A Feast For the Misfits

Then he turned to the host. "The next time you put on a dinner, don't just invite your friends and family and rich neighbors, the kind of people who will return the favor. Invite some people who never get invited out, the misfits from the wrong side of the tracks (the poor, lame, crippled, and blind). You'll be—and experience—a blessing. They won't be able to return the favor, but the favor will be returned—oh, how it will be returned!—at the resurrection of God's people." 
Luke 14:12-14 (The Message)

This passage of scripture has been on my heart for a few weeks now. I've taught a few bible study groups about homelessness recently, and this is one of the passages I used. If you take it to heart, it can be very convicting.  I keep having these mental images of a "Feast for the Misfits".  Imagine what it would look like for different churches, bible studies, families or individuals to come together and each "sponsor" a table. The tables would be decorated with nice plates or china, table clothes, centerpieces. No one is "worried" about keeping the "good stuff" in a cabinet. It is all brought out and USED to bless the poor, lame, blind, and crippled.  The special guests come in and are seated at the tables where "The BEST" has been brought out for them. They are served a feast and the people hosting sit with them at the table and fellowship together. No standing in lines, No paper plates, No plastic forks. The Best....for...the Best.

This is on my list of things I want to do in my lifetime. Organize and plan an event like this. I just know it is something that would be precious to the heart of God. I want to do a better job of giving my best, serving my best, blessing with my best. There was a mural on the wall of the dining room at The Old Savannah City Mission that was an interpretation of the Lord's Supper. It had Jesus in the Middle and the disciples around him were all faces of homeless men that had actually come through the mission at one time. They weren't sitting all prim and proper, they were shown to be "hanging out" together. I think Jesus probably shakes his head at how rigid a lot of the paintings are of him and the Disciples. They did life together. And Life is Messy. This is the best picture of it I could find on the web.

I encourage you to take an assessment of the people around you. Who do you dine with? Who do you hang out with? Who do you do life with? Are they all in your same social economic class? Are they all the same race? Or do you intentionally put yourself in the the body of "misfits"?  I would encourage you to have your own Feast for the Poor in whatever way that is relevant to you.

When I was at my "healthiest" in this regard...this was my group of misfits. I was a misfit too. This was taken after a bible study in Vancouver called Open Table. Every week people would come in, be seated, we would serve them and then study the Word together. I felt whole. I felt well rounded. We learned together, we prayed for each other, and we did life together. I miss my misfits.

For His Renown,
Morgan