The Jesus I Never Knew, Why He Came:Mission

from my sermon on 9/23/12 from Luke 7:36-50

When I am invited out to eat, I usually go!  It is not a big moral decision for me.  I like to eat.  I enjoy company.  If someone is hosting, preparing the meal, and doing the dishes, I'm ususally there.  People like me what I like to eat.  I am an omnivore.  I never met a food I didn't like. 

Jesus like to eat as well.  So when Simon invites him to his house, Jesus goes.  This is not the only time that Jesus eats with Pharisees.  In Luke's Gospel, 2 other times Jesus eats with Pharisees.  In fact, in Luke, we find Jesus eating a lot.  It seems he will eat with just about anybody.  He eats with Levi a tax collector and Zaccheus a chief tax collector.  He feeds a crowd of more than 5,000 with a few loaves and fishes.  He eats with Mary and Martha in their home.  Remember how one of them sat at Jesus' feet and the other was complaining at having to do all the work in preparing the meal.  I call this story, "Gritching in the Kitchen."  I can't say the other word I could use.  Jesus has a Passover meal with his disciples...his followers who betray him, deny him, and desert him.  Only in Luke do we find Jesus breaking bread with his disciples on Easter evening at Emmaus, revealing himself to them in resurrected form.  Also in Luke Jesus proves that he has resurrected body by eating fish with his disciples.  It seems Jesus will eat with just about anybody.  In fact, he is accused of eating with tax collectors and sinners.

Then in Luke, Jesus tells lots of stories that involve eating.   In the story of the prodigal son, this wayward one is welcomed back with a feast of the fatted calf.  There is a story of a king who gives a marriage banquet that the guests refuse to attend.  Jesus makes the point not to invite those who can invite you back, but to invite the poor, the maimed, the blind, the lame....the vulnerable ones.  There is the story of the rich man who feasted sumptously every day and the poor man Lazarus at his gates whom he never recognized.

Why do we have so much eating in Luke?  What's this got to do with the message for today?  We are in the third week of this sermon series on the Jesus I Never Knew, talking today about Why Jesus Came, his Mission.  I can sum up in mission in one image, a table, a table that welcomes everybody. In the book, The Jesus I Never Knew, the author cites how the Jewish faith considers every table to be a little Temple.  It is a place of worship.  Let me be clear:  Jesus wants to welcome as many people as possible to the table.  This is the table of acceptance, of love, of forgiveness.

This reminds me of what happened the second time I went to the Holy Land.  It is a long plane ride.  You arrive in Israel jet lagged, exhausted.  They heard you through customs and passport control and onto your tour bus.  Some 40 of us pilgrims...we are not tourists, but pilgrims.  Our guide gets on the bus microphone while we are still in the parking lot of the airport.  He says, "My name is David, and I am Jewish.  This is our bus driver, Ishmael, and he is Muslim.  I know all of you are Christians.  This is what I have to say to you, 'Welcome home.'"

Now it may be written in the instruction manual for all tour guides in Israel to say these words at the beginning of the trip, "Welcome home," but they are still the right words to say.  We starting driving toward Jerusalem, and stopped some 7 miles outside of town at the village of Emmaus.  The sun was going down.  A monastary on the hill above us rang its bells.  David had us gathered on a grassy area.  He said, "I want to welcome you in the way that people have been welcomed here for millenia."  He took a piece of flat bread (I do this too).  He broke it and passed it among us. 

I want to say to you today, Welcome home.  Take a piece of this flatbread and eat, if you want to.  I went to some effort to find some that was wheat and gluten free.  It is just a piece of bread.  It is like a small echo of the sacrament of communion.  It is like a small foretaste of the kingdom of God.

Do you know what it is like to feel welcomed, accepted, forgiven?  I went to Boston College to do some study in spiritual direction.  Boston College is a Jesuit Catholic university.  We had the orienation session on a Sunday night.  They talked about the class schedule.  They talked about there being chapel every day, including communion every Monday-Wednesday-Friday.  After the presenation, I approached the priest who was in charge of the chapel.  I said, "I know that you have restrictions on who can take communion.  Listen, I am a United Methodist and I....."   He said, "Hold on.  You are welcome here."  The next day at noon, attended chapel.  The priest gave the invitation to receive.  I went forward.  I held my hands up.  The priest put a little piece of bread into my hands, and said, "The body of Christ for you."  I went to the chalice.  Do you know they use real wine?  Not like the grape juice we do.  It had a zing to it.  "The blood of Christ for you."  I wept.  I was included.

