Rev. Will Rice
Grace United Methodist Church
Corpus Christi, TX
pastorwillrice@gmail.com
Luke 14:7-14
“A Little Polite Dinner Conversation”
Most pastors I know really like people to like them. There is certainly nothing wrong with that. It would be pretty hard to be a pastor if nobody liked you, right. Now churches have gotten a lot larger over the years and life has gotten a bit more complicated but years back, the way a pastor could judge his “likeability” would be dinner invitations. These days on Sunday nights pastors like John and I are either working or passed out from doing three services in a row, but back in the day, if a pastor didn’t have a dinner invitation on Sunday night, that pastor might question whether or not people liked him.
When I was reading the gospel for this week, it got me thinking. I have a goal that may be different from that of my colleagues. My goal is to be a pastor that people are a little reluctant to invite over for dinner. I want people to be a little nervous about hosting a meal including my company because they are afraid of what I might say. Because, you know what, that was the kind of dinner guest Jesus was. When you read the gospels, they start to sound like just a bunch of episodes of Jesus being invited over to dinner and doing or saying something so over the top that it stops every one dead in their tracks.
Look what happens in Luke 7:
36One of the Pharisees asked Jesus to eat with him, and he went into the Pharisee’s house and took his place at the table. 37And a woman in the city, who was a sinner, having learned that he was eating in the Pharisee’s house, brought an alabaster jar of ointment. 38She stood behind him at his feet, weeping, and began to bathe his feet with her tears and to dry them with her hair. Then she continued kissing his feet and anointing them with the ointment. 39Now when the Pharisee who had invited him saw it, he said to himself, “If this man were a prophet, he would have known who and what kind of woman this is who is touching him—that she is a sinner.”
I love it. I am sure that many of you upon having me over for dinner would just love it if a woman of some ill repute followed me in and started rubbing stuff on my feel. I am not going to read the whole passage, but Jesus turns the who thing around on his host and forgives the sins of the woman, and Jesus is never, ever invited to dinner there again.
And what about Luke 11:
37While he was speaking, a Pharisee invited him to dine with him; so he went in and took his place at the table. 38The Pharisee was amazed to see that he did not first wash before dinner. 39Then the Lord said to him, “Now you Pharisees clean the outside of the cup and of the dish, but inside you are full of greed and wickedness. 40You fools! Did not the one who made the outside make the inside also? 41So give for alms those things that are within; and see, everything will be clean for you. 42“But woe to you Pharisees! For you tithe mint and rue and herbs of all kinds, and neglect justice and the love of God; it is these you ought to have practiced, without neglecting the others. 43Woe to you Pharisees! For you love to have the seat of honor in the synagogues and to be greeted with respect in the marketplaces. 44Woe to you! For you are like unmarked graves, and people walk over them without realizing it.”
I love it. Someday, I am going to go somewhere for dinner and my host will say, “Will you want to wash up before dinner?” and I am going to say, “Woe to you! For you are like unmarked graves, and people walk over them without realizing it.” And Will was never, ever invited to dinner there again.
Maybe Jesus didn’t get too watch one those wonderful instructional films in High School about proper dinner etiquette.
Today, we gather for dinner around our family table as Christians. Too often we forget that communion is more than a ritual we go through at the end of service. It is our family meal and when we gather for it, we believe that through the power of the Holy Spirit, Jesus is very present at our table. So, as we gather at the table with the one who tends to make dinner a little uncomfortable, let’s begin by enjoying a little polite dinner conversation.
Today’s reading has Jesus accepting the invitation to another dinner. He was so popular.
1On one occasion when Jesus was going to the house of a leader of the Pharisees to eat a meal on the sabbath, they were watching him closely.
And, in typical Jesus fashion, he starts right in.
7When he noticed how the guests chose the places of honor, he told them a parable. 8“When you are invited by someone to a wedding banquet, do not sit down at the place of honor, in case someone more distinguished than you has been invited by your host; 9and the host who invited both of you may come and say to you, ‘Give this person your place,’ and then in disgrace you would start to take the lowest place. 10But when you are invited, go and sit down at the lowest place, so that when your host comes, he may say to you, ‘Friend, move up higher’; then you will be honored in the presence of all who sit at the table with you.
This is not one of the most original saying of Jesus. It is sort of common sense and he could have been reading it right out of Proverbs 25:
6Do not put yourself forward in the king’s presenceor stand in the place of the great;7for it is better to be told, “Come up here,”than to be put lower in the presence of a noble.
This is not necessarily the mark of a good Christian, it is the mark of people who don’t want to make fools of themselves. I was at a luncheon a few weeks back and there were a whole lot of important people there and there was a big long table with place settings at every seat. As it was time to sit down, the one I would consider to be the most important one in the room sat down, sort of in the middle of the long table. And the rest of us sort of milled around the table like were in some sort of hold pattern over and airport not knowing where to sit, sort of waiting for others to sit down. Because you know what would have been humiliating would have been to sit down right next to the guest of honor and be told, “Excuse me Reverend Rice, that seat is for someone more important than you.”
When in doubt, sit in the bad seat and let someone tell you to move up. Then someone can say, “Oh, Reverend Rice, we reserved this important seat for you.” And I can act all humble and undeserving. “Oh gosh, for me?”
Let me clarify, this is not the same as sitting in the back row at church.
