Our gospel lesson for today comes from the witness of Luke chapter 14 verses 15-24. It is often called the Parable of the Great banquet. And it comes directly after a conversation where Jesus engages in a discussion about when you give a banquet, to not invite your friends and relatives, but instead invite those who cannot pay you back.  If you’d like to follow along it can be found on page 77 of your pew bible. Let us listen for God’s Word to us on this day.

The Parable of the Great Dinner

One of the dinner guests, on hearing this, said to him, ‘Blessed is anyone who will eat bread in the kingdom of God!’ Then Jesus said to him, ‘Someone gave a great dinner and invited many. At the time for the dinner he sent his slave to say to those who had been invited, “Come; for everything is ready now.” But they all alike began to make excuses. The first said to him, “I have bought a piece of land, and I must go out and see it; please accept my apologies.” Another said, “I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I am going to try them out; please accept my apologies.” Another said, “I have just been married, and therefore I cannot come.” So the slave returned and reported this to his master. Then the owner of the house became angry and said to his slave, “Go out at once into the streets and lanes of the town and bring in the poor, the crippled, the blind, and the lame.” And the slave said, “Sir, what you ordered has been done, and there is still room.” Then the master said to the slave, “Go out into the roads and lanes, and compel people to come in, so that my house may be filled. For I tell you, none of those who were invited will taste my dinner.” ’

This is the word of the Lord, Thanks be to God.

Let us pray: May the words of my mouth and meditations of all of our hearts be acceptable in thy sight Oh Lord in whom we live and move and have our being. Amen.

Sit at the Table.

When reading scripture, I like to think about the setting of the passage.

Jesus and his friends are on the way to Jerusalem. They are, dining, with whomever invites them in… Sharing a meal with people can be a way to connect. Coming together around a table, to discuss, debate, laugh and break bread together… This story comes from the dinner table. And Jesus uses these everyday interactions to teach. So he’s gathered together with the Pharisees and prominent thinkers of the town, and after a particular discussion about what I’m calling “table dynamics” who should sit where, who is invited, and for what intentions are you inviting them? I guess we could maybe call this a certain type of Jesus’ dining etiquette… Don’t just invite someone, because they’ll be able to pay you back… or because it gives you some sense of status to have that person at your table. You should instead invite those who are so often overlooked and give them the dignity and honor of a place at the table.

In response to this etiquette lesson, one of those men around the table proclaim, “Blessed is anyone who will eat bread at the table in the kingdom of God!” I get the impression he is saying this with the underlying assumption that he will be one of those blessed people. Jesus, instead of referring him back to what he had just been saying, expands the idea, in this parable, which is a story used to illustrate a point he is trying to make.

He goes through, the usual suspects, your A-list party guests… the landowner, the rancher, the young newlywed couple… And it is perhaps assumed by those sitting with Jesus, that those listed will be present at the table of God’s kingdom. And even as they give their excuses, and send regrets… Jesus probably still had the audience…. Of course they will be excused absences. These aren’t small trivial things in the society. In fact back in the book of Deuteronomy chapter 20, we find a passage about the preparations and rules of warfare. In those rules, it is acceptable to turn back for very similar things. Everyone sharing this meal with Jesus, listening to the story, would have known that the law in Deuteronomy instructs, “Has any built a new house, and not dedicated it? Has anyone become engaged to a woman but not yet married her? … He should go back to his house, for he might die in battle and not [accomplish these things….]”

But in this story, it’s different.

Preparation for warfare is different than preparation for the kingdom of God.

At this table with Jesus, everything is different. The A-List guests aren’t the ones who fill the master’s house… it’s people who have been brought in from the very worst places of the town, those who beg for mercy in the streets sit at the table, and when there is still room… the master sends out a third invitation… expands the guest list to an even broader place… the roads and the lanes… meaning places beyond the perimeters of the village… these are the outsiders, strangers, wanderers… even a sworn enemy like the Samaritans… these are guests from beyond the borders—those on the far off roads make the banquet full.

Thinking about this today is especially important, as we celebrate people around the world, joining together in Communion in this joyful feast offered to us, sitting together at the table.

