One scholar has observed: in the four gospels we find Jesus almost always coming from a meal, sharing a meal, or going to a meal.  Jesus was accused of being a “winebibber and a glutton” (Luke 7:34. This means Jesus must surely be a Presbyterian.

Indeed, eating and drinking, sharing a meal with others, is the story of the Bible.  The Bible begins when Eve, mother of all the living, looks around her neighborhood, searching for a decent lunch for her herself and her partner Adam.  She chooses the best-looking food available.  Perhaps not the wisest choice, but this means Adam and Eve were the first devotees of fast food. 

So the Bible begins with a quick meal.  What will God’s people Israel eat as they travel through the wilderness?  Will Jesus turn stones into bread, as Satan urges him to do? Will Jesus turn the water jugs into the best wine during the wedding feast at Cana?   The center of the long biblical narrative, the very heart and soul of God’s great covenant story, is Jesus’ last supper, Jesus’ Passover meal with his disciples and friends, when he offers his body and blood and invites, “This do, from now on, in remembrance of me.”  This is the pivot, the fulcrum, on which pivots all history, thus BC and AD in the western calendar.

And the Bible story concludes with the great vision John shows us in the Book of Revelation when all the saved, the righteous, the redeemed, from East and West, from North and South, all God’s people gather together to celebrate the New Jerusalem in the great banquet feast of the lamb of God.

And so today, our lesson finds Jesus sharing a meal.  We shared our most important meal, our central saving event on last Sunday, when we shared together Holy Communion, or the Lord’s Supper, or the Eucharist, our thanksgiving and celebration of God’s salvation for us in Christ.

And next Sunday, our Kickoff Sunday, we shall travel out to Coonskin Park for our Kickoff picnic.  Be sure to wear your picnic outfit next Sunday, not your “Sunday Go to Meeting” outfit, but your most comfortable picnic outfit when you come to church, and we’ll go directly from our worship to share our picnic meal together.

Going from meal to meal as we do, today we study Jesus doing the same.  Jesus is at lunch with the Pharisees.  Once again, Jesus takes this meal as a metaphor, a model, a picture story to teach his disciples and us, to help us better to understand who we are in the Kingdom of God. 

Jesus tells two parables.  A parable is always a simple story Jesus tells to teach a much deeper and serious truth about the Kingdom of God.  In his first parable we are invited guests at a fancy wedding banquet.  Being normal humans we try to take the best seats, nearest the bride and groom, head table of honor, get served first and consume the best food and drink. 

Jesus says normal human motivation, to seek honor and glory, privilege and power, safety and control, gets reversed in God’s kingdom.  Better to take the lowest seat, the humble place, for as a disciple, we need to learn not how to rule, but we need to learn how to serve.

Saint Paul puts it this way: I urge you to have this mind within you, the mindset Christ Jesus shows us.  Christ Jesus who in the form of God, did not take advantage of this equality with God, but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave or a servant, and being born in human form, humbled himself, becoming obedient even to the point of death, even death on a cross; therefore God has highly exalted him, and given him the name above every name (Phil. 2:1-11).

Jesus says, “All who exalt themselves will be humbled, and all those who humble themselves will be exalted.” 

Let’s practice this Kingdom obedience as we look forward to next Sunday’s picnic at Coonskin Park.  Let practice our “Picnic Manners” as we look forward to enjoying our picnic meal as our model for the Kingdom of Christ Jesus living already here among us.

Along with you and me, and the good food usually found at every picnic, God will have other helpers at the picnic.  There will be (congregation participates by becoming these five elements):

ANTS:  What do ants do and say?  “Crunch, crunch, bite, bite.”

BUGS and BEES:  What do bugs and bees say and do?  “Buss, buss, sting, sting.”

THUNDER:  What does the thunder say and do?  “Rumble, rumble, roar, roar, stomp, stomp.”

RAIN:  What does rain do and say?  “Drip, drop, drip, drop, drizzle, drizzle, downpour, downpour.”

LIGHTING:  What does lightning say and do:  “Snap, crackle, pop!  Snap, crackle, pop!”

Do you bring your insect repellent?  Do you set up your folding chairs?  Will I make myself comfortable first, or help my neighbor to have the more comfortable chair? Will I rush to be first in line to eat, or help others to go before me to eat first?  Will I serve myself or will we show our children how to show hospitality for others before ourselves?  If our picnic is a model for God’s kingdom, how shall we humble ourselves, to show the mind of Christ, believing that our obedience already shows how we are being blessed with Christ’s love, and so God’s new Kingdom is arriving, breaking into our normal lifestyles.

Jesus’ second parable asks you and me to become the hosts, to create the list of whom-all is invited to dinner.  Have you had this experience?  You call up to invite a friend to dinner and your friend asks, “Well who else is invited?”  (“Tell me who I’ll run into and I’ll decide if your guest list is suitable for my comfort zone.”)  Jesus knows we usually invite our friends, family members, rich neighbors, knowing they will feel obligated to invite us in return.  Normal human kingdom building.  But what does God’s Kingdom ask of us?  Abrupt about face, reverse engines, which is what the word repentance means.  Jesus says, “Invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind.”  These were the Jews who could never be priests or rabbis because they were ritually unclean.  The Essene community at Qumran, where we find the Dead Sea Scrolls, explicitly denied membership to any such unqualified souls.  Jesus says these unclean, rejected, ostracized individuals shall be first on our guest list.  Why?  Because they can never give you a return invitation.  But Jesus promises you will be blessed, exactly because they cannot repay you, for “you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteousness.”  Do we believe his promise?  Do we trust this blessing that sounds so far off in the future, so far off in another universe called heaven?  Do we hear Jesus promising this blessing for us here and now?  Do we welcome and experience this blessing, this presence of the Kingdom of God already here with us, as Jesus is Emmanuel, God right here with us?

Our picnic should help us to answer Jesus’ challenge.  Again, let’s check our Picnic Manners (congregation participates):  Ants. Bugs and Bees.  Thunder.  Rain.  Lightning.  Rain.  Thunder.

We run for cover.  We hover together under the tents; under the shelter.  Sweaty, ants, bugs and bees, mosquitoes (mosquitoes? Where do they come from?); all too sweaty and cramped for space.  Can’t eat good this way.  Look around.  Who all is here?  Who are the guests we invited to our picnic?

Is that homeless street person here?  Did we invite our Arabic-speaking Muslim neighbor from down the street?  Did we make sure a certain handicapped colleague from work would feel welcome and comfortable here?  Did the seeing-eye dog come with your blind acquaintance who seldom gets invited anywhere? 

Jesus says, “Come unto me, all you who are weary, carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest.”  Do we invite the AIDS patient across town who is lonely and frightened?  Do we invite that shy, weirdly effeminate man who lives alone and never looks you straight in the eye?   Do we invite the single mother on welfare who keeps having one child after another?  Do we invite the addict who has been away doing time; can we trust he is really in recovery? 

Jesus says,  “Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.  For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”

I don’t hear any ants, bugs or bees; no thunder, no rain, no lightning.  Look the sun is back out from behind the cloud, shining brightly.  Our church picnic is not ruined after all.  We can relax, spread out again; take your time.

As we learn from Jesus how to behave as guests and as hosts at our church picnic, as we learn how to become Jesus more faithful disciples, as we celebrate the Kingdom of God arriving here among us, maybe we are practicing what St. Paul means when he says, “Work out your own salvation, with fear and trembling, for God is at work in you, enabling you both to will and to work for his good pleasure.” (Phil. 2:12-13)