Beeson Podcast, Episode 350
Patricia Outlaw
July 25, 2017

Announcer: Welcome to the Beeson podcast, coming to you from Beeson Divinity School on the campus of Samford University in Birmingham Alabama. Now your host, Timothy George.

Timothy George:	Welcome to today's Beeson podcast. Today we get to hear a sermon by Dr. Patricia Outlaw. She is the pastor of Bethel AME Church Rising in Birmingham, Alabama. Last year in 2016 she concluded 15 years of teaching as a professor divinity right here at Beeson. She taught pastoral counseling and spiritual formation. We miss her in the classroom; she's still around the community. We love to see her from time to time. We're going back to 2013 and listen to a sermon she preached here in Beeson at Hodges Chapel, "Still There is Room." Dr. Smith, tell us about this.

Dr. Smith: This sermon is being preached from the text Luke 14:12-24, and it is an account of the parable of the great banquet. It's preached on a series on the parables of Jesus in Luke's Gospel. She treats this 1st century parable through a 21st century lens and uses the contemporization of 21st century language. The movement is from no room to there is room, so that's where she is.

	The integrating metaphor, the image I think that holds this sermon together is room, that's it, room. And she's dealing with assessability, moving from no vacancy to vacancy and moving from bound there is to no restrictions ... And starting off by being a story teller, which she really is an extremely effective story teller. The story of the birth of Jesus: there's no room in the Bethlehem Inn. Jesus telling the parable of The Great Supper: person's being invited, people who are invited decline after the special delivery of the invitation, the excuses made for their not coming (real estate they just purchased, livestock they just acquired, and the marriage that they're now in), and then the re-invitation of person outside the gate, outside of cultural acceptability who are now invited. And she takes and does a very effective thing; she's weaving an interpretation with application throughout the sermon.

	So she's gonna talk about: Go and invite those who were at first not assessable. Bring in Mary Magdalene's children, bring in not only Trayvon Martin but George Zimmerman, now she's in the 21st century. In and out of 1st and 21st century, which keeps the hearer with her because they now see their place in that particular sermon. It's a counter-cultural move. Guests are invited who don't look like us. This is a social justice emphasis: the crippled, the lame, the blind, the dysfunctional, the homeless, etc... And she challenges us to be subversive.

	Her supporting text, which was a wonderful text to use, is 2 Samuel 9. Mephibosheth: Here is a person crippled in both feet, invited to the banquet table, which anticipates the marriage supper of the lamb. The practical application ... What are we to do, she asks, in the 21st century since there is still room? Now she gets ready to build up to her crescendo and to close her sermon, to treat the incarnation that Jesus came into a world where there was no room to make room for us. The resurrection: Jesus died and got up in order that he might usher us into the great mansions, where in my Father's house, there are many mansions or many rooms and the Eschaton where there is a number that no one can number, there is room. And then she closes with the song that you and I love so well. "There's room at the cross for you. Though millions have come, there's still room for one. There's room at the cross for you."

Timothy George:	Though millions have come.

Dr. Smith:	Yes, sir!

Timothy George:	There's still room for one.

Dr. Smith:	For one.

Timothy George:	There's room at the cross for you.

Dr. Smith:	Yes, sir.

Timothy George:	Let's listen to our friend and colleague Dr. Patricia Outlaw, “Still there is room.”

Scripture Reader: Our reading this morning from Holy Scripture will come from Luke 14:12-24. Luke 14, verses 12 through 24: The parable of The Great Banquet. “He said also to the man who had invited him, “When you give a dinner or a banquet, do not invite your friends, or your brothers, or your relatives, or rich neighbors, lest they also invite you in return and you be repaid. But when you give a feast, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, and you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you. For you will be repaid at the resurrection of the just.

	When one of those who reclined at table with him heard these things, he said to him, “Blessed is everyone who will eat bread in the kingdom of God!” But he said to him, “A man once gave a great banquet and invited many. And at the time for the banquet he sent his servant to say to those who had been invited, ‘Come, for everything is now ready.’ But they, all alike, began to make excuses. The first said to him, ‘I have bought a field and I must go out and see it, please have me excused.’ And another said, ‘I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I go to examine them. Please have me excused.’ And another said, ‘I have married a wife, and therefore I cannot come.’

