Exodus 32: 1-14 and Matthew 22: 1-14
What gets in the way of generosity?
Anxiety.
We don’t like it when there are delays. God’s people in the wilderness didn’t like it either. Moses had been gone too long. What if he was dead? What if he was never coming back? What if this God that Moses kept talking about wasn’t real? In Egypt, they had gods that you could see—statues, painted stories—what did they have out here? Just words.
They needed something—tangible. So Aaron meets their stated need. He asks everyone to give their gold—something they value—and he makes a golden calf—and their anxiety eased a bit as they had something to gather around. They brought food and drink and had a party. It eased their anxiety.
God gets so angry—after all, it was just last week that God laid out the Ten Best Ways—what in the world? How could they forget so quickly? How could they think a gold statue—however beautiful—could replace the living God.
God just about gives up on them—they will never be anything but slaves in their minds and their hearts—they can’t trust. They can’t believe in anything they can’t see. They have more faith in gold, in food, in drink than in God. They just don’t get it and they never will.
Let’s just destroy them all and start all over.
But Moses calls on God to remember who God is.
You might be justified in doing that evil thing—in destroying those who don’t value you—but think how that will look to everyone else.
Do you want all the Egyptians to think you just brought all these people out here just to kill them?
Do you remember the promises you’ve made to all the ancestors?
You said - ‘I will multiply your descendants like the stars of
heaven, and all this land that I have promised I will give to your descendants, and they shall inherit it forever.’ ” And God changed God’s mind.
God forgives them.
God changes God’s mind and if God can do that… I wonder if we can, too?
When we think about the world’s most un-solvable conflicts… where people are suffering because no one can see the other side, no one can give one bit of ground, no one can change their mind… but instead, we are stuck in deep patterns of anger and fear, leading only to sorrow… I wonder if this story about God changing God’s mind—because of who God really is—might help us find a way forward that is more generous.
In Jesus’ parable about a great banquet, those invited do not come.
I have had the experience of hosting a party—a party to which no one came.
Maybe you’ve had that experience, too. Maybe like me, you wondered what you did wrong. Was it because I invited the whole class or because we had it at the park, rather than a fancy hotel or theme park? Was it just because people didn’t really know us so didn’t want to take the risk? Was it just a busy day? An hour went by and not one person showed up—and we had a big spread of fruit and cupcakes—so after a bit, we did actually start inviting total strangers at the park. We’re having a party over here and we have more than enough—as you can clearly see—come please and help yourself.
After that first tricky time, it became our mode for all outdoor parties. We have more than enough—have a cupcake! Hey you, over there—come and share in this feast!
But what still doesn’t make sense to me is the person who won’t accept the generosity of another.
When I have invited people to share a meal with me at Shobi’s, I have had multiple people respond, “Oh, I could never accept a free meal.”
What?!
The idea that any of us can live like that—as people who never accept a free gift from anyone—is a fundamental misunderstanding about the ways that we are interwoven as people. We are at least interdependent, if not dependent, on so many others… and if we cannot see that, we are not really recognizing the truth. We are completely dependent on farmers, fruit pickers, truck drivers, grocery shelf stockers. Parents, nurses, childcare providers, teachers, garbage collectors, factory workers, emergency personnel. Maybe we say to ourselves that we pay for all that—but really, so very much of all of life rests heavily on others who serve us, depends on us being willing to serve far beyond what we are paid, right?
We are all receiving free meal after free meal after free meal.
And so on most Tuesdays, I go outside to the big blue Shobi’s truck and practice living in a world where I can recognize others’ generosity to me.
A pastor friend of mine wrote an interesting response to the parable of the wedding feast this week. She wrote that as she was listening to the part where one last-minute invited guest was asked to leave because he wasn’t wearing the right thing, she remembered and realized… she had done it. She had been officiating a wedding during the part of our shared stories where we needed to wear masks. It was the universal rule at the time. One couple in attendance, relatives of those about to be married, refused to wear masks—even when asked nicely, even when masks were provided. The couple chose to leave rather than wear the mask. This pastor felt sick about having to ask and then about the result. It was shocking and sad that they would choose to walk out of the wedding rather than wear a mask for it.
Then she noted-- The images we get throughout Matthew are of the Kingdom of Heaven as a place where the weakest and most vulnerable have an inherent place at the table.
And I would love for us to think about what it means to refuse to abide by practices that keep the most vulnerable welcome at the banquet, too.
What do we wear as we come to the banquet? Do we wear an attitude of deepest welcome? Do we remember how others have been gracious to us—and pass on that same graciousness? Do we come remembering what it was like when we were at our most vulnerable—and how someone in that moment either met us with kindness or decided to judge (or left rather than to have to give even an inch). If we have done well at mercy, well done. If we have not done well, let’s do better. In the example of even God, who can let go of anger and judgement, and resolve to act in deeper grace and mercy.
In our worship, every day, God spreads a table before us. Invites us to come freely. Invites us to turn away from all the things that offer us false security. Even in times of anxiety and hardship we can connect with the peace of God which in beyond all understanding. With deeper joy, we are invited to feast at the table of the Lord, and then go forth to share generously with others hungering and thirsting for the abundant life of God.
No comments:
Post a Comment