When you hold a lunch or a dinner, do not invite your friends or your brothers in case they may invite you back and you have repayment. Rather, when you hold a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind;

This is one of those hard sayings of Jesus, and He means for us all to hear it. At the time of Jesus, many would hold parties and invite only the rich and powerful. This was done for the sole reason of possibly getting invited to a bigger and more lavish party, with more rich and powerful people. Jesus is turning this all upside down, He wants us to give without any consideration or anything in return.

But we live in a dangerous world, full of dangerous and unpredictable people. We are afraid of inviting people we don’t know into our homes, let alone the poor, crippled and blind. I have heard stories of people inviting less fortunate into their homes, and being robbed and harmed or even murdered as a result. This leads to fear of the same happening to me, and the locks on my door stay shut. But Jesus here, is clearly calling us to more.

So how do I invite strangers into my home, and put my family at risk. I dont know, and I am not saying that you must do this, but it should make us sit up and take notice of the world around us, and what more we can do to help those in need. Maybe inviting many to our party is the answer, allowing the crowd to regulate the outliers among itself. Maybe this means that we need to donate more, and that we should volunteer at the food center? I dont know, but more needs to be done, and we all need to consider this call more deeply.

Oh lord, enlighten my mind as to how I can do what you ask in todays reading. I want to do more, but I also want my wife and children to be and feel safe in their home. Amen.