^*In the late 90’s an evangelical preacher came out with a controversial book called, The Kingdom of God is a Party. The preacher was Tony Campolo and his book and a number of his ideas were quite challenging, so much so he ended up facing heresy trials within his denomination in the US. Everything eventually settled down and the charges were dropped but I think his simple ideas still challenge us today.

Basically Tony Campolo’s thesis is that if you pay strict attention to the red letter words in the bible you come away with a very interesting impression of Jesus. Do you understand what I mean by the red letters. Some bibles put Jesus words in red. So if you focus on what Jesus had to say you quickly realize that this man Jesus was a heavy duty partier. For a great religious leader he actually is a little short on moral teaching and really big on celebrating.

Think about it, where did Jesus do his first miracle? At a wedding feast. What was his first miracle? Turning plain old water into wine. Where does most of Jesus’ teaching take place? At dinner parties. What is his common description of the kingdom found in the parable of the prodigal son, the parable we heard today and the parable of the wise virgins? He describes the kingdom as a great feast. What does he instruct his followers to do in remembrance of him? Throw a party…with bread and wine. Where does he teach them this? At a Passover feast.

            Partying is so much a part of Jesus’ life, Tony Campolo says it is amazing Jesus wasn’t Italian.

In fact there is evidence that the early church, freed by Jesus’ message of receiving a new law and filled with new enthusiasm, got a bit carried away and partied a little too hard. Hence Paul’s letters to the early churches that warned them to go easy on the drunkenness and merry making for it was getting out of hand. The letter to the Corinthians comes to mind.

            I think that we have tended to read these stern warnings from Paul about moral living and have forgotten or missed the point that they are a reaction to some misunderstandings of some of the early communities.

The gospel today tells us a few things about how the kingdom is like a party or a feast. The kingdom, by the way, is anywhere where God reigns. We often think of the kingdom as heaven or that place beyond this world, but as Andrew Desbarats said last week in his stewardship talk, the kingdom is also within us if we choose to turn our lives over to God’s direction and rule. ‘Behold the kingdom of God is within you.’ Luke 17:21

The parable says that the kingdom, that being close to God, is like being at a feast. In other words, a relationship with God allows us to live out of a sense of delight and joy. Each one of us is meant to feel special and cherished because each one of us has been invited. And God is constantly inviting us to partake in this feast in this life of hope and joyfulness. And like with a feast, our worries, burdens and responsibilities dissolve at the door because we are allowed to let go and celebrate.

            Now I am not saying that being committed to your faith means living a life of reckless abandon and hedonistic over-consumption. What I am saying is that as I come to appreciate how blessed I am and how deep God’s love and grace is for me, I can’t help being humbled and overwhelmed by the generosity. No one can totally know the spiritual life of another person but a life guided by worry, fear, guilt or anger is usually a good indicator that the invitation to the feast has not been accepted.

            With this perspective in mind, there are times when I wonder, where do sore faced Christians come from? How is it possible to know Christ and be filled with negative and judgemental thinking?

Now just in case think, ‘Hey, wait a minute here, there is a lot of suffering in the world, there is a lot of pain and injustice and this mandate to be joy-filled trivialized the seriousness of life.’ My response would be, you are absolutely right. There is nothing more serious than the fact that 30,000 children died last night while we slept because of poverty. There is nothing more serious than the fact that we are destroying our environment at an alarming rate due to our overconsumption. There is nothing more serious than the fact that disease and natural disasters claim the lives of so many just and good people. 

But as a prayer leader once said, worry, and anxiety are the starting place of prayer, not a staying place. (Praying in Colour, Sybil MacBeth) Worry, fear, guilt and shame tell us that something is wrong with ourselves and with the world but they can also consume and dominate us and so again, they are only the starting places in our relationship with God, they are not the staying places. Like when you enter a great party or feast, you drop your worries at the door. In our relationship with God we hand over our burdens so that we can then be open to God’s empowerment and for God’s desires for justice and truth.