turning the tables

from my sermon on 8/29/10 from Luke 14:1, 7-14

All living organisms eat...only human beings dine. There is something that happens at the table; it is more that just taking in of nutrition.

Therefore, when someone is sick, we say, "I' be right over with my chicken soup and we will eat together." Something happens at the table. Before the wedding, there is a rehearsal dinner, and afterwards, there is a banquet. Something happens at the table. Yes, we will have a funeral service, but afterwards there is a meal with family and friends. Someone will say, "You must try my 3 bean salad. The King ranch casserole is wonderful." Something happens at the table. On your birthday, you get to have your favorite foods with your favorite people. A big hint-- I like lemon pie, Cathy's lemon pie, whose recipe came from my grandmother Johnson. Something happens at the table.

In Luke's Gospel, one commentator said, Jesus is either going to a meal, or at a meal, or leaving a meal. Is it any wonder that the central piece of furniture in our holy gathering place is a table? Something happens at the table.

For you linear thinkers out there, there are two questions the passage for today raises, two points to be made.

So Jesus is at the table in house of a Pharisee on a sabbath. One commentary said, "If Jesus is with a Pharisee on the Sabbath, there is going to be conflict." And so there is. Jesus doesn't show very good table manners, upsetting the people with his stories. Or he is showing superb manners by turning the tables on what everyone thought was appropriate.

The first question is: where do you sit? Jesus noticed how the Pharisees sought the places of honor at the table, so he told a story about a wedding feast where that happened. Now, I attend quite a few wedding banquets. As a UM pastor, it is an occupational hazard. Often my name is on a placard. You have gone to banquets where there is the head table, there are place names, table numbers. We may not do exactly the same way as in the parable, but I believe that we still are aware of where we are sitting.

I remember visiting with one woman who distinctly recalls the first time at a Thanksgiving meal that she got to move up from the children's table to the "grown-up's" table. I talked with a man who married into a family who finally included him in their feasts.

We are all keeping score, wondering where we are in the pecking order. Maybe you are a senior in high school and you are concerned about what your standing in the class is. Maybe you are in business and you are anxious about where you are on the organizational chart or what parking spot you have been assigned. Maybe you are a preacher and you worry that you are not at a big steeple church.

Jesus says not to seek the higher places, but the lower ones, and let the host say, "Friend, come up higher." Now I know why so many of you fight to sit in the back of the church!

Jesus is not trying to give us a strategy for winning friends and influencing people. He is offering us the virtue of humility. He turns the tables by saying, "all who exalt themselves will be humbled, and all who humble themselves will be exalted." He is trying to free us up from becoming self-occupied. He would rather us focus on loving God and our neighbor. Around here, it would fit our vision statement, Following One, Serving All.

The second question is: with whom do you eat? In that culture, maybe in ours today, you were known by those with whom you ate. So John the Baptist, that ascetic, is accused of eating with nobody. And Jesus the Savior is accused of eating with anybody. In fact one of the charges leveled at Jesus is "He eats with tax collectors and sinners."

Let me give you some context for the power of eating with someone. When I was pastor at St. John's here in Austin, an older man who lived in our neighborhood asked me to visit him. I did. He wanted me to do his funeral when the time came. I said that I would. I asked him to tell me more about what he wanted for the service. He said, "Nearly every funeral has the 23 rd Psalm, so I guess I will also, but I want to take out one line." "What one is that?" "It's that one that says, 'Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies.'" I said, "You are missing one of the best parts of the psalm. To eat with someone, an enemy, means that you are reconciled, that all is forgiven, that you are in community."

So Jesus says that when we give a meal we are not to invite family, and friends, and those who can repay, but to invite the vulnerable ones, the poor, the maimed, the lame, the blind, those who cannot repay. The virtue is hospitality.

On Friday, I was at table with our Bishop, Jim Dorff. He was ascting as our host, getting us something to drink and eat. Some of us were helping him prepare the bishop's convocation in March. He said, "I would sure like to get those guys from the book, Same Kind of Different as Me." I said, "I have read the book, and I have seen them in person at Caritas fundraiser in Austin."

I don't often recommend books, but this is one you need to read. It is the story of Denver Moore, a black man, a sharecropper from Louisana, who got in trouble with the law, became homeless....read, a modern day slave. The other character is Ron Hall, a white art dealer in Ft. Worth, who is rich in things and poor in soul. Ron's wife gets these 2 together as she and Ron work to feed people like Denver in downtown Ft. Worth. The amazing thing is that these 2 need each other to be whole, to find salvation. It wasn't one way; it was a partnership.

There is a great vignette in the book, where Denver asks Ron about fishing. "So you white folks catch a good fish and you throw it back?" "Yes, it is called catch and release." "You catch perfectly good meat and you throw it away?" "Yes, catch and release." "Well, I don't know if we can be together....we can't have a catch and release friendship."

We eat together and it is powerful. Something happens at the table. We become equals. It is a sign of the Kingdom of God. It is a foretaste of the heavenly banquet. It is true community.

One of the most important things we do together as church is eat together. I am glad that after each service we have an opportunity to do that.

I am glad that in this holy space we have the opportunity to do that. As UM's, who is welcome at this table? Everybody! You hear me give the invitation, You don't have to be a member of this church or any church, if you are willing to receive whatever Christ has to offer at this table, then come. So there is no sign like at 6 Flags that says, "You must be this tall." There is no test you have to take to prove you are smart enough. There is no morals test either to show that you are good enough. I know some of you don't feel that you are good enough, and you are exactly the ones who are welcome here.

Something happens at this table. Jesus turns the tables on us. We learn humility and hospitality. Something happens at this table. That is the good news I have to share.