Your Shadow’s Invited to the Banquet

 Last Sunday, the Gospel reading was Jesus’ parable of the rich man who invites his neighbours to a great feast.  None of the invited accept the invitation so he invites all those who wouldn’t usually be invited to a rich man’s celebration – the poor, the halt, the lame, the blind.  This is well summarized by the Medical Mission Sisters in their song, I Cannot Come to the Banquet, which we sang at the worship service. Here is the chorus:

I cannot come.
I cannot come to the banquet,
Don't trouble me now.
I have married a wife.
I have bought me a cow.
I have fields and commitments
That cost a pretty sum.
Pray, hold me excused,
I cannot come.

The meaning of this parable seems clear to us.  It is easier to understand than some of Jesus’ parables.  God offers a banquet to us.  As Christians we are people who will be invited to God’s banquet that is prepared for us in God’s kingdom.  However, many of us who are invited to God’s feast with all the wonderful food and drink that will feed our souls, will decide we have better things to do than attend the Great Feast.   

That is the usual understanding of the parable.  I believe that it is perfectly valid and true.  However, I want to look at another way of understanding the lesson that Jesus is giving us.  What if we look at this from an inner perspective?  What is God offering to us about ourselves—about who we are created by God to be?  We have those parts of ourselves which are good and upright and live a life that is acceptable to us and to society. 

What then of the guests that the master invites when we don’t partake—the poor street people, the halt, the lame, the outcasts and people we wouldn’t dream of inviting to our banquets?  What about the parts of ourselves that are the aspects of ourselves that we don’t find acceptable —the street people within us?  We can look at those people invited instead of us as aspect of ourselves that we don’t find acceptable—those parts of ourselves that we don’t like and don’t even want to acknowledge.  These unacceptable parts can raise their ugly heads when we aren’t looking. 

Those parts of ourselves that we don’t want to acknowledge are part of who we are.  Carl Jung named those parts of ourselves that are unacknowledged and denied the Shadow.  They are also invited to the Great Feast as the parable tells us.  If we are going to attend the Great Feast those parts are going to attend as well.  We have to acknowledge them to God if we are to attend.  Otherwise, we will not be included in the Great Feast that God offers us. 

Take a few moments to think an aspect of yourself that you would not want to invite to a party.   What would it be like to welcome that part of yourself to a party that Jesus is throwing?  What if Jesus welcomed that part and made them the guest of honour.  How would you feel about that?  That is the part of you that Jesus truly wants at the party.  If we will acknowledge them and offer them to God we will be invited to partake in the Great Feast that Jesus offers us—acceptable parts and unacceptable parts. 

Your Shadow is accompanying you on your journey.  Why not get to know you Shadow and see what it offers you.  That will be a true blessing. 

 

Dare To Imagine God’s Dance Part 3

 January 2nd, I was invited to preach at the Nairn Mennonite Church.  The theme I was asked to preach on was the last in a sermon series they were using - Dare to Imagine.  The theme I was given is Dare to Imagine God’s Dance.  The sermons in this church are in the Protestant tradition of being twenty minutes or more in length which is significantly more than the usual Anglican ten minutes I am used to preaching, but I thought it was a great opportunity to explore a theme more extensively than usual so I embraced the opportunity.  I am sharing the sermon in three parts – last week was part two.  Today’s offering is third and final installment of the trilogy – to make it more in line with the usual length of this missive. 

In the story so far, God has danced the world and all that is including God’s greatest creation, into being.  God discovered that although there were many different ways of dancing with God, people needed many different rules in all those varieties of ways of dancing with God.  However, God also discovered that despite all the rules that allowed people to dance more dances with God than all the rest of God’s creation, God realized that something was still missing.  Then God realized, in the way that only God does, that people could not be a full dance partner to God.  God realized that this was so because, even though they were created in God’s image the rules prevented the dance from being all that it could be.

