Community—Eleventh Sunday of Luke

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, one God, Amen.

A meal, dear brothers and sisters in Christ, is about more than just sustenance, more than about satisfying hunger, it is a communal activity.  We spend time apart at our own activities—some of these may be with others while we may be completely alone—but come together around food to celebrate with one another, to rejoice in each other’s successes and commiserate over failures.  Yes, indeed, a meal is about more than eating food.

Christ responds with today’s parable to someone, in the verse immediately preceding today’s reading, who said “Blessed is he who shall eat bread in the kingdom of God!” (Luke 14:15)  And the Lord takes this most human of activities, this most basic act of our race, and fills it with himself; it is natural to sit at a dinner table and eat together, and rather than saying “union with me is a spiritual event, a mystical event, an event of the mind and intellect,” the Lord describes Life itself in these terms, “A man once gave a great banquet, and invited many; and at the time of the banquet he sent his servant to say to those who had been invited, ‘Come; for all is now ready.’”  Union with God is not some mere mental activity but community, sitting down and enjoying food together.

How do you respond to the Lord?  How do I?  He says to you and he says to me, through his servants, “Come; for all is now ready.”  Without judgement, without requirement, the God says to you and he says to me, “Come.”

You and I, dear brothers and sisters in Christ, have come together today to join ourselves to God at the Banquet, at the Eucharist, at the Feast: we hear the calling and receive the Word of God.  But it becomes all too easy for us to forget that this is still a human event, still a meal and we must interact with our fellow guests.  We have come together to be united to the Lord but, in order to do that more fully, we must be united to each other.  We are gathered together, here and today, to commune with the living God but we gain nothing if we do not do so as community—we would, otherwise, be turning our Faith into mere sustenance, mere satisfaction of our hunger, rather than the Banquet of the Kingdom laid out for us freely—for the sake of receiving divinity we would reject our humanity and so reject our very selves.

My dear brothers and sisters in Christ, we are gathered here to receive the Lord but we do so alongside each other; “Bear one another’s burdens,” says the Apostle, “and so fulfil the law of Christ.” (Galatians 6:2)  Support one another, help one another, laugh and cry with one another that we may be true guests of the Banquet and heirs of eternal Life.

To our risen and glorified Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, who invites all to his Banquet, be all glory, honour and might, together with his unoriginate Father and the All-holy, Good and Life-giving Spirit, Amen.


Brethren, when Christ who is our life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory. Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: fornication, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. On account of these the wrath of God is coming upon the sons of disobedience. In these you once walked, when you lived in them. But now put them all away: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and foul talk from your mouth. Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old nature with its practices and have put on the new nature, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator. Here there cannot be Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave, free man, but Christ is all, and in all.
— Colossians 3:4–11

The Lord said this parable: “A man once gave a great banquet, and invited many; and at the time of the banquet he sent his servant to say to those who had been invited, ‘Come; for all is now ready.’ But they all alike began to make excuses. The first said to him, ‘I have bought a field, and I go out and see it; I pray you, have me excused.’ And another said, ‘I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I must go to examine them; I pray you, have me excused.’ And another said, ‘I have married a wife, and therefore I cannot come.’ So the servant came and reported this to his master. Then the householder in anger said to his servant, ‘Go out quickly to the streets and lanes of the city, and bring in the poor and maimed and blind and lame.’ And the servant said, ‘Sir, what you commanded has been done, and there is still room.’ And the master said to the servant, ‘Go out to the highways and hedges, and compel people to come in, that my house may be filled. For I tell you, none of those men who were invited shall taste my banquet. For many are called, but few are chosen.'”
— Luke 14:16–24