Creekside Church Sermon of August 29, 2004 "The Hazard of Dining With Jesus" Luke 14:1,7-14	Rev. David Bibbee
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Dinner parties are both entertaining and nerve-wracking. Entertaining for the guests, nerve-wracking for the host. Good food, laughter, and stimulating conversation make for an enjoyable evening. A burnt roast, over-cooked vegetables, and a table full of people who aren't talking equal a long, laborious evening. But even under the best circumstances, you never know what might happen.

A family had invited guests to dinner. The host had slaved all day in the kitchen. The table was set. The food was ready to serve. She sat down at the table and invited her six-year-old daughter to offer the prayer. "I don't know what to say," she replied. "Just say what you heard Mommy say the last time she prayed. Her daughter lowered her head and prayed, "Dear Lord, why did I invite these crazy people to dinner?"

Thomas Edison was a workaholic who loathed formal dinner parties. He attended a formal affair that was insufferably dull, and he excused himself as quickly as possible. He retrieved his hat and coat and was about to walk out the door to his lab when the hostess intercepted Edison. Oblivious to the fact that he was bored stiff and anxious to leave, she asked, "What are you working on now, Mr. Edison?" Edison replied, "My exit."

There are famous anecdotes about Winston Churchill's behavior at dinner parties. Once he was seated next to a woman who strongly disliked him. During the course of the evening she said to him, "Mr. Churchill, if you were my husband, I would poison your food." Sir Winston then responded with one of the all-time great insults. "Madam, if I were your husband, I would eat it!" There is no record of what happened to the party after their exchange.

When guests come to dinner, the host wants everything to go without a hitch. This was the hoped for result when Jesus was invited to a Sabbath meal in the home of a prominent Pharisee. Lots of important people were there, and most had their eyes on Jesus. In case you forgot, Jesus could be abrasive, and he chose this occasion to rub people the wrong way. Being offensive wasn't his goal, but given what he had to say about their priorities, taking offense was inevitable.

The hors d' oeuvres hadn't even been served yet and Jesus began berating people. Wanting to be seen, guests scrambled for the best seats, throwing elbows like basketball players going after a rebound. After he fired a shot at their need to be noticed and get a place in the pecking order, he aimed at the host and complained about who wasn't on the guest list.

Jesus didn't think much of limiting the list to the Wainrights and the Rockefellers'… the likeable, loveable, intelligent, and rich… the people who would remember to put you on the guest list for their next gathering. Jesus asked, " Why not invite people who are never invited anywhere? Why not invite the guy with the big family that works for you at minimum wage? Why not invite the folks living in the subsidized housing or the handicapped who must beg to survive? Why not invite the ones who couldn't return your favor in a million years. Why aren't they here?

I'm not sure I want you hearing this story. I don't want you to get the impression that all religious leaders behave this way. I LIKE being invited to dinner. When a host is nice enough to invite me, I won't say anything critical of them. I learned by manners. I know when to keep my mouth closed. As I said, I like being asked to dinner. It's a good thing it wasn't important to Jesus, because after this incident, the invitations dried up.

"Lord, I want to be like Jesus, in my heart." I read stories like this and I'm not so sure. Yes, I want to be like him, but I want to be like him only so far. Every day we should ask ourselves, "What Jesus would do if he lived my life today?" Asking this question would make us examine our motives, and it would become apparent that Jesus is very different from us.

But asking the question, "What would Jesus do?" isn't enough. Being Christ-like involves more than wearing WWJD around your wrist or neck, or having it printed on a T-shirt, or tattooed to your arm, or putt on a personalized license plate. Distributors of WWJD apparel should join Nike's; "Just Do It" campaign. "Don't just be HEARERS of the Word, but DOERS also."

I'm sure I have gotten more dinner invitations than Jesus ever had. Taken as a group, pastors are people who want to be liked. We work at making positive impressions. We are there to lend a helping hand, offer a listening ear, share a caring heart to help you through hard times, offer prayers and impart blessings. We work hard to be interesting on Sunday and tell you that you're doing a good job being a Christian. That way, you'll be back the next Sunday and put your offering in the plate so the church can remain solvent. Pastors who do this get good evaluations. They are invited to dinner. "Your place at 6:30 PM. on Friday? We'll be there."

Be glad Jesus isn't your pastor. Worship wouldn't begin with, "Good morning, everyone!" He would say, "Why are you here? Is it because God is the most important thing in your life? Is God the heart of your worship? Don't sing without searching your heart. Sin makes a mockery of worship.

He'd look at the budget and say, "Put your hands and feet where your money is." He would say, "You are the salt of the earth. Go season it." "You'll know the truth and it will set you free. The powers that be don't want to hear it and don't want you to speak it, but you go and tell." "A city on a hill can't be hid. The work of the Kingdom doesn't happen in a building. Armed with nothing but the Word and a promise, penetrate and permeate the world.

