Luke 14:1, 7-14 - 14:1 On one occasion when Jesus was going to the house of a leader of the Pharisees to eat a meal on the sabbath, they were watching him closely. 7 When he noticed how the guests chose the places of honor, he told them a parable. 8 "When you are invited by someone to a wedding banquet, do not sit down at the place of honor, in case someone more distinguished than you has been invited by your host; 9 and the host who invited both of you may come and say to you, 'Give this person your place,' and then in disgrace you would start to take the lowest place. 10 But when you are invited, go and sit down at the lowest place, so that when your host comes, he may say to you, 'Friend, move up higher'; then you will be honored in the presence of all who sit at the table with you. 11 For all who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted." 12 He said also to the one who had invited him, "When you give a luncheon or a dinner, do not invite your friends or your brothers or your relatives or rich neighbors, in case they may invite you in return, and you would be repaid. 13 But when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind. 14 And you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you, for you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous."What an odd lesson. The first part reads like a book on table manners. Very WASP, do the proper thing to save face, to look good. It just didn't seem like something Jesus would say. The mark of a good sermon is always a new way of seeing a familiar passage. From that sermon: hospitality is at the heart of it, if we look beyond the seemingly self serving words.
What does it mean to take a low place but to make room for another? Instead of thinking only of ourselves and grabbing that comfortable seat we pause, turn and take a less comfortable, less honored, seat to leave room for another. When we step onto a half filled subway car, do we race toward one of the free seats or we we grab a hand hold and stand, knowing that we are strong and young and someone who needs more "honor", who needs that seat, may come along.
Move over, make room. We're not good at it. We tend to think of ourselves first, others are an afterthought. We take that subway seat and then we grumble inside when we see an elderly woman enter at the next stop. We stand up and give her our seat but do we do it in our heart?
Hospitality is becoming the thing I care about most in the church. When it comes down to it there is nothing else quite so important as radical hospitality. When we get past the bloody politics, the fights over liturgy, over tradition, over whatever divides us that day, what really matters to me is that each of God's children is welcomed with the love of Christ. That each and every one sees love, acceptance, Christlight when they look into my eyes. That I see Christ in theirs and offer them service in His name. Not expecting anything in return. True love, true giving expects no thanks, no response. It does simply because it has no choice.
We leave that seat empty, hoping that a tired Christ will take it. We hug a friend, hoping only that a sorrowful Christ will be comforted. We offer a stranger a smile as we pass, hoping only that a lonely Christ will be touched. Hospitality. Move over, and hope Christ will sit down beside you on the softer cushion.
Now the harder part... Look, and see Christ when he does. Amen.
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