A Party Where Everyone is Welcome…

We usually wave and she will wave back. I noticed that she is attached to a gas bottle, Oxygen, I assume, and probably for a lung disease to help her breathing.

One day, as she waved, I noticed a cigarette between her fingers. It suddenly made sense why she was out early on a winter morning rugged up – it was for her morning cigarette. I couldn’t help thinking that it was this habit that had caused the presumed lung disease and certainly wouldn’t be helping her. But the addiction was so strong that she couldn’t resist. The thing she desired was also the thing she possibly wanted rid of because it was killing her.

I remember a conversation with a young bloke who came into our church office one day. He was a little embarrassed, but desperation drove him forward. He simply asked for some help with money or food. He was hungry and didn’t have money to buy anything. I organised some groceries and asked if he’d like a coffee and some cake that we had in the office. He did and so we chatted over a coffee. I asked him how things were with him, and he revealed he was trying to get his life back on track. He’d been addicted to hard drugs, and they had destroyed his life and relationships. He’d been through rehab and was on methadone and things were looking much better.

We talked about what his addiction had been like, and he was happy to answer my curiosity questions. He described his addiction as hell. It was good to start with, helped him cope with some pain and struggles, took the edge off his pain and gave him a euphoric feeling. Gradually that was replaced by sheer need. His body carved the drug and there was no way he could resist. It no longer made him feel good, simple stopped him feeling really bad, He awoke in a sweat and everything in him craved the only thing that would stop the sweats, the need the burning, excruciating desire. He did anything and everything to get drugs and it ruined his relationships with family and friends, caused pain and suffering but he couldn’t stop. Everything in him wanted to stop but there was a force more powerful within him that couldn’t or wouldn’t. The very thing his body craved was the very thing killing him.

I thought of these and other stories of people when I encountered Luke’s story this week (Luke 14:1-14). Jesus went to the house of a prominent pharisee on the Sabbath Day (this is a recipe for trouble – Jesus, Pharisees, Sabbath, disease and food!). He was invited for a meal, a function. There was a man there who had dropsy, an oedema or swelling in his body. We’re not told how serious it was, although it seems that dropsy was considered both serious and a disease of the well-off. Galen, a 2^nd century physician says of Rome that it was a populous city, and, on any day, you could find 10,000 people with jaundice and 10,000 people with dropsy – many suffering from impoverishment and hunger and many suffering the disease of wealth and prosperity.

Jesus asked the gathered religious people if it was lawful to heal on the Sabbath Day? His question was met with silence. He went to the man, healed him and then sent him away. The original words are a little confusing, Jesus seems to be suggesting that the man is free to leave his sickness, or this sick place. Perhaps the meaning is deeper, suggesting the man is now free to turn from the lifestyle and desires that led to his illness, the culture of eating too much rich food and wine, such that it causes his body to become ill. He is free to walk away.

This scenario sets the scene for the next elements of the story. As people gather for the function, Jesus noted how they seated themselves in the best seats, seeking places of honour. He told the guests that it is far better to sit in the lower, less honourable seats and then the host will come in, see you and invite into a more honourable place. You will be honoured before everyone else. Alternately, if you are sitting in the best seats when someone more honourable arrives, the host may request you to move to a simpler seat, thus dishonouring you before everyone. In this culture of shame and honour, far removed from the more individualistic western world in which we exist, this would be profoundly shameful, and you would lose face before everyone. It would be the worst thing that could happen!

When the host arrived, Jesus went for him as well. He advised that when you throw a party, hold some function, don’t invite only those who can or will repay you by inviting you to their functions. Invite those who can never repay you, the outcasts, homeless and lost. You will be sure to be rewarded by God!

On the surface it would seem that Jesus is suggesting ways of gaining reward, of being socially better off and blessed by God. It would seem that these are methods to get ahead, at first look. A deeper reading, however, reveals that Jesus is turning the whole world upside down and inside out. He is urging a completely different way of thinking about relationships and community. Instead of creating exclusive enclaves where people of wealth and power coddle each other and participate in an exclusive, affluent lifestyle, whilst there are very poor and outcast people who have too little, there is genuine sharing. Jesus is advocating that the rich give up some of their wealth so the poor can have a share. He is advocating that places of honour are really not so important – it is more important to include and see one another as equals, all in this together.

The original story names that the wealthy have their wealth-fuelled sickness that is exemplified by dropsy. The healing Jesus offers is for them to walk away from their addictive lifestyles and find new freedom in sharing, in opening their festivals to everyone and helping the poor to be liberated and experience what they need to live. I wonder how this might look in our world. I wonder how it might change so much of our society, our conflicts, isolation, loneliness, alienation and the additive drive for more and more?

I heard a story of a couple wo were getting married. They were both heavily involved in a church and its broad ministry, especially to the poorer parts of their community. He was a pastor in this church, and she was deeply involved. They wanted to invite everyone to their wedding but there was nowhere big enough and it would be too expensive. So, they arranged for the streets around the church block to be closed and held a street party to which everyone was invited. They provided pizzas, other food, music and it was a great celebration. There on the street were the homeless street people the groom worked with, eating and dancing alongside more well-to-do people, all having fun together. Their neighbours were African American and Hispanic and from all over the world and they were all there together, dancing, eating and celebrating together. Everyone was included and welcomed. Everyone was equal and there was enough for all. I think that this is a vision of God’s Reign and what Jesus was calling for at this Sabbath Day meal. It is an invitation into new life and hope for all!