Ryan MandevilleRyan Mandeville2NaN2024-03-03T08:37:28Z2024-02-29T16:02:22Z2024-03-04T16:48:58Z616238748231OpenOffice/4.1.14$Unix OpenOffice.org_project/4114m1$Build-9811 We are at the parable of the great banquet today, because it shows many of the realities of the third threshold someone crosses in their walk to full communion and dependence on Jesus. SLIDE (5 Thresholds) We are on the hardest threshold to move throughand the most mysterious, openness. It is the most mysterious,because the transition from asking questions about Jesus and faithto questions about what that means for my life is hard to identify.It is the hardest, because people are coming to us closed off. SLIDE They are fine living the way they are. Change is more effort and they are just making it through the day as it is. Complacency with the way things are is the easiest way to make it through the new day. In doing so however, we never fully live.One of the things I now wish I would have taken advantage of was traveling abroad or going to a University with a January term. SLIDE My cousin who went to Whitworth University on the other side of Spokane, spent the month of January in Hawaii with 30 other pre-med students studying the marine life in the ocean. Gonzaga has a school in Florence. My sister did a semester abroad in Tazmania. I did 4.5 years in Spokane, Washington. SLIDE One of the big reasons besides finances, was that my friend group would change and I would miss out on life in Spokane while living in Europe, or Australia, or Hawaii. That is complacency at work. I have obviously become open to change and rearranged some of my priorities at this point in life.Now the first thing we should note from Jesus' parable of the great banquet is, a bunch of people who are thought to be friends and open to the man are invited. These were people who borrowed stuff from him, asked him questions on how he did things, talked to him in the grocery store or post office. They might have listened to him talk for hours. They were definitely curious about his life, our phase from last week. SLIDE But they were not at a point of being open to the life he had. So when they are invited to a banquet at his house, he is given excuses on why that is not a priority for them. They would rather stay in Spokane with a new interest. They give the excuse of seeing their newly purchased land, or trying out their new oxen, or just were newly married. SLIDE Some scholars try and put these into allegorical categories of priorities of business or novelty or the law. There may be something there. There is no denying that the deepest problem is that the friendship is not a high enough priority yet, even if sweetened by a feast. SLIDE They are at the curious threshold, but not yet the open threshold.So what does the man do? He sends his servant out and checks the streets and alleys to bring in the poor, the crippled, the blind, and the lame. Not exactly a Red Carpet crowd.Then, when there is still room, the roads and country lanes are scoured and anyone found is brought in. We should hear that they were open to the change. Do you want to dumpster dive for dinner or have a banquet? SLIDE I will gladly exchange this moldy bagel for fresh bread, fruit, prime rib, and triple chocolate cake dessert. If we are honest, many of us are similarly complacent. We will pass up something awesome and go eat leftovers, because it is easier. If we were to go to the feast, it would take a few hours of our time, we would have to talk to people, might have to take our sweats or shorts off and put on real pants. The meal I made earlier this week needs to be eaten before it goes bad. So who needs wonderful food and fellowship? We are just fine the way we are.But imagine the opportunities we miss when we are not open. SLIDE I would have missed paddling through 10 days in Glacier Bay National Park. All of you missed out on living on a sail boat for a week in the British Virgin Islands and French Polynesia. You have always wanted to see the pictures and hear my stories, but the changed mindset and behavior did not occur. SLIDE This shift in mindset and behavior allows people to move from curious about our faith into having a faith of their own.Last week, we sang the song, “What if what they say is true?” SLIDE If Jesus did all of these things, could he heal me, could Jesus conquer me, could Jesus calm us? What would change if we believed that he loved us and we said, “I love you too?” All of the questions are part of the curious phase. We can ask the questions all day long. We will never know the answer, unless we are open and say, “Jesus, I love you too.” We don't get to eat the feast unless we show up to the meal. We are all invited, everyone here, everyone out there. The question is, who is going to make it a priority to come?One of the ironies in this parable is that Jesus is telling it to the Pharisees and Sadducees that the King has come and they have other priorities. We may hear the man who is married saying, he needs to go be with his new bride. That is hearing it out of context. SLIDE Deuteronomy 24:5 talks about how a man is free from military and business responsibilities for the first year of marriage. So this man is using the law to avoid being where the King who gave that blessing is. They are upholding the law to such an extent that they are missing the one who the law is supposed to lead them to. The struggle of Jesus and the religious elite in a nutshell that continues to this day. We know what Jesus wants so bad and we put so much effort into it, we end up missing Jesus. The reality is, he wants us, not our effort.If we don't want to repeat the pattern, or if we don't want our friends to miss out on the invitation, they are curious but not yet open. They are quite complacent in what they are doing and have been for a few decades, how do we move them through this threshold? SLIDE Our texts out of John 3 and 4 in the previous weeks and chapter 5 today give us three different ways. Which means there is not one right way. So we need to be prayerful about when to do what, because there is a time and place for everything. SLIDE In John 3 with Nicodemus, we hear Jesus use hyperbole and metaphor to push Nicodemus into openness. “You must be born again.” The absurdity takes down the walls that Nicodemus has up and Jesus is able to lead him through. SLIDE John 4 we have Jesus having a gentle confrontation with the woman at the well. He is naming truths and telling about a new way. SLIDE In chapter 5 of John, there is the man beside the pool hoping to be healed. He has been there for 38 years, Jesus asks, “Do you want to get well?” 7 “Sir,” the invalid replied, “I have no one to help me into the pool when the water is stirred. While I am trying to get in, someone else goes down ahead of me.” He is curious, but in 38 years, he has not changed anything to be the first in the water when it is stirred. He is complacent with where he is. Good news for all of us who are complacent with where we are, Jesus is not. Jesus directly commands the man in response to his complacency, “Get up! Pick up your mat and walk.” There is nothing gentle or humorous about this. It is an imperative, “Get up now!” What happened? “9 At once the man was cured; he picked up his mat and walked.” So that is the spectrum to move people from complacency, humor and sarcasm to direct exhortations to do something different and staring them down until they act. So we need some guidance from the Holy Spirit about what to do when. Because Jesus does these three things to achieve the same goal, one after anotherdepending on the person's heart and mind and depending on the situation.SLIDE What we are trying to do is connect the dots for people about the life they are living and the life they could be living. We need to do that, in order for them to be ready to change their mindset and behavior. Many of us have either ice gripper boots or some version of yak traks. Very few of us were open enough to buy them before we bruised our tail bone a time or two. But in time our mindset and behavior changed and we were willing to pony up the extra $50 or more so we could walk the rest of the winter. If we have people who trust us, who have become curious about our life, at some point, they need to move to being open to change if their life with Jesus is going to progress. But as the feast provider found, his close acquaintances were not interested in changing. Are we willing to have those over for dinner who are? That is how the kingdom grows, by inviting new people to dinner.