Pentecost 13

May my words and my thoughts be acceptable to you, O Lord, my refuge and my redeemer. (Psalm 19:14)

SEASON: Pentecost 13
PROPER: C
PLACE: St. John's Parish, Kingsville
DATE: August 30, 1998

TEXT: Luke 14:1, 7-14 - Jesus at a Pharisee's Banquet

"But when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind. And you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you, for you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous."

ISSUE: In the passage, Jesus addresses how the Pharisees seek honor, and honorable places at meals. It reveals an excitement for position and honor granted by fellow pharisees. Jesus makes the point that our genuine and real honor comes from God as we accept all of his people as our brothers and sisters, including the poor and outcast. Problem for 1st century as well as our own is that we just don't get it; we don't grasp the meaning that honor comes through humble servanthood.
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The occasion of Jesus being invited to the home of a Pharisee is another one of those occasions for Jesus to proclaim another great reversal, according to Luke's gospel. Last week, recall, that we heard that the last would be first, and the first would be last. This reading is about the reversal of what true and genuine honor is, as well as the reversal of who to invite to dinner. The passage also raises the issue of why can't the Judeans, and us, get what it is that God is calling us to be?
In our Lord's time, meals or banquets were of extreme importance in terms of communicating status and giving honor or status to people. Normally, persons invited to a banquet were of the approxiamate rank. The fact that Jesus is invited into the home of a Pharisee for a banquet would imply that Jesus had achieved some status, rank, and honor in this community. You place at the table, or tables, indicated you place and honor within that community. How you behaved and conducted yourself was equally as important. On another occasion in Luke 11:38, pharisees are surprised that Jesus does not wash before eating. On another occasion in Luke 8:44f (when the woman washes Jesus' feet with her tears), Jesus rebukes a pharisee for not providing him with water to wash his feet, or with an appropriate hospitable welcome kiss. Keeping the ritual cleansing was important. You were also expected to return an invitation. If you were invited into one's home for a banquet, you were expected to return the favor. If by chance you could not financially make a return invitation, then you would not likely accept an invitation. The stories of the Wedding Feasts where people are invited but who turn down the invitations by making excuses may be an indication of their inability to return the favor. In any event, the person who extends an invitation, would extend it to people of close but significant rank in order to receive an invitation in return for the purpose of extending you own place in society.
According to Luke, Jesus is invited to this banquet in a Judean setting which is also somewhat like a Greek-Roman symposium for discussion. It is not a particularly pleasant scene. There is hositility. The Judeans are watching Jesus closely, that is, they are watching for any mistakes that he might make which could be used to dishonor or discredit him. Without a doubt, Jesus is watching them closely as well. His ability to challenge them and beat them at their own game of trick questions and riposte is a part of what gives and makes Jesus on par with the pharisees. When given an opportunity to speak, he tells them a parable which points out traditional piety common to Jewish writings in Sirach (Ecclesiasticus 3:17-20): "The greater you become the more humble you should be" And Proverbs 25:6-7: "When you come before the king don't try to impress him and pretend to be important. It's better to be asked to take a more important position than to be asked to give your place to someone more important." He has noted how they shuffle for the best places of honor. As in Matthew, 23:6, "They like to have places of honour at feasts and the chief seats in synagogues, to be greeted with respectfully in the streets, and to be addressed as 'rabbi'." Jesus' parable, in keeping with traditional teaching, tells of those who seek honorable status at Wedding Feasts. His parable also advises them to take lower places with the possibility of being called up higher.
For us this may come across as a bit phoney. If I set myself up for being called higher then I am not really any better than the person who simply takes the higher seat in the first place. I suggest that there is a possibility that in the midst of the hostility (Jesus being closely watched) that his parable is possibly sarcastic. That is, if you guys really want to get ahead with places of honor, why don't you set yourselves up for it. Put yourself in a position hwere you'll be called up higher. The sarcasm highlights the arrogance and pride of some of the pharisees. Yet he clearly stresses the point that those who exalt themselves will find themselve ultimately in the eyes of God dishonored, and those who are dishonored will find themselves exalted in the sight of God. The point here is not that this teaching is anything new. What Jesus says is that while the Judeans have known this principle of their faith all along, they simply do not practice it. That, my friends, is the story of us all. We often know our faith and its teachings, we simply fail to put it into practice. Inspite of our advanced years, and all the readings, all the Sundays in church, all the sermons, the putting of our faith into practice is often one of our greatest failures.
