Receiving God's Extravagant Hospitality

Luke

Table fellowship may have been one of the most important social practices of Jesus’ day. When you invited someone to eat with you, you were saying several things to everyone around you. First, the person who I have invited to my table is my social equal. This person holds the same status as I do in the community. Secondly, you were saying this person is my friend and is acceptable to me. Knowing this, let’s read the passage from Luke about Jesus’ understanding of table fellowship.

Read Luke 14:1, 7-14

In the passage Jesus challenges some fundamental social and theological beliefs in the Israelite culture. The first is by inviting the poor, the lame, the crippled and the blind to the table, Jesus is suggesting that these persons, who are viewed as the least important people in the community, are actually of equal status to the Pharisees, who hold the highest degree of status in the society. Secondly, it was believed that your place in society, the status you were born into, reflected how deeply God cared about you. The more God liked you the higher you would be born in the hierarchy of status in the community. The higher your position in the community is a reflection of how deeply God loves you. So Jesus is challenging not only a person’s value to the community but also their understanding of their value to God. One can imagine the anger this must have created among the social elite. In fact, biblical scholar Marcus Borg suggests that it is Jesus’ table fellowship, his eating with sinners, tax collectors, the poor and the powerless and elevating their status is what ultimately got him murdered on the cross. So one interpretation of this passage can be, be careful who you invite to dinner. Be careful who you invite to sit at the table with you.

Sermon:

My aunt was a very devout member of a church which only allowed you to receive communion if you were a member of that church. When she died we went to her funeral, which included Communion as part of the service. When it was time to receive the Communion our oldest daughter Rachel, who was about four, stood to get into the line moving toward the altar. After all she had been taking communion her whole life. I grabbed her before she got away and said, “Rachel, we can’t take communion here, only members of the church are allowed to receive the communion.” She paused for a second, not fully accepting what I had just said. Surely I must be kidding. Then when she realized I was serious, she very loudly began to say, “Why can’t I take communion? I always take communion. Who can stop me from taking communion? That’s not right.” On she went, as I tried unsuccessfully to quiet her down. I could tell she was really hurt that she would not be able to fully participate in the worship that honored her aunt. I could tell she felt left out of what was an important part of honoring her aunt’s life. It is why Nancy and I include our children in the receiving of the communion elements. They may not fully understand the deeper theology of communion, but they know they are participating in something special with the full community of the church. That they are being included fully as members of the community. And actually, is that not what we just learned from Jesus about table fellowship? That it is about the inclusiveness of the community. That all are invited and graciously welcomed.

As you know we have a totally different understanding of Communion in our United Methodist tradition than my aunt’s church. Every month Nancy and I announce that we have an open table, which means everyone is invited to come and receive the Sacrament of Communion. For we recognize that this sacrament is a gift from God to us all. Our founder John Wesley understood communion as a means of receiving God’s grace. As a way of acknowledging and embracing the love God has for us all. It is what Jesus shows us about table fellowship. Communion is not about showing who is in and more important, but about the inclusiveness of God’s love. As one of our former Bishops said, “The Communion Table is the most leveling symbol we have in our faith. It is a reminder that we are all in need of God’s forgiving love, and that we are all given God’s forgiving love.” We are indeed all one in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Pastor William Sloane Coffin said it a little differently. “God’s love doesn’t seek value, it creates it. It is not because we have value-defining value as we normally understand it as having status, power and wealth,-that we are loved, but because we are loved by God we have value. This is the message of Communion. This is the theology of table fellowship. This is the example of the radical, extravagant love of God for us all. This gift that Jesus tells us we are to do in remembrance of him is that on-going reminder of what we, as the church, are all about. We are now the ones who are called to build the inclusive community of God by inviting all we see to this open table of God’s grace. This table of extravagant hospitality for all that shows our value. This table fellowship is the very cornerstone of our faith as Christians.

This month of September has been designated “Open House Month” by our denomination. But the focus of the term is not what we are used to associating with it. Open house usually implies that we are opening our doors to introduce ourselves and what we do to others. The emphasis this month is on the word “open.” The denomination is asking us to use it as a verb. What do we need to do, to make our church open to others? How do we open the house of God so we are as radically extravagant in our hospitality as God is toward us? How can we invite others to join us at the table?

In fact the rest of the month’s sermons are tailored to reflect upon this idea. We have all seen the old slogan that we are a church of open hearts, open minds, and open doors. Now, we are asked to reflect over the next several weeks on this thought in a little different way. Instead of it being a description of who we already are, we are now being challenged to look at our church and ask, how do we open our hearts, how do we open our minds, how do we open our doors so that we open the house of God to all?

One of my favorite stories about life lived in the table fellowship of God is one probably known by many of you in some form. This is the way I heard it. A little girl comes running into her father all excited and wants to tell him about a dream she had the night before. She keeps pestering her dad until he finally says, “Ok tell me about your dream.” She says, “I dreamed that an elevator came into my room and the door opened and I heard a voice ask me to enter. I knew it was God, so I did. The elevator went down, down, down, and when it opened I knew I was in hell.” Her father taken back said, “Well tell me about hell.” She said, “There were huge banquet tables surrounded by people and each table was filled with the most scrumptious foods you could imagine. Meats, deserts, everything filled the table.” The father a little confused said, “That doesn’t sound so bad to me.” The little girl replied, “Yes, but everyone had three foot spoons tied to their hands so they couldn’t get the food into their mouths.” The father replied, “I can see why that would be hell.” The little girl then continued with her dream. She said, “I reentered the elevator and I went up, up, up, and finally the door opened again and I knew I was in heaven.” “Really,” the father said. “Tell me all about heaven.” The little girl continued, “There were people sitting around huge banquet tables full of food. There was every kind of meat, deserts and every kind of food you could imagine. And every body had three foot spoons tied to their hands.” Now the father is really confused and says, “Well that sounds a lot like hell to me.” The little girl then replied with this huge smile on her face, “Yes, but in heaven they were feeding each other.”

Maybe a familiar story, but one that serves as an important reminder of who we are called to be and what it means to live table fellowship together. When we come to the table, we come as one: one in need, one in love, one in receiving God’s extravagant hospitality. It is a reminder that we are called to respect and honor each other and all we meet for we are all one as children of God, loved by God. It is when we stop caring and supporting those around us, when we lose our sense of inclusive community that we create an isolation that takes life away from us all. It is when we love our neighbor as ourselves that we create community where all are included at the table of God’s grace.

The symbol of the table is central to our understanding of our Christian faith. Are we feeding each other? Are we caring for each other? Are we loving each other as Christ loved us? Are we bringing God’s radical hospitality to all of God’s beloved? Do we continually invite all of God’s children to join us at the table? Come, the table is set for us. You, me, we all are invited for God’s hospitality is extravagant beyond measure.

Sermon delived by Rev. George Cushman on September 6, 2009.