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Open and Affirming Sermon:
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"And Open & Affirming" Luke 14:15-24
October 6, 2002
As those of you who were here last week will remember, I talked about being Jesus-centered. I said that Jesus is bigger than all our hopes and fear - in fact bigger than all we can ask or imagine. To know that he is bigger, however, we have to start imagining how big he is. How big is he? Well, Paul says he's big enough to be the visible image of the invisible God. Jesus is big enough to contain all the fullness of God. He is big enough so that all the broken and dislocated things and people in the world can get fixed and fit into him - and there's room left over. That big! Bigger certainly than my hopes and fears. Big enough that I find acceptance and wholeness and courage and hope in him.
But I have to ask. It's one thing to be baptized and call myself a Christian. That's a good thing. It's an even better thing to learn from Jesus how to be a good person in the world and call myself a follower of Jesus. But if I really want to know how big Jesus is and how effective he can be in my life, I have to ask. I have to ask HIM to be powerful in my life. That's when I become more than a Christian in name and more than a follower by practice. That's when I become Jesus-centered. I have to ask him to be front and center in my life. When he gets front and center, I begin for the first time to know God personally, and to know God's original design for me and how I fit into God's purposes. I mean that when Jesus is the center of my life, I can look at him and see the power of God for life - my life and our life together. I can see what my goodness is for in the world. I can see how not to be conquered by my uglies, my dark side, my rough edges, and my sins. All this is mine for the asking as I begin to pray, Come, Jesus, be Lord of my life.
Today I want to look at the story of our lives from another angle. Jesus himself invites this other look in the Gospel today. Jesus is having a party, and he invites me to attend. Am I going to go?
The first question I want to ask upon receiving an invitation to a party is: what kind of party is this? So - help me out here - what kind of party is Jesus inviting me to?
Is his party like a political party? What is a political party after all? It's a club defined by political goals and ideology. Anybody can come as long as he or she agrees with the basic agenda of the party and pays dues. So this party is about political power. Does that sound like Jesus' party? I don't think so.
How about an office Christmas party? Have you ever been to one of those? Why do you go to the office holiday party? In order to be seen, yes? You go because you have to. You want your job, you want to get ahead, you want to have good relations with your colleagues, you go to the office holiday party! Am I right? So does this sound like Jesus' party? I don't think so.
How about a Super Bowl party? I ask you, is a Super Bowl party - except for those who love watching hours of analysis of X's and O's, mucho advertising, lip-synching pop singers and surgically altered cheerleaders' chests - is the Super Bowl really about football? Or is it about getting obliterated on chips, salsa, beer and whoopee? Am I far off the mark? Does this sound like Jesus' party? I'm not sure here, but I don't think so.
Is it like a wedding reception? How many of you remember the agony of deciding whom to invite to a wedding reception? Do you invite Uncle Joe the alcoholic? Do you invite sister Jossie's third husband, the one who can't keep his hands to himself? And how about Mary and Bill with the whiny kids? How about the old boy friend? Do you think that Jesus agonizes over whom to invite to his party? I don't thinks so, either.
How about a kids' birthday party? Maybe the Jesus party is like that. Last week my nine year old daughter Lydia got invited to a party that I thought was kind of unusual. The birthday child and her parents couldn't decide whom to invite among the fourth, fifth and sixth graders in our daughters' school. So, I don't know whether this was more brave or more foolish, but they invited them all - the whole fourth, fifth and sixth grade. About forty kids showed up. I'm sure from the viewpoint of birthday loot the host child was all for it. Think of all those presents! Is that a Jesus party? I think that's a little like the Jesus party - everybody gets invited, yes? But still, you have to go to that school, you have to be in the older three grades, and the price of admission is a birthday present. I don't think that's quite what Jesus has in mind, do you?
Let me tell you a story that I think is a little more like it. Bear with me while I give you some background. My middle daughter Annalies, who is sixteen, is in France for the school year this year. She's living with a French family and taking public transportation into town to go to school, where of her seven courses, only English and Math are taught in English. Now Annalies is a really great kid - she's smart, graceful and thoughtful. But she is a reserved person and her host mother has noticed Annalies' shyness. So the other day Madame Denot (apparently) sat Annalies down and invited Annalies to get to know her better, to take more time with the family, watch television with them, hang out. So I get this e-mail from Annalies talking about how much work she has to do for school and how hard the language is and how she needs to get her sleep. So she doesn't feel like she has time and energy to just hang out. All of which is true. But in my e-mail back to her, I tried to say as gently as I
could, that all Madame Denot is trying to do is to invite relationship with her. Direct, one-on-one, relationship with the offer behind it of real affection. Even though the invitation is for Annalies to join the family, I hear behind it an invitation for Annalies to have relationship with another mother, another woman, another, if older, child of God. And what might happen if she accepts that invitation? How might it change her?
