August 8, 2010
(Eleventh Sunday after Pentecost; Proper 13)
(From The Lectionary Page)
Fear and the Heavenly Banquet
One of our former Dean’s favorite pastimes is taking in old episodes of M.A.S.H. At some point in the last couple of weeks, he and Linda Sue were chuckling about a favorite episode, that seems relevant on some level to today’s gospel lesson. The M.A.S.H. compound is under attack by enemy planes, and as bombs are heard exploding, people are frantically trying to figure out what is to be done. Frank Burns races into the room, almost beside himself with panic, and shouts, “What are we going to do? We’ve got to do something! Anything!” Hawkeye, rather calmly responds, “I’m with Frank. I say we do anything.”
Something about today’s gospel lesson at first seems to have that same sort of tone. The Son of Man is coming. You’d better be ready! Be vigilant! Taken by itself and with this being the driving message, I’m not sure how helpful this exhortation is. It’s helpful, I think, to consider first the context of Luke’s gospel:
- who he was writing to
- what was going on with that community that helped him to choose his words.
In becoming a little more clear about what the writer of Luke’s gospel was trying to say to those people, in that time and place, we can often find new insight into its meaning for us.
Luke’s gospel was written for a community who was slowly beginning to realize the result of their choosing to be disciples of Jesus. Persecution, it now seemed, would be their life. Such a threat had begun to make their already difficult lives nearly impossible. The common cry of disciples to community leaders must have been something like, “What are we going to do?” But these leaders did not simply respond with, “Be vigilant!” There is more to Luke’s message to his threatened community, than to suggest that Jesus’ returning to find them unprepared was an even bigger threat. That would have been no more useful than Frank Burns’ hysterical response in M.A.S.H.
Rather, Luke tells his community some things about God that helps them to keep current events in perspective. “Do not be afraid,” he says. “It is God’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.” This is not a conditional statement. In fact, an equally valid translation of this phrase might read, “It has been God’s good decision to give you the kingdom.” They cannot take that from you. In fact, nothing they could choose to take from you, or even to give you, has any meaning at all, when this is your reality. Now this message has teeth. This message offers people a new perspective on what is happening to them, that returns meaning to their world.
But the implications of Luke’s message do not end here. Verse 37 begins with the phrase, “Blessed are those slaves…” The following verse ends, with the exact same phrase. In what could be called “Biblical scholar-speak”, this is called a chiasma. It forms a sort of sandwich around a phrase or idea that the author wants to highlight. One layer farther in, we find language about the master’s return. And at the very center of this sandwich is the image of the master, serving those blessed slaves. The highlight of the message, then, is the old, old Hebrew image of the heavenly banquet.
This image recalls the promise in chapter 25 of Isaiah. The banquet that God prepares there, initiates “the destruction of the shroud that is cast over all people.” Tears are dried, disgrace is removed, and death is conquered. This feast served by God represents both God’s intense love for His people, and the final justice that will heal the hurts that we now feel so deeply. Luke gives to his community the image that, once again as in ages past, helps them to see meaning in life. It gives them a broader perspective of the world, one in which God’s presence runs deep. What we see now is not all there is to the story.
We need this image today as much as ever. Perhaps for different reasons than Luke’s community, but we need it all the same. The banquet reminds us that God’s justice will happen. Things will be made right. It helps us to get beyond the bickering and finger pointing between denominations and political factions, that obscures God’s presence and freezes us into inaction. This image of a God that cares so deeply for his people, his creation, pushes us beyond these anxious responses to an uncertain world. It gives us the perspective that returns meaning to this world, and reminds us that being prepared, simply means to care for people and for creation as God cares for them. It tells to remember God, because God has remembered us. We are unfrozen, and free to feed to someone. Free to be gentle with those who are different from us, allowing space for human dignity, and the possibility that for all our good intentions, we may be the one who is wrong rather than them (or that perhaps none of us has it quite right). It offers us a renewed opportunity to live thankfully, rather than living fearfully.
When panic and helpless anxiety are pounding at your door, go back and look at Isaiah’s account of the heavenly banquet. And read again how Luke uses it here for his anxious community. It can be truly a life changing experience. It can help you to see and name your anxiety, and maybe even chuckle at it. “I’m with Frank. I say we do anything.” This image becomes for us something of the fatherly voice, that understands his children’s fear better than they do, and says to them, “Don’t be afraid. It is my pleasure to give you even my kingdom,… to care for you.”
Amen.
