Who’s It For?
January 20, 2013
BMC- Luke 14: 15-24
Introduction: Gift Exchanges
During the Christmas season, we
participated in a number of gift exchanges.
On Christmas morning we did the more traditional exchange with our
immediate family in which we each had gifts for one another under the
tree. We began by passing out the gifts,
but to do this we must ask with each gift, "Who's it for?" Once we
know who it is for, we then know whom to give the gift to. From there we took turns opening a gift with
the youngest going first.
Opening presents with my parents
and with Beth's parents goes in much the same way. But when we got together with my mom's
siblings and my cousins, the aunts and uncles buy a gift for each of our
children. Then the rest of us
participate in a white elephant gift exchange.
For this we each take something from our home that we no longer want,
wrap it up and place it under the tree.
Everyone who places a gift in the
pile then draws a number from the hat to decide who gets to choose the first
gift. After the first person opens the first gift, the next person may either
chooses a gift or steals an already opened gift. This goes on until all of the gifts have been
opened. In this type of exchange it is
not about whom it is for and it is not even so much about giving, to be
honest. It is much more about me and
what I want than it is about whom it is for.
Then on the first weekend of
January we got together with our college friends. We also do a white elephant gift exchange
among the adults in that setting. In the
past, we had drawn names for the kids to exchange one $10-or-less gift with
another child. But this year we did
something a little different. This year
instead of buying children's gifts, we bought supplies for MCC relief kits and
assembled those kits. In this case the
gifts weren't for any of us. They were
for people in need that we do not even know.
There are different ways of giving
gifts around the holidays and the method that we use also affects the purpose
of why we do it. In the more traditional
exchange, we are expressing our love for someone by giving him or her a
gift. This is one of the 5 love
languages if you are familiar with Dr. Gary Chapman’s Book, The Five Love
Languages. The question of “who’s it for?” is answered by naming the person
that we are expressing love to.
In the white elephant gift
exchange, the purpose is not so much about giving as it is about taking. It is a game in which people try to get the
best of the gifts even if it means taking it from someone else who also wants
it. Strategy can even come into play if you have spouses involved. When we ask, “Who’s it for?” the answer is
that it is for me.
In the alternative Christmas giving
that we did with the kids at our college friends gathering, the purpose is to
give, but the giving was very open ended.
We are showing love to someone, but we don’t even know who that someone
is. And unlike the traditional giving in
which we benefit from seeing the joy of the person receiving the gift; in our
alternative giving, we typically don’t even get to see the appreciation for the
receiving of the gift.
Thus when we ask, “Who’s it for?” we might
respond that it is for people who are in need.
And that is true but at an even deeper level, I would like to suggest
that ultimately it is for the glory of God.
The alternative giving helped people in need, but ultimately it was done
for God.
When we give in this way, by giving
health kits to people that we do not even know, it is for their good and well
being; but ultimately the purpose goes beyond that. The purpose of what we are
doing goes back to being an expression of our faith. By giving in this way, we
have no tangible benefit as we do when we give to someone that we love or when
we participate in a white elephant gift exchange. Instead, it is an expression of our faith in
God and we do this to glorify God. It is
done for God.
All of this has me thinking about
the things that we do and whom we are really doing them for. What is the real purpose of the myriad of
things that we do as a body of faith?
Certainly there are many purposes for the things that we do, but
ultimately why do we do what we do?
Ultimately who is it for? To
think a bit more deeply about this, I would like for us to spend a little time
with the Parable of the Great Banquet.
The Parable of the Banquet
In Luke 14, we find this parable
about a great banquet. Based on the
context for this, we know from verse 15 that this teaching has something to do
with the coming kingdom of God. More
specifically, “this section is to proclaim loudly and clearly that those least
expected to share in the blessings of the kingdom of God will in fact share in
them, while in contrast, and surprisingly, those most expected to be
participants may very well be among those who will be excluded.”[1]
Jesus tells us that a man was
preparing to host a great meal at his home.
He had already sent out the initial invitations to let people know that
they were invited and when all was ready, he sent his servant to let them know
that it was now time to come.
When the servant went out, he
received excuses from those who were invited.
Commentators debate about how authentic these excuses were; but
regardless of how real they were, when the time comes for the meal, those
invited do not come.
When the servant returns home, he
is told to go out into the streets to bring in the poor, the crippled, the
blind and the lame; but that has already been done. So the master sends the servant out to the
highways and byways, the country lanes, to compel people to come in so that his
house may be full.
Now one of the interesting
questions about how we apply this parable to our lives is to ask, “Who are we
in this parable?” Obviously God is the
master who has prepared the banquet and wants it to be full. But who are we? Where do we fit in?
When Jesus first told this parable,
“God’s invitation had gone out to the people through the prophets. Now in Jesus the second invitation was
given. When the religious elite refused
it, the church was to bring in both those within the city (the Jews) and those
outside (the gentiles).”[2]
When we read it today, are we the
people who were initially invited to the banquet? After all, we know who God is and we have
accepted Him as our Lord and Savior, our master. Perhaps we are those who received the
original invitation. Of course if that
is the case, we may be a little concerned, because those are the ones who later
don’t come when everything is ready.
Those are the ones who had other things to do and sent their regrets
instead of attending. How often is this
true of us in our faith lives as well?
How often do we make excuses for not accepting God’s invitations?
Or perhaps we are the poor, the
crippled, the blind and the lame.
Perhaps we are the first round of the ones who are brought in to fill
the empty seats, the ones who weren’t originally expected but who are later
brought in. After all, we each have our
faults and our shortcomings. We each
have our hang-ups and our missteps.
Perhaps we did not receive the initial invitation but rather have been
brought to this place of worship is spite of our shortfalls.