I don't know, but I believe we're getting close to a picture of the party Jesus invites us to. Yeah, it's about community, the family of God. Yeah, it's about learning the language of faith. Yeah, it's about having fun and taking time. But it's really about relationship. The party is about having one-on-one, direct relationship with the visible face of God. Jesus is the one power in the universe that can have direct, one-on-one personal relationship with each one of us, and not get us all mixed up. How do we know that? Because Jesus' direct, personal relationship with his God made room for and gave Jesus power for all the other relationships in his life.
So my next question about the party is - is the party for just anybody? Is it really for me? Well, yeah, it is. The only criterion, the only requirement is that I show up. Male, female, rich, poor, homosexual or heterosexual, white, black or yellow, good or bad, churchy or unchurchy, somebody or nobody, no matter who I am, all I have to do to get into this party is show up. Once there, I'll find out what the party's about. I'll find out what Jesus has in mind for me. I can't know ahead of time. All I can know ahead of time is that nobody who ever took the time to show up ever regretted it.
There are a lot of really good reasons not to accept the invitation, aren't there? Our Gospel text lists a few of them:
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I can't come, I've got a job to do
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I can't come, I've got a schedule to keep
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I can't come, I've got a family to take care of
These aren't bad reasons. They're not unimportant. But tell me if I am wrong here. Behind all these good reasons to RSVP to Jesus with regrets, tell me if there isn't another reason. Call it shyness. Call it reserve. Call it hesitation to believe that all the affection and joy that Jesus brings to the world is really for me. That I can have them with him. That he says to me - Peter, come. Come into my house. Nikki, Dan, Sue, Pam, David, come enjoy the banquet of life with me, for all things are ready for you!
Maybe - and here I'm stretching us - maybe behind shyness and reserve, there's another hesitation about Jesus and his invitation. Maybe if I show up, I'll never be the same again. Like my daughter Annalies, if I have a French mother and a French family, maybe it won't be the same when I go home. If I have a Jesus in my life, maybe I'll find love that is bigger than my family. If I have a Jesus in my life, maybe I'll have a social circle bigger than my friends. May be I'll have work bigger than my office. Maybe I'll have a purpose bigger than my politics. Maybe I'll find a meaning that breaks me out of my same old/same old. Maybe I'll become fierce instead of shy. Wild instead of reserved. Beautiful instead of perfectionist. I don't know - what do you suppose Jesus has in mind for me?
What do you suppose Jesus has in mind for us?
I believe that Jesus gives you grace moments in your life when you hear the invitation and it's time to decide whether the invitation is really for you. I believe also that Jesus gives communities grace moments that feel difficult but invite reflection and decision. I believe that this is such a time for this community. It's time to reflect and decide. I have said that last week's sermon and this week's are about a vision I am seeing for this church. I see here A Jesus Centered, Open & Affirming Community. I'll admit right now that this vision of church is not going to make everybody happy. Being Jesus Centered worries theological liberals who are nervous about looking like evangelicals. Being Open & Affirming worries social conservatives who are uncomfortable with the example of gay and lesbian people openly coming to church.
But I say to you that to be Jesus Centered means intentionally seeking and finding all God's children. And I say to you that I doubt that any community can be effectively Open & Affirming without announcing that Jesus is the power of God. To be Jesus Centered and NOT Open & Affirming is to be Jesus Centered in name only. To be Open & Affirming and NOT Jesus Centered is to be Open & Affirming for no real purpose. To be Jesus Centered and Open & Affirming is where theological rubber meets the road of life. It's where faith gets fleshy. It's where songs change minds as well as sway hearts. It's where words catch fire. It's where church become community. It's where hungry people begin to believe that church is where body and soul get fed. It's where you and I begin to get the idea that a bigger community life is ready for us - now!
One final point and then I'll stop. I am impressed with Jesus' description of the relentlessness of God. The good folk - friends and family and colleagues - are too busy? OK - invite strangers! There's still room? OK - invite everybody nobody would ever think of inviting. Still room?? Then pull 'm, push 'em, drag 'em, kidnap 'em if you have to! I want my house full!
I want my house full, says the Lord. Full of whom? Full of you and me for starters. Then full of others who are as crippled, maimed, shy, reserved, blind, foolish, hopeful, hungry, curious, puzzled, lost and found and changed as we are. Full? How's that going to happen? Full is only going to happen when we become as relentless in our invitation to others as Jesus is with us.
If you also want church full, then I ask you to join me in being A Jesus Centered, Open & Affirming Community. Let us become relentlessly inviting. Let us be to one another relentlessly patient. Let us be in love with our Jesus, the Lord of the church and the power of God in the world. Let us be open to the message that God doesn't give up on anybody - even us! And let us affirm that Jesus has shown us how he would fill up his church - if we will just give him a chance!
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