Let me invite you to share a dream with me.  Like most dreams there is no context. There is no past. There is no reason for being there. In a dream you don’t ask how you got there or why this is happening. You are in the moment.  You are just there.  You simply experience.  Join me in this dream.

In our dream we are all sitting at an enormous table. It is a massive oak piece of furniture with ornately carved legs. The top of the table is covered with inlaid symbols. We recognize some, while others seem to be in languages we don’t know. Our attention is drawn to two golden Greek letters; alpha and omega. We stare at these two letters and how intricately they are worked into the surface of the table. In our dream we just know that these two letters are worth more than all of us could make in our lifetimes.  Then our sight is drawn across the table to seven jewels shaped as stars inset into the surface.  Each of the seven stars is a different precious gem.  Words come to our mind from nowhere; jasper, emerald, sapphire, carnelian, amethyst, topaz, beryl.  Like most dreams time doesn’t seem to be passing.  So, we don’t know how long we study the stars.  It seems like forever or maybe only an instant. 

But then we notice, and we wonder why we didn’t notice it before, dreams are like that, but we notice the seven stars are circling the base of a brilliant golden lampstand.  Our eyes follow the magnificently decorated lampstand up to its seven gilded branches.  A flame is burning on each branch.  Each flame is a different color; wow. We never knew that fire came in seven different colors.  But there it is.  Each flame burns with an intensity that fills the room with wonderfully flickering colors.  Each of the seven colors interacts with each other in a way to bring out all the colors around us with such richness, like the colors of a wonderful sunset.  Yet even in the colorful light every detail of the room is clearly brought out, without any shadows.

In our dream the wonderful colors compel us to look up from the lampstand, up from the table, to the room we are in.  It too is immense.  Our eyes are irresistibly drawn up to the top of this cathedral-like dinning room.  The vaulted roof above us seems impossibly high, yet the detail of each painting on the ceiling is still amazingly clear.  Scenes from the Bible are all over the ceiling.  We are reminded of Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel, kind of, in the same way a 5-year-old’s crayon drawing is like a Thomas Kinkade.  It seems like hours of dream time pass as we study the Creation, Mt. Sinai, look there is a painting of the Flood, wow, there Jesus walking on water, shepherds, angels, prophets and saints.  Each of the paintings should be studied for hours but we can’t because the next one demands our attention before we can get finished.  But when we see a painting directly above us of Jesus feeding the 5,000 our noses interrupt the art appreciation and our mouths begin to water.

Smells, more alive than a Krispy Kreme restaurant at 5:00 in the morning, assault our noses and tell us we are sitting at a banquet.  In our dream we don’t ask where the food came from, or why we didn’t notice it before, we only know we are ravenously hungry.  Before us is every delicious food we have ever seen in our entire lifetime.  Each dish is a work of art.  If we weren’t so hungry we would hesitate eating any of them because it would be a shame to eat such art; ice sculptors, carved melons, breads in the shape of animals, each platter is a balance of color and size and are as tempting as they are beautiful.  The feast is so overwhelming we are having a difficult time wondering where to start. 

In this pause of indecision, an angelic being comes and unfolds our dazzlingly white napkin and places it in our laps. This could be my favorite part of the dream.  Then the being breaks a piece of hot bread and places it on a plate before us.  He picks up a silver butter dish and smothers our bread with the rich golden butter. The smell of the bread drowns out all other input and then… we take our first bite… we are in heaven… and in our dream we realize it really is. 

The bread was just the smallest appetizer.  We devour the best hamburger we have ever tasted, better even than Fuddruckers… French fries so crispy they melt in our mouths… lobster that makes Maine blush… fried chicken crispier that KFC, pizza with the crust just perfect … Everything we eat is marvelous.  We glance across the table and notice there is no broccoli.  We look down the table, no cauliflower.  We look the other way, no spinach.  Only the good stuff at this banquet.  And we just know that here you don’t have to eat you vegetables first! Every bite is a culinary adventure. 