God sat down and pondered – something that God was getting very good at doing.  God pondered what would enable these human being – these sons and daughters created in God’s image - to be able to dance the way God had intended them to do – to dance fully in all the ways that God intended. 

What could God do to enable them to dance to all the vast variations of the music of the spheres that was available to them?

God pondered deeply, more deeply than ever before, and suddenly it came to God.  God would become one of them – one of us.  As proclaimed in the Gospel of John, the Word became flesh and dwelt among us.   We would have God as our dance partner who would show us how to dance to all the music of the spheres – to dance as God intends us to dance. 

Now, people have known this before today.  Indeed, there are many people who have known how to dance with God as God intends the whole world and all people to dance with God as our partner.  Actually, people have written songs exactly about this.  We actually sang one a few minutes ago – The Lord of the Dance:

I danced in the morning
When the world was begun,
And I danced in the moon
And the stars and the sun,
And I came down from heaven
And I danced on the earth,
At Bethlehem
I had my birth.

Dance, then, wherever you may be,
I am the Lord of the Dance, said he,
And I'll lead you all, wherever you may be,
And I'll lead you all in the Dance, said he

Now it may be hard to believe, but despite all that God has done to invite us to the dance of the spheres, there are still many people who don’t want to join the dance with Jesus as God intends us to dance. 

Sometimes we seem to believe that it is not right or proper that we should dance in all the many ways that God intends us to dance – to dance to all the many different types of dances which will show that we love each other the way Jesus loves us.  We are wonderful at coming up for reasons and excuses why we can’t dance those ways.  This also was expressed in a song. 

With apologies to the Medical Mission Sisters:

I cannot dance, I cannot dance at the banquet,
don't trouble me now.
I have married a wife; I have bought me a cow.
I have fields and commitments that cost a pretty sum.
Pray, hold me excused, I cannot dance.

So, I invite you to try a new dance – to listen for the music of the spheres that you haven’t heard before and to join in the dance with our perfect partner- Jesus Christ, and show the love of Jesus to the world.  I invite you to dance as if no one is watching.  You don’t have to know the steps or be afraid that you might get them wrong.  Jesus does not expect you to know the steps – and doesn’t expect you to be perfect.  What he does expect is for you to accept his invitation to dance at the banquet we all have been invited to.

So, to riff of another old Christmas hymn, rather than tomorrow being my dancing day, we are called to God’s dance today:

Today shall be my dancing day;
I would my true love did so chance
To see the legend of my play,
To call my true love to my dance;

chorus
Sing, oh! my love, oh! my love, my love, my love,
This have I done for my true love.

Jesus is our true love inviting us to the dance – so let us all dance the dance of love in all its variety. Amen

Sermon June 25, 2017 2nd Sunday after Trinity

I am sure we have all heard this parable of Jesus many times in our lives.  Indeed the Medical Mission Sisters made it quite well known with their popular hit in the 1970’s.  Regular, life-long churchgoers have heard it many times proclaimed and many sermons preached on it.  What then can we gain from hearing it one more time?  Is there anything that we haven’t considered before in this lesson by Jesus, the great teacher?

The thing that struck me when I read it this time was not the missed opportunity by those who were invited to the banquet.  Here they have a chance to attend a wonderful banquet.  Of course we think of this as the heavenly banquet which is offered to each of us by Jesus Christ.  I’m not positive but that is probably often the focus of sermons preached on this parable. 

I want to propose another way of considering the parable.  Let us look at the ones who received the invitation when the friends and neighbours excused themselves from the opportunity to attend.

The host was not dismayed or swayed from his purpose when everyone excused themselves.  No, he decided he would invite those not normally included in a great banquet by a wealthy person in Jesus time; the poor, he maimed, the halt, and the blind.  Indeed it is no different in our day—I cannot see Donald Trump or one of Irving’s or McCain’s or anyone of their ilk inviting people like that to one of their banquets.  Of course it is easy to point the finger at them but when was the last time any of us did that?  I can say that I have never done it—not that I have banquets, but I don’t invite them to dinner. 

