The Sabbeth Meal

WELCOME

CALL TO WORSHIP

There is a place for all of us in God’s family. No one is excluded, left behind or barred from entry. Everyone is welcome in God’s family. No one will be shunned, given the cold shoulder or snubbed. Look around you right now. Welcome one another – we and many others are all part of God’s family.

Hymn 435: We come to you with no pretence

PRAYERS

Here in this place, we gather, physically and spiritually. We come before you, God, surrounded by others. Together we seek your word, your truth, your love. Together we share your space, your place. Together, with each other, we are yours and you are ours. Amen.

In your presence, in this place, we come to you, Almighty God. You are the reason for our being, and our being here. You are the one who created us, who breathed life into us. You are the giver of love, the welcomer to all. Almighty God, as we gather, we are humbled by your greatness, by your generosity and justice. Together, we offer you our prayers for who you are and what you are. You are the God we adore. Amen.

A prayer of confession

Forgive us, O God, for those times, too often, when we have felt ourselves to be more important than others. Forgive us, O God, for those times when we have excluded people from a welcome. Forgive us, O God, when we have seen others as of less worthy than us. Forgive us, O God, when we have failed to be hospitable. Forgive us, O God, when we have ignored need on our doorsteps. Forgive us, O God, we pray. Amen.

Assurance of forgiveness

O God, why you forgive us when we treat others badly, we do not know, but you do. Why you offer us such forgiveness amazes us day by day. We are not worthy of your love, time and attention and yet we hear echoes of your words: ‘You are forgiven, go and be my people’. Amen.

THE LORD’S PRAYER

Hymn 51: Great is thy faithfulness

READING by Rhona

Luke 14: 1, 7-14

Hymn 443: Come let us sing of a wonderful love

SERMON

Do you remember a film from 1967 with Sidney Poitier and Spencer Tracy and although this was a comedy drama, it explored the interatrial situation in 1960’s America.

This proved to be a very uncomfortable meal.

The bottom line is not who you meet with, but who you eat with.

It may come as a surprise to you that Jesus was friends with Pharisees. Back at the end of chapter eleven of Luke’s gospel, Jesus was invited to a Pharisee’s house for dinner on the Sabbath. This might seem like a small detail, but it’s actually pretty significant.

Being invited to someone’s house for dinner was a way to climb up the social ladder but, being invited for the Sabbath meal meant you were almost family. We usually think of the Pharisees as ‘the opposition,’ but The situation was not always that way.

In chapter twelve we find Jesus in the synagogue, healing a woman with a bent back – on the Sabbath. It could have been the week after he’d had dinner with the Pharisee, or it could have been another Sabbath, but Luke seems to be organizing his story around these Sabbath events. The Pharisees always seem to be somewhere in the picture.

We know that some of the Pharisees cared about Jesus, because by the end of ch13, they come to warn him that Herod wants to kill him. As much as we want to see them as enemies, these Pharisees are behaving remarkably like friends. But not all of them. It’s becoming clearer and clearer that the Pharisees are looking for a way to trap Jesus.

That brings us to the 14th chapter of Luke’s gospel. Jesus has just healed someone, and now he is at another Pharisee’s house for dinner. Not just any Pharisee, either. The host for this Sabbath meal is a leader.

On this occasion when Jesus was going to the house of a leader to eat a sabbath meal, they were watching him closely.

Jesus often has harsh words for Pharisees, so we wonder why a leader would invite him to dinner anyway. Jesus has a growing reputation as a prophet, and that might be the reason. Also, as I have said Luke tells us that “they were watching him closely,” so, it is clear that they hope that Jesus will make a mistake that they can exploit.

We might ask why Jesus would accept such an invitation. He is obviously not intimidated by those in power, in fact he includes them in his ministry. While pride might block them from receiving God’s grace, that grace is nevertheless available to them. It is not Jesus who draws back from the sinner, but it’s the sinner who withdraws from Jesus.

There is a lesson for us all there.

Because not only where the pharisee’s watching Jesus. he was also watching them closely.

