Blessed is he who shall eat bread in the kingdom of God!

Then He also said to him who invited Him, "When you give a dinner or a supper, do not ask your friends, your brothers, your relatives, nor rich neighbors, lest they also invite you back, and you be repaid. But when you give a feast, invite the poor, the maimed, the lame, the blind. And you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you; for you shall be repaid at the resurrection of the just."

Now when one of those who sat at the table with Him heard these things, he said to Him, "Blessed is he who shall eat bread in the kingdom of God!" Then He said to him, "A certain man gave a great supper and invited many, and sent his servant at supper time to say to those who were invited, 'Come, for all things are now ready.' But they all with one accord began to make excuses. The first said to him, 'I have bought a piece of ground, and I must go and see it. I ask you to have me excused.' And another said, 'I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I am going to test them. I ask you to have me excused.' Still another said, 'I have married a wife, and therefore I cannot come.' So that servant came and reported these things to his master. Then the master of the house, being angry, said to his servant, 'Go out quickly into the streets and lanes of the city, and bring in her the poor and the maimed and the lame and the blind.' And the servant said, 'Master, it is done as you commanded, and still there is room.' Then the master said to the servant, 'Go out into the highways and hedges, and compel them to come in, that my house may be filled. For I say to you that none of those men who were invited shall taste my supper.'"

- Luke 14:12-24

In Saturday's reading, Jesus healed a man (with dropsy) on the Sabbath, in spite of the Pharisees' presence at table. He then told a parable of "good manners" - the behavior of humility at a wedding feast, not assuming that one will be in the most exalted place, lest we be moved to a lower. But rather, assuming a lower place so that one may be moved to a higher. "For whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted."

Then He also said to him who invited Him, "When you give a dinner or a supper, do not ask your friends, your brothers, your relatives, nor rich neighbors, lest they also invite you back, and you be repaid. But when you give a feast, invite the poor, the maimed, the lame, the blind. And you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you; for you shall be repaid at the resurrection of the just." A note in my study bible reads, "This story of God's compassion toward the poor appears only in Luke. To share hospitality with the needy is to imitate God's love which welcomes the lowly into the banquet of His Kingdom." I think that it's not only illustrative about God's compassion, as my study bible notes, but of a whole array of elements of the nature of God. There is also a kind of important sense of justice and judgment here. The reward comes to us in other ways, when we do not "play the game" for worldly reward. This is a very important aspect of what we might call the "karma" (a popularly used word) of the Gospels. As we pray to our Father who is in the secret place, so the things we do in secret will be rewarded by that Father. It is an important sense of exchange and dependent on humility (as illustrated in yesterday's reading). We must be humble enough to receive a reward others may not necessarily see, and act in ways others may not necessarily appreciate - to benefit those who cannot pay us back directly.

Now when one of those who sat at the table with Him heard these things, he said to Him, "Blessed is he who shall eat bread in the kingdom of God!" My study bible notes, "This is an inspirational, although little-known, beatitude. The purpose of life is to join in the sharing of bread in the kingdom of God, a partaking of the eternal love of God." An important emphasis continues here on the centrality of life in this Kingdom, and how it must impact on us in our daily lives and choices. It must be alive to us and in us as we take our place in the world of our daily lives, work and practices. Looked at in this way, life can be a constant feast of celebration of that life in the Kingdom - just as we understand the angels always to celebrate as we celebrate the liturgy.

Then He said to him, "A certain man gave a great supper and invited many, and sent his servant at supper time to say to those who were invited, 'Come, for all things are now ready.' But they all with one accord began to make excuses. The first said to him, 'I have bought a piece of ground, and I must go and see it. I ask you to have me excused.' And another said, 'I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I am going to test them. I ask you to have me excused.' Still another said, 'I have married a wife, and therefore I cannot come.' So that servant came and reported these things to his master. Then the master of the house, being angry, said to his servant, 'Go out quickly into the streets and lanes of the city, and bring in her the poor and the maimed and the lame and the blind.' And the servant said, 'Master, it is done as you commanded, and still there is room.' Then the master said to the servant, 'Go out into the highways and hedges, and compel them to come in, that my house may be filled. For I say to you that none of those men who were invited shall taste my supper.'" My study bible says: "This parable exemplifies God's Kingdom, imaged in the ministry of Christ and later in the Church. The Kingdom is filled with outcasts and Gentiles, while the unresponsive privileged guests shut themselves out with their excuses (v. 18)." The language in this story parallels that of a parable in the Gospel of Matthew about a king's wedding feast for his son - see Many are called but few are chosen. Luke's meaning here may imply the same message, but gives us glimpses of other facets of God's nature and that of God's kingdom that we may find in context. Coming after the teaching on helping those who cannot directly pay us back, and the "quiet" beatitude about eating the bread in the kingdom of God, it reinforces the idea that we are to make time daily - midst our worldly lives - to keep this kingdom and this feast paramount in our hearts and minds. We must make room for it, make time for it, pay attention as we live our lives.

Jesus has taught the two greatest commandments as follows, "'Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.' This is the first commandment. And the second, like it, is this: 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.' " When we put God and God's kingdom first and foremost in our hearts and minds, this becomes the central place from which we live our lives in the world, and the direction by which we then extend that kingdom - and ALL that goes with it - to our neighbor, in "right-relatedness." There are many, many reasons for the commandments and their order of importance. Placing that Kingdom first - with its feast, its celebration of love and mercy, its understanding of justice, and so much more about the nature of God - gives us a template through which we are to view the world and our relationships in it. This is essential because so much can go wrong if we are simply focused on "the group" (no matter what group that is) and our work in the world as the sole place we seek God. Justice demands (as illustrated in today's reading) that we recognize those who are unseen. Justice demands that we see the injustice that exists in this world that will pick out scapegoats and those who are left out of its favors. We cannot do this from a worldly framework alone - there will always be those whom we miss. This is the unfortunate nature of a fallen world. Jesus' death on the Cross, as scapegoat, while the crowds are spurred to cheer His death, exemplifies why we put thoughts of the feast in that Kingdom first, why we love God first - because there are times when we will have to stand out from the crowd in order to exemplify that love and that justice and mercy - that compassion for the hidden, and the ones who cannot pay us back. How do you put God - and the great feast in that kingdom of God's love - first, today? Midst our daily lives, I think it's important to dwell on that feast, to celebrate this Kingdom and this love, and to cherish it in our hearts first before all things. Thus we may feed those who need feeding, and do the things that need to be done, in the eyes of our Father who is in the secret place.