Sermon by Stuart Pike

Photo Credit: Ambersky235 on Flickr.com

The story from St. Luke’s Gospel is another example of Jesus turning everything upside down. The first shall be last and the last shall be first and those who are far off will be near and those who are near (or think they are) will be far off. As usual, the Pharisees and Scribes are up to their usual antics. The tax collectors and sinners are crowding each other to try to get near to Jesus and the supposedly religiously upright are standing off making snide comments and complaining that Jesus actually welcomes sinners and eats with them!

Tony Campolo, a sociologist and preacher with a Baptist Church on the East coast of the US, tells the story of a time when he was speaking at a conference in Honolulu, Hawaii. Because he lives on the East coast, his body was six hours ahead of Hawaiian time. At three o-clock in the morning it felt like nine o-clock to him. Awake and hungry for breakfast, he found himself in a "greasy spoon" café in the small hours of the morning.

Tony says that a menu was placed in front of him. The type that is encased in a plastic folder. He decided not to pick it up because grease had piled up on it and he knew that if he opened it, something extraterrestrial would crawl out. The owner of the café, a guy named Harry, gave him a coffee and wiped his hands on his filthy apron before picking out a doughnut and handing it to Tony.

As he bit into his doughnut, eight or nine prostitutes walked in. They had just finished for the night. Their talk was loud and crude, and it was difficult to avoid listening in. He heard one tell the others it was her birthday the following day. "What do you want from me? A birthday cake?" was the sarcastic reply from one of her friends. "Why be so mean?" she replied, "I was just telling you. I don’t expect anything. I’ve never had a birthday party. I’m not expecting to have one now." When Campolo heard this he made a decision.

When the women left, he went over to Harry. "Do they always come in here?" "Yes," said Harry. "Including the one who sat next to me?" "Yes, that’s Agnes. Why do you want to know?"

Tony said, "Because I heard her say it’s her birthday tomorrow and I thought we might throw her a party." Pause. Then a smile grew across Harry’s lips. "That’d be a great idea." A moment later his wife was in on the plot. Harry’s wife, who worked in the kitchen came out and told Tony, “You don’t know this, because of what she does for a living, but Agnes is one of the kindest people in this town. She is one of the caring people of this town.”

 

Half past two the next morning. Campolo had brought decorations and Harry had baked a cake. Word had got out and it seemed as if every prostitute in Honolulu was in the café – plus Campolo. When Agnes entered with her friends, she was flabbergasted. Her mouth fell open and her knees wobbled. As she sat on a stool, everyone sang "Happy Birthday". "Blow out the candles," people shouted, but in the end Harry had to do it for her. Then he handed her a knife. "Cut the cake, Agnes, so we can all have some." She looked at the cake. Then slowly said, "Is it alright … would you mind … if I wait a little longer … if we didn’t eat it straight away?" "Sure. It’s okay," said Harry. "Take it home if you want"’ "Can I?" she said, "Can I take it home now? I’ll be back in a few minutes." And with that she left, carrying her precious cake out the café.

 

There was a stunned silence. So Campolo said, "What do you say we pray?" And they did. Campolo lead a group of prostitutes in prayer at 3:30 in the morning. When they were done, Harry said, "Hey! You never told me you were some kind of preacher. You said you were a soc