Christ calls you to the table

Vicar Brett Wilson - 14th Sunday after Pentecost – 8/29/10 – Luke 14:1, 7-14 (Preached at Emmanuel Lutheran)

Every Thursday night at Christ Lutheran a group serves the community meal. When I came downstairs this past Thursday for the meal, the group from Redeemer Lutheran, who was serving, had already opened the doors, about 15 minutes early. The dining room was almost full, and people were flooding in the door. Before I knew it, there was not a seat to be had. Gradually over the last month the numbers coming to the community meal have been growing. This is both a blessing that it can be a help to so many people, but it is also a concerning sign of the times. This past Thursday we had a record number for the meal. About 210 people came for dinner, for dinner in our hall which holds about 120.
Before long, I was talking to people as they waited in line for a seat at the table. I know you all here at Emmanuel take a turn serving the Monday meal, and maybe you can picture this. There was such a crowd, over and above our packed dining room, that the line wrapped outside and around the building. In line waiting for a seat were families, kids, young men and women, and older folks too. I was talking to these two men who were waiting in line, and one said to me, “I know why everyone's here, it's the end of the month. I know I don't get paid for two more weeks and I just don't have anything left. These meals really help me out.” The man standing next to him said, “yeah, the meals help me out – I'm not getting paid either.” The first man responded, “If it wasn't for this meal – (he shook his head) – I don't have anything in my fridge except mayonnaise and water.” The man standing next to him seemed startled and a little humbled by this and responded, “well, I've got stuff in my fridge, I could go eat that, these meals just really help. Sorry, man.”
We never do know where we sit in relation to each other, do we? I know we look at each other and make certain assumptions, but you can never really judge where you sit in relation to someone else. Today's gospel reading challenges our idea of choosing where we sit at the ranked table. This may not seem like a very deep issue to us, but in the ancient world, this was a very deeply inscribed social practice, and everyone knew the hierarchy of table seating at a dinner or a wedding feast, where this parable is set. When we sit down to dinner with friends we may not rank ourselves in this proscribed way, but we do rank ourselves and each other in so many other ways. And also, it often does matter where we sit, and it starts as young as the elementary school lunchrooms and carries into every other part of life. Competition, and the practice of measuring ourselves against others is just a part of who we are as humans. As competitive creatures we can relate to rating ourselves at the wedding banquet in the story, taking a chair at the table based on where we think we sit in relation to the other guests.
Where do I sit, after all? Where do you feel that you sit? Here in America, we sit pretty high up at the table. America is 6% of the world's population, and we consume 40% of the world's resources. Only 8% of the people in the world drive cars. A billion people in the world live on less than 1$ per day. When I consider this scale, I realize that I don't take the lowest seat at the table, really ever. Left to our own, even in trying to be humble, pride can win out and we place ourselves higher on the table status, only to fall when we are confronted with reality.
God confronts us with this reality in this parable. I can never properly evaluate where I sit. When God shows me where I truly do sit at the table, I am humbled. God does the humbling, and that's ok – I know I need it sometimes. I realize how blessed I am, but also how far I fall short from sharing my blessings. I also realize that I am just a guest at this dinner party, and I am not in charge.
Reading this lesson we must remember that it is a parable, and that God is the host of this banquet. God shows you to your place at the table. Whereas we may see this as a matter of status, that is our concern and not God's. “We as humans are naturally insecure. We deal with that insecurity illegitimately and illogically by comparing ourselves to others.”
God doesn't let it rest with us assigning some false rank to ourselves and others. God is active and present in this equation. Even while we are constantly comparing and ranking ourselves, God tears this down and breaks through to you by conveying your worth and dignity as a gift. God is the host at this wedding feast, this celebration here today and every day.
God is the host of the banquet, and that means that God invites you. It's not our hands that pick the guest list or make the table assignments – God is in charge here as host. If God is the host, who does he invite who cannot repay him? Me. You. The ones who could never repay God for what God has done. God who came down in Christ, the one most exalted who humbled himself all the way to death, does so that we, the ones who are lowest, who could never repay, may be exalted. It is out of God's sheer grace that we are invited, as we could never repay God for this.
God invites you to the banquet. For the gospel of Luke the banquet is often a symbol of the kingdom of God. God invites you to the kingdom, just as God invites you to this communion table. At this table where God gives of God's very self, showing a glimpse of the kingdom where there is not rank but God just gives. Everyone receives the same bread and wine, God's very self. God levels the playing field, by reversing the roles of the exalted and humble, because it doesn't matter, what is in your fridge or how much you have in the bank. God calls us each the same and gives of himself, of his son. God gives us our worth, calls us to our seat just as a parent calls their children to dinner. This is what is meant in “this is the feast of victory of our God.” God calls us to the table, invites all, throws off our system of rank and gives each child the same. From this table, from this glimpse of the kingdom we are changed. As God's forgiven people we can learn how to forgive others, see that they're just the same as us, and offer them a place at God's table.
The Holy Spirit moves among us shows us that where people are fed, where people are welcomed with no strings attached, there is a glimpse of the kingdom. At the community meals, in the work of this church and the people of Lancaster, there is God working. When you invite someone to this table, there is God's grace. When you show hospitality to strangers, remember those in prison, pray for the hungry, give thanks for what you have, realize where you sit, there Christ is with you. When you do things not to be repaid or get something in return, then you are Christ to others, and you share Christ and open up to the Holy Spirit.
Like a proud parent, God calls you to the table, invites all the children, and gives you and each one a seat and an equal portion. Like a proud son or daughter, you and I go from this table and because of the Holy Spirit, like a child bursting with pride, cannot help but tell others about what a good meal we had here, cannot help but to share what we have, and cannot help but invite others home for dinner. Amen.