Sermon: A SUPER SUPPER – February 7, 2010

Listen to Sermon:  Super Supper

Scripture Reading: Exodus 16:1-7, 13-15; Matthew 22:1-14

I would guess this might not excite some of you but let’s just say that you and five of your best friends were offered free tickets to the Super Bowl – all expenses paid – and your seats would be in a special VIP box with the Manning family.  What would you be willing to give up in order to go?  You will have to make your own list, but would I give up a Sunday I was scheduled to preach?  Would I give up a funeral for a church member or a wedding?  Would I give up a planned trip to see my mother?  Our daughter was born on Super Bowl Sunday 27 years ago.  Would I have given up being present for the birth of my second child?

Let’s say you go on such a trip but you miss the enjoyment of the game because you spend so much time complaining – the limousine that took you and your friends to the game smells like stale smoke, the beer is warm and the brats are cold, the press box next door is too noisy. You complain because you want seats with the Brees family.

Let’s come at this from a different direction.  We could all name persons who we consider excellent hosts.  They know how to entertain.  They know how to make their guests feel at home and important.  Their food – all the way from preparation to presentation – is out of this world.    Would it not be foolish to decline an invitation to one of their dinner parties?  Moreover, if you should go would it not be bad taste to complain the whole time – the furniture; the long wait before the meal; the other guests; the spices in the food and the size of the portions?

We find both of these situations in the scripture readings this past week.  If there ever was a host, it is God.  David writes, “¹³Your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and your dominion endures throughout all generations. The LORD is faithful in all his words, and gracious in all his deeds. ¹⁴The LORD upholds all who are falling, and raises up all who are bowed down. ¹⁵The eyes of all look to you, and you give them their food in due season. ¹⁶You open your hand, satisfying the desire of every living thing.” (Psalms 145:13-16 NRSV)

In the book of Exodus we are exposed to this incredibly generous host dealing with a bunch of incredibly gifted complainers.  Three days after the miraculous escape through the Red Sea, they complain about being thirsty.  It will not be the last time.  About five weeks after leaving Egypt, we read this, ²The whole congregation of the Israelites complained against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness.  ³The Israelites said to them, “If only we had died by the hand of the LORD in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the fleshpots and ate our fill of bread; for you have brought us out into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger.” (Exodus 16:2-3 NRSV)

Flash ahead some 1200 years.  Jesus tells a story about God’s heavenly hosting in which God appears as a king who throws a banquet.  It is a wedding banquet for his son.  He spares no expense.  The guests have been invited.  The table is spread.  It will be a super supper.  Everything is ready to go, except no one shows up.  The king sends out messengers to check on the invitees.  Some ignore the messengers, some make fun of the banquet, some beat up – even kill – the messengers. It is insane. It is unimaginable.

It is about as insane and unimaginable as the Israelites’ complaints.   They witnessed miracle after miracle and yet they did not believe God would take care of them.

I don’t know what God would have done for the people had they not complained, but even in their dis-appreciation God throws for them a super supper. “¹¹The LORD spoke to Moses and said, ¹²“I have heard the complaining of the Israelites; say to them, ‘At twilight you shall eat meat, and in the morning you shall have your fill of bread; then you shall know that I am the LORD your God.’” (Exodus 16:11-12 NRSV)

And that is just what God did.  In the evening quails flew in and covered the camp.  Dew covered the ground in the morning. The dew lifted and a fine flaky substance appeared, tasking like wafers made with honey.  The people asked, “What is it?” and that became its name – “manna” which means “what is it?”  It was bread from the hand of God.  God met the people’s complaining with a super supper – a super breakfast – and it was not just a onetime event. Throughout the forty year wandering of the Israelites, God fed them day after day.

The Jewish people of Jesus’ time were proud of their tradition.  The story of their ancestor Moses and the manna sent from heaven was a favorite.  However, when God, the one who made the manna, took on flesh, came to earth and announced that he was bread sent from heaven – the Bread of Life – the people wanted nothing to do with him.  When Jesus fed the 5000 and then the 4000, just as miraculously as he had fed the Israelites a thousand years earlier, they were only interested in the free food and not the Bread of Life who had given it.

Jesus takes the whole history of God working with His chosen people and encapsulates it in this single parable.  A most gracious God invites this group of people to receive all He has to give.  A most ungrateful people say “no.” They want the gifts without the giver – the name without the relationship – the concern of God without a commitment to God.

This parable goes on.  God had hoped that as His people experienced His graciousness they would invite others into that relationship.  Unfortunately, for many of them, because they did not cultivate the relationship they did not want to share – actually, they did not have anything to share.  Jesus came to give them one last chance to respond.  In the parable, Jesus prophetically shares the reality – as God’s chosen people had ignored, ridiculed, beat and killed the inviters, they would do the same to him.

In the story, the dismal response generates another invitation – given to everyone – without regard to religious heritage, social standing, reputation, or moral character.  Jesus had already proven that the fringe people responded to his message of love and grace much more readily than those who should have known better.

Here are the lessons of the day: (1) We must take care that we, personally, do not dismiss God’s invitation to us; (2) God wants everyone to hear the invitation and have a chance to respond; and (3) this is not to be taken lightly.  In the parable, one of the guests gets into trouble because he was not properly dressed. His apparel indicated a total disregard for the King.  He was focused only on the spoils of the banquet.

God invites us to his super supper.  In turn, God wants us to invite anybody and everybody to join us.  Then together, not only are we to enjoy the food and entertainment but we are to experience a relationship with the living, loving Lord.

The super supper of all super suppers stands before us.  In the most dramatic of ways, in the Lord’s Supper, God shows us just how far He will go to extend His love.  As we eat, as we drink, and as we say thank you, may we give ourselves to our Host.  Only He can truly care for us.