I am so glad that in our United Methodist tradition that we practice an open table, taht all are welcome.  You here me say month after month, "If you are willing to receive whatever Christ has at this table, then you are welcome here." 

I cannot think of a better image for Jesus' mission than a table where all are welcome.  I tried to make his mission about the Great Commission from Matthew 28, "Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, teaching them all that I have commanded you."  I tried to make his mission about the mirlacles and healings that illustrated his power.  I tried to make his mission about his teachings.  But nothing captures so succinctly and so well his mission as a table of forgiveness and love for all.  He doesn't just speak it; he models it.

And so Jesus eats with Simon.  He wants to eat with the woman who washes and anoints his feet.  It is funny how the woman shows more hospitality to Jesus than the host Simon does.  The woman already gets it:  she is loved and accepted. 

Jesus has a question for Simon and for us:   Do you see this woman?  Ouch!   We all have blind spots, people we would rather not see, not invite to the table.  The main thing I hate about preaching is that the first person I preach to is me.   So there he was on the corner of N. Lamar and 5th street with his sign that said, "Native American.  Need Food.  Anything Helps."  And I kept both hands on the steering wheel and stared straight ahead.  I stayed in my insulated bubble of the car.  When I got home that evening, I went to HEB, and I bought the gallon storage bags, granola bars, water bottles, etc. to make bags of grace so that I wouldn't be caught again without something to give.  Remember how I have instructed you to engage the folks on the street by asking them their name so that we can make this a personal transaction and not a business one.  Do you see this man?  Do you see this woman?

We know that direct aid is good, but that it is not enough.  I appreciate Alan Graham of Mobile Loaves & Fishes so much.  Yes, there is direct aid as those canteen trucks make their runs to feed the homeless on the streets of Austin.  But Alan says, it is more to do with dignity.  That's what he wants.  That's what the homeless want....dignity.  Alan sees the men and women.  He knows their names.  He has a vision of providing dignity.  He took me to a new store off S. 1st St. and Ben White.   There people are learning trades.  They take furniture that homes have thrown away.  Imagine 3 chairs with the bottoms torn out.  They place a 2 x 12 across the 3 chairs and make a bench.  They sand it and stain it and sell it for $80.  Imagine a man renting one of those bicycle ice cream carts.  For 8 hours of work during a festival downtown, he can clear a few hundred dollars.  Alan took me to East Austin where they have 27 acres of land.  He wants to build a village for the homeless.  There is a teepee.  Can you imagine living in a teepee for $200 a month.  If I were a kid, I would think that would be so cool.  They have taken travel trailers and rehabbed them and rent them for $300, or $400 a month of whatever the person can afford.  The vision is of a community that works together, taking care of gardens, doing the trash pick-up, handling security, going to 12 step  groups together.   Do you see this man?  Do you see this woman?  All are welcome.

All are welcome.  Last night Cathy and I went to the Pride Parade.  I cannot tell you how uncomfortable I am still after all these years. I grew up in the Panhandle of Texas where we didn't say the words, gay, lesbian, bi-sexual, transgenderer.  We didn't think such things existed.  I don't mean to make you uncomfortable either.  I found last night that all were welcome.  It was the 21 st year to have this parade.  Twent-one years ago there were 2 Methodist pastors brave enough to walk.  Last night there were some 8 Methodist congregations and over 200 Methodists walking.  As we walked, people in the parade and along the sides were shouting "Woooo, wooo."  I was not a "wooooer."  I was walking for my brother David and for all those who may have felt like they had not been welcomed by the Church.  This table is one of welcome, acceptance, love.

When I did my work for my doctorate here at Austin Seminary, I had a guy in one of my classes who was the pastor of the Metropolitan Community Chruch in Dallas.  The MCC is radically welcoming, especially of the gay community.  He said, "We have communion every week in our congregaion.  We lay on hands for healing every week.  People often tell me that this is the only touch that they get every week."  I cannot think of a better image for Jesus' mission that the table that welcomes all.

Let's sing it, "Be present at our table Lord, be here and everywhere adored, Thy creatures bless and grant that we, may feast in fellowship with thee.  Amen."