ROOM FOR ALL AT THIS TABLE

October 4, 1987, 11:00 a.m. Worship Service

John M. Buchanan

Fourth Presbyterian Church, Chicago

scripture
Isaiah 25:6-9
Luke 14:15-24

"Go out to the highways and hedges, and corpel people to come in, that my
house say be filled ~Lake 14:23b(RSV)

Not very much penetrates from the outside when we are at a cottage
beside the ocean. We do not mean to withdraw. It's just that the only
newspaper conveniently available is the Shallote, North Carolina Times,
and its vision of the world is both comfortable and limited and rarely —
exceeds the price of tobacco at the local auctions and the Lion's Club
Fried Chicken Festival. The Shallote Times wil] also tell you about the
tides and how hot it's going to be and that is pretty much the information
you need. A thirty minute ride to get a Chicayvo or New York newspaper, I
concluded long ago, is rarely worth the effort. Either nothing has changed
much, or things are so bad one is happier in ignorance. So nothing much
intrudes.

This year something did. An event happened thal penetrated — my
mind, heart, spirit. on July 31 there was a viot in Mecca. Four hundred
people were killed. The four hundred were Shiite Moslems. They were in
Mecca for religious reasons, a holy pilyrimage. The Shiite response tu
Chis massacre has been to demand revenge, death... for the Sunnis, the
sect they hold responsible, the Saudi Arabians and, of course, the United
States,

That shatlered the peace for me. couldn't forget Gt - and stitl
ean't. Part of the reason that particular ineident pot te me is that
sibling in a rocking chair watching the tide po oul one becomes mel low.
Oue sees something of the unity and wholeness and harmony of creation.

This pluce works. Tides go in and owl. Shorelines expand and retract.
Moisture evapgrates here and falls there. Oxyren, carbon dioxide,
planklon, seaweed, fish. Tits a very food system. Sitting in the

rocking chair it is very clear that weoare messing up this pkace. We thravw
aowrench into the gears. We violate the harmony. And then... over more
Unthinkable thoughts. Rel igion, which claims ta know God aod the nature af
our relationship with God keeps produc ing things Tike that ried, keeps
showing up at the seene as it Were, sometimes holding the coals, sometimes
holding ao amachine vin, bul always there, assuring Che ores Chad woo Petes
Lhat Gok will be pleased.

And for me, whose business, after all, is religion, comes the
unthinkable question. Are we part of the solution, or are we part of the
problem? Would the world be a better place without any religion except
ours? When I think it would be better if everyone was Christian, I think
of Belfast where everyone is Christian, where in the name of God and God's
son Jesus Christ, and Christ's church, people have been hating and killing
consistently for centuries... Do you ever think like this? Do you ever
wonder whether or not religious passion is a major factor in the violence
that afflicts creation? De you ever agonize - or weep even - over the
tragedy in that?

The Mecca riot gol to be because one of my summer reading projects
was Hans Kung's new book, Christianity and The World Religions. It is a
substantial piece of work, not conducive to reading in bed before you nod
off. So I gave it some prime, early nocuing time at the beach. Kuny is
Professor of Theology at the University of Tubingen. He is a Roman
Catholic. He writes prolifically and he is equally distressing to the
Vatican and to both the far Jeft and far right of Protestantism - which is
about where a good theologian ought to be. His new book is brave. He
observes... “The most fanatical, the cruelest political struggles are
those that have been colored, inspired and legitimized by religion."
fp. 440]

Then he calls for a fresh new start, a new ecumenism. Kung says it's
no big deal when Presbyterians talk to Methodists, or Protestants to
Catholics. It is important when Christians and Moslems and Ruddhists
Hindus sit down a talk to each other.

Kung does not hold religion responsible for war, violence and
destruction. But he does demonstrate that religion, more often than not,
has been an adly, has become an instrument of that flaw in our humanity
which has made us, this side of Eden, so much more efficient at kikling
than giving life, so much more eager to build bombs than hospitals.

The flaw is in our characler. Let's call it tribalism. [tuman
community seems to be built, net on lave and cooperation and our common
humanity, bul en a threat from the outside. We need someone with whom to
compare ourselves favorably in order to have self-identity. Apparently we
need a “them" in order to be "us"... fami ly, tribe, clan, race, nation...
Hatfield's and McCay's, Frish and English, Protestant sand Catholics,
Purdue and Indiana. [Et ouever ceases to amaze me that otherwise ralbional
lawyers, teachers, doctors in Columbus Ohio, my dear old frieuds, roally
believe that people who live in Anu Arbor are wily, mean and hateful. Now,
that's fun and [ have been known to indulge, bul it is related ta "us and
them," our need for someone who is evil to make us feel good and proud
aboul ourselves. And when it connects with religion - and religious
passion, if gets mean, and when it. owns a gun people start dying.

so Che unthinkable has truth toe it. God forvives us but we are and
luive been part of the problem,

Pi does not hive Lo be that way. Perhitps one ome most important
tasks is lo keep alive the cumor thet it doesa't lume to be this way.
There is an alterual ive Another wey to Chiak sank behave. Phe adbernat ive

10/4/87

10/4/87

begins in conversion - away from the religious exclusivism we have been
enjoying.

The conversion - to which I refer ~ is a turning, in openness and
receptivity, to an idea that was expressed by Jesus, an idea which he
embodied.

