GOT TIME FOR A BANQUET?
( A Sermon Synopsis by The Rev. Ernest R.
D. Smart)
Scriptural reference: St. Luke 14:15-24
St. Andrew’s Christian Community,
Sunday, October 14, 2007
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Have you ever thought about the number
of weddings you have attended? I reckon
that, as a minister of course, I have married around 1800 couples and attended
their receptions. That’s a lot of
talking and a lot of eating!
It is an honor and a privilege to be
invited to a wedding. If you are in any
doubt, ask someone who did not receive an invitation.
Jesus’ story in St. Luke chapter 14,
vs. 15-24 is about a great banquet to which all the important and prominent
people in the area were invited. Jesus here
is making use of the very Jewish idea that we are all invited to a great feast
by God.
What a privilege and honor is bestowed
upon all of us to attend such a magnificent banquet. But, almost incredibly, there were some folk
who had “other priorities.” Excuses
poured in. One fellow had bought some
real estate and found himself just too busy. Another had bought some new farm animals and
he was too busy. A third had just got
married and he was too busy.
Imagine for a moment if you had been
the host. Disappointment and upset
hardly cover it. The host was downright
angry, and with just cause at being so ignored.
So he asked his servants to invite everyone else they could find to
enjoy the feast. “The
poor, the crippled, the blind, the lame.”
A few years ago there was a bride to
be, Kathleen Gooley, who paid her caterer a
non-returnable sum of $4,000. But the
groom never showed up. So she had her
bridesmaids call around some homeless shelters and drug rehabilitation centers
and invited a whole lot of needy folk, just like the parable. As she reckoned, “Somebody somewhere ought to
get to enjoy themselves.”
When you come to think of it, the
excuses in the Bible story were not bad excuses. The first excuse was a matter of important
business. The second excuse was a matter
of novelty and new opportunity. The
third excuse was a matter of home priorities.
After all, he had just got himself married. These were genuine excuses. Yet they, in the eyes of Jesus, reflected
mixed up priorities.
Today’s life-style is so addicted to
speed. Almost every journey we make is
not usually addressed in terms of distance but in time. How far is
When we allow priorities to get a bit
skewed, then something is wrong. It
happens to all of us. For many, excuses
for not attending the great banquet of Worship each Sunday have become a matter
of course. But reflect on this: we are given 168 hours every week to attend
to all our home needs, business needs, personal
needs. Does God believe and accept our
excuses?