Who's invited to the Banquet?

The Kingdom of God is often envisioned as a great banquet table where individuals from all tribes and tongues sit together, sharing a meal. It's a beautiful visual, isn't it?

We all have had the deeply moving experience of sharing a meal with another.  There is a connection that is formed that can not be manufactured or explained - often laughter and honesty pour out of us during those times.

There is hope in dreaming about a place and a time where all the suffering and pain will be no more.  Many delight and find peace in striving after the things that are to come.But is that all that we are to hope for? The Great Banquet of the next life? Of unity, diversity, and peace only then? For many, that is precisely what is expected. We don't have to look far to see despair and some have come to just dismiss it, somehow finding comfort in that 'it's all going to burn anyways'.

Before we go too far, let's not forget when we envision this Great Banquet to also remember all the awkwardness and difficultly that occurs during a meal - especially when the extended family gets together.  There's 'Uncle Jerry' and his outlandish political stances; or the silent fight between grandparents over some thing that was said between them in the other room; or sadness experienced when our closest cousin was unexpectedly unable to be there.

When we sit down for a meal, we embrace the full spectrum of joy and difficulty.

I say this to remind us that when all is said and done; as we sit around the Table together there is going to be some awkwardness. I say this to remind us that at no point do we arrive; neither here nor there - we will never be perfect or free from flaws.  So at this Banquet table there will be liars, racists, bigots, selfish, elitists, broken, prideful, forgotten, lost, uncertain, people we hate, and if we are lucky - we might even find ourselves there.

It is most certainly true that there will be no more tears, or pain, or suffering. Yet that does not mean it won't still be difficult.  If we are to stand in the midst of the Almighty, we had better believe that there is nothing we will be able to hide - that my friends could be a slightly awkward interaction, I might even say painful.  For in that moment, we will become very aware of how we have fallen short: of how much our words and actions kept people from knowing who God is and experiencing His love; of how much we are the very people we despise - the very people we want out of the Kingdom - yet somehow God called us His own, His precious daughters and sons.

It will be there we will truly know the fullness of love and grace. And it will wreck us.

We will become very aware how we have forsaken God's desire for us to love Him and to love others. Not a love contingent on conversion or right beliefs but rather simply because they are the beautiful creation of the Most High.  We have been reminded to humbly follow in the Divine's footsteps, acting justly and embodying mercy for ALL people - and somehow we have the audacity to add conditions to doing so.

For most Christians, the scandalous grace we have experienced shows us that there are no doors, let alone locks, keeping people from the entering Kingdom where this Banquet takes place. C.S. Lewis once said 'That the doors of hell are locked on the inside.' His premise being that it is us who attempt to lock out God. In fact God bursts forth, rushing out to embrace us when we turn back towards Him.  Yet for some, there is a 'cost' of grace which means that it can not be freely given so that they have appointed themselves bouncers limiting who might join in on this Great Banquet.

We must trust that God is larger than ourselves and does not require us to be the bouncers or gatekeepers of the Kingdom.  God does not need us to filter out the masses, to limit His grace but rather needs us to simply express and embody the love that He has freely shown and given to us.

In short: God does not need our protection.

This is a call and a challenge for us to be radically inclusive. Here and now, because one day it will be the reality we live.

This is an invitation to all sides of whatever spectrum to join in, to realize that our differences aren't what matter but that we are all found in Christ.

This is a discovery that we don't all agree and that's ok, because we are united by the only One who transcends all division.

And that we can celebrate the fact that whether it be today, or at some point in the future, we will all be sitting around the same table - sharing a meal, blown away by the true beauty of the diversity of the Body of Christ.

So let us begin to lean into this certain future together now rather than later.