Who's Invited and Where Should I Sit?

Luke 14:7-14

She pulled her cape around her shoulders,

Her heels lifted her up to thinner air

Almost to where she wanted to be

She saw the table spread with fine linens

With artisan cheeses and duck liver pate

There was red and white wine for every taste.

She approached the gathering and saw on the far end

The old-fashioned, the rough handed and the wrong spoken

On the near side she saw well-labeled suits

That look of confidence in the eyes of the highly educated

She saw one chair near her with those of her kind

She sat and sipped wine and laughed

She knew which fork to use for the appetizer

The host came and thanked her for taking

The seat at this end and assured her

That someday, she too, could join him at the other end

Sounds a little harsh, doesn’t it? But, have we ever found ourselves sizing people up, comparing their looks, their families, their tastes and their beliefs to our own? Do we ever let some mistaken sense of social worth dictate how we act?

Then we need to turn the tables…just like Jesus turns the table in our gospel. He turns them with humility, with welcome, and with His abounding grace. Jesus is never afraid to mix things up as He does in this gospel story today.

We might initially read today’s text simply as good table manners. Luke, however, gives us good reason to believe that is not quite how we should read the text. Verse 1 tells us that this is a Sabbath meal in the home of a Pharisee. We recall from other scripture how the Pharisees were often critical of Jesus so they watched Him closely. When Jesus notices the guests at the Pharisee’s house choosing their places He tells His hearers a parable. This parable doesn’t seem quite as extraordinary as many we have heard. But parables always beg us to look deeper and that may be why in verse 11 the words have a little more theological language “For all who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.”

We should never think of ourselves too highly. That is a key point that appears throughout scripture. God will bring down the proud and lift up those on the margins. Jesus makes it clear in our gospel that He stands with those in the margins. We see this over and over in gospel readings.

Jesus talks about hospitality too. We often think of hospitality in terms of reciprocation. I invite you. You invite me. Jesus wants us to push beyond that. He encourages us to invite those who cannot invite us back. In Luke’s verse 13 he says we should invite the poor, the crippled, the lame and the blind.

We seldom live in accordance with that directive. We humans tend to think in the short-term. God views everything from a divine long-term perspective. Jesus always works in ways different from how this world works. Through examples like our scripture reading today we catch glimpses of what one day will be. God and Jesus do not play favorites. When we sit in church together or when we take Holy Communion together, every seat is a place of honor. God has a heart for every rag-tag, bumped, bruised, dented, broken, bowed down, tired one of us on His guest list. And Holy Communion is the sacrament of unity where we can overcome the deepest of our human estrangements. In terms of Christ we all come as poor sinners. None of us can pay God back for the gifts we have been given but God invites us anyhow.

Holy communion gives us a foretaste of the feast that is to come. Someday we will all sit around that great banquet table together. Until that time God wants us to keep loving each other like family. We are God’s people. We are the family of God. With our hearts wide open we show concern for the welfare of everyone who is seated here with us. We love because He first loved us. We receive because we have been received. Through Christ and His love we are in community. We are loved infinitely. We are all children of God who have been called to love others and to set before them a meal of kindness.

By the grace of God we will all one day sit in first class at the place of honor. We will all get A+ for something that we never actually earned. Jesus knows us through and through yet He has already written the invitation with your name on it and with mine.

We cannot earn it, we do not deserve it, but together we can in humility celebrate God’s love and as one praise God by His grace.