	So the servant came and reported these things to his master. Then the master of the house became angry and said to his servant, ‘Go out quickly to the streets and lanes of the city, and bring in the poor and the crippled and the blind and lame.’ And the servant said, ‘Sir, what you command has been done, and still there is room.’ And the master said to the servant, ‘Go out to the highways and hedges and compel people to come in, that my house may be filled. For I tell you, none of those men who were invited shall taste my banquet.” This is the Word of the Lord.

Patricia Outlaw: The church say, "Amen" Oh won't you say Amen again? We greet you this morning with Jesus' joy. This joy I have, the world didn't give it to me and the world can't take it away.

	Our text has already been read in our hearing, Luke chapter 14, verse 12 through 24. I just want to read a few verses of that passage. I'll begin at verse 21. So the servant came and reported these things to his master. Then the master became angry and said to his servant; Go out quickly to the streets and lanes of the city and bring in the poor, and crippled, and blind, and lame, and ... And the servant said, sir ... What you commanded has been done and still there's room. And the master said, servant, go out to the highways and hedges, and compel people to come in, that my house may be filled. For I tell you, none of those men who were invited shall taste my banquet.

	And our subject for today, which my professor, Dr. Timothy George, my teacher, my dean, gave me, Still there is room. Still there is room. Dr. Luke wrote this narrative gospel with the intention of giving his benefactor and catechumen, Theophilus, an orderly historical account of the life of Jesus, which included Jesus' birth, his death, his resurrection, and his ascension into heaven. Luke wanted to strengthen the faith of Theophilus by his systematic compilation of eye witness testimony. Dr. Luke wanted his protégé to be certain about his new found belief in the word made flesh.

	Look at Luke chapter 1, verse 1 through 4. The Messiah had come, the one who had been destined to take away the sins of the world; the one whom Israel had been waiting for had arrived on the scene. The kingdom of God was at hand. Jesus, the anointed one, had come. The Gospel writer John said, in the word of Eugene Peterson, the word was made flesh and moved into our neighborhood, John 1 to 14. 

	Jesus, Mary's baby, the Lamb of God, was born in a stinky old stable, where farm animals cohabitated. He was born there because there was no room for him in the inn. There was no room for Jesus in the Bethlehem hotel, the presidential suite was occupied. The governor’s quarters were occupied. The mayor's room was occupied. Even the shacks where the help and the butler resided were being used for out-of-town guests. There was no empty room in the town because all the rooms were occupied by persons whom the government deemed eligible to be counted as citizens in the census, which had been ordered by Caesar Augustus. So Joseph took his beloved Mary to a nearby stable, because there was no room for his family in the inn.

	It was the best that he could do at the time because Mary's water broke suddenly, and the Bible says: and she gave birth to her first born son and wrapped him in swaddling clothes and laid him in a manger because there was no place for him in the inn. There was no room for Jesus in the Bethlehem inn. And even though there was no room for the Messiah in the Bethlehem inn, there was no room for the anointed one in the Bethlehem inn, and even though there was no room for the savior of the world in the Bethlehem inn, I just stopped by to tell somebody today, on my way to the great banquet, that there is still room for you at the table.

	For everyone under the sound of my voice, who has been denied access or who has denied access to others, I just want you to know that there's still room at the table for you. And still, there is room. The Bible says in verse 1 of Luke's gospel, chapter 14, that Jesus went to eat dinner at the house of one of the Pharisees, one of the prominent Pharisees and parenthetically they were watching him. Pharisees were noted for their legalistic and separatist theological presuppositions. The Pharisees invited Jesus to dinner and they were watching him. They were watching him in hopes of catching him in a violation of the law. They invited him to dinner, and they were watching him.

	Paul, the great evangelist who used to be Saul, testified that he understood the mindset of a Pharisee. In Acts 23 and 6 he said that he was a Pharisee among Pharisees. As a matter of fact, his father was a Pharisee. He knew all about Pharisee mentality. While he was at dinner, Jesus, knowing that the Pharisees were watching him, spoke the parables contained in Luke's gospel, chapter 14 verse 12 through 24.

