You Are Invited

How blessed are those who eat bread in the Kingdom of God! ~ Luke 14:15

There's going to be a party, and all the A-Listers are invited. The best artists and cleverest teachers, the top politicians and even foreign dignitaries, the millionaires and billionaires and zillionaires. A who's-who of who's-who. There won't be a single name on the list Wikipedia hasn't written an article about. 

But they won't come. They'll all be too busy with their lives and their "brands." One just bought a piece of land, and he wants to go check it out. Another is having some recording equipment installed in her new studio; she's anxious to try it out. Things that can wait, but the invitations wind up on the top of the trash. 

So, the host sends out another round. To the local women's shelter and the children's hospital. He invites prisoners and those in crisis and addicts, and even, people like you and me who have trouble paying their bills and sometimes feel overwhelmed at our little lives with big responsibilities. He invites the folks in the nursing home that no one ever comes to visit. He invites the homeless guy who talks to himself because no one else will answer him. He invites the pastor who preaches to an empty church every Sunday and the mom who just wants her child off drugs and off the streets. He invites the man-child and the woman-child who are trapped in the pain of growing up with parents to protect them who did them the most harm. He invites those burdened with shame and sickness and scars the world rejects. He invites them all. And they will come.

Americans, maybe humans in general, miss the blessing in brokenness. It's in those dark places we become desperate for what is good, so desperate we move toward it. Jesus knew that when He was telling this story. The times I have been the most undone by a gift or simple act of kindness is when I was at the end of my rope, unable to visualize any solution to my condition but the kindness and mercy of another. Having resources at hand --even limited resources-- gives us the false sense of self-sufficiency. As poor as the solution is, it is my solution; I have fixed the problem, pulled myself up by my bootstraps. And the kindness and mercy of another lies unwanted, "unneeded" on the top of the trash. It is not until we come to the end of ourselves, in a place where we have nothing to offer ourselves or our situations, where it is of no use to look into our coffers, for they are empty, that we turn to Another, that we even see the presence of Another.

So, be encouraged! If you have wept at the torment of rejection, if you are living daily with the finality of your current diagnosis, if you cannot see the tomorrow for the stack of bills in front of you, if you are weak and powerless and irrelevant and alone, you are positioned perfectly to see the King. Only He's not passing by in some motorcade, waving behind bulletproof glass. He's inviting you to come to His celebration, He is wanting to sit with you and sup with you, He is offering His hand to you. In this life and for all eternity. Blessed are those who eat bread in the Kingdom of God!

Photo courtesy (and bread made by) Rebecca Werner