Do You Want To Go To Dinner?...Continued from page 2
Joe Blosser
But, confusion draws us into community. When students come across a problem they cannot answer, what do they do? They ask someone else for help ? they form community. Many good teachers put students in conversation with each other to solve problems together. Questions draw us into community. A problem with the men in the parable is that they had answers, or thought they did. They believed they could live life on their own terms, plan their own schedules, and manage their own calendars. But, those with answers ate dinner alone, accompanied only by their idols.
Offering answers like that ? hiring a new pastor or fixing the leaking roof will solve all our problems ? only kills the questions, kills community, and erects idols. There are genuine questions to be asked, deep pain and vulnerability to explore. This parable shows us that those most vulnerable are those welcomed to dinner. The poor and lame allowed themselves to be led. Their confusion drew them together, and amidst a roar of bewilderment and questions, they dined together.
It appears that because we accepted an invitation to God’s dinner with baptism we are like those shut out of God’s house. But at the end of every day when we sit in our chairs to relax, that same crazy crowd forms in the streets walking toward the host’s house. The dinner goes on. God’s dinner is not a one-night deal ? we didn’t miss our chance. God’s been serving up dinner for thousands of years. We can be among those welcomed into the banquet if we stop being individual excusers with answers and become a community of travelers with questions, trading our self-assurance for God-reliance.
The more we see ourselves as church and the less as individuals or factions, the closer we move to this banquet. The more we collect can goods together, study crucifixion films together, read scripture together, work Habitat together, and love together, the closer we travel to the banquet. Confused, but faithful, we, Church, are traveling together to the banquet.
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1. Bernard Brandon Scott, Re-Imagine the World (Santa Rosa: Polebridge, 2001), 115.
Luke 14:16-24
Jesus replied: "A certain man was preparing a great banquet and invited many guests. At the time of the banquet he sent his servant to tell those who had been invited, 'Come, for everything is now ready.' "But they all alike began to make excuses. The first said, 'I have just bought a field, and I must go and see it. Please excuse me.' "Another said, 'I have just bought five yoke of oxen, and I'm on my way to try them out. Please excuse me.' "Still another said, 'I just got married, so I can't come.' "The servant came back and reported this to his master. Then the owner of the house became angry and ordered his servant, 'Go out quickly into the streets and alleys of the town and bring in the poor, the crippled, the blind and the lame.' " 'Sir,' the servant said, 'what you ordered has been done, but there is still room.' "Then the master told his servant, 'Go out to the roads and country lanes and make them come in, so that my house will be full. I tell you, not one of those men who were invited will get a taste of my banquet.'"