Great Supper

PARABLE OF THE GREAT SUPPER

(Luke 14.15-24)

Only 1% of the population of Japan are Christians. Of this, only a very small proportion belongs to the Nippon Sei Ko Kai (the Anglican Church of Japan). It was therefore a great privilege to meet one of their members, Hiroshi Fukinishi, in December 1984.

Hiroshi was a scientist on board the Shiraze - the Japanese icebreaker which called at Fremantle, Western Australia, en route to Antarctica. The ship called every year as it transported the new scientists and returned with the former scientists from their base. The men were stationed there for one year.

Just before the ship sailed that year, Hiroshi received the sacrament of Holy Communion from me. At the end of the service I presented him with a copy of the Bible in Japanese and An Australian Prayer Book. These were to be the means of his spiritual survival for the next 16 months, since he would not have the opportunity of receiving Holy Communion until Easter 1986 in Tokyo. And this was important for him, since he would be the only Christian at that scientific station.

I have never forgotten Hiroshi.

Nor have I ever forgotten a weekend I once spent in the port of Esperance, in the South of Western Australia. We had taken advice and driven down from Perth on the Friday, so that we would have a day to recover from the 500 mile journey and prepare for the Sunday, though I had not appreciated what would be involved on the Sunday.

The Parish Communion was held at 8.00am and there were about 90 people present from the small community. I was then driven by the Churchwarden out into the bush. We travelled some 150 miles through the wheat belt area mostly on dirt track roads, without passing a single car, let alone a farm or a house. Suddenly, in the midst of the fields we came to a clearing in which was built a corrugated iron church. There were already some forty people – men, women and children - waiting for me to celebrate the monthly Holy Communion at 12 noon. After the service, we were invited to join them in the inevitable Australian Barbecue.

I was exhausted. But it was not the end of my day. At 2.30pm we set off again, skirting the wide open salt lakes, and after another two hours travelling, arrived at the local Roman Catholic Church at which I was to celebrate Holy Communion for about thirty Anglican parishioners. This time, cakes, washed down with tea, was the after-service menu.

Then it was time to make the one hundred and twenty mile journey back to Esperance. This time on a sealed road, and we arrived back at 8.00pm. That evening I was completely shattered.

I then learned that the Rector made similar journeys to the other isolated communities on the other Sundays in the month.

My heart went out to the Rector, when I considered his average Sunday workload to ensure that these communities were not deprived of the opportunity of receiving Holy Communion. My heart went out also to the members of those tiny congregations, as I recalled the effort they had to make to receive the sacrament, as had Hiroshi, unable to receive the sacrament for 16 months whilst stationed in Antarctica.

Given such personal experiences of fellow Christians overseas, you can begin to see why I have little patience with the erratic church attendance of many members of this congregation.

The excuses are many and varied.

"It’s the only chance I have got to have a lie in", "The garden is needing attention", "I've got a golf match", "I didn't get to bed until late", "We've got visitors coming for lunch", "I don't like the Family Service", "I've got to visit the children at boarding school".

To be honest, I must say that I note there is a growing number of parishioners making an effort to attend the 8 o'clock service, if they have got to go out later on. Some parishioners come to Matins and Holy Communion rather than the Family Service on the first Sunday of the month - though others continue to use it as an excuse for not attending church at all. I note also, some parishioners attending Evensong, if they have been unable to be present during the morning.

But having said that, there is undoubtedly a lack of personal discipline, which is supported by flimsy excuses, compared with the commitment of those Christians overseas.

Anglicans in England, tend to be very complacent about their spiritual life and assume everything is OK. "No worries mate” as they would say in Australia.

It was such an attitude and comment that prompted Jesus to tell the story of the Great Supper.

It is a story directed to the self-righteous of his day who were invited to a Great Supper. They had replied in the affirmative to the earlier invitation but then something more attractive came along, so when the servant, according to Eastern tradition, summoned the guests to sit down, they began to make excuses.

They all discovered they had more pressing engagements. Now I am not interested in their flimsy excuses. The spotlight is on what happened next.

The host directs his attention to others. First he invites the waifs and strays of Judaism - the poor, the crippled, the blind and the lame. Then he invites those outside the walls of Judaism - the Gentiles – the vagrants along the country roads.

Whilst this was a timely reminder to the religious people of the times, of the universality of God's love for all, to both Jew and Gentile alike, it is also a timely reminder to us, of the need to sort out our priorities in life before it is too late.

As I have said before, we can fool others, we can fool ourselves, but we cannot fool God "to whom all hearts are open, all desires known and from whom no secrets are hidden".

God does not exclude us from his presence at the banquet. It is we who exclude ourselves with our trivial excuses and it is no good blaming him, if we find ourselves left out in the cold, cut off from God.

Whilst we continue to be preoccupied with other things and people more attractive than our friendship with God, we shall remain cut off from the source of our spiritual life.

And it is no good putting off till tomorrow what should be done today. It is no good saying, well I shall accept the next invitation and go next week, for we are already determining the character by which we shall ultimately be judged.

If we are too busy to accept his invitation on earth, we shall certainly be too busy to accept his invitation to the great supper in heaven.

Now, in case you think I should have addressed this sermon to those who don't come to church, I would point out that Jesus originally addressed this parable to the religious people of his day who also thought his remarks should have been addressed elsewhere! It is often said that the reason why congregations have sloping shoulders is because they think the words of the preacher are addressed to the person behind!

So let us ponder this parable of the Great Supper and make a determined effort to sort out our priorities in life before it is too late.

Amen.