Lorna and I have helped out at community dinners at our former parish in London but never have we held a banquet or party for the local people on the edges of society. We may give generously to charity but doing things arm’s length is not the same as engaging the poor face to face.

This certainly is one of the messages that Jesus has given us.  He tells us that blessed are the poor for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.  If we look at the set up for this parable we see that Jesus is telling his host that these are exactly who should be invited to a banquet.

He said also to the one who had invited him, ‘When you give a luncheon or a dinner, do not invite your friends or your brothers or your relatives or rich neighbours, in case they may invite you in return, and you would be repaid. ¹³But when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind. ¹⁴And you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you, for you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.’

There is a clear message of what we are to do; of how we are to live.  We are to do all those things that don’t come naturally or easily to us.  This is the counter-cultural Jesus speaking.  We are to turn the other cheek; we are to go the second mile; we are to love our neighbours; we are to love our enemies.  This is the Jesus who is asking us to live in a way that seem impossible and do the things that seem impossible. 

Jesus does not ask us to do the impossible.  So how are we to love our enemies or even hold a banquet for the poor and the halt and the lame?   I don’t believe that Jesus expects us to do something which is impossible.  We need to learn to crawl before we can walk much less run.  So how do we take the baby steps that will get us to that seemingly impossible place of loving our enemies?

The principle that you can only change yourself is that one that guides us.  Let’s look at those in the parable who are invited after the others refuse; those less than acceptable in society.  What if we consider those people to be us?  What does it mean if we are the ones who are the blind and the halt and the poor and the lame? 

When it comes to living the lives that God intends for us that is truly who we are.  We are blind to many aspects of ourselves that God created us to be.  We want to avoid aspects of ourselves that are inconvenient or downright unacceptable.   We are halt and lame when it comes to living the life that God want us to live.  We may try to take those halting steps and find that we are lame because we have not used the muscles of charity and compassion that God has given us.

So what are we to do?  How are we to follow Jesus and live the life he calls us to live?   The way to do it is to take baby steps.  You would not expect a new born infant to walk or talk much less read or write.  We need to take small steps as we begin to live the lives that Jesus calls us to.  We must above all not expect to do those big things right away or even in the near future.  And most important we must be able to truly forgive ourselves when we do not always succeed.  Jesus is the God who forgives us our sins; he forgives us our failures. 

The message from the angels, the messengers of God is, fear not.  Do not be afraid to try and to fail.  All that Jesus expects of us is to try and when we fail try again. 

Fear not, the Kingdom of God is open to us when we try. 

Amen 

Sermon June 14, 2015 2nd Sunday after Trinity

Chorus:
I cannot come to the banquet, I cannot come to the banquet,
don't trouble me now.
I have married a wife; I have bought me a cow.
I have fields and commitments that cost a pretty sum.
Pray, hold me excused, I cannot come.

Do you remember that song?  It was very popular in the 1960’s when it was performed by the Medical Mission Sisters. Both the singers and the song were surprisingly quite popular in the 1960’s.  Their big hit, Joy is Like the Rain, won a Grammy.  Perhaps we will have another Spiritual Revival in popular music in the future.  Miracles do happen and God does work in mysterious way.

I Cannot Come to The Banquet is based on the parable in the Gospel of Luke which is the Gospel appointed for today—the second Sunday after Trinity.  It is the story of a man who holds a great feast—a banquet and sends his servant to invite all the people he knows to come to the feast.  It turns out that each person he has invited has an excuse why he cannot come to the banquet.  The excuses are well explained in the chorus of the song; one bought a field, another has bought some oxen, another has married a wife.  They all ask to be excused from attending the feast.  Well on hearing that no one on his guest list can attend what does the founder of the feast do? 

