2004-08-29 A Different Kind of Banquet.doc - Page 2 of 2
Somehow, I think Jesus would suggest a different guest list, one that includes people who
cannot repay the favor, people like: the 12.5% of our population that is poor; the nearly 16% that
don’t have health insurance; and the 900,000 plus African American men who are in prison.
What’s interesting in this passage is that Jesus isn’t calling on us to provide for the poor
and disabled by giving them something. He’s telling us to invite them for dinner—but not so they
will invite us back because that’s not how it works in the kingdom. There’s another reason: The
passage we read from Hebrews says it like this in one translation: “Let love of brother and sister
continue; do not forget love of the stranger.”
You see, hospitality isn’t having each other over on Saturday or Sunday evenings but
welcoming those who can’t invite us back in return. And it isn’t sending food over to someone—
no one is a “project” that has to be fixed in the Christian community. But it is sitting together at
the table, breaking bread together as a clear sign of acceptance of one another as equals and
different.
What would that look like? At the risk of sounding like a stealth minute for mission or a
commercial for the Presbyterian Hunger Program, I’d like to tell you briefly about a new hunger
initiative I learned about while I was at the “Hope for a Global Future” conference—because I
think it sounds a lot like the model Jesus talks about.
Joining Hands Against Hunger is a new and exciting form of international mission that
joins congregations and presbyteries with overseas networks of church and community groups in
their fight against the causes of hunger. It affirms a model of hospitality and accompaniment.
In other words, it’s not a “top-down” relationship in which churches in North America
write checks or raise money to send over to support their projects. Instead the relationships are
built on mutual solidarity in which we sit at the table to learn about and accept each other. Our
congregations and presbyteries learn about the conditions and causes of hunger and poverty in
their context and then respond, not with our solution, but by listening and responding to their
assessment and plan of action. And fundraising does take place, but it’s to pay for our visits there
or theirs here for more talking and listening and understanding and accepting.
It’s a different kind of banquet. I hope there will be more of this to come here in our
presbytery and its congregations.
You know, this kingdom, this table, and this banquet Jesus talks about is a paradox. The
people who he tells us to invite are the ones society tells us are the misfits. Jesus tells us
something else: that he is those people. And he makes this outrageous claim: “Whoever
welcomes one of these little ones in my name, welcomes me; and whoever welcomes me,
welcomes the one who sent me.”
Wouldn’t it be absolutely fantastic to take him at his word and find out!
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