought property (Luke 14:18/Deut. 20:5); bought oxen (Luke 14:19 / Deut. 20:6); got married (Luke 14:20 / Deut. 20:7).

When all three excuses are combined – property, livelihood, and family – and we acknowledge their Biblical origins we see the full force of these commitments. They aren’t bad or lame BUT they seem to stand as the greatest rival to following Jesus. Jesus isn’t intending to suggest that religious people are bad or that Bible is suspect. He is, however, naming a reality that we would do well to ponder with a bit of fear and trembling. The ones who refuse to attend the party are not the wicked or the marginal or even the half-hearted. They are the ones who supposedly wanted to go, supposedly understood it best, and missed it any way. They, with Bible in hand, chose not to come.

What’s even more interesting, and this leads us to my final point, is that these excuses from Deuteronomy are three legitimate reasons for not participating in a holy war.

          3.    Finally, this party is fight about what God compellingly wants.

Our question at the beginning was,  "What does God want? What sort of party is this? Why would Jesus tell a story in which people opt out of a party by using legitimate excuses for engaging in a holy war?" Friends, the answer it seems to me, is that for Jesus the party IS the war. When we read the gospels and look at Jesus’ ministry we begin to understand that the banquet is not what people celebrate AFTER God has won but the very place where the fight actually happens. This party is a holy war. And Jesus’ choice of telling a story in which invited guests use such excuses is proof of that. But we also know from a famous Jewish commentary known as the Babylonian Talmud that none of those excuses were legitimate IF the messiah was the one calling people to fight. It says, for example, that for this war “even the bridegroom out of his chamber AND the bride out of her chamber” must go. The table and belonging are the battlefield. For Jesus holiness and hospitality are fused together. Our war, in other words, has everything to do with how we handle the inclusion and welcome of others.

So the dinner table is the place for the Christian fight. For all you children of the 80s – there is a certain irony to the fact that one of the early rap songs was by a trio of Jewish men who sang, “You gotta fight for your right to party.”

Eating with social and moral outcasts is so important to Jesus’ ministry that he will risk its harm to his reputation and even its violence. And funny enough – it’s a fight in which Deuteronomy appears again. In Luke 7:34 the Pharisees citing Deuteronomy call Jesus a “glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!” More than a mere verbal slight, the Pharisees use this phrase to designate Jesus a “rebellious son” and call for his death. Deuteronomy 21:18-21 states:

¹⁸ If someone has a stubborn and rebellious son who does not obey his father and mother and will not listen to them when they discipline him, ¹⁹ his father and mother shall take hold of him and bring him to the elders at the gate of his town. ²⁰ They shall say to the elders, “This son of ours is stubborn and rebellious. He will not obey us. He is a glutton and a drunkard.” ²¹ Then all the men of his town are to stone him to death. You must purge the evil from among you. All Israel will hear of it and be afraid. ~ Deuteronomy 21:18-21

The Pharisees, in other words, used Scripture and rejected Jesus’ welcome and inclusion of the marginal and sinful and, in a way, placed themselves on the other side of God’s holy war – a war not aimed at vanquishing God’s enemies but actually welcoming them to eat, to party.

On February 1, 1960, four African American college students sat down at a lunch counter at Woolworth’s in Greensboro, North Carolina, and politely asked for service. Their request was refused. When asked to leave, they remained in their seats. Their passive resistance helped ignite a youth-led movement to challenge racial inequality throughout the South. Over 70,000 people took part in the sit-ins, which then began to address segregated swimming pools, lunch counters, libraries, transport facilities, museums, art galleries, parks and beaches. By engaging Jesus' teachings and understanding that the table was the place for the fight the students played a significant part in the history of the civil rights movement.

Friends, it strikes me that this doesn’t often happen anymore. Oh, it’s true that Jesus is still painted with this brush of radical inclusion but his followers are rarely criticized in this way. Will you come to this party? Will you enlist in this holy war? Will you be the servant who goes out into the “roads and country lanes” and lovingly “compels” them to come in? Do we even trust anymore that our invitation is compelling? Jesus was willing to offer up his own reputation, risk death, and even offer his life, so that God’s compelling welcome could be made known. This is still the fight. Will we join Jesus in it or simply make an excuse?

