A Lesson About Dinner Parties

Luke 14:1, 7-14

I want to invite you to take a moment to think about the tables you have sat at throughout your life. The one from your childhood. The one in your current home. The one in your friend’s home. The one at your favorite restaurant. The one at the biggest dinner party you have ever been to. The one you sit at for holiday meals. I remember going to my grandma’s house for holiday meals. Our family was too big to fit around her dining room table, so we ended up using several tables. Of course the adults got to sit at the dining room table and the kids ended up at the kid’s table. Well, most of the time I am still considered a kid there, because we still don’t all fit around the dining room table. Sitting at the dining room table is a place of honor, a place for the eldest in the family. Until there is room at the dining room table the “kids” still sit at the other tables waiting for the day when they will be invited to move up to the table of honor.

Oh, the wisdom shared around the table! Throughout Jesus’ ministry, we see again and again how in much the same way that he never passes up an opportunity to share a meal with others, he rarely misses the chance to use a table as an occasion to teach. Whether it’s welcoming a woman who anoints him to the table, or using the table as a way to talk about the kingdom of God, or employing the elements of a meal to describe who he himself is: the table, for Jesus, is always about right relationship, about how we are to live in community and communion with one another.

As we read the gospels, it becomes clear that Jesus had no “proper” standards at all about whom he ate with. His utterly indiscriminate table fellowship, in a society with strict rules of precedence and protocol for dining, caused plenty of critical comment. People noticed and complained that he ate with sinners, tax collectors, prostitutes – all sorts of unsuitable people! Luke's Jesus always has a very open table for his dining. Everyone is welcome at Jesus' table – rich and poor, men and women, all ages, races, ethnicities, religions, and sexual orientations. In today’s gospel Jesus appears to be eating with suitable people, but are they really suitable?!

At this dinner party the guests each stroll in thinking they are the greatest, smartest, richest, most important person at this dinner party. They are each vying for the best seat in the house. When Jesus sees how these so-called suitable dinner guests are acting he decides to tell them a parable. Jesus often uses parables to teach listeners a life lesson. Usually this lesson is a bit cryptic, but today his teaching is very real. He doesn’t say, “When a person is invited…” He says, “When YOU are invited…” This life lesson is really about the here and now. This life lesson is for the guests and host of this dinner party.

Jesus directs his attention to the gathering guests, jockeying for the best seat at the table. Jesus warns them to be humble and to not assume a higher place so that they might be lifted up. In that day they did not have place cards at the table. There was a mad rush to get to the best seats. Their seats were a bit different than the chairs we think of today. They typically reclined at the table. So, at a table there were three places to recline on each side. On one side there would be seats one, two, and three. Seat two would be the seat of honor. On another side there would be seats four, five, and six. Seat five would be the seat of honor. The other two sides of the table would be numbered in similar fashion. So, there would be a total of twelve seats and four seats of honor. When the cook said, “Soup’s on,” there was a mad dash of guests trying to land their seat of honor.

Jesus does not think this is an appropriate way to act. Instead, when we receive an invitation to share in the table of another, Jesus says we should come with no expectations, no intent to grasp at a seat of honor—from which, Jesus says, we might be ejected. When approaching the table, Jesus says, our stance, is to be one of humility, a posture that leaves room for surprise and for grace. The teaching point of Jesus’ parable today is, “For all who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.”

Being humble is about being content under God’s grace and not thinking you are bigger and better than you really are. Humility is about keeping yourself grounded, close to the humus of the earth. Humility is not boasting in your status and success. This can be very difficult in our society that finds status and success to be very important. We want to have a bigger home, a better job, a faster car, the newest technology, and the nicest clothes. As soon as the bigger, better, faster, newer, and nicest things are released we think we need to have them, too. This is not a new problem. The guests at the dinner party in our text struggled with this, too. They wanted to flaunt their status and success. They wanted to have the best seat in the house.

At the table that Luke tells of in this Sunday’s gospel lesson, Jesus turns his attention not only to the kind of guests we ought to be, but also to the kind of hosts we are to be – inviting those who owe us nothing. Turning to the host of the dinner party Jesus encourages him to not throw a party in hopes of getting something in return. Share your banquet of abundance with those who are living in scarcity. Don’t invite your successful neighbors, relatives, and friends, because they could repay you by inviting you to their house for another party. Invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind. Invite those who cannot invite you to another dinner party.

Now I invite you to take a moment to think about this table. The one that we receive the bread and wine, the body and blood of Jesus Christ, from on this day. At God’s table all are welcome. The guest list is very diverse. The young and old. The rich and poor. Women and men. All ages. All ethnicities. All races. All religions. All gender orientations. God's heavenly banquet is open to all and if we attend and expect that everyone at this banquet will look like us, we will be very disappointed. If we come expecting a seat of honor, we will likely be sent to a lower seat. Come in humility and you will be exalted. Invite those on the margins of our society to come to your dinner party and you will be blessed. All are welcome for the table is ready. Amen.

Revolution and Revolutionaries

August 15, 2010

Luke 1:46-55

What do you think of when you hear the word “revolution?” The French Revolution. The Civil War. The Industrial Revolution. The 95 Theses. The Digital Revolution.

