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November 7, 1999 "Come to Supper, Kids!"
Back in Bartlesville, Oklahoma, many years ago, we all lived in our own little houses, with our own yards. Kids played freely up and down the neighborhood. I don't remember that we had either homework or TV so there was plenty of play time before supper. But every evening at 6PM sharp, my mom, like every mom, would go to the backdoor, fling open the screen, and yell out: "Bobby Gene! Come to supper!" And so up and down the block: "Eddie! Come to supper! Mary, Louise, Tom, Henry: All you kids, come to supper!" We have a deep and abiding desire to be called home, to be welcomed into familiar space by familiar love. Nothing like mom's good home cooking to reassure us! But we also have an equally powerful urging to leave home; to seek something beyond; to adventure into the unknown. We want to grow up! That is what a career is all about. That is what spirituality is about. We know we have a destiny which demands choices, movements, departures and arrivals. We sense the call of heaven. *********** The children of Israel in the stories from Exodus are making a series of fateful decisions about their spiritual home. Last week they decided to cross from the far side of the wilderness with which after 40 years they had grown familiar; to cross into the Promised Land. In today's story, their general, Joshua, summons the tribe to a great meeting at a place called Shechem. The Hebrews are about to be challenged to grow up. Probably because he was a military type, Joshua is precise and intimidating about why the Hebrews must choose God to serve. He warns them that Yahweh is holy and a jealous God. The verses l9 and 20 are troublesome for me because Joshua threatens that "Yahweh will turn and do you harm, and consume you, after having done you good." It seems that the Hebrew people were being asked to choose their future more out of fear than anything else. Fear is not a healthy motive for venturing forth in life; and not a good reason to choose God. Still, many Christians say: Unless you are good, you'll be damned; unless you are loyal to God, you'll be punished. Unless you subscribe to a specific set of beliefs and do exactly as a particular church tells you, you may be lost forever to heaven. Christians have always had common creeds, but these creeds are impressively silent on the particular issues which some Christians want to make the litmus test of salvation and of unity. Better, it seems to me to go with the creeds, affirming common agreement on a few essentials; and practicing tolerance on all other matters. But then we have the tough story from Matthew of today. Jesus sounds as demanding and judgmental as Joshua. The poor man who didn't make a wise choice in managing the talent entrusted to him is stripped of everything and thrown into outer darkness. We need to appreciate the context: Jesus has just left the temple in a deep funk. He has predicted the destruction of the temple and is focused on his own imminent death. He retreats with the disciples to the Mount of Olives where his friends begin to pester him about when Jesus will reign in glory and what will be the signs of the Kingdom. He responds with a series of parables of which today's is one. We also need to remember that the recollection is from the church of Matthew, a church in which considerable disillusionment had set in. Believers were, in fact, losing their hope in the return of Christ and the church was becoming stale. Matthew needed a Jesus to rouse the dullards! It seems to me that the application of the parable to us is that we do make a series of choices in life and that those choices will lead us closer to heaven or farther from heaven. We are accountable for what we do when we leave home. We are responsible for growing up. Like the Hebrews, we are continually challenged to choose this day whom we will serve. We respond in choices by the places we go and the things we buy; by the persons we choose as our friends and guides; by whom we seek as a life's partner. We choose God, or turn elsewhere, when we budget our income and its disposition; when we decide whether we will be present or absent at worship; when we decide to train our children and others' children in the way of the Lord or leave them to the mercies of the world. When we decide whether we will speak out against intolerance and bigotry, or turn convenient blind eyes to the hurting of others. It's hard to go out, and grow up, and venture through life with a demanding God who is jealous but also loving. Fortunately for us, we have the full context of Jesus teaching about God and our relationship with God to soften the judgement of Matthew 25. For Jesus told of a heaven which is not the antithesis of home but the completion of our journey. As the poet T.S. Elliott put it: "At the end of all our journeying toward heaven, we will discover that we have come home." The prodigal son found accountability and fuller life when he came home. Jesus spoke in other parables of the God who does not give just one chance, and then, should we fail, forever yanks the rug of His grace from under us. The God of Jesus specialises in second chances and many crossings of the river of meaning which winds through our lives. The river of meaning bends and turns several ways and crosses back upon itself so that we have other crossings into the Promised Land. And every time God is near. One of the great crossings toward heaven is when we make the adult's decision to be baptised, or when as an adult, we decide to reaffirm our infant baptism. The church asks us then: "Do you choose to serve God today? If so, do you see God in the face of Jesus?" Baptism is one of the great crossings from the home we have known toward heaven. But our journey does not end with baptism. We get chance after chance to respond to our baptism's vows. "Bobby Gene, come to supper!" That was my mom's urgent yet comforting call of a life time ago. I miss that comforting reassurance that there was a place always waiting for me with love's evidence at the table. And all I needed to do to belly up for the feed was to wash my hands! Jesus also gives us a call: "Everybody, come to my supper." Coming to communion is the response Jesus encourages us to make again and again. And just like the summons which echo in my memories of childhood, all I need do is wash my hands before coming to table. Beyond sincerity, there is no requirement, certainly no rejection, no exclusions. The churches at various times and for their own historical needs have fenced in the supper of Jesus. But we are moving away from those requirements because it's undeniable his supper we celebrate now. Jesus calls: "Come to supper, all you kids." Come to heaven; and come home.
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The Rev. Gene R.Preston14th Floor, Blk 36, Lower Baguio Villa Tel : 25516161 Fax: 25512114E-mail : gpreston@netvigator.com |
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