September 2, 2007 - "Come All You Beggars!"

Title: “Come All You Beggars!”
Text: Luke 14:1, 7-14
Day: Proper 17C
Date: September 2, 2007

It’s Labor Day weekend, which – for many of us – means that it’s party time! Barbeque pits, charcoal grills and smokers have been lit and the food has been prepared. Between yesterday, today and tomorrow, millions Americans are getting ready to celebrate this national holiday by feasting with family and friends. I am no exception. Eryn and I are planning to have family over to our new apartment this afternoon for a wonderful Labor Day meal.

Holidays like this have always been treasured part of our nation’s past and welcomed occasions in my family. Any three-day weekend is automatically reason to come together and celebrate. It is a time for us to catch up on each other’s lives. It is a time for us to enjoy one another’s company. And what better way to do that then around a table full of food!

But let us also remember this Labor Day weekend that there are many people – thousands and thousands of people, in fact – who are not celebrating this weekend around a bounteous table full of goodies. There are many people who have somehow slipped through the cracks and have found themselves with no social outlet, no one with whom they can celebrate, or no means by which to prepare even a modest meal. These are the people for whom Labor Day causes a particular strain. These are the poor, the homeless, the beggars.

But Jesus, ever the rebel, compels us to imagine what life would be like if these people were included in our celebrations. What would this world look like if we went beyond our social standards, beyond our boundaries, beyond our cultural statuses, beyond our prejudices, and invited these beggars around our tables?

It’s easy for me to stand up here and ask these kind of questions, but I admit wholeheartedly that I struggle living up to this kind of standard. I even fight it. I simply don’t want to put myself in such an uncomfortable situation. I just want things to be easy. I just want to be around people who are like me, who like what I like, who have things in common with me.

Yet Jesus confronts just this kind of attitude in our Gospel this morning. Somehow he garners an invitation to a Sabbath meal at a Pharisee’s house. This certainly would have been a high-class party. In a society that was so heavily dependent upon gaining social status and honor and prestige, meals like this one would have surely been an opportunity to strut one’s stuff – if you know what I mean.

Jesus is unimpressed, however. Walking into the Pharisee’s house, he immediately takes note of the situation. He sees the governing officials. He sees the synagogue rulers. He sees the wealthy elite of the city. All of them are in attendance; all of them are hoping to gain some prestige of their own at this little shindig.

Now, I don’t suppose one could ever say that Jesus was a person of tact. He was never one to reprimand someone discreetly. He was never one to just pretend that a problem didn’t exist. He was bold, blunt and honest. He dealt with conflict head-on in a way that seems outrageous to many of us today. So, it should come as no surprise that once Jesus took in the scene that this Pharisee’s house, he gained everyone’s attention and began to teach something that flew in the face of every social norm that was being practiced.

He tells them that when they come to meals such as this one, they ought not come seeking to claim more honor than they have. For if they were mistaken, they may have to endure much embarrassment as they are “demoted” so-to-speak to a lower position. So far, I’m sure the guests could understand and relate to what Jesus was saying, but he continues to say that the reason that they should take a position of humility is because they have nothing – absolutely NOTHING – about which they can boast before others. Everything they had was a gift from God and this gift was to be used not to benefit themselves, but to benefit others. At this, the crowd surely would have scoffed. They would have argued that they had worked very hard all their lives to finally be in such a good social position, and they were not about to go frivolously waste their wealth on others who didn’t deserve it.

But the real kicker comes next when Jesus singles out the host of the party and confronts him about his guest list. “When you throw a party, don’t invite people like you – your family, your friends, those from whom you have something to gain and from whom you can expect something in return,” Jesus says. “Instead, invite the poor, the crippled, the blind, the lame.” In other words, Jesus tells him to invite those who have nothing. Invite the beggars, because in so doing you will be blessed.

