In a world shaken by tragedy, how do we hold on to hope and live as people of the kin-dom? In this week’s message from Luke 14:1, 7–14, Rev. Alicia Velez Stewart reflects on a dinner party with high stakes, the social games of Jesus’ time, and the radical reversal of God’s table. With honesty about grief, challenge for the status quo, and a reminder that death never has the last word, this sermon calls us to be bearers of light in the shadows.