Take a Seat; a sermon from August 29, 2010
Posted in Sermons on 31. Aug, 2010
Jesus’ original audience knew right away what he was talking about. He was in a room full of men jockeying for the best seat in the house. This is not something we frequently do. In a restaurant we might ask for a table other than the one right outside the kitchen door, so we don’t have to hear all the noise and watch all the traffic. On an airline flight we might do our best to avoid the seat in the middle of the middle row, given the inconvenience of getting out to use the facilities. Then again, we may not want to be near the facilities either, since that’s a lot of people standing over us waiting their turn. For us, then, striving to get the best seat in the house at a dinner party or wedding does not make much sense. I’ve also noticed that those from the midwest usually put themselves somewhere below the middle, since someone closer or more important is bound to show up. This has been my experience when doing funerals at the funeral home. The first two or three rows are ususally empty, “reserved” for someone who never came, or sat farther back!
So let’s pretend for a moment that we do understand the social setting in which the parable takes place. It is a social setting where pecking orders are real, where the most important guests may indeed arrive last or late, where folk tend to assume privilege and think more highly of themselves than they ought to think. Given these social realities, Jesus’ advice sounds wise, and is like several proverbs sharing the same advice. If you are going to be moved, better to be moved up than down.
Such a strategy, of course, involves a certain level of risk. What happens if you take the lower seat, and the host does not move you closer to him? Now what? There you are, stuck looking unimportant, like some distant relative or a partner in a bad business deal. You are down with the folk who barely made it in the door, the ones who got invited only so there wouldn’t be left-overs. The other caution about this stragety is that humility can be faked. If we can scheme our way through, then humility will lead to recognition and esteem, as everyone sees the host moving us closer to his table. Won’t that be grand? All this begs the question, what is Jesus’ point? What does any of this have to do with the reign of God which his presence on earth begins?
A few things come to mind.
Grabbing for ourselves is not part of living in God’s reign. If the poor, the meek, the hungry, and the thirsty are blessed, then those who attempt to secure their place in this world are missing the mark. Grabbing for ourselves is another way of understanding God’s complaint in the lesson from Jeremiah. Who would trade in life-giving water for what’s been sitting in a leaking cistern? Who would refuse the gift of ever-flowing streams for worked-for stale water? Apparently, we all would, and do. We grab for ourselves. We work to be secure in this world. We form political and social alliances to make a place for ourselves. We grab, when God asks us to receive; to be completely trusting.
Humility can be faked, and those who do so are not living in God’s reign. Humility as a strategy can be employed by anyone. It’s the idea that if I humble myself, I am sure to be exalted. Humility as strategy is manipulation. Do you know of someone who will put themselves down so you will reassure them they are not that bad? What happens if you don’t reassure them? Are they lost? Genuine humility is living in the reign of God. The truly humble person is fine sitting anywhere. The genuinely humble person is confident enough to be ok with not being noticed.
If I invite you so you will invite me, where’s the generosity in that? It’s called reciprocity, not generocity! Jesus’ suggestion to his host that the next time he throws a banquet he should invite the poor, the lame, and the blind is outlandish. Jesus’ host no doubt wondered what benefit would be gained. To invite those who cannot repay is to eliminate the possibility of reciprocity, and opens the door to real generosity. Generosity reflects God’s character, and gives evidence of living in God’s reign.
All this is not about where we are sitting only. It is also about where we want to be sitting. In this the desires of our hearts may reveal more than our actions. So what Jesus is saying comes down to a few things:
Can we give up the urge to be more important than others? Can we give up the need to be recognized in a way that puffs us up?
If we can be content in the knowledge of God’s love for us, if we don’t care where we sit at the table, as long as it is the Lord’s table, we are living in the reign of God, which Jesus proclaims in his words, his actions, and with his very life.
Amen.
