God's feast as a counter-cultural vision...

NOTE: Here are my notes for this Sunday - September 19, 2010 - a time of worship and reflection shaped by Amos 8: 1-12 and Luke 16: 1-13. I believe this is our third week into our time of rethinking what "the Feast of the Lord" might be saying to our church and era. So, if you are around, please join us at 10:30 am.

Today’s gospel lesson has to be one of the weirdest, most challenging and spiritually perplexing parables to be found ANYWHERE in the Bible. Don’t you think that is true?

• Jesus starts out telling us a story about Bernie Madoff – or maybe it was Goldman Sachs – really celebrating the ruthless and totally aggressive actions of a corrupt financier. Let’s be clear: this man has not only has embezzled from his firm, he has cooked the books, too.

• And as the story unfolds Jesus not only asserts that this high powered, flim flam man has something to teach us about faithful living, but he goes on to say that the time has come for people of faith to get hip.

Streetwise people are so often smarter about how the world works than those in the church. They are on constant alert, looking for angles, surviving by their wits. So I want you to become smart in the same way—only I want you smart for what is right—using every adversity to stimulate you into creative survival, concentrating your attention on the bare essentials, so that you'll live, really live, and not complacently just getting by on good behavior. No, I want you to have life and life in abundance!

Isn’t this a trip – a uniquely disorienting story of faith – yes? Usually scholars and attentive people of faith can come to some consensus about Christ’s parables. Sure, they are explosive as Eugene Peterson likes to say – much more about detonation than explanation – but this parable – unique to Luke’s gospel – leaves the best minds of our tradition bewildered. Theologians are all over the map about what this might really mean. Which prompted one wise soul to write that this passage is proof that we are saved by grace rather than understanding or good works because it is so off the wall.

So let me say right out of the gate that I am not going to make any claims about finally figuring out the definitive meaning of this parable when those far brighter and more creative than me have been perplexed about it for 2,000 years. That would be hubris – and there is nothing attractive or faithful about that. In fact, the older I get the more I find myself taking refuge in Psalm 131:

Oh Lord, I am not proud; I have no haughty looks. I do not occupy myself with great matters nor wrestle with things that are too hard for me. No, I still my soul and make it quiet – quiet like a child upon its mother’s breast – resting my soul in the comfort of your love.

Still, I have a few ideas about what Jesus might have been trying to help us grasp in this odd parable. Frank Ramirez, a Church of the Brethren pastor in Pennsylvania, has been helpful in this regard suggesting that when Jesus does not condemn the con man – but lauds his behavior instead – this is a “backwards template for the way we as children of light ought to be taking care of one another! (AWAKE, Pentecost 2 2010, Year C, p. 14) It is a counter-intuitive example about the way creative people of faith might incarnate God’s compassion.

• You see, Jesus wants us to take care of each other as well as shrewd and calculating entrepreneurs take care of their investors. That is part of what it means to be a member of a faith community – we take care of one another – rather than just looking out for number one.

• Ramirez writes: Why then does it seem as if people of faith have such a hard time putting up with one another? Why are there often such profound tensions in our churches when we ought to be showing the world how to get along?

Now, this isn’t a new question – grumbling and selfishness have often plagued God’s people – and we would do well to keep this in mind. This morning’s word from the prophet Amos, offered to Israel 800 years before Jesus was born, isn’t exactly subtle when it comes to God’s displeasure about the way people of faith often treat one another in community or in society. Amos tells us that the Lord said:

I'm calling it quits with my people Israel. I'm no longer acting as if everything is just fine. The royal singers and choirs will wail when it happens." because Master God has said so. "Corpses will be strewn here, there, and everywhere. Hush! Be still! And listen to this, you who walk all over the weak, you who treat poor people as less than nothing, who say, "When's my next paycheck coming so I can go out and live it up? How long till the weekend when I can go out and get trashed?" And those who give little and take much, and never do an honest day's work. You who exploit the poor, using them— and then, when they're used up, you discard them… watch out because I’m taking stock of your sin!”

