I know this might be a stretch for some of you, but can you
imagine God for just a few moments as a Grandmaw God? A Grandmaw God,[1]
settin’ th’ table for grown children invited home for dinner? (I put on a
bibbed apron. The long kind with ties at the back.) An’ whoever those grown
children are, they keep makin’ excuses about why they cain’t come to dinner.
(While I did this, I kept setting the table and sighed each
time I finish telling an excuse why someone couldn’t come.)
· I’m sorry, Grandmaw, but this great new restaurant
jus’ opened and all my friends are goin’ there.
· Oh Grandmaw, I just signed up for a really interestin’
lecture series.
· Grandmaw I’d love to come but there’s a new band in
town.
· Oh Grandma, I’m too far away to come see you today.
I’m at a friend’s house.
· Grandmaw, I forgot you invited us and we have a
neighborhood potluck today.
· Oh gee, how ‘bout next week Grandma, ‘cause I went
shoppin’ all day yesterday and I’m sooo tired?
· Gosh Grandmaw, I was goin’ to come, but then a friend
won some tickets to th’ OU game, and well…
· Oh, Grandma, I know you even gave me a new dress – but
I have to take it back ‘cause it’s, well, you know it fits, but like it’s not
really my style.
And so perhaps Grandmaw just gits tired too. Tired of
excuses, tired of waitin’, tired of cookin’ and invitin’ and tryin’. Maybe
Grandma decides that even though she has a whole family ablum filled with her
chillren’s names and cell numbers and emails, maybe she should look for
somebody who never quite made it into the family ablum. So Grandma sends her
angels to go out in the highways and byways and find some people who really do want to come to dinner at Grandma’s
house.
(As I put the place cards on the altar,
I read each story and smiled.)
· I invited James. You know James? He’s a vet’ran an’ a
addict. He’s had a really hard time lately. He kin use a good meal. He’s comin’.
· And then there’s Sara Mae. Sara Mae an’ her three
kids. She never got any love growin’ up, jes abuse. So havin’ kids was th’ on’y
way she knew to git love. She and the kids are comin’.
· There’s Abner. Abner come to Grandma’s table for the
first time a long time ago. When he did, somebody said a nasty thing ‘bout his
earrin’ an’ his tats, and before he could see how mad and sad what th’ person
said made Grandma, Abner left. He swore he’d never come back. Today he’s goin’
to try agin.
· Oh golly! I ‘most forgot Jasper and Lucy. Their
story’s kinda of long. Lucy and Jasper met when Lucy was volunteerin’ at a
rehab center in, well, Grandma’s gittin’ old and she don’t remember what city
it was. Jasper was in rehab and he an’ Lucy got to likin' each other. Lucy wouldn’t
date him ‘cause she was afraid he couldn’t stay sober. He’d fallen off the
wagon so many times he used to say there was a dent in the road waitin’ jes’ fer
him. But Lucy thought she should try an’ he’p him, so she asked him to church.
Jasper started to say no. But then he said, “You know what? When you’re lookin’
for somebody you’ve lost, you start with their last known address. Maybe I should try church. That’s’ th’ last known
address place I foun’ God.” Jasper an’ Lucy been married seventeen years now.
She made him wait three years before she’d say, “yes,” juuuust to make sure he
could rilly stay sober.
·
An' Jessica and Mary and their kids are comin’ too. They
finally got married a couple years ago when, you know, things got legal. They
got seven - no, Grandmaw ‘mos’ lost count. I told you she was gittin’ old – they
got eight kids. All those kids they adopted have special needs of one kind or ‘nother.
Mary does too. She uses a wheelchair to git about. But Mary an’ Jessica know
what it’s like to be a kid without parents an' no safe place to go. An’ they
sure know what it’s like not to be welcome at a table. They’re comin’ too.
Well, Grandmaw’s not goin’ to bore you with the whole guest
list. But Grandmaw does want you to know a few important things.
You might be wonderin’ about the end of Grandma’s story
today. You know, the man who doesn’t have a robe to wear to the party. He gits
thrown into outer darkness? Or as Grandma’s friend Gene Peterson says, “thrown
inta hell”.
Well, did you know back in the time the party in Grandma’s
story happened, the guys throwin’ feasts woulda sent out two invitations? ‘Course they mostly used messenger boys in them
days. The first messenger boy told when the party was gonna happen. The second messenger
boy was kinda like those e-minders Grandmaw gits now. Just so Grandmaw
remembers she needs to show up on the right day at the right time. Which
Grandma always does, even though some folks don’t think so.
And, in the time Grandma’s talkin’ about, the guy throwin’
the party useta send rich and bee-you-teeful clothin’ as a present for people
to wear. See the party thrower wanted to make sure people would be comfy an’
all decked out when they showed up to party an’ not to feel outta place.
So this feller who come without his robe had shook his head
“no” to th’ very firs’ present the party thrower wanted to give him: a gift of
rich and bee-you-teeful clothin’. And when you say “no” to the party thrower’s
rich an’ bee-you-teeful gift, Grandma thinks you most gen’rally are kind a like
a grumpy ol’ toad in a wrinkly, crinkly skin. ‘Cause Grandmaw is hopin’ all
along when somebody sez, “Hey, I got a gift fer you,” you realize how much th’
gift means and how much it means to the guy what’s givin’ it. So th’ on’y person
does the throwin’ inta hell ain’t the guy who threw the party, it’s you! You
done throwed yerself in by bein’ a ungrateful toad. An’ Grandmaw bets you’d
wail and gnash your teeth too once you realize just how tremenjus that gift
really is… jes like the guy in the story prob’ly gnashed his teeth and wailed once
he realized. (Pause)
Now I see you’uns looking at Grandmaw’s table and you might be thinkin’ the table ain’t big
enuff. But you know what? When you gits to Grandmaw’s table you’ll find out
there’s always room for more. There’s somethin’ very special about Grandmaw’s
table. The way we see Grandmaw’s
table we might think it’s pretty small. But Grandmaw makes room for ever’body who wants to come.
Now some don’t like that, but Grandmaw says, “Give ‘em time.
They’ll quit elbowin’ folks out and invite ‘em in.” Cause at Grandmaw’s table everyone can come. Shoot, it even says
that in the words Grandmaw’s folks say about her Son before the party starts. Grandmaw
says her Son gave himself as food for all.
Grandmaw’s pretty sure “all” means ever’body.
Oh yeah, Grandmaw almost forgot one last thing. I told ya
she’s gittin’ a li’l absent-mindedy in her old age. Now Grandmaw has a pretty
good idea of how all judgmental-like we can git about each another, so she’s
changed all the names and some of the details about the people she’s talked
about today. Kinda like they say on them cop shows on the tee-vee, the names
been changed to pertec’ th’ guilty an’ th’ innercent. But they’s all real
people. Nobody’s from this place though. An’, if you happen to suspicion you
see some of th’ folks at Grandmaw’s table somewhere else, well, you prob’ly
won’t recognize ‘em. And that’s jes what Grandma wants. She jes wants you to
say “Hi” and sit right down at her table with ‘em. An’ Grandmaw wants you to
know, if you see somebody lingerin’ like they ain’t sure they’s welcome, invite
‘em to th’ party and tell ‘em there’s a party outfit jes waitin’ for ‘em. AMEN.
(I left all the large place cards, big enough to see from
the congregation, and the place settings and glasses also remained on the altar
during Holy Eucharist.)
The
Rev Nicolette Papanek
©2017
[1] No
offense was intended to country folks and their wonderful drawls and accents. I
used the voice of a “jen-you-wine” grandmaw from Kentucky.
No comments:
Post a Comment