Table Manners

September 1^st, 2019       “Table Manners”      Rev. Heather Jepsen

Luke 14:1-24

         Well, we are finished with Paul, and I was all excited about starting the Narrative Lectionary today which is a new cycle of readings that I haven’t tried before.  Imagine my surprise when I sat down early this week and realized the Narrative Lectionary doesn’t start until next week!  So we have one lone Sunday, just hanging out here between Paul and the great arc of the Bible narrative.  So what do we do?  We go to dinner with Jesus . . .

         (Read Luke 14:1-24)

         Wow!  After a summer with Paul isn’t it great to get a dose of Jesus taking it to the religious leaders with his crazy stories and parables.  This guy pulls no punches.

         Context is always important to set the story in its proper place.  It is the Sabbath, the holy day of rest, and Jesus has been invited to eat with the Pharisees, or the religious elite of the day.  This is not an invitation born of welcome, rather this is an attempt on their part to watch Jesus and see if they can catch him making mistakes.

         The story begins with a man with dropsy.  We call this edema now, an excess of fluids in and around vital organs.  Uncomfortable today and probably unbearable in Jesus’ time.  Jesus is the one to start the verbal wrangling, asking if it is lawful to cure on the Sabbath or not.  Jesus knows they are not here to dine together in fellowship; rather this is a show down of religious opinions and practice.  The Pharisees don’t answer; Jesus heals the man away from the crowd, and then reminds them that they too should do no less.  We wouldn’t think twice about getting our pack animal out of a hole on the Sabbath, so why do we think twice about healing a brother or sister in the Lord?  It seems like the Pharisees only want to follow religious law when it is convenient for them.  Put a check mark in the Jesus column as the Pharisees remain silent.

         Now it is dinner time and everyone is lounging about on those silly couches like they did.  Jesus is watching the religious elite negotiate the places of honor at the table.  Who gets to sit where?  It matters!  Once again Jesus comes out swinging by calling everyone out on their arrogant behavior.  Who are you to assume you should have the head seat at the table?  Sitting down low and being invited to move up is way better than sitting up high and being told to move down.  Those who exalt themselves will be humbled and those who humble themselves will be exalted.  Humble religious elite sounds like an oxymoron doesn’t it.   I think that’s two checks in the Jesus column. 

         Next up, Jesus insults the man who invited him to the party.  Now I know this is Jesus and we love Jesus but he is being such a jerk at this party.  No sooner do the words about humility fall out of his mouth, but then he turns around and chastises the host regarding the guest list.  I’m just saying, step back a bit and Jesus is really a bit of a know it all at this event.  No wonder he was always making people so angry.

         Anyway, Jesus tells the host that he shouldn’t invite his friends or relatives or rich neighbors to a party.  The host should invite the poor, crippled, the lame, and the blind.  In this we will be blessed, for those who are in need, cannot repay the meal.  Instead “you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous”.  No reply from the host or the other Pharisees and so I guess this is a third checkmark in the Jesus column for the night.

         I love this guy in verse 15 calling out “Blessed is anyone who will eat bread in the kingdom of God!”  Way to try to ease the tension buddy.  I can totally see myself raising a glass and shouting that out!  Enough conversation, let’s eat!  But of course Jesus won’t let anyone off the hook that easily.  Out he comes swinging again with yet another awkward parable.

         All the up and comings are invited to a dinner but no one will show up.  So everyone else is invited instead.  As the party gets rolling the master calls for even more of the earth’s vulnerable rejects.  Fill the house with those no one wants he cries, the last thing I want to do it let the jerks I originally invited have the chance to come to the party now!

         And that’s where Luke ends the narrative of this Sabbath dinner party.  The Pharisees who invited Jesus to check him out sure got an earful that night.  This Jesus guy makes it clear he doesn’t give a hoot about our customs and cultures, he isn’t interested in our status and social practices, and he does not care about religious tradition.  Jesus is here to challenge everything and to pull the whole system down.

         Of course, none of this is new to us.  We know that Jesus came to challenge the status quo.  And we know that Jesus made some very important people very angry.  Why else would the religious authorities and the government system conspire to take him down?  Why else would he be killed?  Jesus challenges everything we hold dear, that’s just the nature of who he is and what he came to do.

