Fourteenth Sunday After Pentecost
29 August 2010
The Rev'd Michael Tuck
In today’s Epistle and Gospel, we have what appears to be some straightforward advice about the Christian life. The Epistle exhorts us to hospitality, generosity, respect and kindness, while the Gospel appears to give us some quite cagey advice about how to get the best seat at a party. But like some many passages of Scripture, these texts reveal far more when we peel back the first few layers of the onion.
To begin, we need to start with the scene of the Gospel – a dinner party given by one of the rulers of the synagogue. The scene of the uncomfortable dinner party is iconic. As a literary and narrative device, it appears in countless movies and books in contexts that range from comic to deeply tragic. In-laws, dinner with a boss, difficult family dinners – the range of possibilities is almost endless. This is a situation that is very easy for us to imagine ourselves in because so many of us have been sitting at a table like this.
For audiences in the ancient world, the dinner party is, in particular, the backdrop and context for philosophical discussions. So as we come to the story in today’s gospel, we need to read this as much more than an account of a discussion over food. This is an important dialogue between sharply opposing viewpoints. The Pharisees are said to be ‘watching him’, and their intent is clearly hostile. And Jesus is watching them too; he ‘marked how they chose the places of honor.’ So when Jesus tells his parables, he is clearly trying to say more than giving advice about banqueting manners.
By giving this advice as a ‘parable’, Jesus is subverting the etiquette of the day. The true way to honor is through self denial. And in the kingdom, pride will result in humiliation. This transformation of social values comes to a head in the second part of the Gospel. In the ancient world, as it is today, people throw dinner parties in order to build up friendships and relationships. Jesus is absolutely correct to call these invitations transactions. So Jesus describes a very different kind of feast, where the sole purpose is the care of the guest. This is the feast that God invites us to. He doesn’t need anything that we can bring, and he isn’t looking for some kind of invitation in return. So if we want to grow in our relationship with God, Jesus tells us that we are to imitate him. We are to invite those who cannot repay us so that we can extend the love that God has for us.
This is the same way in which we are to understand the Epistle. The acts of kindness and goodwill are well and good on their own. But done within the context of the life of faith, acts such as visiting those in prison and practicing hospitality become the outward expression of our response to God’s love for us.
There are two banquets we should think about. The first is the opportunity given to us by the Epiphany Soup Kitchen. In the last year, we have been privileged to host the Soup Kitchen. It would be easy to read today’s epistle and think that working to support the soup kitchen is something that we ought to do, something which is our responsibility. But I think this would really miss the point of today’s readings. Working to support the Epiphany Soup Kitchen is opportunity that God has given us to live out the Gospel and deepen our relationship with Him.
The second banquet is here, at our altar. And at this banquet, we are the ones who have been given places of honor and dignity. These two banquets go hand in hand. At this banquet, Jesus feeds us and sustains us; and upstairs in the Guild Hall we are given the privilege of extending that love to people in need and to show them some of the honor and dignity that God gives to all of us.
