Inviting the Uninvited
Rev. J. R. Reid
Once it happened: The weather was bad and stormy, and an airplane was lost. The fog was so dense that everybody became afraid and fearful. A minister was aboard; except for him, everybody was weeping, crying, perspiring. The moment was dangerous. At any moment the plane could crash. Even the pilot was perspiring and nervous. The minister told everybody to kneel down and pray. They all kneeled and started praying except a small businessman. The minister asked the businessman, “Why are you not praying?” The man said, “Forgive me, pastor, because I don’t know how to pray. I have never prayed.” And there was no time to teach the man: any moment the plane would be falling, any moment it would hit the ground. So the minister said, “Okay, there is no time left now. So you just behave as if you are in a church.” The businessman started walking down the aisles collecting money.
The businessman was one of the invited guests to the dinner Jesus spoke of in his parable on people who were invited to a wedding but did not come. Even at the moment of death a businessperson thinks of the world. What’s going to happen to the things accumulated on earth? At the last moment money remains the focus.
Here is the problem. Many of us receive a daily invitation from the Lord to come and dine and in our mind we have good explanations for refusing the offer. We are caught up in what WE are doing and have reserved, maybe, a few hours a week for the Lord. Many of us don’t even do that. Maybe one hour on Sunday. No more! And the pastor better keep the service to one hour! What we do on a daily basis seems reasonable, even though it takes hours of the week for us to do it! We don’t need Sunday school, vacation Bible school, Bible study or any other work in the church. Don’t invite us! We are busy!
Jesus tells a simple, yet significant parable. The symbolic meaning of the parable is concerned with a particular type of Christian or nonbeliever who spends most of their time doing other things instead of seeking the Kingdom of God. People in this type usually call themselves business people or busy people. God knows we need more business people in our community but for our purposes the word business person means anyone who allows anything to become an excuse to keep them from attending the banquet of the Lord. Our type of business person is one who is busy about non-significant things, the trivial, the outside, about things, commodities, but not busy about developing and maintaining a strong relationship with God. This person is lost in the world and apart from the few minutes or hours he gives to the Lord a week – if that – there is always something else to do. This person thinks of money, accumulation and possessions, but seldom of their soul salvation unless they are feeling old and feeble, sick or dying. It is for this reason that the master in our parable begin to invite the uninvited. We can only hear and receive God’s invitation if we are unoccupied with the things of this world when the invitation comes. Those who are somebody in the world of ego will always refuse the invitation, because the ego needs constant occupation and find it hard to enjoy life. Do you know people that have to keep busy or they will go crazy? They invent work so they don’t have to spend time with themselves or other people. If they don’t invent work, they have to be entertained.
The master in our story told his servant to go find and bring those on the road who are nobodies because God has to share. If the VIPs were not coming, bring the beggars, the lost, lonely and last. Bring vagabonds, lost sheep and those who have gone astray. It is these people who will enjoy God more than emperors and kings. The wealthy, powerful and privileged are too busy! The worldly person doesn’t have time! Even the retired person has a full schedule because they have a quality of being unoccupied. It is only when we become occupied with the Lord that we accept His invitation.
