Tag Archive for: Great Banquet

Banquet Invitation

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Armodoxy for Today: Advent – an Invite to the Banquet

This week of Advent is dedicated to a parable offered by our Lord and recorded by St. Luke (chapter 14:12-24).

Suppose you wanted to celebrate your daughter’s birthday with a party on the 20th of the month. You send out invites to your relatives, friends and even neighbors. “Help us celebrate our daughter’s birthday” says the invite. “On the 20th at 5PM, in our backyard, join us for a bar-b-que,” finishes off the invite. You send them off and start receiving responses: the first one says, “I’m sorry, I can’t make it on the 20th can you change the date to the 19th?” Another says, “I don’t like bar-b-que, too bad you’re not serving baked foods. I won’t be coming.” The next one complains that the outdoors, your backyard, is too cold. “I wish you had the event in a hall. I won’t be attending.”

Such a scenario would be humorous at the least, and downright rude on the courtesy scale. Jesus shares the following parable with us. His intention was not to be humorous, nor to get a rise out of us. Instead, he speaks of the lessons that is part of our Advent Journey on the road to Christmas through Armodoxy.

Jesus said, “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 here 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.’”

This story, the Parable of the Great Banquet, has many dimensions to it. It speaks of the invitation to Christianity and Christian living in particular and talks about the call to humanity, to living in harmony with and within our world, in general. It points to the essence and the purpose of Christmas. For this reason, the Armenian Church has prescribed this parable as the theme of this week in Advent.

We have heard the parable. We dive into to tomorrow, as we continue our Advent Journey. I look forward to having you join us.

Let us pray, Heavenly Father, you have invited me to our Kingdom. From the day of my baptism from the holy font until today, I have tried to follow your ways. Sometimes I wonder off the path, and I find excuses to justify my missteps. Today, I put those excuses to one side and I look to you to keep my feet on the path you have opened for me. Amen.

Banquet Seating

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Armodoxy for Today

Banquet Seating

The Parable of the Great Banquet (Luke 14:12-24) ends with the words, “For I say to you that none of those men who were invited shall taste my supper.” And now, you find yourself sitting at the table, and the only reason you are here is because you’ve accepted the invitation. You’re at the Banquet which was referenced as “Blessed is the one who will eat at the feast in the kingdom of God.” You’re blessed. You’re at the feast. And now let’s take a look around.

Up until now we’ve looked at others who have refused the invitation. The Armodoxy challenge is to put yourself in the Parable. It’s easy to look at the characters in a parable and see the fault of others, but the Christian is called to see him or herself in the parable dynamics. This placement is an exercise in self-evaluation. Hence, we find one of the important reasons for the season of Advent: to be prepared emotionally and spiritually to accept the Creator of the Universe in our midst. Christ is born and revealed, is the Christmas message.

You’re now at the Table. Take it further by asking yourself, in what ways have I answered the invitation to be seated? The true invitation is to the Kingdom of Heaven. God asks us – invites us – to value life, we value our cars, our homes, our business, to the point we put our children on hold while we go chasing material wealth. God asks us – invites us – to seek peace. We build bigger and better weapons. We eliminate options of working together to find harmony and find only ways of building borders and barriers. God asks us – invites us – to love one another and care for others. We say not everyone. We set our standards so that love is not unconditional.

In other words, the invite to the Banquet is an invite to the Kingdom of God. Responding to the invite is a chance for each of us to truly listen carefully to the answers of our heart.

The Parable is to share God’s love and God’s kingdom with everyone. Everyone has equal access. Today we sit at the Table and look around, thankful that we are here and increase our awareness of the love, tolerance, peace-seeking, life-loving, that has brought us here. God’s grace and mercy have given us access to this beautiful opportunity, tomorrow we’ll look at the price for sitting at this Table. It steep but its also a lot of fun.

Join me in prayer, All benevolent and almighty refuge and hope of the weak and the troubled, my Lord and my God, who created everything from nothingness. Draw closer to me with Your unspeakable mercy, for you show compassion to those who yearn for You and heal them through Your benevolence. Make me worthy of the Table of Immortality, to join in prayer those who adore You, for to You is befitting glory, dominion and honor, now and always, Amen.