Ministering to Her Mentor: Mollie Donihe's Homecoming Sermon
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A Sermon by Mollie Donihe ’16 Mollie Donihe ’16 delivered a master. The master of the house became angry sermon during Homecoming at and said to his servant, ‘Go quickly to the city’s streets, the busy ones and the side streets, and the Warren Wilson Presbyterian bring the poor, crippled, blind, and lame.’ 22 The Church on Sunday, October 6th, servant said, ‘Master, your instructions have 23 2019. In attendance was one of been followed and there is still room.’ The master said to the servant, ‘Go to the highways Donihe’s trusted mentors, the and back alleys and urge people to come in so Rev. Dr. Brian Ammons, Warren that my house will be filled. 24 I tell you, not one Wilson College Chaplain and of those who were invited will taste my dinner.’” As the words of the scripture text this Director of Spiritual Life. Donihe morning ring through your mind, I’d ask each of and Ammons were featured in this you, if it feels right to you, to close your eyes. year’s Mentors & Mentees story As you quiet your thoughts and settle into your seat, summon up in your mind an image of in the Owl & Spade Magazine. the most wonderful banquet you can imagine. Below is a transcript of Donihe’s Maybe this banquet is based on a memory of Homecoming sermon. a meal you’ve actually had or a party you’ve actually attended, or maybe it is arising Luke 14:15-24 Common English Bible (CEB) completely out of your imagination. What do 15 When one of the dinner guests heard Jesus’ you see when you look around this banquet? remarks, he said to Jesus, “Happy are those What do you hear? What smells fill your nose? who will feast in God’s kingdom.” What tastes linger on your tongue? Who is 16 Jesus replied, “A certain man hosted a there, next to you, across from you? What large dinner and invited many people. 17 When emotions do you feel? What is it that makes it was time for the dinner to begin, he sent his this banquet so wonderful? servant to tell the invited guests, ‘Come! The When you are ready, open your eyes, and dinner is now ready.’ 18 One by one, they all tuck that image of your banquet away in your began to make excuses. The first one told him, mind so that you might return to it later. Even if ‘I bought a farm and must go and see it. Please you forget the details of your imagined event, excuse me.’ 19 Another said, ‘I bought five perhaps you will not forget the way it made you teams of oxen, and I’m going to check on them. feel, or the thing that left you in delight and Please excuse me.’ 20 Another said, ‘I just got wonder at the thought of it. married, so I can’t come.’ 21 When he returned, I wonder if Rev. Hugh Thomson Kerr had the servant reported these excuses to his a similar vision of a magnificent banquet in his mind and heart when he first conceived of that when they host a banquet, they should World Communion Sunday in 1933. As many of not invite their wealthy family and friends, who you may know, it was a Presbyterian minister will reward them by inviting them to another who started the celebration of this day, at banquet in return. Instead, they should invite Shadyside Presbyterian Church in Pittsburgh, those without the means or the physical ability Pennsylvania. He felt compelled to do to return the favor. Their reward then would something that would bring different churches come not from their guests, but from God. together in Christian unity, giving them an It seems as if, though, the host in our opportunity to experience how interconnected parable today did not heed this advice, at least they really were with one another. not at first. The invited guests seemed to have According to his son, this new celebration plenty of resources, at least enough to buy was slow to gain traction. People didn’t give land and livestock. In fact, all of the excuses it a ton of thought. But, during the Second they gave had to do with their own economic World War, he said “the spirit caught hold, interest. The first invited guest bought a farm because we were trying to hold the world and needed to go see it. The second invited together.” People were experiencing firsthand guest bought five teams of oxen and needed the fragmentation of the world through war, to go check on them. The third invited guest and the fear and uncertainty that accompanied got married—and although we may think of it. It was against that backdrop that many this differently today, at the time, marriage other churches everywhere sought unity and was certainly an economical contract between connection. People seemed to crave the a man and a woman’s father. These guests unifying force of sharing a meal, not only at could not come to the dinner, even though their dining room tables but in the global church they probably RSVP’d ‘yes,’ because they as well. felt as though they had to tend to their own These folks weren’t the first ones to pick up possessions, their own interests. on the power of a shared meal. Our scripture Now, at this point of the story, let us resist today comes from the Gospel of Luke, and together the urge to become self-righteous in let me tell you, Luke loved a good food story. our responses. It may be easy to see those who Through reading this particular gospel, it seems turn down the invitation and say, “how stupid that, for Jesus, gathering around a table and and selfish and short-sighted they must have sharing a meal was the perfect opportunity to been!” But haven’t we too, at times, resisted teach and engage with others. or turned down the invitation to be a part of Now in the passage leading up to the one something bigger than ourselves? we read today, we learn that Jesus is eating When his servant informed him of these dinner at the house of a prominent Pharisee. excuses and revealed to him that no one was He sets the scene of his parable in a way that coming, the host became angry. But in his surely would have felt familiar to many of those urgency, he sent his servant into the city, to gathered. A man was to host a large dinner. The extend the welcome to those living in poverty invitations were sent out, the preparations were and with disabilities. He told his servant not made. Perhaps a fattened calf was readied simply to invite them, but to bring them—after just for the occasion. In order to host such a all, many of these people could not physically banquet, we can safely assume that this was a walk into the house on their own accord. Even well-to-do man. after he’d done this, there was still room, so At the beginning of this passage, Jesus the host drew the circle of welcome even wider. has just finished telling his dinner companions He sent out his servant to the highways and back alleys, to the outskirts, to the places filled by our friends, often singing together or uttering with travelers and Gentiles, those from different words of thanksgiving. When the elements nations and with different religions. The host made their way around, they were returned said, “Urge them to come so that my house will to the center of the circle. From there, we be filled.” moved into a time of prayer, and no sooner As far as this story tells us, there were no than we had said ‘Amen,’ we moved back strings attached. The host required no entry together in unison to the center of the circle, fee, no documentation, no religious conversion. going in for more—a continuation of our prayer. He simply said, and I’m paraphrasing, “Y’all We returned to the loaf and the cup for seconds come eat.” and for thirds, often tearing off large chunks of This parable ends on somewhat of a bread or gulping from the mason jar of juice. cliffhanger—we don’t get to find out how the “I need some more Jesus today,” we’d say, as dinner went or what it was like. But it leaves we laughed, shared stories, and commiserated us room to wonder. I wonder if maybe this about our shared busy-ness as students big dinner was something like the banquets I immersed in this thing us Wilsonites call “The invited each of you to imagine earlier. I wonder Triad.” We ate until we were satisfied, and were if maybe the guests were filled with the same still often left echoing to each other at the end, sense of awe and wonder at what they “Are you done? There’s more!” When we were experienced as we might be. I wonder if there joined by newcomers, we would explain to was singing, or dancing, or laughing. them as we all circled around our leftovers— Perhaps when he told these roundabout “we believe in abundance here.” parables, Jesus wanted us to be left to wonder. For us, this act of going back in for more If he wanted to give us quick, easy answers, I’d didn’t make the practice of Communion any imagine that he would have chosen a different less sacred.