This probably isn't sitting well with you. What about the Jesus who is all compassion and pure, unbounding love? What about the gentle shepherd? Aren't you forgetting him? No. It is precisely because of his great love that he won't leave us alone, or leave us to our devices that lead us away from Him. He won't stop bugging us because we're the ones God appointed to do His work.

Strange things happened when Jesus came for dinner. That crooked little runt Zaccheus made things right with those he had bilked in his tax business, and gave half of all he had to the poor. People cut a hole in a roof and lowered a poor soul on a stretcher for Jesus to heal. A woman dropped at Jesus' feet, washed them with her tears and dried them with her feet. The religious hosts and guests threw fits when Jesus said the state of their spiritual and social affairs wasn't what God had in mind, and that the places of honor in the kingdom weren't reserved for them, but for the has-beens and misfits.

If we are disciples of Jesus, will have a fight on our hands. The world is not a safe place, especially if we speak for the kingdom that Jesus said had arrived. I talked to a young man who told me what happened as a result of a stand he had taken. He was an athlete who loved playing football. He was raised in a Christian home and knew his values. He wasn't comfortable with the attitudes and practices of the players and coaches. It was more difficult because his friends were on the team.

He wouldn't participate in the bullying of those who were different. When the war in Iraq began, the team and most of the student body caught the patriotic spirit and didn't question whether or not it was a good thing. But he did. As a result, his friends turned on him. The coaches accosted him. One coach grabbed him by the throat, slammed him into the lockers, and told him he better learn to "respect America." Some who turned on him were Christians. Apparently they weren't wearing their WWJD wristband. It happened in a community that has a strong religious identity-Goshen, Indiana.

Jesus' ideas about right and wrong are not well received these days. In the fast growing, successful churches, a great emphasis is placed upon the individual's relationship with Jesus. Social pronouncements are made about abortion, homosexuality, and keeping the Ten Commandments. It's hard to hear a message about affluence, soaring poverty, the material and human costs of militarism, and the shrinking coffer for education. A study was done of churches that call themselves "evangelical." It revealed that American evangelicals have $800 billion in after-tax income. Eight billion was spent on weight reduction programs, while $2 billion was spent on missions.

In many churches, pastors aren't asked to dinner as much as before. Part of it has to do with our ordination vows. Before God and the church, we promise, among other things, to preach the gospel and tell the truth. Paul's words from 2 Timothy were part of the promise:

Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a workman Who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth.

This is the part that gets us in hot water-the "telling the truth" part. There is an invisible line, and you know when you have crossed it because of an expression that's heard-"Now he's gone to meddling!" Pastors have a "priestly and prophetic calling." The priestly role is to usher people to a saving encounter with God through preaching, teaching, administering the sacraments. The prophet role is being a mouthpiece for God. Sometimes that word is comforting and assuring. And sometimes it's about the failure of God's people to be God's people.

The prophets in the Bible weren't treated well. People wanted to kill them! "A prophet is not welcome in his own hometown," Jesus said. He learned by experience. Now and then he was invited to dinner after a sermon. Most of the time he was invited to a stoning. As Paul warned young Timothy:

There will be times when people will have no stomach for solid teaching, but will fill up on spiritual junk food-catchy opinions that tickle their fancy. They'll turn their backs on truth and chase mirages. But you-keep your eye on what you're doing; accept the hard times along with the good; keep the Message alive….

There are churches that do not want their pastors to keep the truth-telling part of their promise. We get into hot water for speaking on issues that are at the foundation of their denomination's belief. How ironic that when pastors preach peace messages in a peace church, they are scolded for it. Greeting a couple after worship the pastor says, "My wife and I are looking forward to dinner at your house on Friday." And the host says, "I'm afraid we must cancel our engagement. We're both planning to have a severe headache next Friday evening."

We don't want to be reminded of how different Jesus' view of life is from the others that surround us. He is hard where we would be soft, and soft where we are hard. "Lord, I want to be like Jesus in my heart." Well, if this is what you want, be prepared for conflict.

We are outnumbered and face a long uphill climb. Changing the world means changing the church, which starts with a desire to be changed by Jesus. It means inviting the people who mattered most to Jesus to our table-those who can't pay us back who help us learn what it means to give.

I'm saying this because of convictions I hold about what the church should be, and where our country is headed, and the role we play as salt and light while we're in it. We are at a critical crossroads. As citizens we have the freedom to question authority, especially where truth is at issue.

George Buttrick tells about a multi-million dollar church that was being built somewhere out east. The dedication day had been set, but not all the furnishings would be in place by then. The chancel was bare. There was no altar, no pulpit, no banners, no cross. When the worshippers gathered for the dedication service, they discovered that someone had snuck into the building in the night. With a wide brush and black paint, they put these words on the wall: "Stop the killing, Feed the poor, Sincerely yours, Jesus Christ."

I don't know if Jesus was invited to the church after this. This question is, will this sometimes abrasive, conscience-poking but loving, Lord be welcome at our table? When we say, "Come, Lord Jesus, and be our guest," will we mean it?

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