When he noticed how the guests chose the places of honour, he told them a parable. “When you are invited by someone to a wedding banquet, do not sit down at the place of honour, in case someone more distinguished than you have been invited by your host; 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. 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 honoured in the presence of all who sit at the table with you. For all who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.”

We see the same thing today at sporting events where the best seats are closest to the action—or, better yet, in comfortable boxes elevated above and separated from the crowd. A person with the right connections can always get a good ticket. A person without connections might not be able to purchase a ticket at any price.

When I was working, a company, I dealt with had a box at the Rochdale ground, and on one occasion I went along on the day of the match, as people queued up at the turn styles to get in, we sat down to a rather nice meal. Then we went into the box and watched from behind a large window on comfy seats. Looking down on others sitting in the cold.

I was invited because I may have been of help to their business, to encourage my company to keep buying and building a closer bond between us. I must say I felt a little uncomfortable for this high vantage point.

We like the best seats. The view is better, of course, but the appeal goes beyond the view. Sitting in the best seats makes us feel superior, and our fine seats show our status to ordinary folk.

Jesus has another view of this he said also to the one who had invited him,

That inviting people who are able to invite you back, or to raise your status should not be your aim.

Inviting people who are poor crippled lame and blind will gain a greater reward from God.

According to Luke, Jesus enjoys food. There are more references to eating, meals in Luke than in any other gospel. So here we find Jesus at a meal in a Pharisee’s home, and –as is his habit – Jesus is teaching while everyone eats. And his teaching is based on what he observed.

Jesus was not giving a lesson in table manners here. He was explaining to the people gathered at that Pharisee’s table, just how different the rules are in the Kingdom of God. To understand just how challenging this teaching was, we need to remember the social system that was in place at the time.

It was a system of patronage, where honour and favours were the currency. As a benefactor favour owed to you by others gave you a higher ranking in society. Mealtime was often the place where status was on display. Guests of honour sat near the host. If you were less important, you sat farther away. If you didn’t matter at all, you weren’t even invited.

Knowing what we do about social customs of the time and recognizing that any self-respecting Pharisee would invite only those who could be considered at least equals, we need to ask what Jesus was doing there in the first place.

So, also it is possible that this particular Pharisee did, in fact, consider Jesus to be at least an equal. Jesus had demonstrated a keen understanding of scripture and had been an effective teacher in synagogues wherever he travelled. Jesus certainly had a following.

The leader of the Pharisees may have even seen Jesus as a step up the social ladder for himself. But this system of patronage, that was all about improving one’s social status, was exactly what Jesus came to challenge. Jesus had no intention of letting his host off the hook when it came to table manners in the Kingdom of God.

Jesus has a different idea for the way things ought to work. we should be familiar with Luke’s focus on turning expectations upside down. As Jesus watched the guests at this Pharisee’s house jockeying for good positions at the table, he saw a double teaching opportunity, and he grabbed it.

He reminded them of the advice found in Proverbs: “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.” [1]

Then he told the host “You’re inviting the wrong people,” Jesus told him. “By including only friends, family, and those who can advance your status, you are no better than these guests who are fighting over the best seat in the house. You’re trying to make yourself look good by surrounding yourself with “important” people, while you ignore the very ones who should be enjoying your hospitality.”

You see, the Pharisee and the Pharisee’s guests might have thought they were just behaving according to the social expectations of their time, but those expectations pointed to a basic human need. It’s a need we all experience. We need to belong. We need to know our place in the world is secure. We want to be recognized. We want to feel like we matter to the world, that we have something to offer, that we are important, at least to someone. We need to feel accepted. We need to feel loved.

The social climbing and jockeying for positions of importance Jesus saw around the Pharisee’s table don’t seem that much different from what we experience today. People still feel the need to justify their standing in the community or the organization. We long to belong. We crave being accepted. It happens in the schoolyard and in the workplace. It happens any place people gather in groups.

It happens in church. Whether we want to admit it or not, we like to impress others with the work we do for the church, the positions of leadership we hold, how often we show up, how much we put in the offering plate, how much we pray, how well we know the Bible. We like to impress people with our righteousness.