Or perhaps we are the servant. Perhaps we are the ones who have gone out and
invited the original guests and received little more than excuses from them
about why they cannot come. Perhaps we
are the ones who go out to bring in the poor, the crippled the blind and the
lame. And perhaps we are the ones who
are now to be out compelling people from the country lanes and roads to come
in.
I’m not sure that we all have to
come to the same conclusion of who we are in this parable. We may each be at different places here, but
I find myself being struck by the call to compel people to come in. I am struck by the call to go out into the
roads and country lanes and to compel people to fill this banquet hall, to move
beyond invitation to come here and to move to compelling them or as the message
reads, dragging them.
But within this remains the
question, what is the purpose here or who is this for? The parable seems very clear to me. This is all for the master. It is his banquet, he has sent the
invitations and he is the one who says that His house will be full. This is all for the master not for the
servant and not even for the guests. It
is for the master and the purpose of these methods is the fill the banquet hall.
Who’s Our Faith for?
So when we take this question, "Who's it for?"
and look at the parable of the great banquet and then apply it to our faith,
what answer do we come up with? Who is
our faith for? Is it for us as in the case of the white elephant gift exchange?
Is it for each other, our community of faith as it was in our immediate family
gift exchange? Or is it for the unknown stranger in need and thereby ultimately
for God as it was with the kids at our college friends gathering?
Well as I considered this, it
seemed to me that it is all of these and none of these at the same time. How
can that be? Well certainly there is an aspect of our faith that is about us
and our salvation. And certainly there is an aspect of our faith that is about
the community of believers and mutual care. And of course there is a part of
our faith that is about helping the unknown people out there. These are all aspects of our faith and yet
none of these is really whom our faith is for because ultimately our faith is
for the glory of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Ultimately our faith is not
for these others. Ultimately caring for the other aspects of our faith flows
out of the fact that our faith is for Jesus.
And yet too often in the midst of
our culture we loose sight of this. Too
often we become so self absorbed that our faith is really about me and making
me feel better or getting what I want.
Too often our faith becomes about maintaining our community of believers
to the exclusion of a hurting and needy world out there. And too often our care
for those unknown that are in need becomes just about fixing a problem rather
than glorifying or testifying to the power of God in our lives.
When these three aspects of faith
while each important and good are not done for the glory of God first and
foremost, we are in danger of practicing “Churchianity” rather than
Christianity. We are in danger of building the church rather building the
kingdom of God, rather than injecting people with the gospel virus.
Don't get me wrong. I love the
church. I love coming together on Sunday mornings. I love Sunday school. I love
worship. And as odd as I am, I even enjoy a good meeting. I love the church.
And yet scripture doesn't call us
to build the church. It calls us to
spread the faith. And many times these
may be one in the same. Sometimes spreading the faith may also increase the
church, but other times it may not have such a direct outcome. And it may be
that we are in a day and age in which building the church and spreading the
faith are not synonymous.
Our purpose is to experience and
extend the gracious rule of God. Our
purpose is not to experience and extend the Bethel Mennonite Church. True we
can and do experience and extend the gracious rule of God through Bethel and
this is good; but once again it is not the center, it is an outgrowth. Jesus is
the center and keeping Jesus at the center requires to live the faith in our
daily lives.
Neil
Cole puts it this way, “In many of the churches in the West, ministry is done
for Jesus, but not by Jesus – and therein lies a big difference. If we evaluated our churches not by
attendance or buildings but by how recognizable Jesus is in our midst, our
influence would be more far-reaching and our strategies would be far more
dynamic. Unfortunately, it is possible
to do more and more of the things that make up the five traditional qualities
of church but not demonstrate anything of the person or work of God in a
neighborhood. But if we start our entire
understanding of church with Christ’s presence among us, then we will want to
see something much more.”[3]
How will we fill the house?
Christ’s
presence among us is the beginning of what it means to be church. Our faith, ultimately, is not for us, it is
for God. And our parable suggests that
we are to be going out to the highways and byways to compel people to come
in. How are we to do this? I’m really not sure since ultimately that has
to be the work of God; but here are my suggestions for us to consider.
- Meet People at their Point of Need: The people around us have needs whether they be on going or points of crisis. When we are able to meet them at their point of need, this is both living out our faith and creating an opportunity to compel them to Christ.
We are good at
this. We participate in a number of
ministries from MDS and Habitat for Humanity to Homework Help and Our Daily
Bread. We participate in West Liberty
Cares and we assist our friends and neighbors.
The challenge may be developing or growing our relationship to people in
need beyond that point of need.
- Go to where the people gather: This may be more of a challenge for us. Where are the spots in West Liberty that those who do not yet have faith in Christ gather? Is it at school or sporting events? Is it in settings like the Labor Day Festival? Where are the places that people gather that we can go to and interact with them?
- Ask those outside of faith for help. Invite them to minister to you: We tend to always think of the ways that we can minister to those that are in need and we should minister to those in need. But let’s be honest, real relationships are about mutuality, about give and take.
How many of us
maintain friendships in which we feel like we are being taken advantage of all
the time or that it is really all about him or her? We need to find ways in which we can have mutuality
with those in need that we can also receive from them as well as provide aid to
them. Doing so not only develops a more
authentic relationship out of which we can share our faith, but it also brings
people dignity and self worth. Something
that so many people lack but desperately long for.
Conclusion
What we do
and how we do it shapes the purpose of what we do in faith as it did in the
various gift exchanges that I participated in.
As the parable of the Great Banquet suggests, our faith like the banquet
is ultimately for God not for us. Christ
must be our center and out of that everything else about our faith must
flow. May God bless and guide us as we
seek to live out the faith that He has called us to.
Amen.
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