¹² Then He also said to him who invited Him, “When you give a dinner or a supper, do not ask your friends, your brothers, your relatives, nor rich neighbors, lest they also invite you back, and you be repaid. ¹³ But when you give a feast, invite the poor, the ^[d]maimed, the lame, the blind.¹⁴ And you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you; for you shall be repaid at the resurrection of the just.” (NKJV)

Here, our Lord reminds us of where our focus needs to be…not on surrounding ourselves with like-minded, socially, politically, economically or spiritually similar folks exclusively…rather, do something for strangers in need who may be different from us and who would otherwise never experience the opportunity to come to the Banquet.

In 2011, I decided to attend my 40^th high school class reunion in Sharon, Pa. Prior to that time, I had virtually no contact with anyone from my class because my family moved the week after I graduated.  As Providence would have it, my neighbor across the street in Sharon had moved into the same neighborhood my parents lived in New Smyrna Beach, Florida. Patti and I reconnected during a visit I had with my mom in 2010 shortly after my father’s death that July. Through Patti and Facebook, I began to reconnect with other classmates and was encouraged to come out for the reunion.

Patti then shared with me about a classmate who was now living in Colorado who was very excited about coming, but experienced some unforeseen financial setbacks and wouldn’t be able to come.  Though I barely knew Sandi in High School, we had connected on FB and sharing where life had taken us over the 40 years since graduation.  In the course of this, I sensed the Lord telling me to provide for her flight and hotel room for the reunion. I even picked her up at the airport so that she didn’t have to worry about a rental. I had plenty of hotel and airline points accumulated from my previous job and felt this was a great way to use them.

As you might expect, Sandi couldn’t believe that I would do such a thing, but I had recalled this passage we read today and knew it was the right thing to do.  To this day, she still refers to me as her “angel”…and as the passage says, “you will be blessed because they cannot repay you.”  It was one of the most satisfying things I have ever done in my Christian walk.

Last Sunday in church, we had the privilege of witnessing a scene right out of It’s a Wonderful Life.  At the end of the service, Pastor Chris invited Julie Suckow up to the front of the church.  She had made plans to go on the mission trip to Romania, but was $1,000.00 short of meeting her funding needs.  Pastor Chris invited the congregation to help her if they felt led to and…just like the movie…people came streaming forward to write checks, give her cash, or find out where they could send her a check.  You could see that she was overwhelmed by the outpouring of love that she hadn’t expected…and could never repay… 

Though Sandi and Julie don’t perfectly fit the description in Christ’s admonition to the host, they both desperately wanted to attend an event, but didn’t have the means to get there…But when believers hear the Word, are willing to live it out, miracles can and do happen!