Gilbert O’Sullivan

Daily writing prompt

If you could host a dinner and anyone you invite was sure to come, who would you invite?

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I was a little tempted to ignore this prompt. I’m quite a shy person, and I don’t enjoy sitting around tables much for whatever reason. Maybe, I feel a little trapped. So, how do I answer this one? Who are we talking about?

• Famous people who are no longer with us, such as the Apostle Paul?
• Famous people who are still alive, such as Paul McCartney?
• Good friends from the past?
• Family or friends from the present?

And in 1973, when I was 11. I bought my first ever new album by an artist, his third album, I’m a Writer Not a Fighter. I had bought Gilbert O’Sullivan Himself, second-hand in K-Sons, Cork, earlier that year. It had a scratch, where he’d sing “and the pleasure I get from say winning a bet, from say, winning a bet, from say winning a bet.….” It would go on forever unless you moved the needle on 😀.

Neither of the albums contained Alone Again Naturally, which is probably my favourite.

Before that. I bought a few cheap 99p albums where recent hits would be covered by session artists. The first one, which I bought in the autumn of 1972, was Hot Hits 14, which incidentally had the following songs:

So, I’d invite Gilbert O’Sullivan. And if he wasn’t available, perhaps the lady on the cover of Hot Hits 14. She wouldn’t be as young nowadays, so perhaps she wouldn’t be such a threat to my marriage 😀. Anyway, back around 1973, I remember Gilbert O’Sullivan coming to play the Savoy in Cork. Tickets were £2.50. I couldn’t afford that. I see no trace of that concert on the web. Hopefully, it isn’t a false memory. I have a very vivid memory of standing outside the Savoy, looking at the prices. But, maybe it was Gilbert and Sullivan 😀 . I dunno. Sometimes artists do low profile gigs in places like Cork before they do a proper tour.

Update: Just discovered I was correct. He did play the Savoy on June 18th 1973. Why didn’t I go? Why O Why, O Why? I just needed £2.00 and stamped-addressed envelope (SAE). Pity I can’t go back to my 11-year-old self as a ghost and buy him a ticket 😀.

I moved on from Gilbert when I bought my first Beatles album in 1974. And there’s a whole list of pop stars that I’d like to meet and dine with. The only one I ever actually met was Martin McAloon from Prefab Sprout, last year in Limerick. Perhaps if he comes again, I could invite him for lunch 😀. In reality though, I think I’d like to invite my daughters to lunch. It’s always a joy when they visit. Or long-lost friends from the past. I think particularly of my friends from London City Mission in 1983.

Well, now that I’ve had the opportunity to be my silly self, let’s move on to spiritual matters. It might seem a bit ridiculous thinking of inviting Jesus to lunch, but think of what he says here:

Rev 3:20
Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with that person, and they with me.

We’re obviously speaking in spiritual terms here. And of course, the Lord’s table, or communion is another reference to dining. I was a Roman Catholic. I’ve been an evangelical Christian for the last 45 years. But in both cases, communion has always been a special time of intimacy with Jesus. Beliefs about how he is present vary. Catholics believe that the bread and wine is turned into the body and blood of Jesus. Evangelicals believe that they remain bread and wine, but Jesus is present in a spiritual sense. He’s always present when people gather in his name, but I think most would see communion as special, and most would feel his presence in a special way.

Another reference to dining is The Parable of the Great Banquet (Matthew 22:1-14). Some reject the invite to the meal. We can become too engrossed in our daily lives and material possessions to recognize or accept God’s call. Another lesson is that you can’t enter unless you are properly dressed. Perhaps this illustrates Jesus’ remark when people asked him what they should do to be doing the works of God. He answered. “The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent.” (John 6:29). So, when we believe, we are clothed in his righteousness, and we can come to the great feast. And heaven itself is described as a feast:

Rev 19:6-9
⁶ Then I heard what sounded like a great multitude, like the roar of rushing waters and like loud peals of thunder, shouting:
“Hallelujah!
For our Lord God Almighty reigns.
⁷ Let us rejoice and be glad
    and give him glory!
For the wedding of the Lamb has come,
    and his bride has made herself ready.
⁸ Fine linen, bright and clean,
    was given her to wear.”
(Fine linen stands for the righteous acts of God’s holy people.)
⁹ Then the angel said to me, “Write this: Blessed are those who are invited to the wedding supper of the Lamb!” And he added, “These are the true words of God.”