His reaction is quite understandable at first.  He gets angry.  Here he has gone to all this trouble and prepared a feast and no one wants to come and share the celebration with him.  I’m sure all of us would feel the same way.  We could say at least they did send their regrets and just not show up.  However, rather than getting into a snit what does he do?  Rather than giving up he send his servant out and invites all the people who would not normally be included in—the poor, the halt, and the lame.  He wants his house to be filled with those that will appreciate the value of what he is offering.

The meaning of this parable seems clear to us reading it.  It is easier to understand than some of Jesus’ parables.  God offers a banquet to us.  As Christians we are people who will be invited to God’s banquet that is prepared for us in God’s kingdom.  However, many of us who are invited to God’s feast with all the wonderful food and drink that will feed our souls, will decide we have better things to do than attend the Great Feast.   The excuses given by the invited guest all sound reasonable to our ears.  I have business to take care of—my job is very high powered and I can’t spare the time for a dinner party.  I have land and animals to care for that require all my care.  And the best one of all—I have just gotten married and my wife and I are leaving on our honeymoon.  They are all quite reasonable from our perspective.  I can’t find the time to go to church on Sunday.  There are not enough hours in the day to read my bible or set time aside to pray and meditate and be in conversation with God and I don’t.  I am basically retired and have the intention of doing these things and sometimes I don’t find time to do things I know I should.  Have the time or inclination to help others in need like the Good Samaritan  We don’t live as if we know that our sins—those things which separate us from the love of God are forgiven by the sacrifice of our Saviour and Redeemer.  We do not live in the blessing of being loved by God unconditionally.   We do not live in the knowledge that we have been invited to the Great Feast. 

Well as I note, the message Jesus has for us is very clear.  If we don’t partake of the Great Feast that is offered to us in this life we will never partake in it.  The Passage ends, “For I say unto you, that none of those men (and I’m sure he would include woman today) which were bidden shall taste of my supper”.   A bitter lesson indeed.

 

That is the usual understanding of the parable.  I believe that it is perfectly valid and true.  However, I want to look at another way of understanding the lesson that Jesus is giving us.  What if we look at this from an inner perspective?  What is God offering to us about ourselves—about who we are created by God to be?  We have those parts of ourselves which are good and upright and live a life that is acceptable to us and to society.  We go about doing the things that we need to do in our lives—things which are right and good and necessary for us to do.  We take care of business—day to day life.  My wife Lorna and I have been getting settled into to cottage—getting the internet hooked up, dealing with broken parts of the well, trying to catch a squirrel in our crawl space, getting apple trees to plant, dealing with an issue with our neighbour—all ordinary day to day stuff that life involves .  We aren’t on our honeymoon by a long shot but perhaps we are still in our honeymoon phase of life in the cottage.  Have we forgotten to partake in the Great Feast that Jesus offers? 

What then of the guests that the master invites when we don’t partake—the poor street people, the halt, the lame, the outcasts and people we wouldn’t dream of inviting to our banquets?  What about the parts of ourselves that are the aspects of ourselves that we don’t find acceptable —the street people within us?  We can look at those people invited instead of us as aspect of ourselves that we don’t find acceptable—those parts of ourselves that we don’t like and don’t even want to acknowledge. 

Those parts of ourselves that we don’t want to acknowledge are part of who we are.  They are also invited to the Great Feast as the parable tells us.  If we are going to attend the Great Feast those parts are going to attend as well.  We have to acknowledge them to God if we are to attend.  Otherwise we will not be included in the Great Feast of life that God has given us.  Take a few moments to think an aspect of yourself that you would not want to invite to a party.   What would it be like to welcome that part of yourself to a party that Jesus is throwing?  What if Jesus welcomed that part and made him or her as the guest of honour.  How would you feel about that?  That is the part of you that Jesus truly wants at the party.  If we will acknowledge them and offer them to God we will be invited to partake in the Great Feast that Jesus offers us—acceptable parts and unacceptable parts.  Thanks be to God.  Amen