(Luke 14:11)
If you've been away this summer, you may have done some summer reading. And if you didn’t go prepared, the airports, the motorway service areas, and the railway stations (as I prefer to call them) give us plenty of suggestions for us to choose from.
Many of course include the murder mysteries or the thrillers, the romances or the biographies of celebrities. But there are others: the self-help books, full of advice, hints and tips and strategies for a full, fulfilling, and successful life. Sometimes they have a business orientation, but just as often they are about life itself "10 ways to be happy and successful". They make it all sound simple and achievable.
People sometimes presume that scripture works in the same way. They look to the teaching of Jesus - and other parts of Scripture - for wise advice on how to live a good, happy, and of course successful life.
And indeed there is some of that to be found.
The Ten Commandments provide a very sound basis for social life.
If you want to avoid embarrassment at a social event - and indeed even draw positive attention to yourself, then sitting lower down the table might be very effective.
And there are other examples too - "Turn the other cheek", Jesus says - While hitting back may seem the natural thing to do, every teacher knows that it will not solve problems or even heal hurts. "An eye for an eye makes everyone blind," as Ghandi once said. Refusing to retaliate may be a very powerful act of defiance, especially in the face of a much more powerful foe.
However, even having said this, life is often too complicated to allow this to be effective every time. Jesus might encourage us to be peaceful, and not to make our giving self-serving, and to assist those in greater need that ourselves, but no one, not even the most holy, suggests that we should only invite the neediest to our family celebrations, or allow exploitation and injustice to continue.
The trouble is, the advice which Jesus gives us sometimes appears unrealistic and impractical. When violence is used against us, we are told - it seems - to grin and bear it, when exploited we should "carry the pack for an extra mile", and when we organise a party - as he tells us in today's Gospel - we should invite only those who cannot repay the favour.
These directions seem to fly in face of common sense, and might even be thought to contradict other things that Jesus said. How can we truly “turn the other cheek” and yet still “hunger and thirst for righteousness sake"?
The problem for us in reading these stories is that we are looking for the self-help guide, the handbook for daily life. And for the modern reader and listener this teaching should be sound advice but more often it seems like dangerous foolery. And we see it like this because we are not looking far enough ahead - we are looking for instant results and outcomes.
St Luke makes it clear at the beginning of this passage that this is a "parable" - not a story, so much, but a comparison. Jesus is not writing a self-help book, but explaining the nature of God's Kingdom. He is not giving us a homespun vision, a list of hints and tips for living a good life, but inspiring us, and presenting us with a hope.
The Kingdom of God - he is telling us - is a place where all have their dignity, the poor and the disabled, alongside all others. It is a place where no one should seek a special place because of their wealth or status. It is a place where virtue, good living, not social position matter most. It is a place of peace, not violence, reconciliation, not conflict.
The problems with the self-help book is that it is self-indulgent. It hoodwinks us into thinking that we can indeed help ourselves and if we just have the right ideas and the right tools, nothing is beyond us.
The vision of the Kingdom of God is different. We realise that we are imperfect, in need of forgiveness, and can achieve nothing without the help of God's grace.
This is both a future reality and present vision. It challenges and inspires us - it liberates us, but it doesn't limit us. It is something which can only be fully be realised at the end of time, but which should drive our thoughts and actions now.
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