A Famine Not of Bread

JESUS MAFA. The Poor Invited to the Feast , from Art in the Christian Tradition, a project of the Vanderbilt Divinity Library, Nashville, Tenn. Click here to listen to this sermon. [Jesus said]: “But when you give a feast, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, and you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you. For you will be repaid at the resurrection of the just” (Luke 14:13-14). Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ! On first reading, this text appears to be an assortment of different, unconnected moments in the ministry of Jesus. We have a healing (vv. 1-6), a parable (vv. 7-11), and then a teaching about regard for the poor (vv. 12-14). When you look at the text more closely, however, you see this all happens on one occasion. The text begins with a reference to a meal on the Sabbath at the house of a ruler of the Pharisees and it is not until verse 25 that we leave this occasion. Recognizing this unity encourages us t...

Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ! I guess you could say that this is literally my day job.   As I await a full-time call to a parish, I work overnights as a support manager at Wal-Mart.   And as you might suspect, this past month has been a zoo.   Extra customers on the floor making it even more challenging to get the freight out so it can be stocked.   Longer lines at the checkout counters and service desks.   Extra freight on extra trucks, some of them running late due to weather concerns.   This isn’t surprising to any of you, I’m sure.   But what might surprise you is content of the freight.   You see, most of the special Christmas items—the electronic equipment, household appliances, toys, all of that came in weeks ago.   The extra freight that’s been coming in the last month is gearing up for the New Year—for people’s New Year’s resolutions to be more specific.   Workout equipment, pal...