Invitation

                  In this week’s Gospel (Luke 14: 1,7-14) Jesus is invited to a dinner party, and not just any dinner party but a seemingly fancy dinner party. Which is a bit of an odd location to find Jesus. We are used to seeing him eating with sinners and tax collectors, the sick and widowed, the people his society had deemed dirty. But this dinner party is different. The author of Luke tells us that the leader of the Pharisees, a man of great importance, had invited him to dinner. The other guests also appear to be people of great importance (real or imagined) as they jockey over who gets to sit in the places of honor. At one point during the evening Jesus turns to his host and tells him that he shouldn’t have invited the people he had because, he implies, they only accepted so they could get something out of him and vice versa. But instead, he should have invited Jesus usual crowd the physically infirm and poor. Ah there is the Jesus we are used to.

                  I’m not going to lie I’m not good at invitation. From either side of the equation. Even though in my head I know being told “no” isn’t that bad I’m deeply afraid of rejection. I feel like asking folks to do something will bother them in a world that is already annoying enough so in an attempt to be less of a burden I do nothing. I also am uncomfortable being invited to things because if I can’t go I don’t want to insult them by saying no, but I also don’t want to never be asked to do anything. It’s all very confusing and silly I know. But maybe that’s what’s convicting to me about this week’s text. In order to live out the life Jesus has called us too we have to be invitational. If we want to create a world on mutuality, hospitality and respect we have to invite others, and sometimes ourselves into it. So this text tells me to get off my butt, over myself and start inviting. How do you feel about invitation? Who do you invite to things? Who could you invite more?

Peace,

Pastor Corey