The Great Dinner

"He said also to the one who had invited him, ‘When you give a luncheon or a dinner, do not invite your friends or your brothers or your relatives or rich neighbours, in case they may invite you in return, and you would be repaid. But when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind. And you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you, for you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.’

One of the dinner guests, on hearing this, said to him, ‘Blessed is anyone who will eat bread in the kingdom of God!’  Then Jesus said to him, ‘Someone gave a great dinner and invited many. At the time for the dinner he sent his slave to say to those who had been invited, “Come; for everything is ready now.” But they all alike began to make excuses. The first said to him, “I have bought a piece of land, and I must go out and see it; please accept my apologies.” Another said, “I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I am going to try them out; please accept my apologies.” Another said, “I have just been married, and therefore I cannot come.” So the slave returned and reported this to his master. Then the owner of the house became angry and said to his slave, “Go out at once into the streets and lanes of the town and bring in the poor, the crippled, the blind, and the lame.” And the slave said, “Sir, what you ordered has been done, and there is still room.” Then the master said to the slave, “Go out into the roads and lanes, and compel people to come in, so that my house may be filled. For I tell you, none of those who were invited will taste my dinner.” ’  Luke 14:12-24

I would not want to be the person sleeping in and missing church when this scripture is read!  How many times in a day - a single day - does this scripture play out in our own lives.  "Dear God - oh hold please, someone just called."  "Okay, God, back to praying I was saying - oh wait a minute I forgot I had an errand to run."  I wonder what would happen if you actually sat down with a pen and piece of paper and broke our 24 hour day down into the hours and documented your day.  Sleep, eat, bathe, commute, work, play, homework, family time, entertainment, chores...on and on. 

When do you pray?  When do you worship?  What are you going to do when the Great Steward of the The Great Dinner comes to you and says "All are welcome and All is prepared, please join me."  Will you need to make one more phone call, read one more e-mail on your blackberry.  Will you not be able to miss one more "emergency" meeting or fix one more "to do" list item?  Will you be ready?  Will you understand that you must drop everything to join the Eternal Word for the Feast of your life?  Do we ever understand that the minutes of our busy day, all the minutes we claim we can't spend with God or for God are speedily adding up to account for our Life?

This week is busy for me, chaotically so.  I have all my normal routine and I must prep for school this weekend and my church visit.  The best part of this "Holy Chaos" is that all of my work and all of my study is grounded in God, grounded in the Spirit.  I am so blessed.  I did my grocery shopping early this week so I don't have to be distracted by what we need for dinner every evening.  While I grocery shopped in the empty store I spent many good moments with God.  Praying in Thanksgiving for this blessed life and the ability to be able to purchase groceries and prepare a home made meal for my family each evening.  There will come a time in my life when it is just me and my husband and our kids will be too busy to come home for dinner with us - hmmm what does that remind you of in the scripture we just read?

Part of my Holy Chaos is getting ready to church visit this Sunday and I can't wait to go.  I met the Rector of this church at a conference I attended a few months ago and he had some great insights.  I can't wait to hear him preach.