Wait Staff at the Heavenly Banquet

Bible passage: 1 Samuel 1.

In another week my daughter Shelley is coming home from spending a year at the Adventist college in Collonges, France. She'll be home for less than a week before she takes off for Big Lake Youth Camp where she'll be running the horse program.

I tried to talk her out of going to camp this summer. Karin did not want her to go. She's gone for nine months. She comes home. She's home for five days then off to camp. We'll hardly see her. We wish she would stick around. What's the allure of camp?

She's worked there for six years. Starting as a volunteer. Her second year, they hired her, even though she was too young, because of her skill with horses. Now she is the director of the corral.

Now here's a curious thing: All of my kids have worked at camp. Bonnie and Shelley became directors of the corral. Garrett worked in the corral and in maintenance and was recruited by two different camps to help with their horse pack trips. BUT my kids never went to camp as campers. They never expressed any interest in going to camp as campers.

Why?

The truth is, in general, it's more fun to work at camp than to camp at camp. It's more fun to be staff than it is to be a camper.

The staff at summer camps work hard. They put in long hours. It is a draining, taxing job. But everywhere I've observed, the people who have the most fun at camp are the staff.

Indian Creek Camp in Tennessee, Sunset Lake Camp here in Washington, Big Lake Camp in Oregon, Leoni Meadows in northern California. Camp Berkshire near New York City. Camp Cherokee in the Adirondacks. Without exception, it appeared to me staff had the most fun.

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One more illustration.

When I first went to New York City as a student volunteer, I worked in an evangelist center in Times Square. One of my jobs was to assist with a monthly stop smoking program. One of the people who came to the program owned a restaurant in lower Manhattan. She quit smoking. To show her appreciation she invited us to come for lunch at her restaurant.

When we went to her restaurant, it was fun to watch. She was buzzing around the place, giving directions to staff, visiting people at their tables, wiping tables, checking in the kitchen. She was everywhere. And it looked to me like she was having a wonderful time.

I found myself thinking, “I'd like to have a restaurant.” I never saw Hannah actually eat. She just looked liked she was having so much fun.

I know that running a restaurant is exhausting work. The financial challenges are daunting. There are personnel issues and difficult customers. Still it looks like a lot of fun.

For me church is like a restaurant. When people come through the door, my prayer is that they will be happy. They have come seeking food from heaven. My job is to see that they are satisfied. Church is a rehearsal for the heavenly banquet.

And a secret that only a few people know is that those who have the most fun at this rehearsal are the staff. The cooks and servers, the bus boys and hostesses. Our goal is to make sure the diners enjoy their meal. We want the diners to be satisfied. The truth is those who serve get the most out of this practice for the heavenly banquet.

Once at our annual retreat at Rosario Beach, I got a plate of food and sat down to eat. One of the people at the table, Cathy Zundel, remarked, “Pastor, I've never seen you eat that much food before. I mean, I don't think I've ever actually seen you sit down and eat.”

I laughed. It was true. At potluck, I seldom sit down. I usually don't eat very much. Why? Because I'm having so much fun running around visiting. And who has more fun, the people sitting and eating or me, getting to enjoy the pleasure of a hundred people enjoying their meal. I think I have the most fun.


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So, if you are looking for a richer spiritual life, one avenue to explore is deeper participation in the “work” of the church. Volunteer to teach in a children's class. Offer your gifts as a musician or as a mechanic. (The lawn mower needs maintenance.) Sign up to be a greeter. (Hey, if you don't know very many people, what a great way to get acquainted.)

Those who put the most into church are the ones most likely to get a lot out of church.

Church is like camp. The staff has more fun.

Church is like a restaurant.


The story of Hannah and Eli. 1 Samuel 1.

There was a man named Elkanah. He was a Zuphite from the town of Ramathaim in the hill country of Ephraim. He had two wives, Hannah and Peninah.

Elkanah was more in love with Hannah. However, Peninah was the mother of all his children so she had more status in the community.

Every year the family went to the worship center, the Holy Tent, in Shiloh to worship. At the sacred feast there, Elkanah always gave Hannah a double portion of the sacred food as a sign of his special affection for her. She could not have children. And in that society that was a very serious impediment. It was as bad as being poor and ugly in our society.

Elkanah treasured Hannah and wanted to somehow ease the pain she felt at her situation. Of course, all he did was set her up for more pain. Because Elkanah's other wife Peninah would find ways to needle Hannah until she would leave the table in tears. Elkanah would go after her, offering ineffective words of comfort.

This particular year, after leaving the banquet table, Hannah went to the Holy Tent and was praying at the entrance. She was praying silently, her lips were moving but she was making no sound. She was full of grief and desperation and hurt and hope and despair. The old priest, Eli, was sitting there watching. After awhile he scolded her. Her body language was so intense and her face so overwrought he thought she was drunk.

“Woman, how long will you keep getting drunk. Get rid of your wine!”

Hannah protested, “Not so, my lord. I have not been drinking. I have been pouring out my soul to God in prayer. Don't think I'm a wicked woman. I am eaten by grief and longing.”

The old priest responded, “Go in peace, and may the God of Israel grant you what you have asked of him.”

The Bible is not a novel. Novels revel in dialogue and detail. The Bible literature is spare. My guess is that there was substantially more conversation between the old priest and Hannah. She probably told him the whole story. At the end of her story, the old priest gives her his blessing and she leaves confident that God is going to give her a son.

She gets pregnant, gives birth to a son, and several years later fulfills the vow she had made to God by bringing her son to the Holy Tent and placing him in the old priest's service.

This is a picture of the life of the church. The reason church exists is to serve as a contact point between people and God. We bring our hurt, our hunger, our longing . . . our grief, our disappointment, our dreams and hope to encounter God. We want God's engagement with our lives.

We bring all this to church. And our job as a church is to say to one another: God has noticed. God sees. God cares. God is involved. Go in peace. Rest assured God goes with you back into the world, back to your home, your school, your romance, your marriage,

And here is a secret: As sweet as it is to encounter God for yourself here at church, there is another enjoyment, another note of pleasure and satisfaction that comes when you are the agent of God's involvement in the life of someone else.

Are you a visitor? Look around for someone who looks a little lost, someone who looks like they might be here for the first time. Go welcome them. If you are a visitor, you probably think you are the only one. The reality is that on most Sabbaths at least twenty percent of the people here are visitors. Sometimes the percentage is as high as fifty percent. Probably the person sitting next to you is like Hannah. That person came here with some deep longing hoping God would notice. You can become the face of God by greeting the person next to you. When you pay attention to another person here at church, you become a priest.

Hannah went home happy. Eli, too, went home happy that day. Who received the most out of that interaction? I don't know. I do know that serving as a priest in the temple of God, giving God's smile to another person is a highly reliable way into heavenly joy.
If you are looking for an experience with God, give God's smile to someone else here this morning.

Imagine that you staff instead of merely a camper. Imagine you are the restaurant owner, not merely a diner. Imagine you are a partner with God at this rehearsal for the heavenly banquet. You'll discover that your imagination, in fact, takes straight into another, sweeter reality.