The great shift or great reversal in the passage today is when Jesus is critical of his host, and challenges the whole cultural system. "When you give a luncheon or a dinner, do not invited your friends or your brothers or your relatives or rich neighbors, in case they may invite you in return, and you would be repaid. But when you have a banquet, invited the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind." For a pharisee, or a Judean of status, to invite or welcome the outcasts, and that's what the poor, lame, cripple, and blind were. (They were not necessarily poor in terms of lack of money.) They were the dishonored, those considered unworthy, outcasts. Your status was determined by those with whom you associated. If you associated with the outcasts, then you became an outcast and comitted a cultural suicide. But for Jesus, your self worth was not determined by the world, by your peers, friends and relatives. Honor for Jesus was a gift that came from God. True honor for Jesus comes in and through servanthood, and seeing all people as the people of God the Father, and seeing all people regardless of their place in life as our brothers and sisters.
We have heard all this before. We know that that is what Jesus proclaimed as true honor in the sight of God. Jesus' own life as we know it was a ministry to Judeans, Pharisees, as well as to the outcasts: poor, widows and children, blind, crippled, lame, deaf, and dying. His own life becomes a sacrifice of self-giving in order that the world and his followers might get it. That is, appreciate what the real meaning and significance of life is all about. Yet it is hard, very hard, for us as it was for Jesus own, to really and genuinely cast off the culture of the world and to step into the Kingdom of God into the ways of God.
As long as we continue to see ourselves as needing to be important and powerful hot-shots, we cannot enter into the Kingdom of God. We may wish to exalt ourselves, but the high and mighty are brought low according to the scriptures. In the eyes of our peers we may look good and powerful, but how about how we look through the eyes of God, of Jesus Christ.
Inspite of our knowledge of the Scriptures, racism among us continues. The idea that we are better than another race persists in our world. Sometimes it is graphic through the actions of the Ku Klux Klan and red necks. It is often more subtle through our failures to befriend, to seek friendships, and to resort in private to deragatory names and jokes. There are those we still simply fail to see as brothers and sisters in the Lord. Remember the words from Kris Kristoferson's old song Jesus Was A Capricorn, "Everybody needs somebody else to look down on." Looking down on others often makes some people think in more exalted ways about themselves.
The Church which for a long time now has been modeled on an heirachical system still puts crowns and mitres on our bishops, and has allowed the system of heirarchical ministries continue. We still like titles in the church. Bishops, priests, and deacons are often seen as more special than the ministries of the laity. Men for years were seen as holding the power over the potential ministries of women in the ministry of the church. We also, not too unlike the outcasts of Jesus' time, have difficulty in dealing with the handicapped, the disabled and physically challenged. While we know what needs to be done, we still can't quite get to it. In some cases churches have been cruel to those suffering with AIDs, who are often seen as the lepers of our time. Some Christian churches have been more quick to condemn this illness as God's curse then they have been to convey mercy and compassion.
Many Christians will accept the fact that we must let go of the old ways of an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. We know theoretically anyway that nothing is changed when there is a perpetuation of violence. Yet our own country with its great physical might and the belief that we must never look weak continues to use the bombs in our arsenals without struggling to find newer creative ways to make peace in the world. The solution by people and by governments when it comes to violence is not easy to find. Perhaps there are times when a violent strike must be made, but never as the final solution to a problem, and never without second thoughts, thorough investigation, and never without great sorry and penitence. Being the great super power, and the only super power in terms of physical strength may not be what God really has in mind for us as a nation, a church, or people.
It is indeed hard for us not to be caught up in the culture and ways of the world. It is hard for us to change. Inspite of centuries of Scripture being read and preached, it is hard for us to get it, just what it is that God is saying to us. We take pride in being the best, the most powerful, the most secure, the first, the biggest. Yet it is Jesus who honors and lifts us the least, the last, the lost, and the dying. He came among them, lived with them, and loved them. His profound ministry still lives and haunts the world confronting and challenging, and calling for change of hearts, minds, and souls. We allow the world to seduce us and claim us. Inspite of the fact that everyone of the lessons, the readings today call for an end to pride and arrogance, and a turning, repentance that is a way of mercy and compassion. We know the principles of our faith yet we cannot get it; we cannot break away. We know its a good faith, but we say you can't always realistically do and be what God calls us to be and to do. It's like Christmas. We all know it's too commercial, but our efforts to change that have a long way to go.
Yet Christ continues to confront us with the banquet for the multitudes, taken from their spiritual poverty of five barley loaves and two small fish. Christ touches the lepers. Christ touches the dead. He calls forth the dead Lazrus. He embraces the children and the widows. He holds up and honors the poor, those who mourn. To all that have been outcasts, he reclaims them and honors them by his ministry. Never snatching at honor, prestige, and never succumbing to the power of Satan or the world. Our hope is to try to hear him again for the millionth time and become vulnerable to trust, belief, and change.