I'm sure we all
played the familiar game: who are the three people you would like to invite to
dinner and why. How about Mother Theresa, Martin Luther King, Ronald Reagan,
Mary, St. Paul, and my parents. Needless to say, Jesus was always at the top of our list. The
proposed dinner guests would invariably change depending on where we were at
given points in our lives. Jesus was a constant.
However, after reading Luke these many weeks I wonder if we might rethink inviting Jesus to dinner. His last outings in Luke have made me a little uncomfortable. Chances are he’s likely make a scene and create a disturbance. Could it be possible that we could find ourselves siding with the Pharisees as we raise our eyebrows at his disheveled group of “party goers?” They tended to eat and drink to excess. And what about the woman who in the middle of having a “meltdown,” crashes a dinner party of the elite and cries all over Jesus’ feet? What about Jesus meddling in family business and taking poor Martha to task for complaining about her sister Mary, who instead of helping with the dinner, is hanging around with all the men in the dining room. And this week (Luke 14:1, 7-14) he is not only telling us who to invite to our party, but where they should sit when they do arrive. Frankly, Jesus can be a risky guest and makes us a little uncomfortable.
And that’s precisely the point in Luke’s gospels. He warns us about becoming too comfortable with protocol for protocol sake. Self-imposed cultural niceties can easily become devices to exclude “others” who are different from us. Of course it’s easier for us to associate with those who are just like us and keep us in our comfort zone. But maybe we should ask why do they make us uncomfortable? Do we see in them, something about ourselves that make us uncomfortable? Associating with the “disenfranchised” cannot help us socially, economically, or emotionally…but what about spiritually??
However, after reading Luke these many weeks I wonder if we might rethink inviting Jesus to dinner. His last outings in Luke have made me a little uncomfortable. Chances are he’s likely make a scene and create a disturbance. Could it be possible that we could find ourselves siding with the Pharisees as we raise our eyebrows at his disheveled group of “party goers?” They tended to eat and drink to excess. And what about the woman who in the middle of having a “meltdown,” crashes a dinner party of the elite and cries all over Jesus’ feet? What about Jesus meddling in family business and taking poor Martha to task for complaining about her sister Mary, who instead of helping with the dinner, is hanging around with all the men in the dining room. And this week (Luke 14:1, 7-14) he is not only telling us who to invite to our party, but where they should sit when they do arrive. Frankly, Jesus can be a risky guest and makes us a little uncomfortable.
And that’s precisely the point in Luke’s gospels. He warns us about becoming too comfortable with protocol for protocol sake. Self-imposed cultural niceties can easily become devices to exclude “others” who are different from us. Of course it’s easier for us to associate with those who are just like us and keep us in our comfort zone. But maybe we should ask why do they make us uncomfortable? Do we see in them, something about ourselves that make us uncomfortable? Associating with the “disenfranchised” cannot help us socially, economically, or emotionally…but what about spiritually??
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