	Listen to what Jesus said; When you give a dinner or a banquet, do not invite your friends, or your brothers, or your relatives, or your rich neighbors, lest they also invite you in return and you be repaid. But when you give a feast, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind, and you will be blessed because they cannot repay you. For you will be repaid at the resurrection of the just.

	Jesus says, develop a counter-cultural attitude. Don't do what Western cultural captivity expects you to do. Don't invite your friends or family members who look like you, walk like you, talk like you, or act like you to dinner. You have not stretched yourself when you do that, because your friends and family members will repay you with a reciprocal invitation. Jesus challenges all of us to be subversive. When you give a party, when you give a feast if you will, invite the have nots, the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind. Invite the disinherited; invite the homeless poor; invite the crippled, the disabled, the weak, and those people who live in darkness. The poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind are often socially isolated and financially powerless; and they cannot pay you back. But there is one who has already set the table for you in the presence of your enemies, and he wants to give everyone access to the banquet table.

	Many of us are like Mephibosheth, the young brother from the Old Testament who was crippled in both feet. You remember Mephibosheth, David asked in 2 Samuel, chapter 9 verse 1: Is there anyone left, in the house of Saul to whom I may show kindness for Johnathan's sake? A second time in verse 3, the king asks, Is there no one still left, of the house of Saul to whom I can show kindness? And Ziba, thank God for the butler. The butler ... Answered the king. There's still a son of Johnathan left. He's crippled in both feet. Where is he? The king asks. The butler answered, he's at the house of Machir. They brought Mephibosheth, a crippled boy, to the king's house and the king says to Mephibosheth, I will show you kindness for the sake of your father Johnathan. I will restore all the land that belonged to your grandfather, Saul. And you will always eat at my table. And still, there's room.

	The banquet is not solely for the haves, but it's also for the have nots. It's not only for the bold and the beautiful, but it's also for the maimed and the disfigured. It's not merely for the mentally stable, but it's also for the emotionally challenged and the psychologically impotent. It's not solely for those who have perfect vision, but it's also for those who are blind in one eye and can't see out of the other. If we are privileged to host the banquet, then as hosts we need to understand that we serve at the pleasure of an all-inclusive king. And there's still room for others at the table, even at the 11:00 hour on Sunday morning. We should never be comfortable with us four and no more. The invitation to the banquet is an invitation to stretch ourselves beyond our comfort zones. For many of us, this means practicing the spiritual discipline of humility.

	Micah says, “And what does the Lord require of us? To do justice, to love mercy and to walk humbly before our God.” In verses 15 through 24 of our pericope, Jesus tells another banquet story while the Pharisees were watching him. The Jews had been waiting for the Messiah to come; what they did not realize was that the Messiah had already come in the presence and person of Jesus Christ. The kingdom of God was at hand. It was at hand and not yet. The Pharisees were having dinner with the ‘at hand and the not yet’ at the same time. Jesus says in verse 16 though 24, A certain man had a banquet and invited many guests. It's important to note that hosting a banquet was no small matter, as we learned recently from hosting the NCBW 100 black women inaugural banquet, back in the latter part of August. A great deal of money and preparation went into planning and hosting a banquet.

	Two invitations were sent to the banquet guests. The first invitation was sent to the guests, essentially to have them save the date and RSVP. Those persons who replied in the affirmative to the first invitation were then sent a second invitation, special delivery announcing that the dinner was ready to be served. Dinner was ready, y'all. The rolls were hot. The rotisserie, kosher roasted lamb and chicken were simmering over the open fire. Fire roasted vegetables and wild rice with sautéed mushrooms were sitting on the banquet table, along with freshly baked sweet potatoes. The wine was chilling in the underground cold space. The runner had gone to deliver the message to the special guests, that they should come to the banquet immediately. But to the consternation of the host, the people who had confirmed their acceptance to the banquet, at the eleventh hour, Lord have mercy, changed their minds about coming to the banquet. They all made excuses about why they could not come to the dinner.

