GOOD OR BAD, YOU HAVE BEEN INVITATED TO THE BANQUET

On this mountain the Lord of hosts will provide

for all peoples a feast of rich food and choice

wines, juicy rich food and pure choice wines.

Isaiah 25:6-10a 

Four years ago, on my 75th birthday, my good friend Christina Lee Brown hosted a fabulous birthday party for me at her hill top home overlooking the Ohio River. Over 75 friends and acquaintances attended this to-die-for birthday party. It was, by far, the best birthday party I have ever had in my entire life for many reasons. Growing up I could have never imagined such an event! 

It was "heavenly" on many fronts. The weather was perfect, the beautiful food was delicious, the best bourbon and wine flowed freely, and the big crowd was representative of my broad variety of friends. Believers, unbelievers and everything in between were there. Catholics, Protestants, Jews, Buddhists, agnostics and atheists were there.  They were black, white, yellow and brown.  They were rich and they were poor. They were from the city and the were from the country. I was able, that day, to taste a "bit of heaven" on my 75th birthday. Someday I hope to experience forever that even better "mountaintop banquet" in heaven that our first reading talks about today. 

Did you know that in the scriptures, heaven is compared more to a fabulous banquet than any thing 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 cheap Denny’s Grand Slam Breakfast, but a gourmet, all you can eat, buffet!  Our first reading from Isaiah compares heaven to a “feast of rich food and  choice wines,” then Isaiah adds, “ juicy rich food and  pure choice wines!”

Jesus started his ministry talking about the 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! Based upon the size of the containers, commentators point out that the total new wine created by Jesus would been around 180 gallons. That is the equivalent of about 900 bottles. 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, 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, today's gospel, the parable of the wedding feast puts it very clearly.  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!

Nowhere in the gospels is this idea driven home more, than in the parables! (1) In one parable, God is compared to a shepherd who is so eaten up with love for his 100 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 lost sheep! Finding it, he calls in his friends and neighbors 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 holds 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, kills a fatted calf and throws a party. (4) In the gospel parable today, God is compared to the wedding feast of a king's son, where the good and bad alike are welcomed! 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 have been judged, hurt and condemned by the church and society!  This message caused great numbers to flock to the cathedral from 67 zip codes to hear it! 

I could not have preached that message if I had not myself needed to hear it.  I preached it because I needed to hear it!  I have learned one thing in my 53 years as a priest: no matter how smart, materially blessed, how talented, how religiously orthodox or how well-connected, 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 his image and likeness, surely we can do the same for each other! Most people, I believe, are doing the best they can!  We see externals. God sees into the heart.  The good news is that we don’t have to be perfect to be good enough for God! As Albert Schweitzer put it, "You don't have to be an angel to be a saint!"  

Lastly, let me add something that I add at every funeral.  If there is any unfinished business between you and the deceased, let it go! They did the best they could and so did you! It seems to be a natural tendency for the mind, at times like that, to think that it would have turned out differently if we had only done this or hadn’t done that! Let it go! You did all you could do! God has forgiven them. He has forgiven you. Now you need to forgive yourselves if there is anything left undone or unsaid! They are at peace! They are with God!  The lost sheep has been found! The lost coin has been retrieved. The lost child has come home! 

Let us start celebrating, even now, our entry into eternal life. God has “spread a table before us,” “a feast of rich food and choice wines, juicy rich food and pure choice wines” - not because we deserve it, but simply because God loves us so much!