The Preposition Makes All the Difference ~ Philippians 4:1-7 (Life Together Series, No. 6)

 

Therefore, my brothers and sisters, you whom I love and long for, my joy and crown, stand firm in the Lord in this way, dear friends! ² I plead with Euodia and I plead with Syntyche to be of the same mind in the Lord. ³ Yes, and I ask you, my true companion, help these women since they have contended at my side in the cause of the gospel, along with Clement and the rest of my co-workers, whose names are in the book of life. ⁴ Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! ⁵ Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. ⁶ Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. ⁷ And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus ~ Philippians 4:1-7

When it comes to email or texts. Tone is everything. How we receive and understand emails has everything to do with the voice that we often unconsciously supply. And all of us, I imagine, have experienced someone misreading our emails or vice versa misinterpreting someone else’s text. I imagine that you will resonate with these examples:

Example One: 

He writes: If you don’t get that to me by 1:00 pm today, we’re going to miss our deadline.

I hear:  Hey dummy, we’re going to miss the deadline and it’s your fault.

He meant: Today’s 1:00 pm deadline is particularly critical. It’s very important that I get your feedback today, so we can deliver on schedule. Thanks for your help!

Example Two:

I write: yep

He hears: I’m really busy. I don’t have time for you, and by the way, you’re not worthy of a capital Y.

I meant: Yes.

And I want to be honest this morning. This happened to me this week, when I received Paul’s email:

Paul wrote: ⁴ Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! ⁵ Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. ⁶ Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. ⁷ And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus

I heard: You’d better start showing more gratitude. Don’t make me say it again. For goodness sake buck up because He is coming and He knows. And stop with the whining and just pray more. If you do that – and do it well – then you’ll be okay but, if you’re still anxious, well, it’s all your fault. You just don’t have enough faith.

He meant: I really, really, love you. Live your life joyfully with the awareness that God is near. And God doesn’t want you to suffer from anxiety but be the source of your rejoicing. So you can talk to him about it. And he will listen and give you peace.

To read him rightly, in other words, I had to rightly hear Paul’s voice and better understand one little preposition – “in”. Let me unpack this.

1.    Paul says these commands “in the Lord” which means “in love” (vss. 1-3).

In our text this morning we are told to “celebrate” and “stop being anxious” and it’s easy to hear those commands in a finger wagging, irritated sort of way, particularly if we begin with vs. 4 rather than vs. 1. However, if we start earlier we get a very different tone for Paul’s remarks about prayer and anxiety. They are said with deep affection – in ways that commentators say are unprecedented in the New Testament. 

This chapter is notable for its deep expressions of personal devotion piled on top of each other by the Apostle Paul. He calls the church: “brothers (and sisters)” [pointing out that we are a divine family and hold equal status in relationship to God our father]; “beloved” [it’s a verbal adjective which highlights those at Philippi as people Paul really loves. They are the “loved ones” or, as my wife, likes to say, “the lovelies]; “longed for” [this word is another verbal adjective and is only used here highlighting its intimacy; one scholar translates it as “homesick tenderness,” which rightly acknowledges Paul’s pain of being separated from them]; “joy” [the people themselves not their performance is Paul’s joy]; and finally “crown” [which refers 
to either the garland given to a guest at a banquet or a victor’s wreath for an Olympian winner. Imagine that Paul is saying they are his gold medal or best, present ever]. And all of these words, my dear ones, are what Paul means by the phrase, “in the Lord.” A phrase which parallels the words “in Christ.”

These words will shape everything we hear next – every command, every admonishment. They set the tone. The difference between a critique that is bathed in love versus a critique said without love is the difference between open heart surgery with anesthesia and open heart surgery without it.

To encourage one another “in the Lord” means to speak with deep affection and care. If you can’t do that, then don’t say it. Always remember that Jesus was the Word of God sent in love. That should impact how we hear, act on, and speak the word of God today. We must spur each other on, for sure. But we aren’t doing it “in the Lord” if it doesn’t occur “in love.” It is after all of these endearing terms that Paul then gives the command, “Stand firm” and addresses a fight currently happening in the church. That’s why we must deal with inner turmoil and arguments very seriously but “in” love. It’s also why Paul will encourage and promote “rejoicing” and yet then say, “let your gentleness be evident to all.” Again, the word gentleness is interesting because it’s so rare. One translator offers “sweet reasonableness” as the best translation. The word had legal connotations and was the opposite of “strict justice” and meant “making allowances so that justice is not overly harsh toward others.” It means that if you are struggling, if you want to “rejoice” and yet find yourself unable, Paul’s command is not intended to be unreasonable or strict. It’s said “in the Lord,” “in love.” It’s meant to bring healing and hope. And if you wonder or want to know if you’re speaking “in the Lord,” gentleness is the evidence, Paul says.