He was a dinner guest, one time, at the home of a wealthy man and he
committed the serious faux pax of telling his host that the next time he
has a dinner party he should invite some poor people, some cripples and
lepers... ,

You're at a Fancy table, Jinen table cloth, crystal, silver. The
help is hovering around, and at the end of the lobster bisque, between the
white and the red wine, someone turns to the host and says, "Say - next
time, why don't you invite a bag lady, and an AIDS victim and a wino?"
Everyone gasps and hopes that someone at the table wil] say something to
make it okay, like "Wasn't Sir Georg's treatment of the Mozart elegant
last night?” - which is exactly what happened. Some well meaning soul, in
desperation, raised his glass and said: “flere's to everyone who will eat
like this in heaven." And just as they all heaved a sigh of relief and
raised their glasses - here he comes again.

- One time a man gave a party and sent out invitations. And when his
guests accepted he made arrangements. On the day of the party his servants
Slaughtered the prize lamb ~ and then went to the guests and said, “Come
now. The banquet is ready." It's time now to straighten your tie, put on
your makeup, grab a cab and go. But no - now they start dropping out. In
Arabic culture what these folk do is never done: in some places, to not
honor an invitation which you have already accepted is a declaration of
war. And thé excuses are absolutely ridiculous... as silly as you telling
me you'll be there for dinner and at the lust minute phone to say, “Sorry —-
can't make it - just bought a house in Lake Forest over the telephone and
thought I'd better drive out and see it" 2. "Sorry -- something came up -
1 got married this morning and we'l} be on our honeyavon - forgot about it
when I said I'd be there." These are nat legitimate excuses.

The host is insulted, offended, deeply, irrevonably. His response?

Gel more guests, Go ont into the streets and get Ehem. Fl doesn't mutter
whe they are. What matters js that my table is ready. The teasqael ausk
go on. Every seal must be full. Go get more guests. This is a practiced

story. Jesus knew what was goiny on around that table. Thase people were
playing “them and us." They had made their religion into yelo another way
LO separate themselves from “them.”

Jesus! story embodies the most powerful and ftaportant idea in the
Bible:

“On this mountain the Lord af haste
Will make for all peoples a feast...
And the Lord wit] destroy on this: mountain

fhe veil that is spread over ad] the aekions
Aud the Lord wilk swallow ope desstdi... auc Wipe
away tears from all fiiees." (leads 25:6 3)

Do you hear it? The worid has never heard that clearly. But can you
hear it? A feast for all peoples - a banquet, a joyful happy reunion of
the human family. It is God's agenda for this diverse, multi-colored,
pluralistic miracle called the human family. Sometimes I think God's
saddest moments occur when religious people forget that vision. Sometimes
Y¥ think God chooses others to say what is our job to say.

Listen to the scientists, whe tell us that the world, the universe,
is inter-connected in ways we are only beginning to understand.
Astrophysics, for instance, teaches The Butterfly Effect, which now knows
that a butterfly moving across a field in northern Lllinois is putting in
motion forces that are measurable in the far reaches of the universe. [See
Madelein L'Engle, A Stone For A Pillow, p. 42.]

Or listen to Lewis Thomas talk lyrically about the world as a single
cell, an organism whose life is delicately balanced.

Or listen to medicine tell us that the name for an independent,
autonomous cell, unrelated to the other cells, going its own way with
righteous self—-assurance — is malignancy.

‘Et is time now for the alternative. It is time - in human history
for Ged's people to forget the foolishness of provincialism, to move over
the walls of separation which reinforce the venerable games of “them and
us." It is time for God's people to reclaim their oldest tradition - a
vision of creation based on God's universal love and the harmony, peace,
reconciliation and communion which grow out of it.

It begins when we ponder the banquet to which we are invited. It
begins when we understand about ourselves that we exclude other people
because of fear that we might not be included: that prejudice is always
based on fear: that bigotry - racial, sexual, religious, national, is
always based on fear and insecurity about one's self...

And so this is not, finally, an intellectual argument Co convince you
to think more charitably about Muslims and Catholics and all the people who
make you uncomforlable. It is an invitation to come to the table to which

you have been invited.

Tl is devastating to be - nal wauted, nol included, rejected. And at
a level so deep within ws that we really don't have much access to it, we
bujld defenses and buy iusurance against thal eventuality... Moralities

that will make us feel good about ourselves

political ideas that will coofirm
Our righteousness,

religious concepts Chat will assure us
of our correctuess -

t whole system desipned to make sure we are "us" anc nol “them.” A
system designed Co inelude us at the banquet table...

10/4/87

And it is at that level that you and I need to hear some Gospel.
We are included. We are invited. There is a place for us at the table.

There is a joyful celebration of God's love for you and me and the
whole wide world, at which we are welcome, and our conversion commences
when we drop what we are doing, drop what we are hiding behind, and come to
the place God has for us at the table.

It is World Communion Sunday. It is, perhaps, the best idea we ever
had.

Lord of all] nations, creator of all cultures, maker of the wonderful
diversity of the human race, join us today - in spirit - with brothers aad
sisters everywhere. Join us ~ in bread and wine with those who share faith
with us. And join us with those who do not share faith, who see from a
different angle. Break through to us - so that we might know the oneness -
of your love - and the joy vf the banquet you have prepared for al] people
through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

10/4/87