         So, obviously we weren’t at this dinner party, and we are not Pharisees.  What do Jesus’ words in this chapter of Luke have for us today?  The way I read it, all of these lessons offered around the dinner table have something to say about privilege and how we understand our place in the world.  Jesus might have bad manners at the table but he is encouraging all of us to have good manners out in the world.  The Pharisees are on top of the religious and social order of their day.  These are the important dudes!  And all of the stories Jesus tells aim to take them down a peg.  I imagine that is a lesson all of us could hear every now and again.

         There is a lot that could be said about arrogance in our modern world that connects with the position of the Pharisees in our story.  I am thinking of Pastors who say that God wants them to have private jets or million dollar mansions.  That’s arrogance.  I am thinking of a certain someone in a church I used to serve who would always walk around saying “I am the most humble person I know.”  No joke!  That’s arrogance.  I am thinking of all the ways we assume positions of privilege like the Pharisees did at this dinner party.  Just because you presume to be a priority in this world doesn’t mean you are God’s favorite.  Just because you are someone important here, doesn’t mean you are someone important to God.  Arrogant thought leads to bad manners.

         We need to be careful of course with all this up/down, humble/exalted language.  All of these Biblical texts have been studied and preached on for centuries by white men.  All of the things we say in church are colored by that history.  So it is one thing to read this text in a mostly white, mostly heterosexual church and understand our need to step down a notch.  But oppressed groups, from women, to people of color, to LGBTQ, might hear this a different way, right?  Those who have been stepped on might read this text as an opportunity to step up to the table, right?

         I think that is where Jesus is going with his parables about inviting everyone to the dinner party.  Those in power and authority, those in the ruling class, the elite and the mighty, they are already going to dinner.  The 1% are living it up together and leaving the rest of us behind.  Jesus is instead, calling everyone else to the welcome table.  Jesus is saying that everyone else is welcome in the kingdom of God and they are welcome first.  The top places in the kingdom of God are for the bottom dwellers here on earth.  Everyone is invited to the banquet, and the last shall be first while the first wait their turn back at the end of the line.

         Rather than trying to figure out where we land on some heavenly hierarchy, I think the best lesson we can take from this morning’s reading is in how we live our lives today.  All of this junk about who sits where and who goes to what party is all sort of tit-for-tat thinking.  It’s all sorts of selfish thinking.  Just like if I get my donkey out of a hole on the Sabbath that helps me, but if I heal you on the Sabbath that only helps you.  A lot of people move through life thinking if I do this for you, then what are you going to do for me?  I think Jesus’ goal is to encourage self-less thinking instead.  I think Jesus is trying to get us to approach each day not in a “what can you do for me?” kind of mindset, but in a “what can I do for you?” kind of attitude.

         I think that Jesus would invite us to consider how we approach the world each day.  Do we wake up looking for blessings for ourselves or do we strive to find ways in which we can be a blessing to others?  I don’t think Jesus would tell us not to celebrate meals with our family and friends.  But I do think Jesus would challenge us to consider who else we might invite into that circle of welcome.  When we see those who are suffering do we judge them or do we welcome them?  Do we place ourselves above them or do we recognize their equal status in the kingdom of God?

         At the dinner party story Luke is telling, Jesus doesn’t have very good table manners.  He does things that are upsetting and he criticizes the host.  When folks try to dial down the tension Jesus just dials it back up an extra notch.  And while I don’t recommend anyone ask themselves “what would Jesus do?” at their next dinner party, I do think we could take a few of Jesus’ lessons to heart. 

         How do we understand our place in the world compared to others?  Who is God lifting up and who is being humbled in the kingdom?  How do our religious rules block out those whom God seeks to welcome?  Who do we invite to our tables and why?  How do we share our resources with those who have and those who have not?  And finally, when we get to the welcome table and all are there, what sort of table manners will we have? 

My prayer is that we would strive each day to be a blessing to others.   Live life humble, live life for others, have good manners, and share God’s love.   Amen.