This morning at Advent Lutheran Church (ELCA) we concluded a summer sermon series: Stories That Shape Us: How Jesus’ Parables Transform the Way We See God, Ourselves, and the World. And, we celebrated the sacrament of baptism.
Sermon
My message, “Invite Everyone,” is based on Luke 14:15-24.
You can watch below (note this recording is missing the first 45 seconds or so of the message due to technical issues) or read the manuscript.
Excerpt
Throwing a good party can be rewarding, but it can also be a lot of work. Over the years, Susan and I have opened our home on many occasions – correction: on many many occasions.
We’ve hosted colleagues, neighbors, friends, family, ministry supporters, and church members. We’ve hosted groups of just four or five people and groups with over 100. We’ve thrown cocktail parties with light bites, potluck meals, and full-fledged dinner parties.
In our younger days we once hosted a plated dinner for 70 members of the church I was serving. Last December, around 50 members and friends of Advent traveled to North Arlington for our Christmas open house.
Over the years, we’ve learned quite a bit through these experiences about what works and what doesn’t.
We’ve made miscalculations along the way resulting in having far too much food – occasionally enough to feed five times the people present. And, on the other extreme, we’ve realized too late that we prepared a comically small portion of something everyone really wanted.
We’ve learned the best start time and how to pace varying aspects of the party experience. We’ve also learned how to craft the right guest list based on the occasion. After so many years of continuously calibrating, our unique approach might well be viewed as a proprietary formula. I won’t share our secret blend, but will confide it starts with the basics. We follow much of the unwritten and nearly universal wisdom that most of you also abide by, beginning with how to develop the guest list.
Each party we’ve hosted starts with crafting a guest list. The people should share something in common. A little diversity is welcomed and can enhance the conversation, but too much difference makes things awkward. And then there is the cut off – the point at which the list is long enough to yield the desired crowd size. If RSVPs are lower than expected, we can invite a few more people. After almost 25 years of following these rules, we decided it was time to intentionally break them. Leading up to this event . . .