All are Wlecome

Luke 14  : “I want my house full”

David Gamble, now past President of the Methodist Conference, preaching at the Communion service we had at the All Partners Consultation in London last week took this as the text. And I’ve chosen to expand upon it and say something about that gathering which is relevant to us here at Wesley Church Cambridge, at the heart of a city which is home to peoples of many nations. That gathering in London drew Methodists from around the world, from 60 nations, from 44 different conferences and agencies of Methodist and United and Uniting Churches in the World Methodist family, from Africa and Asia and the Americas as well as Europe and the Pacific, into an extended conversation about the nature of the British Methodist Church’s relations with the rest of the World Methodist family. And Angela and I and John Barrett from Cambridge were privileged to be part of those conversations, formal and informal, over four days. We had many conversations over meals as well as gathering in cafe style for the communion service in which we all shared.

“I want my house full”, says Jesus as he uses again in word and action the feast as an image and a present event pointing to a future and eternal reality which is the Kingdom of God. God invites as the heavenly host all to participate. And as we say in many of our Methodist Communion services as the final prayer, “we thank you that you have fed us in this sacrament, united us with Christ, and given us a foretaste of the heavenly banquet prepared for all people”. Not just the ones with communion tokens or membership tickets. Not just the holy few who think themselves worthy of such a sacred feast. But all ..

Parties and feasts are a time of celebration, like a wedding such as those at Cana in Galilee or the other wedding feast Jesus uses by way of illustration. Celebration of good news, of a new relationship formed, or, as in the case of the Forgiving Father, of the return of them Prodigal, that which was “lost but now is found”. Who is invited? Well, everyone! Even the Brother who grudgingly and jealously responds to his sibling’s return. Even the people who can think of good excuses why family matters and religious matters take precedence over God’s gracious call to his feast. And there’s enough for those gathered and those yet to be gathered as the careful collection of the food left at the end of the feeding of the 5,000 makes clear. “Enough for each. Enough for all”.

What holds the world Methodist family together? Well, looking around at the gathering in London I had to conclude that it was this emphasis on the alls. “All are welcome” as we have sung. All Christians, young and old, women and men, rich and poor, the groups that the racism and discrimination in our society still make us hesitant to open our doors lest the equilibrium of church life be disturbed.

David Gamble reminded us of the event he and other British and World Methodist leaders like John Barrett and others had attended in Antigua recently as Methodists on that Caribbean island celebrated 250 years of Methodist witness. It all goes back to the conversion of Nathaniel Gilbert, a slave owner, and the book which was sent to him by his brother, a recent Methodist convert, via his daughter who picked it up to give him to read while he was ill.  This story of Nathaniel Gilbert – a slave owner who converted to Christianity on his return to London in 1758 and been baptised, along with his slaves – is crucial to our understanding of mission. For the first recorded Methodist from outside Britain was an un-named black female slave, illustrating the point that Methodism had always provided a spiritual home for people society deemed ‘nameless’, and that Methodists should continue to do so. It was down to a black woman slave to open the eyes of the blind and allow the gospel news to be heard by the poor and the oppressed as well as others in society when she and Nathaniel Gilbert returned to Antigua to start their mission among the islanders, free and enslaved. Methodism from the beginning was proclaiming the gospel values of a Kingdom which was open to all, for the haves and the have-nots. For rich and poor in every country of the world.

And in this year that we celebrate the centenary of that pioneering conference in Edinburgh in 1910, we give thanks to God for the spread of the gospel to the ends of the earth, from the Caribbean, to Asia and Africa and the Pacific islands, through the faithful service and witness of missionaries sent out by the Wesleyan Methodist Missionary Society and others.

 

 

Inclusivity is of course at the heart of our Arminian Gospel, the gospel preached by the Wesley brothers in the fields around Epworth and Bristol and London, in the market places of towns and cities unreached by the institutional church of their day. “O for a trumpet voice on all to call”, Charles wrote in one of his many hymns featuring the word all.

But how do we who claim to be in that proud tradition square up today? 

This story teaches many things about God’s kingdom.  I want us to notice just how inviting God is.  It is His very nature to open up His house and welcome those who can never repay Him.  He is determined that His house will be full – He will go to the ends of the earth to ensure it.  There are some in this city who perhaps have not yet responded to God’s invitation.  Jesus says to you ‘Come, for everything is now ready.’  I wonder if we have the bottle to invite people to come in?  Maybe to church. Maybe to one of our small groups. Maybe to help in our outreach work.

We talk to people about coming to Christ and they often say “Well I couldn’t come because I’m not really religious or I’m not really good enough.”  God knows none of us are but he invites us anyway.  There’s no entrance fee.  There’s no dress code.  He simply says ‘Come, everything is now ready.’  You don’t need to prepare yourself for God – he has prepared everything for you.  So come. 

Jesus says these words in Revelation 3:20. “ I stand at the door and know.  If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will eat with them and they with me.”

 You are invited to eat with Jesus.  We celebrate that in this sacrament meal. That’s an invitation to the very deepest of friendships and a sharing of life now, life in Christ the Living Bread. It’s an open invitation to an unimaginably great party in the future.  He stands and knocks now.  He is inviting us now.   Just tell him now – ‘I’m coming.  I’m opening the door.  Let’s eat, let’s share life.’  It’s really as simple as that. 

But whether we’re just coming and meeting Christ for the first time or whether we’ve been Christians for decades, I hope we all can see just how inviting our God is.  His house will be full.  He will go to the very ends of the earth to bring them in.  And He involves us in the inviting.  If you’re seeking to be godly, you’ll be seeking to be an inviter.  Because that’s who our God is.  That’s who Jesus is.  What a joy to extend God’s invitation to Christ to our friends, to our family and to the poor, the crippled, the blind and the lame.  Godliness, Christ-likeness is not keeping this good news to yourself.  Godliness, Christ-likeness is opening up your life, your home and your table, our church here at Wesley and inviting others in, not seeking repayment, a sort of cash return on our investment, but looking ahead to the great feast.  It’s amazing how godliness in our vocabulary comes to mean – being middle class, polite, not rocking the boat and keeping yourself to yourself.  Jesus was none of those things.  Godliness is a radical other-centredness.  Christ-likeness is opening yourself out to the world in invitation and saying come – even when the world runs after its fields and oxen and wives.  To be godly is to be in the business of inviting other to the kingdom – that’s what it meant for Christ, that’s what it means for Christians.

 So what’s stopping us living this joyful, inviting life?

 The Sabbath maybe?  A Sunday-only religion that we switch off when we get home? Are we so caught up in our religious and educational programmes that we are blinded to the needs around us, the needs of a hungry world crying out for God’s love?

·        Do we expect to have pride of place, fighting our way to the top of the table?

·        Do we seek dividends in this life – always looking for earthly reward?

 Why not live like Jesus?  He knows how to throw a great party.  The world does not know.  The religious people, the Pharisees, the rule-makers, they don’t know.  But Jesus knows how to party.  Do we trust Him?  Let’s follow Him. Let us in this sacrament, taking its meaning from a solemn oath for the Roman soldiers to their Emperor, dedicate ourselves in the service of God as servants of Christ, going out and making sure that everyone knows about the gospel feast and everyone knows that they’re all invited too.

Thanks be to God. Amen.