For many of us – me included – we hear these words today and we still scoff. We still struggle to imagine anyone doing such a thing as inviting the beggars of the city around their Labor Day tables. Yet this is exactly the kind of action Jesus is encouraging in this text. He is encouraging us not only to take notice of those who have nothing around us, but to provide for them as well.
So, okay, it may be a little unrealistic to think that many or any of us will go out today, find a beggar on the street corner and invite him or her to our house for dinner tonight. For Jesus also calls us to be prudent and wise about what we do. There is something to be said for personal safety. But there are people who do just this kind of thing. They really do put themselves into harms way in order to bring these people, these beggars, back into the fold. So it leads us to ponder: what can we do? What should we do? What are we doing and what other possibilities are there that are still unexplored for helping those in our midst, in our community, in our city, in our state?

In just my short time with you in this congregation, I can already say that I am proud of all that you do for the less fortunate in our city. The donations of clothing and quilts that are made to the Storehouse here in town are a great example of the generous spirit of this congregation. Just the time commitment involved in projects like these shows me something of your devotion to caring for those who need help. Even the simple, meager gesture of collecting soup labels like those you are collecting at the usher’s table in the narthex shows your willingness to follow in Jesus’ footsteps and help those in need. And – not to forget that there are those who need help within our own congregation – you have shown again and again that this congregation rallies around those who need help. When someone falls ill or is otherwise unable to provide for themselves, you take them under your wing providing them with food, running errands for them, and simply offering the gift of your presence.

You already do so much. But what more can be done? There are hundreds of other ways in which the many and varied resources of this congregation can be put to use. Habitat for Humanity projects are always in need of volunteers to build houses for those in need of shelter. Soup kitchens are always in need of willing servers. There are mission trips offered by the synod and by other local agencies that provide opportunity to go to other cities or countries to serve our Brothers and Sisters in Christ in other communities.

What a vision! Can you imagine a world where everyone lived this way, helping others in need at all times? Can you imagine a world where something like this takes place? Can you imagine a world where people who have nothing – where simple beggars – are overwhelmed with unmerited gifts? I can…because, in a way, it happens to each of us everyday.

It’s easy for us to point at others and label them as poor beggars, but it is not as easy for us to admit that we are really no different than them. We have nothing that we can claim as our own. As we say in our Offertory Prayer, we give thanks to God because everything that we have belongs first to him: our resources, our talents, our time, even our very lives. We have nothing, NOTHING without it being given by our God. As such, we are all beggars. We are all people who long to be satisfied with good gifts, even though we have done nothing to deserve them. We are all beggars.

And yet our God continually provides for us. This, I think, is what Jesus had been teaching all along throughout his ministry, and what he was trying to get across to the guests at the meal that day. Jesus had exemplified throughout his entire ministry how to serve those who had a need. Jesus himself called out to the crippled, the lame, the blind, the deaf, the poor, the prostitutes, the tax collectors, the proud, the rich…the beggars. All of these Jesus called to his side so that he might show them how those with a humble heart could receive what God had to give: unconditional love, never-ending mercy, and eternal life.

And so it continues today. Everyday we can be reminded that God invites us to receive these things. Everyday we can be thankful that God does not invite those who qualify to receive these gifts, but instead invites everyone – beggars included – receive what God has to give.

Nowhere is this better exemplified, I think, than in the meal we are about to share. All of us in this sanctuary have different pasts. Our lives have led us all to different places. We all have our secrets – those things we would rather not display before others. We all have those things we wish we hadn’t done. And yet, despite all that counts against us, despite all the blemishes on our life’s record, despite all that is undesirable about us – our God calls us, invites us, gathers us around this table and feeds us with a meal that can truly satisfy our hunger and quench our thirst. Rich, poor, young, old, Republican, Democrat, employed, unemployed, have’s and have-not’s – beggars all – will come to this table today and, even if for the briefest moment in time, they will all be one as they celebrate this meal.

So, come forward one and all to this feast, to this table surrounded by a bunch of beggars and enjoy what it is that our God has to provide for us.
Amen.