The Invitation List

Gospel: Luke 14: 1, 7-14

We all dream of hosting dinner parties where we are able to invite the rich, the powerful, the celebrity.  Consider for a moment the fact that none of these people need the meal, for they are well-fed.  They do not need your company because everyone wants to be around them.  They may attend your dinner party, but only to see who else is there and what benefit those present may have on preserving their wealth, power, and status.  Such parties are transactional in nature; they are in no way communal or nourishing for the soul.

Now consider inviting the poor and marginalized to a meal.  Here is a group of people probably in need of the meal itself.  More importantly, they are also in need of human companionship and love.  No one invites them anywhere.  To have some time of genuine human interaction would mean the world to them.  The entire meal experience would in fact do great good for them in body, mind, and spirit.  It is a shame that they will not likely receive such an invitation and have such an experience...

Which dinner party do our churches resemble?  More often it is the former, as we are constantly in need of selling time shares in our pews to pay the vast sums needed to maintain our structures.  We want the rich and powerful so that our church can have influence and status in the world, for what is unclear.  For if we are not about the welcome of the poor and marginalized in our church buildings, it is not likely we are using whatever influence we have for their behalf with the rich and powerful whose company - and money - we so crave.