Luke 14:1, 7-14
“Pushing up the Shades”
Retired author and pastor Tony Campolo tells of an experience he had at dinner in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, some years ago.
He was checking on mission programs that his organization carried out day in and day out in Haiti.
He wanted to see how the workers were surviving emotionally and spiritually.
And at the end of a long day, he was tired and “peopled out,” so it was with great relief that he sat down to eat a good dinner at a French restaurant in the heart of Porta-au-Prince.
He was seated next to the window so he could enjoy watching what was going on outside.
The waiter brought a delicious looking meal and set it in front of him.
Tony picked up his knife and fork and was about to dive in when he happened to look to his right.
There, with their noses pressed flat against the window, staring at his food, were four children from the streets.
They pressed their faces right up against the glass; they were staring at his plate of food.
The waiter, seeing his discomfort, quickly moved in and pulled down the window shade, shutting out the disturbing sight of the hungry children.
Then the waiter said to Tony, “Don’t let them bother you. Enjoy your meal.”
In our Gospel Lesson for this morning Jesus is challenging us to think about who we pull down the shades on.
Jesus knows it’s easy for us to want to pull down the shades on people because Jesus knows that is what many of us do.
We pull down the shades and shut out the people we would rather not think about.
We certainly pull down the shades on some of the world’s problems, its heartbreak and pain, and we keep that heartbreak and pain at a distance if only because it feels so overwhelming to open our hearts to all of it.
In Luke 14 Jesus is teaching us about the Kingdom of God through a story of a wedding banquet—one of life’s biggest celebrations.
Weddings are events that reveal who we are because they gather all of the people who are most important to us in one place.
All of those who are present and guests at our wedding are those who we have been known by, those who have influenced us, and those people that we claim.
The people who gather at our weddings are the same people we sit at tables with—family members, close friends and colleagues.
They are the people with whom we have shared countless meals and conversations.
I think Jesus is pushing us today to consider who is missing from our tables, to examine who we’ve pulled the shades down on, who we’ve written off, who we value less.
(pause)
Jesus lived in an honor and shame culture where counting was everything.
Status, favors, debts, honor—it was all about counting and reckoning and one’s standing and all the rest.
Inviting people to a banquet—whether they were family, friends, or business associates—put them in your debt and made a claim on them to return this favor to you.
It’s was an “I’ll scratch your back if you scratch mine” kind of world and meals were a great way to scratch someone’s back.
Which is why Jesus’ “advice” sounded so ludicrous!
Why on earth would you waste such an opportunity to up your status and up what people owe you by inviting people who have nothing to give you?...
…who can do nothing for you?...
…and who typically mean nothing to you?...
It would be crazy!
But it’s also the Kingdom of God that Jesus is talking about.
There is no other way to put it other than this is the way God wants us to treat each other.
Indeed, it’s the way God treats us—creating us, giving us what we need to flourish, caring for us, forgiving us, redeeming us—even though we can do nothing meaningful for God in return.
In my brother-in-law’s family growing up, on Christmas morning they named one of the eight kids “Santa’s helper” and that child got to distribute all of the presents to the rest of the family.
While this never seemed like an enviable role to play when they were young—after-all, it meant delaying opening those presents with your name on it!—as they grew older it became perhaps one of the most enjoyable part of their Christmas celebration.
And that’s because there is something simply joyful—and frankly unbeatably fun—about giving to others out of a sense of abundance.
And that is what Jesus is inviting here.
To stop counting and start giving and blessing.
Let’s keep in mind, this morning, Jesus’s particular focus on social relationships.
What would it be like to live into the freedom to stop calculating our social pecking order and stop worrying about what others think and simply be kind to everyone around us—particularly looking out for those people who don’t usually receive a lot of kindness?
What people fall into that category?
What would it be like at work, at school, at the places we volunteer or play sports or here at church—to look out for those who seem off to the margins and to invite them into the center by inviting them into our lives?
My mother had a real knack for this way of living.
Christmas dinners, parties, get-to-gethers were filled with people who were not often invited to such things.
