Luke 14: 1, 7-14
Text Focus Sentence: Jesus encourages disciples to invest their hearts and live fully into God’s reign. Instead of facing life with fear, those who know God’s generosity are always ready to receive from God and give to others.
Sermon Focus Sentence: Jesus teaches that giving with the 
expectation of getting something in return misses the mark; it is when we give to those unable to return the kindness that the true work of God is done.
Function Statement: Give to those who are in need
“To Give or To Give”
Questions for Reflection
- When you invite people for dinner, do you think about how they will reciprocate and return the invitation?
- Have you ever invited someone to eat with you who you knew would not be able to repay your generosity?
- If we give expecting something in return, have we really given?
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen
- Imagine this situation, if you will
- A spouse comes home from work on a Friday night
- Say the Friday of Labor Day weekend
- And as they drive into the driveway
- They see that there is a rented tent in the back yard
- Under the tent are tables and chairs for about 40 people
- A bandstand and dance floor are assembled in one corner of the tent
- Paper lanterns are hanging all around
- Now mind you, none of this stuff was there when they left for work that morning!
- Seeing all these preparations and having them come as a surprise, what do you think they might think?
- A first reaction from some spouses might be one of panic: Good Grief! It’s our anniversary, and somehow I’ve forgotten!
- And, look at the preparations!
- It must be one of the big ones!
- But, assuming they do some quick arithmetic and realize it isn’t their twentieth or thirtieth or fortieth, they might continue thinking
- I guess all this must be for a Labor Day party which I forgot
- Then imagine the spouse walking into the back yard to find their partner furiously basting a dozen chickens and discovering a pile of choice steaks in a cooler nearby
- What might they think then?
- Probably, This one’s going to cost me a bundle!
- Then suppose their partner looks up, smiles excitedly and asks, “Guess who’s coming to dinner?”
- Now they might guess: “Relatives, longtime friends, neighbors and business associates.”
- But before they can respond, the partner answers
- “I’ve invited twenty homeless people who are served at the Bethlehem Emergency Shelter, a family that just escaped violence in their home country and a few residents from a nearby group home
- Don’t worry, you won’t know a soul.
- And best of all, not a single one is likely to ever pay us back!”
- Given that situation, how do you think the spouse might react?
- Don’t you think they might think their partner was behaving a bit oddly?
- Yet, they would only be literally following the words of Jesus:
- “When you give a luncheon or a dinner, do not invite your friends or your brothers or your relatives or rich neighbors, in case they may invite you in return, and you would be repaid.
- But when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind.
- And you will be blessed, because they can not repay you, for you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.”
- Jesus is teaching us that giving to get something in return is not really giving
- As usual, Jesus overturns the world’s values
- For one thing, we generally stick to entertaining people in our own “social circle,” people we know
- And one invitation to dinner often is reciprocated with another invitation to dinner
- Not that there is anything wrong with having people to dinner and then going to their house in return for dinner
- That is perfectly acceptable way to behave
- But what Jesus is teaching us is to not think that we are doing God’s work with our reciprocal dinner arrangements
- We are called not just to trade nice dinners with people like us
- But to extend a hand of welcome and hospitality to those who are in need
- To extend our hospitality, our dinner table to those who can not give us anything in return
- When we do that we are doing what God has called us to do as Christians
- The motivations behind our actions are as important as the outcomes of what we do
- Doing good for the sake of reaping a reward is not righteous behavior, intention matters
- True hospitality involves sharing with people who have no way to repay you for your generous act
- Today Jesus is challenging each of us to show kindness and hospitality to those who are in need
- When we do that, we are doing the work of God in this world
- I issue this challenge to each of you
- Invite a stranger to have a meal with you
- Someone who can not repay your kindness
- Or invite someone who doesn’t have a church home to come with you to church
- Share the Good News of God’s love with someone who is struggling
- Reach out to someone who is hurting and listen to them
- Let them know that someone is noticing their struggle and that someone cares for them as a fellow human being
- The goal is to reach out to someone and help them without thinking about what you may get in return
- Perhaps it sounds like an easy challenge
- But more than likely, it is not
- And Jesus isn’t telling us that it is easy
- But it is what we are called to do as Christians
- As our way of thanking God for all God has done for us
- To go and do for someone in need
- A hundred years ago, Ralph Waldo Emerson
- Noted three qualities he deemed marks of true “success”
- One, the ability to discern and appreciate beauty
- Two, the ability to see the best in others
- And three, a commitment to leaving the world a better place.
- Notice that Emerson does not say that success comes in having the best seat at the table
- Or acquiring more material possessions
- Or in belonging to the best clubs
- Emerson contends that success comes with appreciating God’s world
- Developing loving relationships with God’s people
- And with working to improve God’s world
- Jesus would agree heartily
- Invite everyone to the table
- Whether it be the table in your house or the table in Church
- The words to today’s next hymn are wonderful
- Build a longer table not a higher wall
- Make room for all
- Build a safer refuge, not a larger jail
- Build a broader doorway not a longer fence
- Be expansively welcoming
- That sign is what everyone sees as they travel Center Street
- Expansively welcoming
- Build a longer table
- Build a safe place
- Build a community where the welcome is literally for everyone
- Build a community that offers shelter
- Build a community that offers hope
- Build a community that offers a place for all
- Look for nothing in return
- Practice random acts of kindness and senseless acts of beauty
- Do so out of humility
- Realizing you are poor and needy yourself
- But that you already have been fed at the Table of Christ
- We are all members of God’s extended family
- Thanks be to God
- Amen