{"version":1,"type":"rich","provider_name":"Libsyn","provider_url":"https:\/\/www.libsyn.com","height":90,"width":600,"title":"Homily - Salvation is a Banquet","description":"The Banquet St. Luke 14:16-24 \u00b7      Greatest tragedies in history o   Separation from God o   Separation from one another \u00b7      Two of the great epidemics of our time resulted from this o   Loneliness: we were made for community (yes, even introverts!) o   Meaning: \u00a7  We were made for a home, with a strong and enduring identity \u00a7  We were made for a purpose, with an important part to play, and given the gifts and potential to play that part well. \u00a7  Last week: when we have our community, we know our part and are developing our gifts, the result is a symphony or beautiful transformation. o   Without community and a song, purpose, or being part of a plan, we are sure to suffer \u00b7      This is our experience of sin.  We have missed the mark of our calling, of being part of the things for which we were made \u00b7      So what is the solution? o   A theological math problem, with the calculus of proper soteriology coming to rescue? o   A juridical problem, with a proper understanding of God\u2019s justice and the role of His Son\u2019s sacrifice in appeasing it? \u00b7      No, I framed the problem of sin the way I did so that we could approach it properly: we have a relationship problem.  We are separated from God and one another and thus suffer from loneliness and a lack of meaning. \u00b7      Today\u2019s Gospel flows naturally from this understanding, and it corrects some imperfections in some Western theology that compound the problem and make a proper diagnosis all but impossible.  o   Some \u201cWestern\u201d Christians might slip the mathematical and juridical approaches and recognize that the restoration of a relationship with God is central.  But their God is angry and even, dare I say it, capricious.  And like an abusive father or husband, the key to assuaging his wrath is to satisfy it with the death of His son.  This is a terrible theology, and Christ dismisses it with today\u2019s description of the feast as the solution to the world\u2019s pain. \u00b7      The Kingdom of Heaven is a great meal to which we are all invited. \u00b7      Are you lonely? o   A meal!  Why is it so great?  At festal meals, we learn to leave aside all the petty things that have divided us.  Around a family table, we are reminded of who we are and what family we belong to and can relax into this.  When strangers come, there need be no awkwardness as the purpose is fixed and everyone is fed.  All of us have good things in common at the supper table.  We lay aside all of our pettiness to engage in this beautiful fellowship. o   But it is also the meal of the king.  The invitation is the invitation to a restored relationship with Him.  And through accepting the invitation we restore our relations with one another.  o   And because of the nature of the food that is offered, the restoration of the relationship grows and the problems of loneliness and meaning fade to nothing.  And neither exist at all in the great banquet which is to come. \u00b7      This shows the love of our God and the beauty of True Theology.  Restoration comes not from solving theological math problems, getting the right lawyer, or creating a codependency with a wrathful God. \u00b7      Restoration comes in accepting God\u2019s invitation to a place at His Holy Table and to Feast at His Holy Supper. \u00b7      Some chose not to come \u2013 and we pray that they repent and come to the table before it is too late. \u00b7      But for us the way is clear, we have accepted the invitation, and thus we are being cured of the pain of sin and its separation.         ","author_name":"OrthoAnalytika","author_url":"http:\/\/orthoanalytika.libsyn.com","html":"