Are You Coming to the Party? (Rev. Dr. Charley Reeb)
A comedian once said, “80% of success is showing up.” Well, I believe that. Good things happen when you show up. Most opportunities show up when we bother to show up. When you show up at the right time at the right place, good things are bound to happen. But when you don’t show up, you just might miss something wonderful.
And that’s certainly true in our parable for today. It is a peculiar story Jesus told about a party. A man wanted to throw a big party for his friends. The text says it was “a certain man.” This might give us the impression that this man knew how to throw a party. He always had the best drinks, had the best food, had the best band. All the fun people showed up. Who wouldn’t want to go to a party like that?
As a pastor, I’ve been to my fair share of parties and wedding receptions, believe me. And I tell you what I’ve learned. Barring an emergency or some great conflict, it’s not hard to get people to show up to a party, especially if the food is free and especially if the drinks are free. “Just name the time and place and I’ll be there with bells on.”
This is why this peculiar parable is so peculiar. The band is warming up, the champagne is on ice, there is shrimp cocktail, stuffed mushrooms, and mash potato bar. The elegant tables are all decorated, and there is no one there. Nobody. No one has shown up to the party. Can you believe that? And so the host, according to Jesus’s story, is very concerned. Well, perhaps we didn’t put the right date and time on the invitation. So he called to his assistant and said, “Listen, this is what I need you to do. I want you to call each honored guest on their cell phones and tell them, ‘Come now everything is ready. All this food, all this champagne. The band is ready to play. Come on out.'”
And so the assistant did what he was told. After he made the calls, the host asked, “Well, what happened? What happened?” “Well, sir, it all went to voicemail, every single one, and they haven’t called us back.” And the host thought for a minute, “Okay, wait a second. This is what I want you to do. I want you to take my limousine and go to each of their homes, knock on the door, tell them they’ve been invited. It’s now, don’t they know, it’s now. Do it.”
When the assistant returned, the host said, “Well?” “Sir, I’m sorry, but they all gave me weak reasons why they couldn’t come.” Like what? “Well, one said they had just bought some land and needed to go see it. Another said, he bought some cows and needed to see them. Another one said he was married. I got the impression his wife is a piece of work.”
The host was angry and said to his assistant, “And now I want you to do this. I want you to go out on to all the streets and invite everyone you see. That’s right. Everyone, the homeless, the drug addicts, the prostitutes, the good and the bad. Bring them into this party and we’re going to have the best time ever. And the others who didn’t come, when they find out what a great party it was, they will regret not coming. They will not experience this great party. And Jesus said, “The kingdom of God is like that. The kingdom of heaven is like that.”
Jesus does tell peculiar stories, does he not? Have you ever read his stuff? Strange parables? Why in the world would these honored guests not show up to the party? It doesn’t make sense to me. Why did they treat the invitation so cavalierly? Just made lame excuses. It just doesn’t make sense to me. I understand why the owner was mad.
I was once invited to a party that made some people angry. My twin sister and I were in the third grade and we were invited to our classmate Albert’s birthday party. Now, Albert was one of these awkward kids. There’s always one in every class. He was bullied, made fun of, kids, treated him in such a cruel manner, and the only way that kids can do that to other kids, he was always picked last in PE, always left out.
So one day Albert showed up with a bag filled with invitations to his birthday party. He was inviting the entire third grade class to a pizza party. You want to know what happened? Most of the third grade class took the invitations, tore them up in his face and threw them in the trash can. Well, I was friends with Albert. He and I played tennis together. And I will never forget seeing him that day crying in the cafeteria. I told him I was sorry it happened and that I would be at the party.
I won’t forget how angry my teacher was. And I will never ever forget how angry my mother was. When we got home from school and we told our mom about it she said, “This is what you’re going to do, Charley and Nancy. You’re going to show up to that party early, help them prepare. You’re going to stay late and help them clean up, and you will have a good time.”
And we did. And you know what? We did have a good time but it was rather sad too. Not many showed up to the party.
I understand the anger of the host in this peculiar story, don’t you? I understand why he was so incensed. Why in the world did these guests tear up the invitation in his face? That’s basically what they did. Did he do something to his guests that made them turn? Jesus doesn’t tell us. All Jesus tells us after this story is that there was a man who threw a big party and the guests didn’t show up. And they gave lame excuses why couldn’t be there. They could have cared less. And Jesus said, “The kingdom of God is like that.”
Like what? Her name was Julie. And something was missing in her life. And a coworker of hers invited her to church one day. She didn’t grow up in church. She’d never been to church. And that day she showed up. She heard music she had never heard before, and she heard a sermon, a message she had never heard before on God’s grace. And something happened on the inside of her. And you want to know what? At the end of that service, she came forward, gave her life to Jesus Christ and was baptized on the spot. She felt new. She felt alive. She felt she had a purpose and she couldn’t wait to tell her family all about it. So she drove home to talk to her parents about it and invite them to the church the next Sunday. Well, there’s dad. He was sitting on his recliner watching the game, half listening to her, typing on his laptop. “Well, I guess that’s pretty good. I guess church can’t hurt you. As far as Sunday goes, sweetheart. Well, that’s the day I played golf with my buddies and I don’t want to disappoint them. Sweetheart, can you move away from the TV. I can’t see the game.”