	Be careful what you refuse beloved, because you just might miss your blessing. That's exactly what my brother told me some 13 years ago. He said, “Be careful what you refuse sister.” They all made excuses why they could not come to the banquet. One man had to check on his newly acquired real estate. The second man had to inspect his livestock to see if he had invested wisely, and the third man was newly married and he did not want to interrupt his honeymoon.

	After hearing the disappointing excuses, the master of the banquet told his servant to go out to skid row. Go outside the city gates and to the other side of the tracks where the impotent, the outcasts, the poor and the rejected live, and compel them to come them to my dinner party. Go get the people who were denied access because they were judged by the color of their skin and not by the content of their character. Go get Mary Magdalene's children and grandchildren. Go get the women and children who were treated as second-class citizens and forced to dip cool water in the heat of the day at the Samaritan well. Go get Hagar's children and compel them to come to the banquet. I hear the servant saying to the master, “Sir, what you have asked has been done and there's still room.”

	There's room at the table for the broke, the busted, and the disgusted. There's room at the table for you. In my Father's house, there are many mansions. If it were not so, I wouldn't have told you. I go to prepare a place for you, that where I am you may also be. And there's still room, still room at the table for you, and still there's room. What are we to do in this 21st century, my sisters and my brothers? In the kingdom of God there's room for the poor, there's room for the crippled, there's room for the lame, and there's room for the blind.

	While much of the world still suffers from love hunger, which is directly related to poverty of spiritual truth, there's still room at the table. As divinity students, as pastors, as professors, as staff, and as lay people. We have been given a mandate to go out into the highways and the byways and to compel people to come to the banquet table while it is still daylight, for night time is coming and no one can extend an invitation in the night time. What does it profit a woman or a man to gain the whole world and lose her or his soul? We must cry out and cry loudly, There's still room at the table! We must invite young girls, like 16 year old Malala Yousafzai who was shot in the head by the Taliban because she wanted an education for all Pakistani girls. We must invite her to come to the banquet table because there's still room at the table.

	We must invite the Treyvon Martins and the George Zimmermans because there's still room at the table. We must, we must, we must invite our neighbors in Birmingham, down in Southside, and Center Point, and Ensley, and Adamsville, and Homewood, and Vestavia, and Mountain Brook to sit at the table together because there's still room at the table. Jesus the Christ fought in that robbery to put on human flesh and to move into our neighborhood. He became like us in every way except sin. He was born in a stinky old stable because there was no room for him, no room for Jesus in the Bethlehem hotel. But he made room for us, hallelujah! Thank you Jesus! He made room for us! He made room for you, and he made room for me. He made room for us when he died on that old rugged cross.

	Somebody said they hung him high and they stretched him wide and for our sins he died. But the story didn’t end there. The devil thought they had him. They put him in the ground. But my Bible says that on the third day, he got up from the grave, with all power in his hand. And because he got up, I can get up; you can get up. My Bible says he got up from the grave with all power in his hand, and the good news is Jesus is coming back, again. Yes he is; and there's still room at the table. Jesus is coming back again. He is coming back to claim the 144,000 from all the tribes of Israel, and it says there's an "And", and that means there's more than the 144,000, and the great multitude of people from every nation, from every tribe, from every people and from every language, and there's still room at the table.

	Not only is there room at the table, but there's room at the cross. There's room at the cross for you. There's room at the cross for you though millions have come, there's still room for one. Yes, there's room at the cross for you. You may be high, you may be low; there's room at the cross for you. You may be rich, you may be poor, but there's room at the cross for you. You may be black, you may be white, there's room at the cross for you. Hallelujah, thank you Jesus! There's room at the cross for you. There's room at the cross for you. Though millions have come, there's still room for one. Thank you Jesus! There's room at the cross for you.

Announcer: You've been listening to the Beeson podcast with host Timothy George. You can subscribe to the Beeson podcast at our website Beesondivinity.com. Beeson Divinity School is an interdenominational, evangelical divinity school training men and women in the service of Jesus Christ. We pray that this podcast will aid and encourage your work, and we hope you will listen to each upcoming edition of the Beeson podcast.