But the people listening around that dinner might have been thinking, what’s this Jesus getting at? Are they really the ones at the table? That sounds like a strange party…

In Bible studies on the passage, I find that it can be our instinct to keep coming back to this final verse in the parable, “For I tell you none of them that were invited will taste my dinner.” Personally I don’t like this phrase. It seems vindictive. Closed, unforgiving. I want to soften it, pull in a broader understanding of grace, of welcome, of hospitality, at this joyful feast, full of people from every situation of life. Together… laughing, discussing, debating, being made full. But here’s the thing — that final verse, might not be our take away. Just because it says here that the A-List invitees don’t get to taste the dinner, doesn’t mean that we should model the action of excluding others from the banquet… from tasting the meal…

One of the theologians that I read said, “They will be excluded only because they have excluded themselves…”[i]  We don’t get to decide who’s at the table and who’s not… say who’s in and who’s out. We don’t get to exclude the first round of guests nor the beggars from the street or the migrants from the roads…

Worrying about what will happen to them, or worrying about which round of invitations we might receive doesn’t get us anywhere,  because that’s not up to us. Instead, let’s listen, be open to those around us, invite one another in and try to respond when we hear God working in our lives.

There’s a book written by Sheryl Sandberg who is the Chief Operating Officer at facebook. She talks about her experiences in the conference rooms, sitting around large conference tables. Now those places have very specific table dynamics; the people sitting around them have worked very hard to earn a spot at the table. She tells the story of a meeting where they hosted executives from the tech world to a conversation about the economy with the Treasury Secretary, who had brought his staff as well. After the usual chitchatting, and food gathering, they began to sit down at the table.  When the Secretary’s 4 staffers took the chairs off to the side of the room. When Sandberg motioned for the women to come sit at the table… waving them over publically so they would feel welcomed. They declined and remained in their seats. This dynamic made them seem more like spectators to the conversation than participants at the table. It was a defining moment for Sandberg as she talked with them after the meeting, and realized these internal barriers that we set for ourselves… when we question our abilities, and worthiness to be at the table. So her book is called Lean In and talks about not only making space for yourself, sitting at the table, but leaning in to the conversation, getting involved… participating… getting your hands dirty.

We are invited, all of us, to come to the table— the banquet is ready

And when you get there don’t just stand awkwardly at the door hovering around the coat room…. Jump IN! Sit at the table! Even if it looks like it’s full, or you don’t belong, there’s still room, pull up a chair if you have too and lean in, for the banquet is ready.

This might be a different table than we’ve ever imagined. Different than many of those listening to this parable for the first time imagined.

Think about what it means to sit at the table not with the fancy party guests, but with people from the streets and lanes. He’s talking about outsiders who fill the house.  Not only are the lowest ranked of the people in their specific society present, but also those outside even the parameters of their village or town.

Think about what it means to sit at that table.

It can be hard to sit with someone you don’t know, someone you don’t have anything in common with, because sharing a meal can be a very intimate thing. To sit together and make conversation, or endure silence,  can be challenging, can put you out of your comfort zone.

Have you ever worked at a soup kitchen? It can be fun, right? You have your assigned role, serving the potatoes or making sure everyone gets silverware and napkins… and in the end you’ve worked hard and it feels great. Look at all these people I helped give food today, they might not have eaten so well otherwise… But our scriptures encourage us not just to give your food to the hungry, but to SHARE it. Share your bread with the hungry, and bring the poor wanderer into to your home… at that great banquet table, sit down and eat with them.

Don’t just give food to someone who needs it, recognize and acknowledge the image of God in the person across from you. the need for human dignity in them.

 In Philadelphia, there is a large cathedral church that had lost all its membership, and closed its doors, abandoned as a church. Then about 8 years ago the convening pastor began a ministry in a different way. In the crumbling sanctuary, they took out all the pews and instead of re-doing them they put dining room chairs making it a multifunctional space. They worship on Sunday nights and have all these eclectic dining room chairs gathered from all over, arranged in a horseshoe. It is sort of a worship in the round. And they practice communion every week with these huge loaves of bread. They invite people to tear off large portions in their hands, because the bread is shared in remembrance of Christ and God’s abundant love for us…. that abundant grace offered to each of us and all of us.

So people come up to the bread and cup from all sides…. And it’s not orderly, not very Presbyterian-like, in a file. You get up, and come to the table. After the service the back part of the sanctuary transforms. They roll out tables and you move your chairs from worship, to the dinner table. Now people from all walks of life come to worship at Broad St. — people who are bankers and consultants, people who are artists and people who live on the street.

And I can tell you, sitting at the table together — is hard. It can be intimidating. What do we have in common? What could I possibly talk about?  Will they ask me for money? Try to take advantage of me? Will the words that I speak be offensive to someone without a home?

I don’t know, maybe….

And you won’t know, unless You Sit at THAT table.

Because they’re invited.

And so are you.