[follower] “What’s on the agenda for today?”

[leader] “Today we dine with uptight self-righteous people.”

[follower] “That’s gonna be awkward.”

[leader] “Yup.”

Later that day, during dinner…

[uptight self-righteous people] “Why do you flagrantly break God’s rules?”

[leader] “I don’t.”

Awkward silence…

[leader] “I got a story for y’all. Once upon a time there was a wedding feast, and the priggish presumptuous people sat themselves in seats of honor. But then, some more distinguished people arrived[1], and the prigs were forced to give up their seats and take the walk of shame.”

Burgeoning awkward silence…

[leader] “When y’all invite folks for dinner don’t 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!”

Omnipresent awkward silence…

[enneagram 9] “Blessed is everyone who will eat bread in the kingdom of God!”

[leader] “Y’all ain’t gonna be there.”

Irate, wounded and ‘victimized’, stares…  

[leader] “Once upon a time a man 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 crippled and blind and lame.’ And the servant said, ‘Sir, what you commanded 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.’”

Sometime later…

[crowds of people] “Are we allowed to come to your party?”

[leader] “Anyone can come who eagerly surrenders to my authority. If you come to my party, then your identity, your money, your sexuality, your relationships, etc. are under my command. All those who attend my party must savor my preeminence over and above all other relationships and priorities. If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be at my party. Any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be at my party.”


[1] Based on the leader’s other short stories this ‘more distinguished’ crowd most likely consisted of extremely disreputable and highly uneducated people.