Where do you sit?

The gospel reading for this Sunday is from Luke (have you noticed they all have been lately? That's because we're in lectionary year C). Anyway, the reading, Luke 14:1,7-14, is when Jesus seems to be giving some rules for dinner parties. Don't sit at the place of honor, but sit lower, be humble, that it's better that you humble yourself so that the host of the party can say to you, move up higher, and you'll be honored.
This is about status? Where do you feel that you sit? How does it feel where you sit at the table? Are there places in your life (at work, with your family, friends) where maybe there isn't an explicit seat at the table but there's a definite status/pecking order? How does this feel?
Jesus tells us in this passage that when we have a dinner party, not to invite our friends or others who could invite us in return. The goal is not to be repaid, but to give - Jesus tells the disciples to invite the poor, the blind, the sick, those who could never repay you, and you will be blessed in that you cannot be repaid, and "you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous."
Hmmm . . . I am really grappling with this last part. If Christ calls us to a life of giving without expect of repayment, that it's not about a "one for you, one for me" kind of math equation, then why is it that in the end Jesus dangles the carrot of our own repayment in the resurrection? This is hard for me as a Lutheran - we do not believe that our works are repaid to us in God's grace, but that God gives us grace and mercy and everything we have as pure gift, not as repayment for what we do. We can do nothing but sin without God. Anything good we can do is in Christ, and it's in response to God's grace.
Also, Jesus' words here seem very clear, very tangible, not symbolic or mysterious - so why does he call it a parable? Does that imply another layer of meaning here?