On Tuesday Emme and I went to the Farmer's Market in downtown Concord. As usual, Todos Santos Plaza was filled with fantastic produce and a large diversity of people. Many of the homes for the mentally challenged bring their residents every Tuesday to sit on the grass and listen to the live music.
After Emme and I got our lunch, we sat down and savored our tamale (for her) and falafel (for me). We noticed that several people from these homes were dancing out in the middle of the grass. As I watched them, I saw the uninhibited joy in their faces. I watched the caregivers dancing with them, wiping their faces after they ate and taking picture after picture. And I thought of the parable of the Great Banquet from Luke 14:12-24:
He said also to the one who had invited him, “When you give a luncheon or a dinner, do not invite your friends or your brothers or your relatives or rich neighbors, in case they may invite you in return, and you would be repaid. But when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind. And you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you, for you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.”
One of the dinner guests, on hearing this, said to him, “Blessed is anyone who will eat bread in the kingdom of God!” Then Jesus said to him, “Someone gave a great dinner and invited many. At the time for the dinner he sent his slave to say to those who had been invited, ‘Come; for everything is ready now.’ But they all alike began to make excuses. The first said to him, ‘I have bought a piece of land, and I must go out and see it; please accept my regrets.’ Another said, ‘I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I am going to try them out; please accept my regrets.’ Another said, ‘I have just been married, and therefore I cannot come.’ So the slave returned and reported this to his master. Then the owner of the house became angry and said to his slave, ‘Go out at once into the streets and lanes of the town and bring in the poor, the crippled, the blind, and the lame.’ And the slave said, ‘Sir, what you ordered has been done, and there is still room.’ Then the master said to the slave, ‘Go out into the roads and lanes, and compel people to come in, so that my house may be filled. For I tell you, none of those who were invited will taste my dinner.’”
Here it was in front of me... the Great Banquet! Emme and I began to talk about the people there and she said, "So if you're not very smart, then you dance?" And I said, "No Emme, the ones dancing are the smart ones. It's those of us who are just sitting here that aren't very smart." She sat thoughtfully for awhile longer and then she handed me her tamale, got up and said, "I want to dance." She timidly went to the dancers and one woman was blowing bubbles so Emme started to chase the bubbles. For about 15 min she chased them and our new friend kept blowing and blowing. We said thank you and walked away, glowing from our acceptance of the invitation to dance.
