In the
religious establishment of his day, Jesus had a terrible reputation! He
talked so much about eating and drinking and accepted so many dinner
invitations, even from public sinners and religious outcasts, that he earned
the nicknames of “glutton,” “drunkard” and “friend of sinners!” As the gospels
put it, the religious leaders were so shocked by the huge number of rejects and
sinners who were hanging around Jesus that they “murmured” out loud, “This
man welcomes sinners and even eats with
them!”
In the scriptures,
heaven is compared more to a fabulous banquet than anything else! How better to
describe an idea like “heaven” to a bunch of people who were always on the edge
of starvation than an “all you can eat buffet!” Not just a Denny’s buffet, but
a “gourmet, all you can eat, cordon bleu buffet!” Isaiah compares
heaven to a “feast of rich food and choice wines,” then he adds, “juicy rich
food and pure choice wines!”
Jesus
started his ministry talking about this feast that awaits us in heaven! The
very first miracle that Jesus worked, at the marriage feast
of Cana, was not the multiplication of bread, the basics of life, but the
multiplication of wine, the celebratory part of life! Then the last thing
Jesus did was to establish the Eucharist so that we could dine, not only with
him, but on him, as often as we want, until he
comes again to take us to his table in heaven!
By
dining with so-called “sinners” and “outcasts,” Jesus sent the message that all
of us, (all of us, all of us), no matter how flawed we are, are created in the image and likeness of
God and are loved by him! Because Jesus accepted them, enough to eat with them,
the message these “sinners” and “outcasts” received from Jesus was that they
too were acceptable to God! One of my favorite parables puts it very
clearly, the parable of the wedding feast. In that parable, Jesus
compares heaven to a royal wedding feast to which “the good and bad alike” are
invited! Being invited is not about our goodness, but about God’s
generosity and forgiveness! Let me repeat that for emphasis! Being invited to the great feast of heaven is not about our goodness, but God's generosity and forgiveness!
Nowhere in the gospel is this idea driven home more, than in today's parables! (1) In one parable, God is compared to a shepherd who is so eaten up with love for his sheep that he does something remarkable. Instead of being happy with 99 out of 100, he leaves the 99 obedient sheep out in the wasteland to go looking for the one who was lost! Finding it, he calls in his friends and neighbors and holds a party! (2) In another parable, God is compared to a woman. You heard me! God is compared to a woman! This woman has a headpiece made of 10 silver coins. It was probably her dowry for marriage! She loses one in the dust of her dimly-lit mud-floored house! In a panic, she lights a lamp and scours the floor until she finds it! Finding it, she calls in her friends and neighbors and has a party! (3) In another parable, God is compared to a father with two sons. One son gets lost, leaves homes and gets down with the pigs. The other son stays home, follows all the rules and does all that is expected of him. Even before the lost son comes home, even before he has time to give his well-rehearsed apology, the father runs down the road to met him, puts a gold ring and a fabulous robe on him and throws a party. The point of all these parables is this: God loves us no matter what we do or fail to do and God has a special place in his heart for the hurting! This message caused rejects, sinners and outcasts to flock to Jesus likes bees to flowers on one hand and angered the religious establishment to the point of frenzy on the other! Because they believed God’s love was conditional, these religious authorities plotted and finally put Jesus to death for this revolutionary and dangerous new message!
If it
is preached with clarity and conviction, this “good news” of God’s
unconditional love for all people, especially the lost and hurting, is just as
powerful today as it was back then! When I was pastor of the Cathedral of the
Assumption, I preached this message to the
outcasts and rejects of our day: street people, divorcees, gays, minorities of
all kinds and people who had been judged, hurt and condemned by the church and
society! This message caused great numbers to flock there in great numbers to hear it!
I could
not have preached that message if I had not needed to hear it
myself. I preached it because I needed to hear it! I have
learned one thing in my almost fifty-two years as a priest: no matter how smart,
materially blessed, talented, religiously orthodox or well-connected we are,
there is a wounded part of all of us that needs to be healed and needs to be
loved. That is just as true of the Pope as it is of the saddest street
person!
This fact reminds me of the movie, ON GOLDEN POND. In that movie,
Henry Fonda is an old man, frustrated with getting old and dependent. Filled
with anger about his situation, he is demanding, hard-headed and mean-spirited.
One day, after attacking his daughter, Jane Fonda, and leaving her in tears,
her mother played by Catherine Hepburn, tries to console her by asking her to
put it in perspective. She makes this beautiful insight into humanity, “My
dear, if you care enough, you can look deeply and closely at him and behind all
that, you will realize that he is doing the best he can!”
My,
friends, if God can see beyond our sins and weaknesses and see that person
created in the image and likeness of God, then surely we can do the same for
each other! The real monsters make the news every night, but most of us, I believe, are simply doing the best we can! We see
externals. God sees into the heart. The good news today is this! We don’t
have to be perfect to be good enough for God!
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