Proper 17 2007

Jeremiah 2:4-13

Hebrews 13:1-8, 15-16

Luke 14:7-14

The Banquet of the Dispossessed

Jesus like good Episcopalians liked meals, fellowship, and the Gospels tell us many stories about issues that arose among those who ate together. Many of us may share the experience of eating as a family, gathered around the table, with conversation going back and forth, making the meal not just an occasion of food but much more. With big family gatherings such as birthdays, holidays, and reunions, there are so many people that it is hard to talk with everyone. For years, my extended family borrowed tables from our parish to stuff everyone into the family room – 20-30 people would gather to celebrate Christmas dinner, Thanksgiving dinner, family occasions, and there would be conversation all over the room. We never used place charts or name cards to tell people where to sit – we just let everyone choose their own spot. Of course in our family there was no particular sense of hierarchy – no one was that special!

In my grandparent’s home, where we celebrated special holiday meals, the men ate first, in the main dinning room, while the women waited table – then the children were fed, and then the women sat down and ate. The conversations at the three turns at table were lively, but different. We children just wanted to eat and get back to our play. The men talked about their work, hunting, while the women talked about their latest sewing project, the children’s school work, the schedule, and juggling all the appointments. After everyone had eaten the main meal, the desert table was set and everyone took what they wanted and went to various parts of the house, the porch, or yard to eat in groups of their own choosing.

In the home of the Pharisee where Jesus was invited on the Sabbath, the scene seems to be different. Jesus is a controversial figure and those who were included in the guest list were “aligned” with the Pharisees. Jesus may have been surprised to be invited or perhaps he knew this was an opportunity to isolate him and quiz him about his activities, teachings, and “friends.” Aware that the Hebrew tradition taught against social privilege, Jesus reminded the host about what they both knew from scripture:

Proverbs 25:6-7: “Do not put yourself forward in the king’s presence or stand in the place of the great; for it is better to be told, “Come up here,” than to be put lower in the presence of a noble.”

Jesus commented that among people, one should not be arrogant or act as if he/she is superior to other persons. This sense of better than or sense of deserving better treatment is the opposite of being humble. Low or high in social context points to a person’s status. Status is used to affirm our worth, to satisfy our need to be recognized as persons, but status does not make us persons of worth! The challenge is being able to see every person as equally important – not perhaps in the social milieu of rich and poor, powerful and powerless, but in the eyes of God. To elevate yourself over another human being is to “play God” because it is only God who is able to make such judgments.

I think that Church folks have a particularly hard time with this parable which warns us to be “nice’ to each other, and we put on “humble airs” and play nice, but then we talk about each other pointing out our hurts, disappointments, anger over our being not given due respect. If a new person comes to one of our events – such as the yard sale – and asks, do you need help? The answer is YES! To say No is to reject the offer. I doubt that there are many jobs that only one person has the skill to do. To pretend otherwise is to put yourself in the higher position, and it places the other in the lower position. No person wants to be a member where they cannot be a useful part of the whole. Welcoming the stranger, some have entertained angels unaware!

Jesus did not confine his remarks to the guests anxious to gain status at the banquet but to the host as well. The formal dinner in ancient times was an elite affair. The invitation list included those who would repay the honor, exchange dinner for dinner. Jesus observed that this practice is self-exalting by proclaiming their place in this select group. If they invited the poor they would lower their own status. Of course, we know that Jesus had dinner with sinners, outcasts, excluding no person. No doubt the Pharisees think Jesus is wrong. We get some insight from recently discovered texts that describe the tradition of the time. In the Qumran community: a person smitten with any human impurity was never to enter the Assembly of God….they were unfit to occupy a place in the congregation. Who was impure: those with diseases visible to the eye, any aged person that was unable to stand firm in the midst of the congregation….should not enter.

The contrast between this practice of restricting who can come to worship and Jesus’ teaching and practice is striking. Often in the Gospels the Pharisees represent the tradition of living holy and righteous lives by separating themselves from the unclean riffraff of society. Scripture often depicts them as “holier-than-thou” types, the religious elite…as if they earned the right to sit at God’s table. I think we all know that none of us earns our place at the Eucharistic banquet – rather – each of us by the grace of God are invited to come out of the abundant love of God for each of us. I am increasingly persuaded that the table is an invitation for all to come because it is God’s table. I do not disagree with those who say that we ought to understand what we are doing – but who of us really understands – how it is that God feeds us spiritually with elements blessed by God’s Spirit – who can explain that metaphysic? Much ink has been spilled trying but Thomas Cramner was perhaps right to say, it is God’s presence that counts – the mechanism is less important (paraphrased).

Radical inclusion and care for the poor and oppressed did not originate with Jesus but was the word of God throughout the history of Israel. The books of the law taught that one was to welcome the stranger and alien for you once were strangers in the land of Egypt. The edges of the harvest were to be left for the poor to collect. The prophets warned that injustice was the reason the people of the Promised Land were subject to exile by one kingdom after another because it revealed their lack of true faith. Knowing that God loves every person without regard to their social location ought to inspire us to take another look at conditions in our own time.

When I reflect on this teaching in Luke’s gospel I am reminded of an experience with the youth at my home parish several years ago. As the children arrived for “dinner” they drew numbers and sat at the tables assigned accordingly. Three sat at a high table with fine food, abundant amounts, linen napkins, fine china, and crystal glasses. The next 20 children sat at a lower table with pizza aplenty, cokes and cookies. Then 30 drew numbers assigned to the floor where there was a single pot of rice and water in paper cups. According to the rules those with little could ask for food from those with more but those with a lot did not have to share. Who shared what they had? Yes, the group with the pizza. Not one child at the “privileged” table gave anything away, nor could they eat it all. As the evening progressed, the children with only rice and water, wadded up their napkins and began to “bombard” the head table. Even young children know injustice when they experience it.

Two years after Katrina and many of the displaced persons are still living in trailers, in other cities, unable to return home, unassisted, and remembering government’s promises and looking for results. Are we surprised that violence in New Orleans is growing? The House of Bishops will meet in New Orleans the last week of September and for two days, our bishops will roll up their sleeves and work to help rebuild the homes destroyed by Katrina. One of the survivors has said: “the rich will need a permission slip from the poor to get into heaven.”

The census bureau reported this week that in 2006, 47 million American citizens were unable to afford health insurance. The very poor have access to Medicaid, the wealthy buy insurance as employee benefits, or privately. The middle group, growing year by year, work hard and make too much to qualify for government assistance and too little to buy insurance. All of us pay when the uninsured are treated through the emergency room or admitted to hospital to be treated for a serious condition without insurance. Nine million of our children are uninsured while 83% of these children live in families where at least one parent works full time. You may be able to justify why some qualify and others don’t but when I take this gospel passage seriously I cannot see this situation as anything but injustice in our time.

Close: Poem by Julia Dinsmore, My Name is not “those people” from My Name is Child of God.