Foundry UMC DC: Sunday Sermons
Religion & Spirituality:Christianity
A sermon preached by Rev. Ginger E. Gaines-Cirelli at Foundry UMC, April 17, 2016, the fourth Sunday of Easter.
Texts: Isaiah 55: 1-3, 10-13; Luke 14:16-24
What’s the catch? I don’t know about you, but when I receive a message that I’ve won a free trip or a free case of wine or a check for thousands of dollars, I immediately start looking for the fine print—if I even bother to go that far. My assumption is that it is a setup, that the “free gift” is not really free, that I have to buy something or sign a contract, or sit through a day-long sales pitch to buy a condo. And these days, it seems common for any good thing or kind gesture to be somewhat suspect—I recall someone telling about the woman who greeted someone on the street saying, “Isn’t this a beautiful day?” to which the stranger replied (distrustingly), “What do you mean by that?!” These days, a freely offered thing—whether a gift or a greeting—may be assumed to come with a “catch” and most of us have (at some point in our lives) likely uttered the words “nothing in life is free.”
And yet what we hear today in the scriptures contradicts this perspective: “everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and you that have no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price.” (Isa 55:1) Did you hear that?? Drinks are on God! God’s got you covered. It’s FREE. And what is it that God is offering? Life. “Incline your ear, and come to me; listen, so that you may live.” (Isa 55:3) The implication is that God offers things that—if received—lead to a life that is truly alive. I imagine that we all know how possible it is to stumble through life like the walking dead. I imagine we are familiar with the ways that our lives can feel lost, aimless, meaningless, passionless. I imagine that we or someone we know is thirsty for love, meaning, purpose, acceptance, peace. Have we ourselves never been hungry for something to do or to be that feels weighty and worthy of our very best efforts, some purpose that connects to something bigger than our own small vision? And today God says, “I have what you need to live, to really live! And it is free!”
When the prophecy first came, it was delivered to Israel at the end of a very long exile in Babylon. Whole generations had been born in the foreign land and the people likely had little hope in the old promises of God. With this prophecy it becomes clear that God’s words, God’s promises, will always be fulfilled. “For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return there until they have watered the earth… making it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and succeed in the thing for which I sent it.” (Isa 55:10-11) God’s promise to Israel is God’s steadfast love and a life filled with purpose: Israel is called to share God’s way of life in community with each other and also with the whole world. They are to be “a light to the nations.” (Isa 49:6, 55:5)
What God offers us isn’t that different from God’s promise to Israel. Each one of us is invited into God’s life—into God’s Kin-dom. Imagine you got an invitation to an open house in which all the good gifts of God’s Kin-dom were actively pursued…things like patience, kindness, compassion, playfulness, joy, mercy, friendship, justice, honesty, trust, peace, gentleness, self-control, love, creativity…Imagine you are welcomed into this open house by a host who knows everything about you—your greatest gifts, your saddest moments, your most painful regrets—and embraces you with open eyes, open arms, and a wide-open heart full of love for you. Your host sets a table before you with everything you need (and more) and invites you to stay. Imagine that you accept the invitation to make that house your home and continue to receive that extraordinary hospitality. Just think about how your life might change over time, how your mind might change, how your heart might change. This is the invitation we receive today—the invitation to receive God’s hospitality and to live as those formed and sustained by it.
What’s the catch? You have to be willing to receive it. You have to be willing to accept the invitation. That’s it. Receive God’s love, receive God’s call, receive the promises of God that will not fail. Why would we choose NOT to receive these things? It’s not a new question: “Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread, and your labor for that which does not satisfy?” (Isa 55:2) Eugene Peterson’s vernacular paraphrase of this passage says, “Why do you spend your money on junk food, your hard-earned cash on cotton candy?” God is asking, in essence, why are you rejecting the finest cuisine and, instead, trying to be sustained on junk food? Why? Perhaps, like some of those exiles in Babylon, some have figured out how to make a fine living in a foreign land and don’t think they need what God has to offer—so material wealth and the illusion of self-sufficiency is their daily bread. Perhaps some reject God’s invitation because they’ve been burned before and can’t trust that anything could be that good— so they end up living on insecurity and distrust. Perhaps some reject God’s gifts because they think they’ve got all the love they need with their new boyfriend or girlfriend—so when human relationships fail or disappoint, they end up gnawing on the bones of broken hearts and bitterness. Perhaps some are simply too overwhelmed with trying to get through the day to have time to show up and get the goods—so the well runs dry even as thirst increases. Perhaps some have started to believe that they aren’t worth God’s love or that their life is meaningless—lies do not sustain! Perhaps some are worried about what other people would think if they decided to take up residence in the Kin-dom of God—self-consciousness and pride are empty calories. Perhaps some have given up on God because, after all, “what has God done for me lately?”—really?!