This is just common sense, but Jesus isn’t one to espouse common sense. What is he getting at? The text gives us a clue.
7When he noticed how the guests chose the places of honor, he told them a parable.
Just a reminder, parable comes from the Greek word paraboley parable (alongside a throw) – the idea is that it is a placing beside – a comparison. So Jesus isn’t reminding us of this common sense issue about how to not embarrass yourself at a dinner party, he is trying to tell us something about how we love God and neighbor that is like this. So, what is the lesson? Let’s read on.
11For all who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.”
So perhaps, this same sort of humility that we should show at a dinner party is how we should also align ourselves as God’s people. Let me sit here in the back and wait for God to glorify me. Hmmm. Let’s read on.
12He said also to the one who had invited him, “When you give a luncheon or a dinner, do not invite your friends or your brothers or your relatives or rich neighbors, in case they may invite you in return, and you would be repaid. 13But when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind. 14And you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you, for you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.”
Man Jesus is just ruining this lunch. Think about it: a lot of us have get-togethers at our homes. Every once in a while I get invited to one of these. Imagine we are sitting down enjoying some grilled fish and maybe some steaks and some shrimp and I ask you to go around the table and introduce everyone and tell me what they have ever done for you or could do for you. “Well that is Fred and he helped me fix my fence. That is Susan and she helped me pick out a necklace for my wife’s birthday. That is Jeff and we get together at his house for dinner once a month. And over there is Leslie and she has never really done anything for me but she is an accountant and I was thinking of asking her to help me with my taxes.
And I say, “Great, ask them all to leave. Go out and find some people who can’t do a thing for you and invite them to dinner.” After some stunned silence you might vow to invite some other people next time but I would never know because you would never ask me to dinner again.
13But when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind. 14And you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you, for you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.”
It is tempting to me to make this about mission. When we talk about the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind, we tend to think about service. But this is not about reaching out in service this is about who we invite to dinner. We have set the table already. Who are we inviting to dinner? Us?
I am still a little astounded, which makes me feel as though I lack in faith that someone has offered to give this church 20 acres of prime property, on 624 for free, as a gift, with these wonderful conditions: we have to use the whole thing and we have to start building on it in two years. In other words, we have to use the gift for ministry.
You know this gift is so astounding, I just have to pause here. An anonymous donor has offered to give us a piece of land worth, right now, $650,000 and by next year the way things are going out on 624 it will probably soon be worth a million bucks. I think we just have to stop for a moment and praise God that this actually happened.
The church council on Monday unanimously voted to take this offer to the entire congregation. Over the next month, we will have a number of Town Hall meetings to discuss whether or not we will accept this offer and begin the process of building a brand new church. Now this will be a complicated and emotional conversation, but as we are beginning it I want to, in the context of today’s scripture repeat something I heard at the church council meeting on Monday night. Don Boyd, the chair of the Master Site Plan team that brought us this wonderful news said. This gift (of land) is not for us, it is for all those who aren’t here yet.”
13But when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind. 14And you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you, for you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.”
I believe this entire passage tells me is that when it comes to our relationship with God, our worship, our prayer life, our way of living out a life of service to God, it is not good to put ourselves, our needs, our desires first. As John quoted you last week, “It is so not about us.”
Alisha and I were up at University UMC in San Antonio a couple of months back for a foster parent retreat. We noticed when we were in the parking lot that nearly every spot was marked. Over here tons of visitor parking, over there, parking for folks with special needs, over there, parking for people with little ones in the nursery. We couldn’t see any plain old “member” parking. It raised the question “where do the other 2000 or so people who got to worship park?” I think the answer is, “somewhere else.” Actually they have a shuttle service from a nearby school.
10But when you are invited, go and sit down at the lowest place, so that when your host comes, he may say to you, ‘Friend, move up higher’; then you will be honored in the presence of all who sit at the table with you. 11For all who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.”
Many of you have heard rumblings that we might move this service out of this nice cozy sanctuary and into the gym of all places. And a number of people have told me that they won’t want to worship in the gym. I can’t help think that Jesus might ask, “what about all those people who aren’t currently worshipping with you, would they like to worship in the gym?” Will more people join us for dinner if we have more seats?
13But when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind. 14And you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you, for you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.”
Don’t go out and serve them, invite them to dinner and be sure there is room at the table, kick all your friends out if you have to.
We are here for a banquet today, God’s banquet, and I believe Jesus is here trying to make us all uncomfortable by saying, “where is everybody else?” God is here saying to us, “I know you, I love you, I will take care of you. But where is everybody else?” So often when I preach sermons that are mostly focused out into the hurting world, I worry. I worry because I know that there are people right here, hurting. I know some of you. I have talked to some of you. John has talked to some of you. One or both of us may have sat by you. When I point us out, I don’t mean that God doesn’t care about you. Far from. The Lord is your shepherd.
God loves you with an everlasting love that will never ever, ever let you go. And God wants everyone else to know that too. We are here for a banquet today and if we had unlimited time this morning, I would say, before we come to the table, quick, go out and find some other people to share this with. But, that is another parable and we don’t have time. So let’s make the best of it this morning. As we come to the table this morning, let’s come thankfully, let’s come expectantly, and let’s come to be transformed and empowered to create a church where everyone is invited to the banquet and there is plenty of room for all. Amen?
