Luke 14: 1, 7-14                                                                                                           Rev. Dr. Galen E. Russell III

August 28, 2022

“But when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind. And you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you.”

All summer long our worship theme has been “Caring Neighbors.” Each worship service had a little bit of that theme sprinkled within, but in three of those worship services, our theme has been featured. The last worship service where “Caring Neighbors” was featured was on July 17th, when we commissioned our Mission Trip Participants:

¨ to go to Philadelphia,

¨ to love and serve the Lord,

¨ to be Christ Church’s Caring Neighbors,

¨ to reach out to the needy,

¨ to engage in work that helps organizations reach their goals of helping the poor,

¨ and to grow in faith,

¨ deepen our love for God and each other,

¨ and to share in worship, good fun, meals, games, and some of what Philadelphia has to offer.

Our Mission Trip team went to Philly, and did all that and more.

Today is the last Sunday where the theme “Caring Neighbors” is featured. And as we’re about to see, each of our team members had a particular experience in Philly that made them a “Caring Neighbor” to many others in need.

Before we watch this extraordinary video, I invite you to watch it in the context of what Jesus teaches us in this Bible passage from Luke. Jesus teaches that each of us has a metaphorical banquet that we live with here on earth. Our banquet that we live in is our excellent lifestyle. The resources we have at our disposal. The privilege that comes from being born into our world of abundance and blessing.

And at any time we can have people over to our homes to share in the abundance. To take part in our banquet. And they can turn around and invite us into their homes the next time around.

We also have a banquet of God. God’s ever-present Spirit. God’s over-flowing love. God’s marvelous and never-ending, unmerited grace and mercy. All of us have a spiritual banquet.

And we experience God and God’s grace most powerfully, I believe, when we, even with all our abundance available to us, humble ourselves and invite others to the banquet we have. But not just any others, but mostly those who cannot repay us. Those who don’t have two pennies to rub together. Those who are poor, crippled, lame, blind, hungry, thirsty, addicted, in need of clothing, in need of food. Those who are lost in their worlds, lost on the streets, lost spiritually. Jesus says that it is to those people who cannot repay us… they are the ones we are to share our abundance with, our banquet with.



Our Mission Trip was our attempt to not only be Caring Neighbors, but to share the banquet and help fulfill what Jesus teaches us to do. Let’s watch. Amen.