PARTIES

We probably all like parties. Tony Compolo (now deceased), former sociology professor at Eastern University wrote a book called “The Kingdom of God is a Party” (Word Publishing, 1990). One of his signature stories was how he held a birthday party for a prostitute, a woman who had never had a birthday party. It turned into an inclusive one and was attended by many prostitutes at 3 in the morning. The point by Compolo is that the Kingdom of God is a time for celebration, a grand admission to the Kingdom for anyone who wants to dine with Jesus.

Recently, at a birthday party, I thought back to my 40th, when Joice arranged a “hillbilly” birthday party. We were at Ukarumpa in Papua New Guinea, and she invited a large group of friends and neighbors. Joice specified that everyone had to dress as a “hillbilly” or the caricature of one, so it was a riot. One man had a big bandage (fittingly) over his big toe, some women blacked out their front teeth, men had corncob pipes, all wore overhauls and tied big red handkerchiefs around their necks, etc. You get the picture. We always had fun on birthdays and Joice always arranged a party. As Tony Compolo asserted, Christians can “turn life into a party that attracts the needy, lonely, sick and oppressed into the loving arms of Heavenly Father.” Joice often had parties for me, our friends, and our family.

There are many examples of parties in the Bible, and the Kingdom of Heaven is, indeed, compared to one: “The Kingdom of heaven is like this. Once there was a king who prepared a wedding feast for his son.” (Matthew 22.2) It was a royal party, like the one we will be invited to in Heaven.

Parties always have food and food is always found at a feast. The first one noted in the Bible was given by Abraham (Genesis 21.8) and it was to honor their first born.

It was an insult to refuse to attend a feast and party (and it still is). Jesus told a parable about a wedding feast for which a king had prepared a feast for his sun. He sent invitations, but the guests did not want to come. They had various excuses and even killed the servants who had invited them. The king wanted the feast and he wanted guests, so he invited the good and the bad until the wedding hall was filled. One man who tried to attend was not invited, and he was thrown out. The conclusion by Jesus was that “Many are invited, but few are chosen.” (Matthew 22.14)

Parties take place in all types of events: sports, work, church, marriage, births, and so on. It is a wonderful way to celebrate, and it can occur because of various events: in the Bible, a shepherd finds a lost sheep (Luke15.4-7), a woman finds a lost coin, (Luke 15 .8-19), or a lost son finds his way back to his father (Luke 15. 11-32). Wonderful times for a party!

There are also political parties: the Republicans, Democrats, Independents, Libertarian, Green, Constitution, American Independent, and Communist. Historically, there were also the Federalist, Democratic-Republican and Whig parties. However, such “parties” were not set up to have fun, they were groups of like-minded (for the most part) people who wanted to pursue a particular line of activities. The “Green Party” for example, has the environment as their main concern, while the Libertarian Party wants individual liberty and limited government. The Political party that wins an election will then have the more traditional kind of party.

We read in the Bible of various religious parties: the Pharisees, who kept the laws of Moses, and the Sadducees, who accepted the Torah but not the later prophetic books. There were also Essenes, who were a remnant of Israel preparing for the end times, the Zealots, who accepted violence, the Scribes, who were the legal interpreters of the Law, and the Herodians, who had a pragmatic political alliance with the Herodian rules and Roman Empire.

Political and religious arties are mostly determined by favoritism, and we can read of allegiance to them: “One says, “I follow Paul”; another, “I follow Apollos”; another, “I follow Peter”; and another, “I follow Christ.” (1 Corinthians 1.12)

Denominations are not “parties,” as such, but they exist on much the same basis as political ones, with a major division between Protestants, Roman Catholics, and the Orthodox. And within each of these major categories there are dozens, if not hundreds of “party” varieties. For example, according to an online source, there are roughly 9,000 official Protestant denominations worldwide. On the other hand, there are “far too many [Catholic] religious orders to enumerate.”

Given this background, the prayer of Jesus in John 17 that those who know him may be one just as He and God are one, seems unattainable. However, Jesus did not think so when he prayed: “I pray that they may all be one. Father! May they be in us, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they be one, so that the world will believe that you sent me. I gave them the same glory you gave me, so that they may be one, just as you and I are one: I in them and you in me, so that they may be completely one, in order that the world may know that you sent me and that you love them as you love me.” (John 17.21-23)

That can be our “party” prayer as well.

Karl Franklin