Who do you think of when you hear the word “revolutionary?” Nelson Mandela. Martin Luther King, Jr. George Washington. Martin Luther.

As I wrestled with this text from Luke over the past week, I couldn’t help but think of the words revolution and revolutionary. The song Mary sings, the Magnificat, is God’s fundamental principles of the Christian revolution. God has given Mary a mission and a purpose. Mary is the bearer of the revolutionary, the one who will turn things upside down. Jesus will be the one who moves those who are the top to the bottom and those who are on the bottom to the top. Jesus will put people back where they actually belong. Jesus will create a revolution. Mary’s response to this revolution is to sing, because she believes that “nothing will be impossible with God.”

Mary is one of the least powerful people in her society. She is young, perhaps as young as thirteen. It is shameful for her to give birth at this age. She is female in a world that is dominated by men. She is poor in a stratified economy. She is living in Nazareth in Galilee. Nazareth has a population of about 1,600 to 2,000, which makes it significantly less important than a city, like Jerusalem. She is engaged to Joseph, a carpenter, who is also of relatively low social status. Regardless of Mary’s situation in life, God chooses her to bear the Savior of the world. God chooses her to bear the revolutionary, Jesus.

Mary’s response to her pregnancy and the pregnancy of her relative Elizabeth, who was said to be barren, is to sing. She says, “My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior.” When has your soul magnified the Lord? When have you felt blessed? When has your spirit rejoiced? My spirit rejoiced when I safely arrived in Washington, DC after traveling for over 1,400 miles to begin my mission as the Vicar of St. Paul’s. My soul magnified the Lord as I walked into the parsonage to find flowers and a cupboard full of food. I have felt blessed from the moment I arrived here and I am certain that I will continue to feel blessed throughout the rest of this year. Along with Mary, I can confidently say, “My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior.” Throughout my life there have been many occasions when I have met others whose souls magnify the Lord. Let me introduce some of them to you.

His name is Gene. He lives in poverty near New Orleans. Before Hurricane Katrina he had very little and after the hurricane he had even less. He lost all his photos and personal mementos in the hurricane. When I, along with some other college students, helped him with his house (a house none of us would ever find livable), he gave us each a rose from his rose bush. It was the only thing he had to give. His mission was to give back to those who had given so much to him. Gene’s soul magnifies the Lord, and his spirit rejoices in God his Savior.
Her name is Sandra. She lives in a township in South Africa. She lives with her father, mother, and two brothers in a house that is the size of most master bedrooms in our country. She is in high school, but she still has a mission. Someday she would like to go to college and become a doctor so she could help others, but her family cannot afford a college education for her. Yet, she will not stop dreaming of her future. Sandra’s soul magnifies the Lord, and her spirit rejoices in God her Savior.
His name is Eduardo. He lives with his family at the bottom of a canyon in Guadalajara, Mexico. Everyday he walks up the steep canyon to go to school and then back down the canyon to go home. It is a very long walk, but at twelve years old his mission is to become educated. He speaks Spanish and I speak English, but we can still communicate. A smile is universal. Eduardo’s soul magnifies the Lord, and his spirit rejoices in God his Savior.
Her name is Angie. She is in her mid-forties. She is a schoolteacher in Nicaragua. Angie and her family lived in a very small house with minimal electricity. Every day she strives to fulfill her mission by providing the best life possible for her three daughters. Yet, when I visited, Angie gave up her bed and prepared wonderful food for me, while her and her daughters shared a small room and ate very little food. Angie’s soul magnifies the Lord, and her spirit rejoices in God her Savior.

God had a mission and purpose for Mary. She was to bear the revolutionary. She was to bear Jesus. God has a mission for Gene, Sandra, Eduardo, and Angie. God has a mission for me and I know that God has a mission for each of you as well. In addition, I believe that God has a mission and purpose for this congregation. Our mission is to bring down the powerful from their thrones and lift up the lowly. Our mission is to fill the hungry with good things and send the rich away empty. Our mission is to be radical revolutionaries in this city and in our world. This mission is not possible without us and this mission is certainly not possible without God.

Our response to the mission we are given through Jesus Christ should be to celebrate, to sing. Our response should be to let our souls magnify the Lord and our spirits rejoice in God our Savior. Today we are celebrating. Today we are celebrating the work of Christmas, which would not be possible without Mary, the Mother of our Lord. Today we are celebrating the revolution that Jesus, the revolutionary, began many years ago. Today we are celebrating the revolution of Christianity that still exists today. Today we are celebrating our mission to be like Jesus, to be revolutionaries.

In the words of theologian and civil rights leader Howard Thurman,

“When the song of the angel is stilled,

When the star in the sky is gone,
When the kings and princes are home,
When the shepherds are back with their flock,
The Work of Christmas begins:

To find the lost,
To heal the broken,
To feed the hungry,
To release the prisoner,
To rebuild the nations,
To bring peace among brothers and sisters,
To make music in the heart.
Then indeed we shall be blessed!”

Then indeed our souls shall magnify the Lord and our spirits shall rejoice in God our Savior. Amen.