In the story Jesus tells in the Gospel today, the people who were initially invited to the feast have all sorts of excuses for not attending. But the host of the party is determined to throw the party and extends the invitation to the poor and disabled, folks who—in that time—dwelled on the margins. When it is discovered that there’s more room at the host’s table, the invitation is carried outside of town to the “roads and lanes.” Folks on the margins and “outsiders” are welcomed to the feast of the wealthy and powerful. That is the story Jesus tells. And in the Isaiah prophecy, God invites those in exile, those who have been driven away, cast out, excluded from their home, to eat and drink for free. Perhaps some among all these groups made excuses and didn’t come, just as those first invited sent regrets. We don’t have the breakdown on RSVPs. But the point of both our scripture passages today has to do with the invitation. God extends an invitation to loved ones in exile; God extends an invitation to loved ones who have the means to buy property and oxen and to loved ones who are poor; God extends an invitation to loved ones who are married and to those who are not; God extends an invitation to those on the margins; God extends an invitation to outsiders. Some choose to reject God’s hospitality. But the table is set, the door is open, and everything is free for the taking. When Jesus ends his story saying “none of those who were invited will taste my dinner,” I hear both an angry, hurt, disappointed host whose gift has been rejected AND a sad moment of truth: those who rejected the invitation are missing out. The table is set and folks have chosen empty calories, tasteless food, things that do not truly sustain.
Over the past couple of weeks, we have been thinking together about what makes hospitality “radical.” We’ve explored “secret knocks” and liberal assumptions, invisible obstacles and dirty looks. We have learned the Latin phrase, tamquam Christus, calling us to welcome every guest as though they were Christ and we’ve pondered a bit about what that might look like. Today we are reminded that the best example of “radical hospitality” is found in the way that God loves unconditionally, invites all people, welcomes folks just as they are, and offers “food” that truly satisfies, food that leads us to abundant life. Spiritual master Henri Nouwen uses the language of being “fully received” as a way of talking about God’s welcome—the experience of being completely embraced, delighted in, forgiven of anything that needs forgiving, encouraged to keep growing and healing, and free to be yourself. Nouwen says that it is only when we have allowed ourselves to be received, welcomed into God’s unconditional love, that we can extend the same kind of welcome to others. He writes, “only when you know yourself as unconditionally loved—that is fully received by God—can you give gratuitously. Giving without wanting anything in return is trusting that all of your needs will be provided by the one who loves you unconditionally. It is trusting that you do not need to protect your own security but can give yourself completely to the service of others…When you know yourself as fully loved you will be grateful for what is given to you without clinging to it, and joyful for what you can give without bragging about it. You will be a free person…Free to love!”[i]
That is the kind of “religious liberty” that is truly at the heart of our faith. It is the liberty, the freedom, to love others as God loves us—which means to “fully receive” others just as we have been fully received. Barring the gates of bathrooms or borders is contrary to our call as those who seek to reflect life as it is lived in the Kin-dom of God. Standing by while others are systematically shut out of the feast of justice, equity, or full inclusion in the world and in the church is an affront to the God who calls us to radical hospitality. Radical hospitality is not just about what happens in our church when guests arrive—though that is critically important. (—if we can't even get that right, we won't be able to do the harder work that is required.) Radical hospitality is about receiving and then setting the table with all the good gifts that come from God and then flinging the doors of our hearts, minds, and doors open to share the feast with everyone, everywhere we go. Radical hospitality is a way of life that reflects the life we receive from Christ.
God doesn’t withdraw the invitation to live in the “open house” of the Kin-dom when our excuses carry us away. The invitation stands. It is free…so you—and others—might be free, too.
[i] Henri Nouwen, The Inner Voice of Love: A Journey Through Anguish to Freedom, New York: Doubleday, 1998, p. 65-66.
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