Parables: RSVP: The Challenge of the Banquet Response
Luke 14:15-24
Pastor Richard Dahlstrom, Sr. Teaching Pastor
www.youtube.com/c/spiritsoulbodywholeness
- Act I: The Invitation: COME! For everything is ready now
- Act II: The Rejection of the Invitation
- Act III: Who Cares?
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Discussion Questions
Before questions, attempt to give the group a bit of a summary of the main points of the sermon and then choose a few questions that fit your group’s needs and style. We don’t intend for you to use all of these. Three to five questions may be a good number.
Begin by reading Luke 14:15-24 aloud, taking turns reading the passages.
Pray over the group before beginning discussion.
- Richard used the analogy of hiking through the Alps in rain and wind with clothing inadequate to keep him warm. He then described the beautiful experience of arriving at a warm hut with hot chocolate, food, and friends. What storms are you seeking refuge from at this time in your life?
- Based upon the analogy from the first question, what “inadequate clothing” has left you chilled and “spiritually hypothermic” these days?
- Where have you been settling for “fast food meals” instead of the feast God has prepared for you? One of shalom, purpose, restoration, and love.
- How might you respond with a “yes” to the invitation to God’s feast this week?
- Richard described excuses as a way of shielding oneself from your true reality. What excuses have you made that keep you from God’s table? Why?
- Richard suggested that brokenness brings the hunger for God’s invitation to the table. When have you experienced this to be true in your own life?
RSVP: The Challenge of the Banquet Response
Text: Luke 14:15-24
OPENING ILLUS (ILLUSTRATION): hutte to hutte through the Alps… you can describe it, but no words do it justice — people from various nations, all of whom share a common love that unites them in spite of vast differences, are gathered around a table to eat excellent food — (PICTURE of name cards)
Context: Jesus is at a house of a leading religious leader… it’s a party of some sort - the leaders are watching him - not to learn from him from a posture of humility, but to catch him in some sort of perceived error. He’s been criticized and scrutinized from the first of his ministry, and today’s another day like that. He heals a man - they challenge whether it’s legal to heal someone on the sabbath… Jesus responds, but then continues to teach by changing the subject and telling parables about banquets.
He’s at a banquet and sees people vying for positions of honor - and Jesus declares the way of Christ is to not seek places of honor — instead of seeking honor, let honor come to you. — Proverbs 27:2 — let another praise you and not your own lips
Next, he speaks to us, not as the guests but as the hosts and says, don’t invite people with a transactional mindset — don’t invite people on the basis of whether they can repay you - IN FACT - just the opposite — because everything we have is, at the root, a gift from our creator, not earned as transaction, but received as gift - carry that mindset into your hospitality and generosity.
IOW (In other words): there’s no transaction when it comes to breathing air, or drinking water, or enjoying the beauty of a sunrise or a starry night, or drinking water because of the reality that rain and snow waters the earth. These things are not earned - not given on the basis of our behavior, or our faith construct, or our gender identity, or our level of wealth. They’re JUST. FREELY. GIVEN.
In these words about not seeking the place of honor, and not inviting only those who can pay you back… he’s offering word pictures to describe the kingdom of God - and in both cases, he’s contrasting the kingdom of God to the transactional models of striving to climb to a place of prominence, and of viewing people through the lens of what they can do for you.
Next, someone responds in a way that shows Jesus they understand nothing of what he just said: “It will be great when we’re all eating bread in the kingdom of God” — this would have been a known reference to Isaiah 25… in the CW interpretation would have been: we - the ones in this room - the Pharisees - the religiously educated - the ones who have been diligent to live morally and righteously - we will all be dining together someday in the kingdom of God - we’ll be in not out… at the top not the bottom… saved not lost.
JESUS RESPONSE… our parable for today - which a clear declaration of kingdom values, offered through the lens of “rsvp” (declare French meaning), is offered in three acts
I. Act 1: The Invitation: COME! For everything is ready now -
This implies that the people had already received some version of a ‘save the date’ invitation - IOW: they knew that there was a banquet coming. — and now this servant is declaring that ‘the banquet is here!’ - IOW: if you’re going to come to the banquet, you need to come now.
It’s a simple parable, in a way, when it comes to this matter of the invitation. THE POINT IS SIMPLE: when it’s time to enter the kingdom - entrance will require a shifting of priorities!!
This is the simple and very basic meaning of “repent” - it means to turn around… to move from here to here… and you can move toward this new kingdom without moving away from your existing priorities.
APP (Application): this parable is simply a story version of a direct teaching of Jesus: ‘the kingdom of heaven is at hand, repent and believe the gospel-” - Mark 1:15 -
IOW: there’s good news — a kingdom is now present on the earth, along with a present, and soon to be resurrected king - and the vision of this kingdom is SHALOM… OR PEACE AND WELLBEING… OR GOOD NEWS OF GREAT JOY.
THIS KINGDOM IS GOOD NEWS precisely because it offers shelter from the domination systems that create the storms of our world.
ILLUS: on the way to _____ alm. Under-dressed - heavy rain - shirt that soaked rather than wicked. UGH… freezing… almost to the point of hypothermia.
It’s a picture of the kingdoms of this world… it’s the storms of the domination model… slavery, etc.
We’re in a world of storms: economic, medical, emotional, physical, social, and of course spiritual - it’s a world of striving to gain - it’s a world of conflict - it’s a world of winners and losers — we’re going after it: at school, at work, in our relationships, and worst of all, in our so called “walk with God”… we’re pummeled when we fail.. when we succeed we’re afraid of losing it — so we’re anxious then too. None of it is good.
