Sorry for the lack of Rooted the last few days; I had been a little run down and decided that I needed to take a little break.  I should have given y’all a heads-up, though!  We’re back on schedule today.  Today we will be reading from Luke 14: 12-24:

¹² He said also to the one who had invited him, “When you give a luncheon or a dinner, do not invite your friends or your brothers and sisters or your relatives or rich neighbors, in case they may invite you in return, and you would be repaid. ¹³ But when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind. ¹⁴ And you will be blessed because they cannot repay you, for you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.”

¹⁵ One of the dinner guests, on hearing this, said to him, “Blessed is anyone who will eat bread in the kingdom of God!” ¹⁶ Then Jesus said to him, “Someone gave a great dinner and invited many. ¹⁷ At the time for the dinner he sent his slave to say to those who had been invited, ‘Come, for everything is ready now.’ ¹⁸ But they all alike began to make excuses. The first said to him, ‘I have bought a piece of land, and I must go out and see it; please accept my regrets.’ ¹⁹ Another said, ‘I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I am going to try them out; please accept my regrets.’ ²⁰ Another said, ‘I have just been married, and therefore I cannot come.’ ²¹ So the slave returned and reported this to his master. Then the owner of the house became angry and said to his slave, ‘Go out at once into the streets and lanes of the town and bring in the poor, the crippled, the blind, and the lame.’ ²² And the slave said, ‘Sir, what you ordered has been done, and there is still room.’ ²³ Then the master said to the slave, ‘Go out into the roads and lanes, and compel people to come in, so that my house may be filled. ²⁴ For I tell you, none of those who were invited will taste my dinner.’ ”

In our text today, we see Jesus talk about invitation. We see Him talking about a dinner party.  Often in His parables, a dinner party is an allegory for heaven.  We see Jesus talk about a man who throws a huge party, and everyone He invites is far too busy to come to his party. When his guests reject the invitation, the servants go out and invite any warm body who can come to the party. All are welcome to come on in!  But for these first guests, there will no be no room for them. 

My mama used to say if the devil can’t make you bad, he’ll make you busy.  How many of us today are far too busy to accept the invitation from Jesus?  Too busy for study or for prayer?  Too busy for worship or for community?  Too busy to attend to the things of God?  

That busyness is a danger.  The devil doesn’t care if it is good things or bad things that distract us from God as long as we are distracted from God. 

Today, many, many, many things are going to vie for your attention. Many things are going to call to you and whisper for you to pay attention to them. Where will you choose to focus today?  

God calls out to us. 

Our busyness calls us out to us.  

Which invitation will we accept today?  

Let’s make sure we are never too busy to ignore the invitation from God. 

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