Well, Julie’s mom was in the same room and she was scrolling through Facebook on her cell phone. “Well, sweetheart, I want you to believe in something. It really doesn’t matter what you believe as long as you believe in something and a little bit of religion can be good for you. But don’t become a fanatic. Don’t become one of those holy rollers. You got to be sensible. And as far as Sunday goes, that’s the day I do my books for the business. Come on, sweetheart.” And of course, her little brother was listening to upstairs, this whole conversation, and he ran downstairs and said, “Oh, Julie, did you thank Jesus?” And she left, put her key in the ignition of her car and said to herself, “Did they not hear anything that I said?” And Jesus said, “They all alike began to make excuses.”
Well, this pastor had a committee and was trying to find some folks to begin this new outreach program in the church. And he centered on a couple in the church, very successful, very skilled. They’re perfect for it. He wanted them to get more involved in the church. And he said, “This is great. I’m going to call them and ask them.” He called them up. The wife answered, “Hello, I’m the pastor and I’d like to talk to you about this opportunity.” And he explained it and she said, “Well, thanks Pastor. Let me talk to my husband, Mike, and well, I’ll get back to you.” She hung up the phone. “Mike, that was the pastor calling. He wants us to set up or head up some community outreach thing.” “Oh my gosh, that pastor, he’s always asking for something. If it’s not a pledge card, it’s something else. What’s wrong with him?” “Well, I think this is something we could really do.” “Sweetheart, let’s be realistic. We’re so busy with our business and the kids, they’re playing travel baseball, and we got all those trips planned for the summer. We can’t do that.” “Well, I guess you’re right.” “Pastor, I’m sorry, but we just don’t have the time.”
And Jesus said, “They all alike began to make excuses.”
Well, it was a bad church in a poor neighborhood, really bad neighborhood. But they had an idea, they wanted to partner with other churches to do something together for God. So they called up an affluent church on the other side, said, “Listen, let’s have a Maundy Thursday service together. It will be great”. The affluent church said, “Yeah, this is great. Let’s do that. That would be wonderful.” Well, they planned it A week before the service, the pastor of the affluent church was, while looking over the order of service, he was rather concerned. And so he called up the poor church and said, “Yes, everything looks fine. But I have a question about something in the order of worship.” “What’s that?” “It says, invitation to wash one another’s feet. Do you mean that literally? We don’t do that here. Maybe we can do something like this at another time.” And Jesus said, “They all alike began to make excuses.”
That’s the trouble with this parable. Jesus makes such a big deal about showing up. I guess for Jesus, the kingdom of God is not much of a kingdom if people don’t show up to do kingdom work. But I do understand that it is not always easy to make it a priority.
I remember preaching on this parable years ago and a couple telling me I needed to be more realistic. “Let’s be honest, this really doesn’t fit into our way of life now. This may have been great for when Jesus walked the earth in his sandals and nothing was going on for people, but we all know, let’s be honest, that we have a bunch of distractions. We have to lessen our expectations. And many parents, they want to do more. I understand that, but the kids are in sports programs and you know how important sports programs are. And people are more enlightened today too. They really are. Religion has evolved. It’s more about self-improvement and feeling good. I like your sermons pastor, but you need to lighten up.”
Then the husband chimed in, “People want enough religion to be comfortable, so go easy on your calls to commitment. Most people just want a nice comforting sermon to get them through the week. Tone down your passion and calls for commitment.”
I understand. I really do. They made some good points. The problem is I don’t get the impression that Jesus is as understanding. Jesus has thrown this big party and he’s gone out of his way to do it. The extra mile. In fact, for this party, he has sent all of us an engraved invitation. Oh, yeah. It’s engraved on his body, through nail scarred hands. He really has gone out of his way. The least we could do is show up to the party. And maybe you’re asking, “Well, Charley, where is this party?” Oh, it’s anywhere and everywhere there’s an opportunity to serve Jesus. It’s anywhere and everywhere Jesus is at work and want us to join him. It is the kind of party that changes you, and you never regret showing up.
Fred Craddock tells about a kingdom party he witnessed: “I recall some years ago in a church I was visiting on a Sunday afternoon, a van pulled up in the church parking lot, and a bunch of young people got out. They looked like thirteen, fourteen, fifteen, maybe up to eighteen years old. I think there were ten or twelve young people who belonged to that church. They got out with bedrolls. It was the awfullest looking bunch of kids you’ve ever seen, something like the cats would drag in. They were in really bad shape. I said, ‘What is this?’ They had just returned from a work mission. They named the place where they went. In one week, those young people, along with other young people, had built a little church for a community. They were beat. Aw, they looked terrible. They were sitting on their bags out there waiting for their parents to come. I said to one of the boys, ‘You tired?’ and he said ‘Whew—am I tired!’ Then he said, ‘This is the best tired I’ve ever felt’” (Craddock Stories).
That kid got a taste of the banquet of the Kingdom. And you can bet he didn’t regret showing up.
What about you. You coming to the party?