Romans 14:17-18 - you need to depart from the banquet imagery for a bit here to get this: the kingdom of God is not about consuming - not about buying and selling - and expanding influence - and upward mobility. — we buy and sell,we have influence, we have a measure of wealth, whether much or little— but none of these are intended to define us - we’re invited to be guests at Banquet in which we’ll received AN ABUNDANCE… of beauty, healing, forgiveness, joy, hope,fellowship,celebration, and peace— it won’t be a banquet where, underneath surface politeness there’s bitterness, cynicism, or disengagement - because this banquet is predicated on justice, reconciliation, forgiveness - and a renunciation of all forms of domination as we begin to actively live into shalom!
What could be better? — the best analogy in my own experience is the Austrian Hutte… I’M nearly hypothermic because I overdid on minimalism for packing… it’s raining and 38 degrees… I’m shivering and feeling water run down my back. And then we see a hut…
IT’S shelter… physical warmth, and fellowship warmth
(PICS)
II. Act 2: The rejection of the invitation:
REMEMBER: these are the insiders.. these are the people who have full access to the master. These are the people who, in their own estimation, are assured “a place at the table for all eternity” by virtue of their religious knowledge, and zeal.
AND YET… in spite of their own self perceived identity as insiders, and the “worthy ones” - when it comes time to leave their other obligations behind and come to the banquet, they make excuses.
Some important observations:
The excuses are excuses. THE REASON THIS MATTERS SO MUCH: because when we make excuses, we’re able to convince ourselves that our hearts and desires are in the right place… but that circumstances beyond our control are preventing us from participating in what God is offering us.
- The rationale for excuses can cut two ways: I’ve made excuses in order to make the other person believe I really want to be there, when I’m actually secretly relieved that I don’t need to attend something… ILLUS: when I was in HS - I was always grateful for Ice Hockey games on the weekend - it got me out of visiting relatives I didn’t like being around!! - SAME THING: we may try to placate god, or the community of faith by saying, “my heart is with you… but circumstances beyond my control… etc”
- WE ALSO MAKE EXCUSES to convince ourselves. “Of course I’m all in to run that marathon, or do cross-fit, or stop eating Ben & Jerry every night — it’s just that right now, I have academics, or family matters, or $$ stress, or whatever. I’ll be all in… ‘as soon as…”. And then, ‘as soon as’ never comes, but we don’t care, because by then we’re convinced that we’re endurance athletes, or in shape, or whatever - but we’re deceiving ourselves.
APP: don’t make excuses — our beliefs and priorities aren’t revealed through what we say… but what we do. ILLUS:
The excuses are all transactional… your kingdom Jesus, is about freely giving and receiving… about grace… about shalom, which means, enough for everyone at the table, and not just enough, but abundance. This is the best place to read Isaiah 25:
6 On this mountain the Lord Almighty will prepare
a feast of rich food for all peoples,
a banquet of aged wine—
the best of meats and the finest of wines.
he will swallow up death forever.
The Sovereign Lord will wipe away the tears
from all faces;
he will remove his people’s disgrace
from all the earth.
The Lord has spoken.
But the response: “NO… we can’t come to this place of healing and receiving and grace and abundance… because we’re too deeply embedded in the world of buying and selling, of transactional relationships rather than grace based relationships. We just can’t do it!! We’d love to… but we can’t!!
APP: why can’t we? It’s because these two realms are fundamentally different — and the reality is that if we’re identified with the commodification of everything, with the buying and selling, the consuming and producing, the gaining and losing —
If that’s not just a culture we live… but an IDENTITY WE CHERISH AND CLING TO… we’ll miss the kingdom
REPENT = leave that behind as your identity structure - and move into the community of Shalom
ILLUS:
III. Act 3: Who Comes?
Then the master of the house became angry and said to his servant, ‘Go out quickly to the streets and lanes of the city, and bring in the poor and crippled and blind and lame.’ And the servant said, ‘Sir, what you commanded has been done, and still there is room.’ And the master said to the servant, ‘Go out to the highways and hedges and compel people to come in, that my house may be filled.
The master is angry… it doesn’t say he’s angry at the guests making lame excuses, so we don’t really know the object of his anger. But if you look at God’s response to Adam and Eve in the garden, you come to discover that God’s greatest ire is directed to Satan… the one who switches the price tags, so that we end up squandering our days in anxious pursuit of either pleasures, or powers of various sorts - all of which will pass away - and we do this INSTEAD OF FEASTING ON CHRIST!!
So the host directs his servant to go out and invite those more likely to come. And who are they? THEY’RE THE PEOPLE WHO KNOW THEY ARE HUNGRY…
ILLUS: this is AA - this is the person who knows that have PTSD and decides to do something about - this is the person whose lost their support network through divorce, or abuse, or whatever, and actively seeks friendship and support - this is the person in deep depression because his dad died when he was 17 - this is the person who’s tired of running, tired of hiding - this is the person who’s longings for shelter, and safety, or beauty, or healing, or peace - are SO DEEP that they’re willing to move toward Christ - which means to move toward to confession, community, truth telling, reconciliation, forgiveness, celebration - all of it.
WHEN YOU COME INTO THE HUTTE.. you experience the whole hutte!!
But that’s OK - you’re hungry/ or cold/ or lonely/ or all three.
CLOSING ILLUS; (PICTURE) - the most common meal eaten in America = alone in your car