Pentecost 12c
Aug. 28, 2022
Luke 14:1, 7-14
Prepared for Family Camp weekend at Luther Village.
It’s a common feature in coming of age movies–the school cafeteria. A new kid walks in and doesn’t know where to sit. An ‘unpopular kid is sitting at a table and a group of ‘popular’ older kids come over and give them a hard time. A rag tag group of friends sit together at lunch to support and encourage each other through various family, relationship, or academic struggles. School cafeterias can be symbols of the direct or indirect ways we separate, isolate, dominate or connect with one another in community.
In Jesus’ day, it wasn’t school cafeterias…it was community meals. It seems like there were a lot of dinner parties, wedding feasts, or community gatherings around food…and the seating arrangements at these meals communicate something about your social standing. “Important” people were seated in “important” places and “unimportant” people were seated in “unimportant” places. And because of how that society understood God’s relationship with people, they often took the seating chart one step further–important people in important seats were more important to God.
Needless to say, Jesus tried to challenge that understanding. He was the cool kid who came into the cafeteria and sat at the unpopular kids’ table. He was the social outsider who sat with social insiders just to point out that the whole insider/outsider designation didn’t hold up…and especially that it had nothing to do with people’s standing before God.
[Jesus] was the cool kid who came into the cafeteria and sat at the unpopular kids’ table. He was the social outsider who sat with social insiders just to point out that the whole insider/outsider designation didn’t hold up…and especially that it had nothing to do with people’s standing before God.
But in today’s reading he has a meal on the sabbath at the home of a pharisee. And in the process of this meal, Jesus notices how the guests are seating themselves. So he tells a parable to help challenge their thinking. Remember…the assumption was that people in important seats were more important to God. Jesus challenges that by saying it’s better to seat yourself in the less important seats and be surprised when you get invited to sit in the VIP section, rather than assume you’re a VIP and then have to be told you’re actually not.
This sounds a bit confusing. Is Jesus encouraging false humility? Is Jesus saying it’s better to put ourselves down rather than claim our honour and dignity? I don’t think that’s what he is saying. But he could be reminding us that our standing before God is not a result of our works, but is entirely a result of God’s gift and God’s invitation. Sometimes we may be tempted to think we deserve or have earned an invitation to God’s favour because we go to church, are nice to our friends, do our work well, or whatever. Jesus reminds us that God extends welcome to everyone–not just those who are in more important seats in the cafeteria.
But I think that Jesus is reminding us of something else–and that is the richness of community that includes and welcomes everyone regardless of social standing. Jesus tells people to not just create community with those who can pay you back–with those who can reciprocate. Create community that extends to and welcomes even those on the margins–the uncool kids who can’t pay you back.
Because that’s what God does to us. We are all the uncool kids. And every time we are welcomed to God’s banquet we are given gifts we can never repay–gifts of love, forgiveness, and right relationship with God. The meal that we share together as the body of Christ and the family of God is set at God’s table, and we are ALL invited. God doesn’t only invite those who have earned it, who qualify for the VIP section or who are considered the popular kids. God invites all of us.
So think about who is at your table–not just the table that you eat at, but the table of your network, your community, your awareness. Do you draw lines around who’s invited and who’s not? Is there a way you can widen the circle of invitation to include new or different people this year?
Most of all, regardless of how you see yourself in the stereotypical school cafeteria scene–whether your’e the popular kid or the kid who’s a little bit on the sidelines–at God’s table you are invited, welcomed, and given the seat of honour. We all are.
Let’s pray:
Dear God, Thank you for inviting us to your table and for giving us the gifts of love, life and forgiveness. Help us to create communities that reflect the diversity of your expansive welcome, so that others can know that they, too, are loved, accepted and included at your banquet.