We know from the stories of Moses that God’s people often murmur and complain, right? We know from the stories of Jesus that not much had changed in his life some 2,000 years later. And we know from our own experience that some 2,000 after the life, death and resurrection of Jesus faith communities still find it hard to consistently express God’s compassion for the world. And this is where today’s weird parable just might be helpful to us in a totally upside-down kind of way.

First of all, if it is true that our parabolic con man is an inverted – or even backwards template – for what true discipleship looks like, then Jesus is telling us something about the counter-cultural nature of his community. This accountant who cooks the books, you see, is a total slave to the values of his culture: he is manipulative, shrewd, self-serving and almost completely oblivious of the social consequences of his actions. He lives as if he were the center of the universe. So as long as he remains fat and happy, who cares what people or Mother Earth experience in the wake of his selfishness? And this isn’t ancient behavior:

• Think of the political leaders from both Palestine and Israel who are currently trying to find common ground for peace after decades of selfish and violent behavior. Brother Benjamin Netanyahu and Mahmoud Abbas need all the help they can get as they try to rewrite history on the back of their shared experience of manipulating the fears of their people for short-term political gain.

• The same might be said for many of our own politicians – or the giants of Wall Street – who have confused avarice for compassion and short-term thinking for the common good. I’m told that it is likely that there will be over 4 million foreclosures in 2010 on top of the 3.9 million from last year.

So what does God’s alternative look like? You see, if our con man is really to be instructive, then he must point towards something healthier and holier – a vision of God’s way – rather than the confines of a bottom line culture obsessed with the market place. Thankfully, scripture is filled with sacred alternatives – and the most counter cultural is the Lord’s feast – a vision for us that fills both the Old and New Testaments. Often theologians speak of this as the “messianic banquet” that simultaneously heals the wounded and shares God’s vision for the fullness of life.
In her book, Breaking Bread, Sara Covin Juengst, writes:

The messianic banquet was a familiar image in apocalyptic writings. Jesus used it to remind his disciples of the origins of hope: not only would they receive deliverance from the bondage of sin, but also a sense of joy and gladness because wherever God’s table was found, the Lord was the host. There would be a feast of fat things – no more tears – and no more death. There would be unity and hope because we were now united in God’s grace.

Three passages from the Bible might be instructive for us: First, from the prophet Isaiah in chapter 25: 6-8 we hear that on:

This mountain, God’s abode, the Lord will throw a feast for all the people of the world, a feast of the finest foods, a feast with vintage wines, a feast of seven courses, a feast lavish with gourmet desserts. And here on this mountain, God will banish the pall of doom hanging over all peoples, the shadow of doom darkening all nations. Yes, God will banish death forever. And God will wipe the tears from every face. The Lord will remove every sign of disgrace from the people, wherever they are for such is the promise of God’s grace forever.

Second, listen for the counter-cultural word of God’s feast in Luke 14:

One time when Jesus went for a Sabbath meal with one of the top leaders of the Pharisees, all the guests had their eyes on him, watching his every move. Right before him there was a man hugely swollen in his joints. So Jesus asked the religion scholars and Pharisees present, "Is it permitted to heal on the Sabbath? Yes or no?" They were silent. So he took the man, healed him, and sent him on his way. Then he said, "Is there anyone here who, if a child or animal fell down a well, wouldn't rush to pull him out immediately, not asking whether or not it was the Sabbath?" They were stumped. There was nothing they could say to that… So he turned to the host. "The next time you put on a dinner, don't just invite your friends and family and rich neighbors, the kind of people who will return the favor. Invite some people who never get invited out, the misfits from the wrong side of the tracks. You'll be—and experience—a blessing. They won't be able to return the favor, but the favor will be returned—oh, how it will be returned!—at the resurrection of God's people.

And third that vision of the Marriage Feast of the Lamb of God in Revelation 19:

At the end of time when God has called together all the people from the four corners of the earth – all the tribes and all the nationalities together – there is a feast with the whole choir of heaven and earth singing “Hallelujah” together in harmony… and the Angel of the Lord will say: “Blessed are those who are invited to the Wedding Banquet of the Lamb of God.”

Now what do these three passages from scripture share in common? What alternative vision do they offer about life lived in the presence of God’s feast?

