The Incredible Invitation
Stories
Lectionary Tales For The Pulpit
Series VI, Cycle A
Imagine for a moment. You go out to your mailbox tomorrow and begin to sift through the contents: some bills, some junk mail, and so on. But your eye lights on one particular envelope that strikes your attention. The return address is simply, The White House, Washington DC. You look at it and wonder to yourself, "What in the world could it be?" You don't wait to get back to the house to find out about this one. You open the envelope and find inside an engraved invitation: "The President and Mrs. Astafickjickle cordially invite you to a state dinner in honor of the Prime Minister of Botswanaland at 8 p.m., January 30, 2009. Black Tie. RSVP." Wow! An invitation to the White House.
What will you do? It's not cheap to travel to Washington DC. The airfare is pricey. And then there's the hotel room and cabs and other meals, not to mention the souvenirs that you will have to bring back for family and friends. We are beginning to talk some serious money here. So what do you do? Do you accept the invitation in spite of the cost, or do you just toss it in the trash and not give it a second thought? Ha! You know very well that you would probably move heaven and earth for the chance to do something like that.
Suppose you have a good friend who is close to one of your favorite entertainers, a big name on a level with the late Frank Sinatra, for example. Suddenly, this friend invites you to come to Atlanta where the concert tour is stopping and spend the day with this big star, to be a part of the entourage, to get to sit and talk and just relax with one of the biggest names in show business. Would you go? You bet your life. After all, how many times in a lifetime do chances like this come along?
Suppose another situation: Out of the blue, literally, you get an invitation to visit with ... Jesus. Of course, this visit will not be in the White House or in a fancy hotel suite. But for someone who claims to be one of Jesus' followers, a Christian, that really shouldn't matter. But this is a different kind of invitation -- it's not for dinner. Unless you bring the food. It's not even necessarily in a home -- it might be in a sharecropper's shack; it might even be in a jail. It is certainly not "dress-up," because your host has nothing to "dress-up" with. Strange invitation, isn't it? Would you go?
Okay, enough with the imagining. We can fantasize about an invitation for dinner at the White House; we can dream about being able to spend leisurely hours with big stars. But that last one, the one inviting us to be with Jesus, is no fantasy. That one is real. And we read the invitation in the text.
"Whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me." That man is unable to get work because all he knows is millwork and he can't get a job because of the problems in the textile industry, Jesus is saying he is that man. Or the little old woman who, after almost ninety years of life, is now desperately lonely because she can't get out of the house, Jesus is saying the he is that woman. Or the young teenager who got hooked on drugs while trying to keep up with the fast life of his buddies, now in jail, caught for thievery to support his habit, Jesus is saying he is that boy. Or the little girl down in Central America, not knowing where or when she will get her next meal and not having any idea why her life should be that way, Jesus is saying he is that little girl. An invitation for us to come by. An invitation for us to take seriously. "Whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me."
What will you do? It's not cheap to travel to Washington DC. The airfare is pricey. And then there's the hotel room and cabs and other meals, not to mention the souvenirs that you will have to bring back for family and friends. We are beginning to talk some serious money here. So what do you do? Do you accept the invitation in spite of the cost, or do you just toss it in the trash and not give it a second thought? Ha! You know very well that you would probably move heaven and earth for the chance to do something like that.
Suppose you have a good friend who is close to one of your favorite entertainers, a big name on a level with the late Frank Sinatra, for example. Suddenly, this friend invites you to come to Atlanta where the concert tour is stopping and spend the day with this big star, to be a part of the entourage, to get to sit and talk and just relax with one of the biggest names in show business. Would you go? You bet your life. After all, how many times in a lifetime do chances like this come along?
Suppose another situation: Out of the blue, literally, you get an invitation to visit with ... Jesus. Of course, this visit will not be in the White House or in a fancy hotel suite. But for someone who claims to be one of Jesus' followers, a Christian, that really shouldn't matter. But this is a different kind of invitation -- it's not for dinner. Unless you bring the food. It's not even necessarily in a home -- it might be in a sharecropper's shack; it might even be in a jail. It is certainly not "dress-up," because your host has nothing to "dress-up" with. Strange invitation, isn't it? Would you go?
Okay, enough with the imagining. We can fantasize about an invitation for dinner at the White House; we can dream about being able to spend leisurely hours with big stars. But that last one, the one inviting us to be with Jesus, is no fantasy. That one is real. And we read the invitation in the text.
"Whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me." That man is unable to get work because all he knows is millwork and he can't get a job because of the problems in the textile industry, Jesus is saying he is that man. Or the little old woman who, after almost ninety years of life, is now desperately lonely because she can't get out of the house, Jesus is saying the he is that woman. Or the young teenager who got hooked on drugs while trying to keep up with the fast life of his buddies, now in jail, caught for thievery to support his habit, Jesus is saying he is that boy. Or the little girl down in Central America, not knowing where or when she will get her next meal and not having any idea why her life should be that way, Jesus is saying he is that little girl. An invitation for us to come by. An invitation for us to take seriously. "Whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me."
