A place at the table

Twenty-second Sunday in Ordinary Time4 Luke 14, 1, 7-14 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 sisters 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." The Gospel for today is not advice on how to get a good seat at a banquet. Jesus isn’t saying, “if you go to a party make sure you sit near the kitchen, so you get served first.” It isn’t like the Banquet we had in Smith Hall last week where you had to wait to get served. Jesus also isn’t saying that you shouldn’t invite your family and friends to your daughter’s wedding. Today’s Gospel is a parable it isn’t supposed to be practical advice. The Banquet isn’t a wedding or a 15a. It isn’t being held at the Fiesta Hall up the street. You aren’t the host, and you’re not inviting your friends and neighbors. No, the Banquet is the heavenly banquet. God is the host and we, all of us are the invited guests. Jesus isn’t telling us how to act, Jesus is telling us what God is like. This wedding feast takes place in the Church every. Every day Jesus invites us to the banquet. Every time the sacraments are celebrated: when someone is baptized, a couple is married and most especially when we come together to celebrate the Eucharist we are being invited into the banquet. We were invited to this wedding banquet on the day of our baptism. The Lord invites us to join him around this table. We share in his body the living bread come down from heaven, the chalice of the new covenant. We hear his word in the Gospels in the letter of the Apostles. We are all invited in, and you know what? The ones we think are less worthy are the ones who are most worthy. And the ones that think that they are the most worthy, are in fact less worthy. In the second parable tells us who is invited to the banquet. The poor the crippled, the lame and the blind. They didn’t get invited because of who there were or because of anything they could do. They didn’t buy a ticket or win the lottery. On the contrary they were invited because they couldn’t repay, because they didn’t think that they earned a place. Remember Jesus is talking to the Pharisees. The pharisees are the ones who thought they were better than everyone else. They were the ones who not only thought that they were invited, but they also thought that they were invited because they were worthy. Because they were good and holy, and they thought that the others should be excluded. They thought that they were getting into heaven and the rest of us weren’t. And Jesus is knocking them off their high horses. He isn’t telling them that they aren’t getting in, he is telling that they are last in line. The thing we need to remember is that we are invited because of God’s love. Not because of who we are, not because of what we do, and certainly not because of how much we put in the offertory basket. No, we are invited because of God’s love. We don’t earn God’s love; you simply accept the love of God. The first parable again isn’t practical advice on how to get a good spot at the banquet, to make sure that you are first in the serving line. The parable is about humility. So, what is the first place in the banquet? Obviously, it is the head table. The place where the bride and groom sit, the wedding party if you will. What then is the last place? It isn’t the one that is by the door of the kitchen, no it is in the kitchen. The people who follow the example of Jesus himself and willingly give themselves in service to others. Our volunteers, not because they think they will get a reward but because they love to volunteer. Our couples in the love that they share, our parents in their dedication to the children. We have a whole lot of folks here at St. Mary’s who put themselves last, who are more interested in serving than being served. But do you know who really is in last place? It isn’t those by the door the kitchen, nor even in the kitchen. No, it is the people who are outside. The ones who don’t think that they are worthy to come in. The ones who haven’t gotten the invite yet. Let us go out and invite them in. Let us let everyone know that there is room for more, there is room for all at the banquet table.