But Jesus says, you don’t need to try to impress anyone with your righteousness. The only one whose opinion of you matters is God, and he knows your heart. He knows how far short of his righteousness you really fall. And he loves you anyway.

So, to the guests, Jesus says, “Don’t seat yourself too high up the table but take the lowest place. Show the kind of humility that honours God.” And to the hosts, Jesus says, “Don’t invite those who can repay you, but those who can’t. Instead of looking for ways to look down on people, to consider them as less important than you are, find ways to lift others up and stand beside them.

In our culture, just as in Jesus’ day, the division between the wealthy and the poor, between powerful and powerless, is seen in society.

This instantly assumes a level of privilege the host holds over the guest, and as much as we’d like to avoid this, Jesus sees this, and we cannot ignore it. Christ calls us to live in a radically counter-cultural way, levelling the field for all God’s children.

Jesus teaches the guests of the Pharisee and their host that they can all stop trying to make themselves seem more important, because they are already important in God’s eyes. Jesus teaches us how to be both a humble guest and a gracious host by his own example.

We are all at the same Table. Jesus is our host, and also our guest.

As host, he invites us who do not deserve his grace to sit in the place of honour. As guest, he shows true humility, taking on the identity of a servant, placing himself at the lowest place for our sakes.

We to are both host and guest to Jesus. As we invite him into our lives, we also find our place at his table, receiving his grace. Either way, the role we take needs to be centred in true humility. Not the false humility that barely hides our neediness to be loved and find acceptance. But the kind of humility that rests in knowing we already are loved beyond our ability to comprehend it.

And for us today the world is full of refugees, of displaced people, of people who have lost everything and have nowhere to go, of people in desperate need and distress. This is a constant challenge to those who are more settled and comfortable. Can we use this story and parable to explore how we can create places of refuge for those in need?

As we accept Christ’s invitation to join him at his Table in the Kingdom of God, we must admit that we are only there by grace. We don’t deserve such grace, and we aren’t any better than anyone else because of it. Taking our place at the bottom of the table, where we know we belong if we’re really honest, allows us to respond with joy when Jesus, our host, taps us on the shoulder and says, “What are you doing down here? Come on up and sit by me.”

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Hymn 362: Meekness and majesty

Offering

ANNE WILL BRING PRAYERS

PRAYERS OF THANKSGIVING AND INTERCESSION

To you, O God, be all praise and glory, this day and forever more. From the moulding of creation, to the breathing of new life, you have been worthy of praise. For the giving of your Word and the blessing of the prophets, you have been worthy of praise. For the gift of Jesus and the blessing of the Holy Spirit, you have been worthy of praise. For the Scriptures, written and explained, you are worthy of praise. For your abiding love, peace and presence, you are worthy of praise. For your open arms to each and every one, you are worthy of praise. For your generosity that abounds, you are worthy of praise. For all of this and so much more, beyond our imagining and comprehension, we give you thanks and praise. Amen.

Lord God, we bring before you those we don’t consider to be within the bounds of our hospitality: the poor and sick of other nations; refugees; the homeless on our own streets; all who are on the edges of society. We do our bit, we give money for their needs and pay our dues as Christians should; but we cannot invite the whole world into our homes. And yet…help us to understand that hospitality is a ‘moveable feast’. Jesus was a host although he had no home to call his own. It was in his welcome and the warmth he showed. So, Lord, when we come across those who are on the margins, move us not just to walk on by. We thank you for those who work, paid or as a volunteer, for those in need and we pray for their continuing strength and resolve in righting the injustices of society. And may we be given the grace to extend the hand of friendship, and maybe drop a kind word or deed here and there, even if we can do little else. Show us, Lord, what you would have us do. Amen.

Hymn 186: Tell out my soul, the greatness of the Lord!

BLESSING

Thanks to Malcolm and Jean for words and music

Lord, go with us today as we think about including all people. Inspire us to pray for those in our own neighbourhood who are often excluded. Inspire us to be active in seeking to include others and find a place for everyone in our community. Thank you that no one is beyond your love and care. Help us to be people who live and spread that message. Amen.