Daily Devotional • November 11
A Reading from Luke 14:12-24
12 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 and sisters or your relatives or rich neighbors, in case they may invite you in return, and you would be repaid. 13 But when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind. 14 And you will be blessed because they cannot repay you, for you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.”
15 One of the dinner guests, on hearing this, said to him, “Blessed is anyone who will eat bread in the kingdom of God!” 16 Then Jesus said to him, “Someone gave a great dinner and invited many. 17 At the time for the dinner he sent his slave to say to those who had been invited, ‘Come, for everything is ready now.’ 18 But they all alike began to make excuses. The first said to him, ‘I have bought a piece of land, and I must go out and see it; please accept my regrets.’ 19 Another said, ‘I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I am going to try them out; please accept my regrets.’ 20 Another said, ‘I have just been married, and therefore I cannot come.’ 21 So the slave returned and reported this to his master. Then the owner of the house became angry and said to his slave, ‘Go out at once into the streets and lanes of the town and bring in the poor, the crippled, the blind, and the lame.’ 22 And the slave said, ‘Sir, what you ordered has been done, and there is still room.’ 23 Then the master said to the slave, ‘Go out into the roads and lanes, and compel people to come in, so that my house may be filled. 24 For I tell you, none of those who were invited will taste my dinner.’”
Meditation
I remember with a grimace several instances when church members explained why they wouldn’t be in church on Sunday. One was helping to serve meals at a club—on Easter Day (!). For another, a couple was entertaining family at their home, so couldn’t come to church for Christmas — they’d scheduled their gathering at the same time as the Christmas Mass. Another (a leader in a men’s evangelism group) was traveling in England with friends who were atheists and he said he didn’t want to make them uncomfortable, so he abandoned church during the entire trip. Many others had a work schedule that changed or a school practice for soccer; they never protested but just disappeared from church.
This is the kind of thing Jesus’ parable is about. When the messengers are sent out, they are not delivering an invitation, but a summoning. Those invited had already accepted — they just needed to be told when the great banquet was ready. Their refusal now was breaking their previous acceptance. For them, daily life had become more important than their commitment even to the great banquet. It was all good stuff and necessary stuff: buying a field, buying oxen, getting married. However, these good things had gradually risen for them into becoming more important than the “certain man’s” great banquet. He was just in becoming angry.
His bringing in the outcast shows just how important the banquet is. Jesus teaches several times in different ways that the unclean will do what is right when the faithful refuse. Sandy Koufax, one of the best pitchers in professional baseball, was a player for the Dodgers in the 1950s and 1960s. He was a faithful Jew who refused to play on the Sabbath. The Dodgers had to work around it. Plenty of others should have to work around the commitment that Christians have made.
David Baumann is a published writer of nonfiction, science fiction, and short stories. In his ministry as an Episcopal priest, he served congregations in Illinois and California.
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Daily Devotional Cycle of Prayer
Today we pray for:
The Diocese of South Kerala – The Church of South India (United)
Church of the Holy Faith, Santa Fe, New Mexico