And then the host of angelic servants brings out… dessert.  Chocolate in 42 flavors… cheesecake so rich Bill Gates couldn’t afford it… apple pie that makes grandma’s taste like cardboard… Here is the amazing part of our dream, although we eat like we have never tasted real food before, we never get full.  We never fill stuffed. Earthly meals are too soon over because we are stuffed.  But at the heavenly banquet that just doesn’t happen.  Once again the time goes by in eons and in a moment.  

We are debating never stopping; perhaps we could eat for several decades, when we become aware of someone sitting beside us.  We were vaguely aware, before, that there were large numbers of people sitting at the Table, we know that there are peoples from every tribe and nation under the sun, but in our dream state we have not spoken to anyone, we were after all too busy with 42 flavors of chocolate.  But now there is to our left a friendly, smiling face.  Without knowing how we know, we know that it is the host of this glorious banquet.  It is Jesus.  How each of us are all sitting to Jesus’ right is something we don’t ask, it is a dream after all.  His smile stops us in the middle of a scoop of vanilla ice cream that was so good that to put a topping on it would be to exceed our ability to process flavor. But His smile stops us mid-bite and we are no longer interested in the food.  His fellowship is all we could ever want; food is forgotten.  The room is no longer magnificent.  The gold carvings and precious jewels inlaid on the table, the symbols of him, pale to plain in the presence his reality. 

We don’t want to speak because we are afraid our words might break the charm of the moment.  So, we sit in silence, deliriously happy that we are sitting beside the Host.  Wow, we are there.  Wow, he is smiling at us; nothing could be better.  Another infinite minute passes and Jesus then says, “Friend, move up to a better place.” Magically we are sitting at the head of this glorious table and all the room irrupts in celebration.  All the angelic waiters, all the prophets of old, all the Old Testament characters like Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, all the saints gathered at the table, as well as the hosts of heaven, applaud that Jesus calls us friend!  We are the honored guest at the eternal feast of the kingdom of God!

Our dream ends.  The image breaks up.  The vision goes away.   We soon will forget our dream, but I hope the potential of that moment of being in the presence of Jesus stays with us. 

The picture of heaven as an eternal banquet is one of many metaphors used throughout the Old and New Testaments to picture the afterlife.  Heaven is the banquet of God.  Heaven is this feast in the presence of Jesus.  Heaven is the glory of his fellowship. I want to be there.  How about you?  Can you see the magnificence? Can you taste that vanilla ice cream?  Can you feel the glory of being Jesus’ friend?  Do you agree with the unnamed guy in Luke 14:15?

Luke 14:15  When one of those at the table with him heard this, he said to Jesus, "Blessed is the man who will eat at the feast in the kingdom of God."

Amen? "Blessed is the man who will eat at the feast in the kingdom of God." Here is a question. Do you want to know how to be at that feast?  Don’t you want to know how to be called, “Friend”?  In Luke 14 Jesus uses this very metaphor of a banquet, to teach us how to get to our reservation in.  Interested? 

Luke 14:1-6   One Sabbath, when Jesus went to eat in the house of a prominent Pharisee, he was being carefully watched.  There in front of him was a man suffering from dropsy.  Jesus asked the Pharisees and experts in the law, "Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath or not?"  But they remained silent. So taking hold of the man, he healed him and sent him away.  Then he asked them, "If one of you has a son or an ox that falls into a well on the Sabbath day, will you not immediately pull him out?"  And they had nothing to say.

In the context of these hard hearted men, who took no joy in this small act of kindness done to this suffering man,  Jesus tells us the way to make our reservations at the eternal cathedral. 

Luke 14:7-11  When he noticed how the guests picked the places of honor at the table, he told them this parable:  "When someone invites you to a wedding feast, do not take the place of honor, for a person more distinguished than you may have been invited.  If so, the host who invited both of you will come and say to you, 'Give this man your seat.' Then, humiliated, you will have to take the least important place.  But when you are invited, take the lowest place, so that when your host comes, he will say to you, 'Friend, move up to a better place.' Then you will be honored in the presence of all your fellow guests.  For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted."

