Who gets an invite?

XXII Sunday “C”

September 1, 2019

Gospel Luke 14: 1, 7-13

On a sabbath Jesus went to dine
at the home of one of the leading Pharisees,
and the people there were observing him carefully.

He told a parable to those who had been invited,
noticing how they were choosing the places of honor at the table.
"When you are invited by someone to a wedding banquet,
do not recline at table in the place of honor. 
A more distinguished guest than you may have been invited by him,
and the host who invited both of you may approach you and say,
'Give your place to this man,'
and then you would proceed with embarrassment
to take the lowest place. 
Rather, when you are invited,
go and take the lowest place
so that when the host comes to you he may say,
'My friend, move up to a higher position.'
Then you will enjoy the esteem of your companions at the table. 
For every one who exalts himself will be humbled,
but the one who humbles himself will be exalted." 
Then he said to the host who invited him,
"When you hold a lunch or a dinner,
do not invite your friends or your brothers
or your relatives or your wealthy neighbors,
in case they may invite you back and you have repayment.
Rather, when you hold a banquet,
invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind;
blessed indeed will you be because of their inability to repay you.
For you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous."

I am not a believer in coincidences, things happen for a reason. So it has been interesting for me to reflect upon these readings for this weekend, the weekend that I begin my ministry here among you. The readings are obviously about humility, something that I need to remember as I begin to minister with you. Jesus is calling me to be a humble servant. Now I could go on about how humble I am, but that wouldn’t  be very humble of me would it? No rather than talk about my humility I will let you all be the judges one, two or three years down the road.

The parable for today is also not about giving us advice. It isn’t Jesus telling us what we should do in order to get a good seat at a banquet. It reminds me of Brother Larry who is on our provincial counsel who spends a lot of times on planes. He says he has tricks to get upgraded to first class. No, that isn’t what the parable is about.

The reading talks about what kind of hosts we should be, who we should invite to a banquet, but what Jesus is really doing is Jesus is telling us what kind of host he is, he is letting us know who it is that he is going to invite to a banquet.

Whenever there is a meal in the Gospels we should always think about the Eucharist. We should think about this table here in front of us, which we are gathered around. And when we think of this banquet we should naturally begin to think about the heavenly banquet. This Eucharistic table is always a foretaste of the heavenly banquet table.

With this in mind, the question is, whom does Jesus invite to this table? Who are the ones that make it on Jesus’ guest list? The poor, the crippled, the lame and the blind: an unusual guest list to say the least. What do these four groups of people all have in common? Take for an example this altar table that we are gathered around here at St. Mary’s in Whittier. If someone is crippled, using a wheelchair how would they get up to this altar? As you can see our altar is not ADA accessible. The only way that they could get up around the altar is if someone would help them. The point is that they can’t get up here on their own. It is Jesus who not only invites, but Jesus who also helps us. If you think you can make it on your own, you are sorely wrong.

We have all responded to our baptismal call. That is why we are here this weekend to celebrate this Eucharist, Jesus has called and we have said yes. It would be easy for me think, yes Jesus has called, I am living out my baptismal calling, I am ordained. That is why I can show up even though no one knows me and take the seat of honor here in your church. But I am not the one who is worthy; I don’t have a right to be here. No, it is Jesus that invites me, not because of anything that I have done, not because of who I am, or anything else. Jesus invites me simply because he loves me.  The only way to respond to the invitation of Jesus is to renounce any feeling that “we deserve to be here.” That is the good news of the Gospel for us today. We don’t have to do anything to gain a seat at the table, there is nothing that makes us worthy, the only thing that we need do is to accept the invitation, to realize that it is Jesus who makes us worthy.

There is a second part of the message though, or the other side. Jesus is asking us, “Who is it that feels welcome around this table?” “Who is it that feels included, who is it that feels excluded?” When Father Steve, our provincial asked me to come here to St. Mary’s he said he wants St. Mary’s to be known as an evangelizing parish. He wants Fr. Tuan, Fr. Ted and Brother Tom to work together with all to make this an evangelizing parish, to invite more people around this table. Now who is it that we want to invite? It is tempting to think of the rich, cause they could give more in the collection. It is tempting to think of the educated and religious, they could help to teach classes and to run programs. But that isn’t who Jesus wants us to invite to this table, because after all it is his table not ours. No, Jesus wants us to invite the poor, the crippled, the lame and the blind. I don’t know Whittier yet, you all will have to help me, but who are the poor, the crippled, the lame and the blind of our community?

Obviously the poor need to be first at this table, and I am willing to bet that the poor in our neighborhood will be the immigrants, especially the recent arrivals. The very ones who have been demonized by our current president, the ones he doesn’t want are precisely the ones we want.

Yes, it is no coincidence that this Gospel is the first Gospel as I began my ministry here with all of you. The point is that yes we need to be humble, but acceptance at the Messianic banquet depends upon our acceptance of others now. Humility is not a passive virture, no it is highly active, as we welcome the poor, the immigrant, the lame and the blind we are welcoming Jesus himself.