• Part of the vision is about joy, yes? “The idea of the messianic banquet is sensuous and lovely and filled with joy because it ushers in the end of sorrow.” (Holly Whitcomb, Feasting with God, p. 10) To live into the alternative of God’s love, therefore, is to find ways to celebrate within the midst of everyday and ordinary life.

• There is also something boldly inclusive about this feast, don’t you think? It is for ALL the people – not just Congregationalists or Catholics – nor only for Jews or Christians or Muslims either. How does Isaiah put it? “On God’s holy mountain there is a feast for all the people of the world.”

• And here’s another essential: the messianic banquet shows us that when we break free from the confines of our culture, then “the old order of living is dismantled and a new vision is both proclaimed and embodied… a vision that is more holistic and healthy, more humane and compassionate.” (Whitcomb, p. 11)

All of this from that one weird, perplexing but radically upside-down parable of a con man who worked creatively to take care of himself and his self-centered buddies: if those who are selfish and streetwise can do this, Jesus says, why can’t you who are the children of light? Sometimes it is because we don’t know the alternative to the obsessions of our culture.

And sometimes – and I think this is true for many of us – sometimes we are just too wounded to see beyond our hurt. For whatever reason, when we are profoundly broken or wounded, our vision is restricted – we lose the ability for a while to see anything but the darkness – even when the light is available.

• This means that those of us who can see the light – and the joy and the bounty available to us all at the Lord’s banquet table – need to live into the tender beauty of the feast all the more intentionally.

• How did the old timers used to put it: we need to be witnesses? Witnesses don’t have to proselytize – or become wildly evangelistic – ok? What does a witness in a courtroom do? They simply tell the truth as they have seen it as clearly and honestly as possible. Same for those of us able to live into the feast of the Lord: we have been called to speak of the joy and the inclusivity and the counter-cultural blessings of breaking out of the prison of our self-centered culture simply and honestly.

And when we do that we join Christ in advancing God’s banquet in the world: So here’s what I want you to do right now: we’re going to share a song – and as we do we’re going to distribute a small candle to you – there should be at least one for everybody.

• I want you to take that candle home with you: and sometime during the next week I want you to either light it for yourself if you find overwhelmed with the darkness.

• Or give the candle to someone else who might need a vision of the light. Don’t preach to them or even say a whole lot – maybe just something like, “I’ve been thinking about you this week and thought you might like this” – ok?

Father Richard Rohr of the Center for Action and Contemplation in Albuquerque, NM put it like this:

Somewhere each day we have to fall in love, with someone, something, some moment, event, phrase, word, or sight. Somehow each day we must allow the softening of the heart. Otherwise our hearts will move inevitably toward hardness. We will slowly become cynical without even knowing it—that's where too much of the world is trapped. So create and discover the “parties of your heart,” the places where we can enjoy and taste the moment—the places where we can give of ourselves freely to what is right in front of us. For if you're not involved in giving your thoughts, your emotions to others, "for-giving" reality, as it were, taking will usually take over. One style or the other eventually predominates in almost everybody’s life. So ask God to give you the grace to fall in love with something every day. Then you'll see rightly, because only when we are in love do we understand. Only when we've given ourselves to reality can we in fact receive reality.

credits:

1) Streetwise @ http://library.buffalo.edu/libraries/asl/guides/graphicnovels/recommend/rec-trade.php

2) From Iona @ http://www.iona.org.uk/ebulletin_feature0209.php/div

3) Street art @ http://www.unurth.com/275910/The-Fauxreel-Interview
4) Street art @ http://chicagoartmagazine.com/2010/08/street-art/

5) House @ www.rd.com/home-garden/what-to-do-when-foreclosure-hits/article47646.html

6) EAT @ http://www.soupiset.com/art.html

7) Sommer @ http://en.artoffer.com/Claudia-Faerber/Gallery/

8) Alice Zinnes @ http://www.alicezinnes.com/rama1pages/d-lightofdark.html

9) Candles @ http://www.nativity.dioala.org/Get%20Involved/nativity-reconciliation-ministries.html

10) Candles @ http://www.firstpreswheaton.org/worship/taizeprayerservice.shtml