The Fire Beneath Me

The Parable of the Great Banquet: Luke 14:12-24

¹² He said also to the man who had invited him, “When you give a dinner or a banquet, do not invite your friends or your brothers or your relatives or rich neighbors, lest they also invite you in return and you be repaid. ¹³ But when you give a feast, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, ¹⁴ and you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you. For you will be repaid at the resurrection of the just.”

¹⁵ When one of those who reclined at table with him heard these things, he said to him, “Blessed is everyone who will eat bread in the kingdom of God!” ¹⁶ But he said to him, “A man once gave a great banquet and invited many. ¹⁷ And at the time for the banquet he sent his servant to say to those who had been invited, ‘Come, for everything is now ready.’ ¹⁸ But they all alike began to make excuses. The first said to him, ‘I have bought a field, and I must go out and see it. Please have me excused.’ ¹⁹ And another said, ‘I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I go to examine them. Please have me excused.’ ²⁰ And another said, ‘I have married a wife, and therefore I cannot come.’ ²¹ So the servant came and reported these things to his master. Then the master of the house became angry and said to his servant, ‘Go out quickly to the streets and lanes of the city, and bring in the poor and crippled and blind and lame.’ ²² And the servant said, ‘Sir, what you commanded has been done, and still there is room.’ ²³ 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. ²⁴ For I tell you, none of those men who were invited shall taste my banquet.’”

Friends,

This passage is the fire beneath me on my journey to Haiti. There is a potent reminder from this passage that God reaches out to all souls, but takes special care to include the least of these, the overlooked, and the undesirables. 

The first century Palestinian world was driven by an engine of honor and shame. As a patron, one way you could gain prestige was to throw big parties and those who attended would become clients who would owe you a favor at a later time (think, The Godfather). I have read that an invitation to these feasts was normally issued in two stages. There was a sort of pre-invitation extended to get some idea of what the host (patron) would need to have ready, and then on the day of the event, the representatives of the patron would be sent out to fetch the people who had already agreed to attend.

Those invited to the feast in Jesus’ story all began to decline their already accepted invitations, and with pretty flimsy excuses. We could analyze them each, but we would risk staring at the kernel instead of the cornfield. Suffice it to say that even as a city boy I can recognize that you don’t buy land you haven’t seen, or a tractor without testing it; and if you are so embarrassed of your new wife that you cannot take her to a party, maybe you shouldn’t have gotten married in the first place!

The host now has this situation: his banquet is spread out, and the people who RSVP’d have all snubbed him. No one likes to be snubbed. So the host does something remarkable; in an age where you typically only ate with people who were good for your image, he sends out his servants to bring the invalid and the indigent to his banquet. The servants bring a train of orphans, fatherless, and widows with the crippled and blind lumbering in their wake, seat them down at this feast, and the servant reports,  “Here you go… um, sir! But, there are still some seats available.”

So the master then sends the servants back out, this time to increasingly outer circles of the community. The highways would be something like hitchhikers, people who could not find hospitality in the community; maybe transients, maybe outcasts like the town wine-o. The folks in the hedges are hiding out, trying to stay out of sight. The hobos, the guys on the lam. The servants beat the bushes and flush them out to invite them to a stately dinner.

The master declares succinctly, “None of those men who were invited shall taste of my banquet.”

Theologically, this passage holds a significant meaning. Those who should be coming to the banquet at the end of the Age in the Kingdom of God (in this case, the religious leaders around the table, cf. Luke 14:1&ff) are not answering the invitation Jesus is extending. So, the invitation is being extended to the unthinkable, the undesirables, the unclean, and the outcast.

God seems to have a special place in His heart for strays. I am thankful for that for “I are one”. 

As I sized up the situation in Haiti, I was immediately drawn to this passage, along with James 2: 1-12, Gal 3:28, and a flurry of texts that make it clear that there is little if any room for humanly devised structures of stratification amongst the People of God.

My heart breaks for these pastors and their families, as they are being looked down upon by their own brothers(?) in the ministry; but this is to their eternal reward, for the least in this age will be the greatest in the age to come (Matt 20).

Please be in prayer for these “little pastors”, for their families, and for their church families. If not for the Routons and others like them, they would effectively be alone.

Also, recall that one key point of this parable is that none of us can give anything in return to the Master who has so graciously invited us to his table. He has everything (Ps 24:1) He did so without any strings attached, and if we receive his invitation; by grace through faith and repentance, our offering of grateful service is our “return of favor”.  Our works do not save us, but they show that we are saved (Eph 2:8-10, Matt 25, Jas 2:14-26).

Greg and I have both a tremendous opportunity and a terrible burden in this endeavor. When you are teaching pastors, you are teaching their congregations, and perhaps subsequent generations. He and I both feel the weight of James 3:1, that exhorts that “those who teach will be judged more strictly.” Our offering to God will be to use our time and God given talents to His service. May he multiply these efforts exponentially.

Grace and Peace,

JP

Show Me Haiti! (FINALLY!!!)

In just under 90 days, I will be on an aircraft somewhere over the Gulf of Mexico or the Caribbean Sea. Our destination is Mare Rouge/Bellevue, Haiti in the Northwest mountain region. Our purpose is to encourage and disciple local pastors in a remote region of the poorest country in the Western hemisphere.

We will be working with my friends Terry and Carolyn Routon who are fulltime missionaries to Haiti. They have been working with communities around Mare Rogue teaching the Gospel, providing basic education to local children, supplying material needs when they can, and equipping people towards economic self-reliance through teaching trades.

Some local congregations have been supportive of their work, but they have encountered a culture of exclusion in the Haitian church. Established Hatian congregations often seem uninterested in reaching out to their own people. Unfortunately, this extends to the relationship between pastors as well.

In Haiti, there are so-called “big pastors” who have some schooling, a little money, and prestige. Then, there are “little pastors”, who are not as well resourced, lack education, and often preach in buildings we would not store our lawn mowers in. These men are generally disregarded by the religious powers that be; this immediately brings to mind James 2, and his warnings against favoritism. Furthermore, I am reminded that in the Kingdom of God, the last will be first and the first will be last (see attachment).

These men and their wives are hungry for encouragement, and hungry for the Word. So, fellow pastor Greg Bunn and I will pour truth into these “little pastors” and their wives for five days. We will “love on them”, pray with them, and do all that we can to build them up and equip them to raise up leaders from their own congregations to send out into the harvest field.

We will depart August 14th, be in Mare Rouge a total of twelve days preaching and teaching, then head back home on August 26th. I am trusting God to provide for this mission in every respect.

Please join us in this journey by praying for the following:

¶       provision of financial resources

¶       traveling mercies (smooth and safe travel)

¶       wisdom on what to teach and preach

¶       opportunities to reach people with the Gospel

¶       good fruit from our labors

Please contact me using the information below if you have any questions.

Grace and Peace,

  

JP Williams

Luke 14: 12-24

You can reach me here:

PO Box 195

Archie, MO

64725

816 430 5515

PRAY FOR MARE ROUGE

encouragement mission to local ministry families

August 14^th – 26^th

 

The encircled area is an approximation of where we will be spending our time. Mare Rogue/Bellevue To the top, Terry Routon (hardly able to be seen behind interpreterJ) encourages some of the “little pastors” in the personal walk and their ministry.  Below, Greg and I and the Routons. Please post this somewhere prominent in your home and remember to pray for us over the next few months, in particular August 14th - 26th. http://www.routonshaitiblog.blogspot.com/