My mom went out of her way to invite the man who nobody really liked—not because he was mean—but because he was sort of a square peg…
…a bachelor who was interested in things no one else really seemed to care about and had an awkward social presence…
…Or the Korean family in our all-white upper middle-class American town…
…lonely people…
…People who were different, people who didn’t have many friends, people who would be home alone if it weren’t for this invite, and people who didn’t throw parties themselves!
I think this is the kind of thing Jesus means when He says “when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, and you will be blessed.
Although they cannot repay you…”
Jesus is inviting us to experience the joy of playing “God’s helper” in handing out the abundant gifts of dignity and worth and value to other people who might not otherwise experience much of this.
Again, this is Kingdom life, and it stands in stark contrast to the honor-and-shame world in which we live.
Wait a second!
The honor-and-shame world in which WE live?
I thought the honor-and-shame world we were talking about was from the first century?
Yeah, it was…but it’s not all that different from the world we live in as well, is it?
For example, do you remember how obvious the pecking order was at school?
And those of you who are still in school are living it every day.
Think about how important it was to sit with the right people at lunch or how much it meant to you to have someone invite you to a party or even just save you a seat at lunch.
Think of the clear social distinctions between cliques and groups of people.
Think of the seats of honor and, well, if not shame at least uncool.
Our schools very much operate on a status system where everything counts and everything is counted.
But I don’t think it stops at school.
It happens in the work place and on sports teams—it happens just about everywhere.
But it shouldn’t happen with those who follow Christ.
It shouldn’t happen with those who take their faith seriously enough to act and live differently because of what God has done and is doing.
Our faith only matters to us to the degree it helps navigate our daily decisions and situations…
…how we treat others, how much we love others—no matter who those others are!
When Jesus says, “Don’t take the seat of honor…”
When Jesus says, “Humble yourselves…”
When Jesus says, “invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind…” Jesus is speaking to us!
We are to live differently, we are to break the rules of “what have you done for me lately” or “who can do something for me” and instead, value others simply because they are human beings with feelings, with dignity, with worth—sacred worth—because they are created in the image of God and loved by God—and therefore we are to love them as well…
…and not just in words, but in action and in truth…
…and not just from far off but face to face.
“What good is it…if someone claims to have faith but has no deeds?” James the brother of Jesus Himself asks.
“Can such a faith save them?
Suppose a brother or a sister is without clothes and daily food.
If one of you says to them, ‘Go in peace; keep warm and well fed,’ but does nothing about their physical needs, what good is it?
In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.”
You know, there are a lot of people who don’t step inside the doors of a church building because they are afraid that they will be humiliated here.
They are afraid they will be judged.
They are afraid they will be stared at, talked about, put down.
They are afraid they won’t be allowed to sit at the table with the “cool kids,” but will instead be even more isolated than they are in the world.
Is that how Jesus would have it?
Our Gospel lesson invites us to think very seriously about what the Kingdom Life” is to look like—not just when we are living out in the world—but when we are meeting in this building as the Body of Christ.
What would it be like if we were to invite the person who is new and alone to sit with us during worship?
What would it be like to invite them to lunch at our home or to a restaurant?
What would it be like to reach out to people who are very different from us?
What would it be like to pay close attention to those who tend to be on the margins and make sure they are enthusiastically and genuinely invited to a party or an outing?
What would it be like to sit down and spend good, quality time speaking with someone who rarely gets noticed…
…or if they do get noticed, it’s because of the bad things people might think or say or insinuate about them?
What would it be like to befriend them?
And what would it be like if someone asks you why you’re doing this, and you say it’s what you think God wants?
(pause)
Jesus is inviting me, inviting you, inviting us to push up the shades.
Even if it’s just one person or one relationship in our lives.
Who is it hard to look into the eyes of?
Who would it be hard to sit down and have dinner with?
I bet we all have a person or people in our mind’s eye.
Let’s take a moment and picture this person or these persons, and then imagine looking into their eyes.
What do you see?
Do you see someone God loves?
Do you see someone Jesus calls you to befriend, to invite, to include?
May we go from this time together looking at others through eyes that see all people like that.
In Jesus’ name and for His sake.
Amen.
