the Radical One flips the script: 15th after pentecost

The holy gospel according to Luke (14:1, 7-14)

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.

⁷When 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;

                     ⁹and 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.

       ¹⁰But when you are invited,

              go and sit down at the lowest place,

                     so that when your host comes,

                            your host 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.

                                                 ¹¹For all who exalt themselves will be humbled,

                                                 and those who humble themselves will be exalted.”

¹²Jesus 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.

       ¹³But when you give a banquet,

              invite those who are poor, crippled, lame, and blind.

              ¹⁴And you will be blessed,

                     because they cannot repay you,

                            for you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.”

The gospel of the lord.

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Once again, Jesus is eating.  Jesus loves food—or at least our Lukan gospel writer does.  Luke’s gospel, which we’ve been exploring throughout this year, almost always has Jesus eating or talking about eating, being criticized for how and with whom he eats, or inviting himself over to eat with someone.

Today it’s a Sabbath meal at “the house of a leader of the Pharisees.”  At first Jesus sits back to watch and then after some observations, Jesus proposes a new way of being that will ultimately inform the last supper, communion, and what it means to be followers of Christ.

In the culture of the time, honor and shame were as vital as supply and demand are for our own culture.  Every interaction is driven by the need to receive honor and even more so             by the need to avoid shame.

So it is no small thing when Jesus challenges the need to sit in places of honor, encouraging guests to sit in the lower places and then encourages hosts to invite those who cannot repay or those who will not increase the honor of the host.  This doesn’t just slightly challenge folks to think a bit more generously.  It isn’t a simple lesson in hospitality and pride.  This completely flips the script on folks—turning their entire cultural worldview on its head.

It’s like someone suggesting that instead of having a minimum wage, below which no one should be paid, we institute a maximum wage, above which no one should be paid—or just one wage for everyone altogether.  Or it’s like suggesting that the price for much needed medicine be lower the more people need it to stay alive, instead of hiking the price to earn more money.  Jesus completely upsets the status quo and challenges the entire system under which people are living

                        and that is exactly what Jesus does in communion as well.

Communion is the part of worship that most dramatically challenges the way our culture operates.  It flips the script on the narrative that your worth and your access to basic needs like food and shelter are dependent on the economic value of what you do—on the amount of money that you earn—either for yourself or for the company you work for.

That is most certainly not how God works.  In God’s economy, your worth            is intrinsic.  You are valuable and loved because you are you—because God creates you as valuable and God creates you as beloved.  Communion is given to everyone because God loves you, because God loves every single person, because God nourishes us and cares for our well-being, and because God is giving us a glimpse of what is to come—of what God’s reign looks like.  Communion is for each of us and every other person, whether you are full of faith, full of doubt, or full of something else.

Just as Jesus puts those without the means to give honor or to repay at the center of the banquet host’s invites, Jesus, as the host of the meal we share in communion, puts those who don’t find a place in our culture at the center.  In communion, Jesus shows up.  Jesus joins us in the bread of life and cup of salvation, and Jesus gives us practice for life in the world—practice at a new and different way of being in the world.

Whether like in pew communion, Jesus comes right up to us where we’re at, or whether we come up to the table to find that there is a place for us and the food is ready.  When we receive communion, Jesus the Christ is born again in us.  As the crucified one chooses to dwell in us, to make a home with us, those who are crucified in our world also find a place at the Table and in our hearts.

Those whose documentation status keeps them from receiving or even seeking medical attention

            have a place at the Table marked: Beloved. 

Those who flee places of violence like Syria and this week Kabul, Afghanistan

            have a place at the Table marked: Beloved. 

Those who are killed and locked up because it’s easier to perpetuate a system of injustice than it is to care for the justice and well-being of our neighbor

            have a place at the Table marked: Beloved. 

Those who have been told that who they are is sinful

            have a place for them at the Table marked: Beloved.

Jesus opens not only the Table at which we celebrate communion, but every table at which we share food.  Jesus opens all of the food we share, all of our interactions with others.  Jesus flips the script—putting even the ones we feel justified in leaving out or not inviting            at the center.  

 Jesus rejects the system that says our value is dependent on the money we have or the money we earn.  Jesus puts our value back in our heart—in who we are as God’s beloved.  Jesus is the Radical One who calls the outcast, the stranger, the addict, the one without papers, the refugee, the killed, the survivors, the queer, the ashamed, the faithless            first to the Table as the honored guests.

Thanks be to God.