15th Sunday after Pentecost --- 1 September 2013

With the return to school of so many young people imminent, let's remember to hold them in prayer.

When he noticed how the guests chose the places of honor, he told them a parable.

• I think we all know that Jesus was a great story-teller. John the Baptizer was more the hell-fire-and-brimstone type of preacher, and Jesus could do that as well. It does seem though that he preferred to tell stories, stories with a message, and who doesn't love a good story? We've come to call these parables. Parables are brief stories that illustrate a principle or lesson, using human characters. A fable is similar and it uses animals, plants, objects, or forces of nature in the story telling to make the point.
• The parables in Luke's Gospel today are deeper than they appear, which is always the way with parables. The best stories always tell more than they seem, even if they reveal something about the teller. Jesus' two parables repeated here are in response to a dinner invitation and the behaviour of the guests. (There is another parable told and a healing performed at the occasion, but they are not included in our reading. The Lectionary quite often cuts things out for the sake of space or theme.) In any event, while the other guests and the host watch him closely, Jesus watches the guests jockey for the most honourable seats and tells a parable regarding this behaviour. Later, he tells another to the host with regard to the guest list.
• Now many have taken these two parables as an example of how Christian should behave. Humility and solidarity with the poor and suffering would appear to be the lessons taught. In truth, these are good lessons, lessons worth learning and living.
• “... when you are invited, go and sit down at the lowest place” may sound unusual to our modern ears, especially since most parties we'd be invited to have assigned seating. This appears not to be the case in Jesus' time and people all wanted to be in the best and most honourable seats. Surely, none of us wants to be seated at close to the kitchen, yet to demand preferential places would take us beyond ourselves. This decision for the “lowest place” may sound like false humility and a ploy to be raised to a higher place, but -let's face it- how many of us really want to be treated exactly as we deserve? That's the old justice vs. mercy tension, isn't it?
• The second parable, the one told to the host of the dinner, recommends inviting those who cannot repay you to your banquets so that “you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.” I think we can all see how this would mess up our summer barbeque plans, let alone our Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners. Some commentators on this passage interpret it as an admonition to consider the poor and the destitute in all we do.
• I would hope that no Christian would argue with that interpretation. Truly we are to be more than mindful of those on need, whether that need is the need for food, for shelter, for understanding, for forgiveness, or for companionship. In many ways, this parable outlines who we might reach out to and who we might invite into our congregation. This church, and in fact no gathering of Christians, can exclude someone because of their economic or community status... of the lack of it.
• These interpretations are quite important and they don't exhaust the meaning of the parables. One of the themes running through both parables is that of the unexpected. Scrambling for the places of honour at a dinner is expected: don't do it! Inviting friends, relatives, and wealthy acquaintances to a fancy dinner is what is expected: don't do it! In recommending and even commanding the unexpected, Jesus makes the point that whatever is most expected will be turned up-side-down. Sitting at the lowest place, even eating in the kitchen or sending invitations to odd and “unacceptable” people demonstrate the Gospel fact that the love and grace of God is offered to those who seem unworthy and undeserving.
• What we have here are parables of the Kingdom of God, telling us and reminding us that it is God's grace that saves and not our own works. This wonderful grace is given to us despite our being unworthy, unready, and possibly even unwilling. The Kingdom of God has come near while we were sleeping, going about our own business, or looking the other way. The Kingdom of God has come near and confronts us in many aspects of our lives.
• Earlier, I said that stories entertain, teach lessons, and reveal something about the teller. These stories are no exception. Jesus is telling something about himself and his mission in each. His concern for the poor and suffering is proclaimed each time this passage is read. His desire for his disciples to be simple, humble, and real is there, too. So too is his concern for those who haven't hear his teachings or have heard and ignored them, a concern shown in the fact that these stories are still being remembered and told with life and power after 2000 years... and counting.
• Jesus gave us his word, his wisdom, and his very life so that we might live. This continues to this day in his Word proclaimed and his Word consumed... as we hear and do today.

“For all who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.”