2.    Paul with deep affection understands that “in the Lord” means location, location, location (vss. 4-6).

So “in the Lord” refers to the way we should hear Scripture and speak it to others. That we must admonish one another “in love.” But “in the Lord” also refers to the location of our rejoicing and prayer. Paul doesn’t simply say, “Rejoice” but “Rejoice IN the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! . . . the Lord is near.”

So how does “in the Lord” function in rejoicing? Here “in” indicates inclusion, location, or position within something – like the “The party is in the house.” Or, “He was wounded in the leg.”

This means that our praise is not located in our circumstances but found in God, Paul says in vs. 5, who is near. Now scholars tend to argue over whether Paul is making a position argument, “Rejoice because God is close to you.” Or a time argument, “Rejoice because God is coming soon.” However, because Paul doesn’t elaborate and intentionally seems to maintain a certain ambiguity I see no reason why it can’t be both.

So we are invited to rejoice “in the Lord” because God is as close as our breath, is with us wherever we find ourselves, whether in the highest heavens or the deepest pits, as the Psalmist says. In some ways, location might not be the best way to make the point. God is not a place because there is no place where God is not. It’s like the old joke: An older fish is swimming toward two younger fish and asks, “How’s the water, boys?” And one of the younger fish asks the other, “What’s water?” Friends, you don’t have to find God. To rejoice “in the Lord” is to recognize the water you swim in, to be aware that you are never alone.

But to rejoice “in the Lord” also means that you don’t have to fake it. We can also rejoice in the Lord because God will come soon and make everything right, which means that not everything is right in the present. You don’t have to pretend that life is hunky dory. Paul is not counseling theological make believe or suggesting that worship is some fantasy, role play. This is why Paul can say that we can present all our requests to God. It means that I can “rejoice” and also understand and acknowledge that I feel anxious, afraid, tired, sad, sick or overwhelmed. To understand that the Lord is near is to recognize that what we experience now is not all that God has or wishes for our lives. You can have hope and rejoice because it doesn’t simply mean that you’re not alone but also means that God in the end isn’t finished. 

3.    Paul lovingly believes that “in the Lord” is the source of our rejoicing and prayer (vss. 7).

So “in the Lord” means that we are being encouraged gently and lovingly. And that we can rejoice because God is both ever-present, wherever we find ourselves, and will come and make all things right in the end. But that still isn’t all that “in the Lord” means. It also means it’s not all about you or your own power. The preposition “in” doesn’t only mean location but can also indicate the medium of something [He wore boots hand-crafted in leather] or the means of something [He left “in” a hurry.]

Paul doesn’t say “Rejoice FOR the Lord always.” Or, “Celebrate ABOUT the Lord always” but “in the Lord.” So the command to “Rejoice in the Lord” and to pray can’t simply mean to try harder, at least not in the way we have often understood it. Rejoicing then means surrendering yourself to the gospel message that God loves you, saves you, fills you, works through you beyond your own power. So as we come to understand what it means to be non-anxious let’s never forget that the command is NOT simply to choose NOT to be anxious. “In the Lord” or “in Christ” is not that we are merely saved by God but that we also live and pray by God’s power. So prayer, in this context, often feels much more like surrender than actually working harder - more like floating with the river than rowing against the tide.

So I believe that “in the Lord” means being plugged into God who does for us what we can’t do for ourselves. We are willful creatures who are asked to find our power “in” him. That’s why we need prayer. We are Spirit-filled, Spirit-empowered beings. I worked in a furniture factory on an assembly line drilling holes in desk one Summer during college. The drills we used were pneumatic. If you didn’t attach them to the compressed air line they wouldn’t work. That’s how they were designed. And you couldn’t make it run by simply blowing into the tube. So we rejoice, in part, by surrendering to our inability to do so in the first place.

But I also want to recognize that while there is a challenge here to offer our anxieties in prayer to God, it must also be said that this is not the only thing that one might need to do. Prayer will help your anxiety. You were made for it but, while wait for the God who loves us and is near, some of us also might need to take medicine. There’s no shame in that. The whole challenge behind Paul’s admonition to not be anxious is the loving message that God cares so much for you and doesn’t want you to be anxious. You weren’t made for that. And in the same way that the power to be nonanxious doesn’t come from us but from God so also is the reality for many of us that being anxious is not simply our fault. 

So – brothers and sisters, lovelies, longed for ones, my joy and my prize, you are loved “in the Lord.” God is near and doesn’t want you to be anxious. So you can pray because God, himself, will guard you and will soon give you peace.
I’d like to end with a prayer that encapsulates what “in the Lord” means. If you would like to take it home with you after worship you can pick one up on the tables on your way out.

Prayer of St. Patrick ~ The Prayer of St. Patrick (A Great Example of "in the Lord")