For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.  Humility is the ticket into the banquet hall of Christ.  Salvation is all about humbling ourselves.  It is in the giving up or our agendas.  It is in the putting of others first.  It is in looking for the joy in helping others and giving up our arrogant pride.  It is in the ability to accept the grace of God.  It is wallowing in the mercy of our maker and it takes humility to wallow.  It is in not being interested in the honor of our peers but rather exalting in the love of our Lord. 

Sidebar: baptism is a very humbling act.  It is so perfect.  It is an act of surrender.  It is the giving up of self and turning our life over to God in submission.  That is why baptism is such a wonderfully symbolic act of what our life is all about; it is humility.  It is choosing to be last.  Baptism fits under the category of being humble. In our humility our sins are washed away and our reservations are made for the banquet of God. 

Anyway, in case we don’t get it, Jesus gives a practical example of how this works and he stays within the metaphor of a banquet.

Luke 14:12-14  Then Jesus said to his host, "When you give a luncheon or dinner, do not invite your friends, your brothers or relatives, or your rich neighbors; if you do, they may invite you back and so you will be repaid.  But when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, and you will be blessed. Although they cannot repay you, you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous."

I think we ought to take this example to heart.  I challenged you two weeks ago to do a small act of kindness for another.  Let me encourage you to take Jesus seriously in this challenge and help someone who can’t return the favor.  Our reservations at the big banquet are dependant upon our willingness to help the un-helping; those who can’t return it.  Take to heart that last phrase, “You will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.” At the big banquet in the sky. 

We then have, in Luke 14, the statement by the unknown guy that we have already agreed with and Jesus’ warning to us.

Luke 14:15-16  When one of those at the table with him heard this, he said to Jesus, "Blessed is the man who will eat at the feast in the kingdom of God."  Jesus replied: "A certain man was preparing a great banquet and invited many guests. 

Let’s take this one step at a time.  God is the one preparing the great banquet in the sky.  I don’t think our dream was too big.  If anything it was not great enough. 

Luke 14:17 At the time of the banquet he sent his servant to tell those who had been invited, 'Come, for everything is now ready.' 

God, the great banquet host, has sent out invitations to his banquet.  We have an invitation. Now how did I tell you to respond?  Humility.  Let’s see who comes. 

Luke 14:18-20  "But they all alike began to make excuses. The first said, 'I have just bought a field, and I must go and see it. Please excuse me.'   "Another said, 'I have just bought five yoke of oxen, and I'm on my way to try them out. Please excuse me.'  "Still another said, 'I just got married, so I can't come.' 

They turned down the invitation because the stuff of this world was too important.  The stuff of the world is in opposition to humility.  You can’t do the stuff and do humility as well.  These, who were first asked, turned down the invitation of God for the prestige of land, wealth of oxen, and family honor.

Luke 14:21-23 "The servant came back and reported this to his master. Then the owner of the house became angry and ordered his servant, 'Go out quickly into the streets and alleys of the town and bring in the poor, the crippled, the blind and the lame.'  "'Sir,' the servant said, 'what you ordered has been done, but there is still room.'  "Then the master told his servant, 'Go out to the roads and country lanes and make them come in, so that my house will be full.’

Those who are broken; those who have been humbled, those who are blind to the glory of this world are welcomed into the banquet. The broken accept the invitation to the magnificent meal.   Jesus ends this parable with a chilling statement.

Luke 14:24  “I tell you, not one of those men who were invited will get a taste of my banquet.”

Those who are more concerned with this world than the next, are not going to taste the glory of the great banquet.   God wants desperately to fill his banquet hall.  He wants to share his feast with all his creation, but only those who humble themselves and put him first will enter. 

Luke 14:11  “For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted."

Can you see yourself in our dream?  Can you see the richness of the table?  Can you smell the warmth of the bread?  Can you taste the ice cream?  Can you feel the glow of his presence?  Can you hear him call you friend?