Banquet at People's Park, anyone?

King Jesus wants to invite people to His banqueting table – all who are physically poor, spiritually poor, emotionally poor, any kind of poor – and fill them with GOOD, RICH food that satisfies.

I feel like people who’re out on the street in Berkeley often eat leftovers, donated canned/stale food, or food bought with spare change or recyling refunds. Living like scavenging animals, or dependent on the pity of fellow humans. It’s a constant struggle against the lie, “I must belong here on the street, like the pieces of garbage floating around me.” But these are God’s children!! I want to see them eat something HIGH QUALITY for once – for the food they eat and the clothes they wear and the place they sleep and the dignity they feel to reflect their identity as God’s beloved.

At this banquet, hopefully we materially privileged folks will also see a picture of the Kingdom of God: a feast, paid in full by Jesus Christ, for anyone who knows they are poor and hungry. Hopefully you and I will be filled, too! This is also an invitation for those of us who may have been picking at crumbs under the Lord’s table or filling up on the world’s junk food, stunting our growth because we don’t live like OUR FATHER is the LORD OF THE UNIVERSE!

It’s not up to us to produce the food, but to take our place at His table and invite others to TAKE THEIR PLACE – AMEN THEY ALL HAVE A PLACE!!! – every person who is homeless, every student who’s thirsty for justice on campus, every one of us who’s hungry for love and community, purpose, self-worth, rest...whatever we are longing for, it all comes down to a hunger for JESUS even when a name for that empty space can’t be found. Let’s make His name known! This is the Jesus who said to the Samaritan woman waiting for a savior, “I am He,” the living water, the bread of life. Time to roll out the red carpet for King Jesus, as He is rolling out the red carpet for all who are thirsty!!

Here’s His invitation to all:

“Come, all you who are thirsty,
come to the waters;
and you who have no money,
come, buy and eat!
Come, buy wine an milk
without money and without cost.
Why spend money on what is not bread,
and your labor on what does not satisfy?
Listen, listen to me, and eat what is good,
and your soul will delight in the richest of fare.”
-Isaiah 55