Do you want to know what will get Middle School boys excited about playing any kind of game? Make it full contact. It also makes it more dangerous. You can make just about any game full contact, you just have to have the willing participation of everyone. Full contact bowling, full contact volleyball…you name it.
When I was reading the scripture from Luke this week, I had a picture in my mind of people playing full contact musical chairs. And once I read a little bit about the history of wedding banquet protocol, that picture was confirmed. You see, in a wedding banquet, every chair is related to the place of honor. If someone happens to come in who should be seated higher than you are, then everyone below them has to shift seats so that everyone can get in the correct pecking order. So musical chairs, I think, is not that far off of an image. I can imagine there being one too many honorable guest who race for the last chair, and then Slamming into each other and clawing at each other while arguing about who got their first. In that picture, there aren’t enough chairs. But Jesus offers a different picture.
Jostling for position happens all the time. I sit in meetings with preachers, and there is constant jockeying for position. Those with the best ideas, those whose churches are growing, those who are wanting to climb the ladder. And power isn’t limited to those meetings. I’ve been in churches where the positions you held were solely based on your power in the church. It had nothing to do with the service you could do for your church, but it was a recognition of how much power you had.
The best example of this jostling for position happened to a friend of mine, though in a more humorous way than the seriousness of the issue.
My friend was a development officer of Tennessee Wesleyan College in Athens, TN. He was just out of college, but goes to a lot of community events to drum up support for the school. My friend used to ALWAYS wear bow ties. He is very “Southern tradition” in his mindset, knows all of the southern protocols, and is true blue in wearing bow ties and seersucker. So where all of his contemporaries were wearing vintage t-shirts and blue jeans, he would show up in a bow tie.
Well he went to a local Rotary club meeting in Athens, TN, and found himself sitting next to Scottie Mayfield. The founder of the Mayfield dairy. My friend had never met him before, and so he introduced himself. Scottie shook his hand, and said, “You know, I’ve kind of made a name for myself around here as being the only guy who wears a bow tie…do you understand what I’m saying?” I guess Mayfield felt a little threatened by his fashion sense.
Those who exalt themselves…or who wear bow ties…will be humbled.
Jesus observed this jostling for position at a Sabbath dinner party. Akin to a Sunday dinner party, but I would liken it more to a political fundraiser. $100 a plate dinner and the more you pay for your meal, the better seat you have, and the better party favors are given to you. Sitting at the table with those who are in power, and wanting more power, and arranging themselves accordingly. A fight might have even broken out about who was the greatest. Or there might be whispers behind someone’s back wondering, “Well who do they think they are taking that seat?” Or did you see what that person was wearing? The nerve of them. They clearly don’t know their place.
Now I’m sure you have never heard that muttered under your breath. But now I’ve gone from preaching into meddling.
I feel this way whenever big elections happen. I am a student of history and this has happened for a long time. People jostling for positions of power. If you listen to the news, that sometimes seems to be what our politics have boiled down to. And it makes me very sad. That something so noble as public service has turned into self-service in the way of power.
And Jesus sees this and tells them a parable.
Many who read this text force it into good manners. Good dinner etiquette. And it causes false humility. This isn’t good advice. This is a parable.
I tried to teach this to my youth one time, and whenever they found themselves at the back of the line, they used this text as proof that they were actually doing the RIGHT thing. They weren’t, they were trying to make those at the front of the line feel bad.
Or, it is used to keep people in their place. In slaveholding states, the fact that the humble would be exalted was used to keep slaves in their place. They would get their reward later, as long as they remained in their humble state. And people with bad theology use this now as a balm for the poor. They will get their reward later.
But this isn’t what Jesus is talking about. Because Jesus is NOT talking about manners at a dinner party. Remember, this is a parable and all parables are about God’s Kigdom. Jesus isn’t talking about being invited over to someone’s house for dinner. Jesus is talking about the Heavenly Banquet of God, which is available to all children of God.
Humility is not about standing at the back of the line so you can be honored in front of everyone. It is recognizing that you are a guest of God, and you did nothing to warrant being invited. God’s invitation is not precluded by anything. It is part of who God is.
Have you ever been invited to something where you felt that you did not belong? I’ve felt that way a couple of times in my life. That I was in the presence of people I truly respect and admire and felt like a fish out of water. I did not have nice enough clothes, or nice enough manners. I didn’t quite fit into the conversations because I haven’t traveled as extensively or have 14 books published or things like that. I could just sit there, and listen.
I was at this type of event one time. It was an event for the trustees of Wofford College at my graduation time, and I was invited. I don’t know why, I just was. And when I was there, I felt awkward. Every other student was invited because they were at the top of the class, or had started a non-profit or something while they were in school. But not me. I was pretty plain, and I just stood in a corner. But then, the president of the college came in and saw me. He came over to me, and said, Jordan, I have some people I’d like you to meet. He took me over, and introduced me to some truly remarkable individuals. And he said, when I saw Jordan walk across the stage today, I thought, we are losing one of our very best. It made me feel good. I don’t know why he said it, I didn’t really do anything that remarkable. But he honored me, because he knew me.
God invited us because of His love and grace. There is nothing we have done in order to obtain honor. But Jesus comes, sees us, slaps us on the back, puts a hand on our shoulder and says, you are one of my very best. Come, and eat with me.
We don’t feel like we deserve it. We don’t feel like we have done enough with our lives, or we feel like we have done some things in our lives that aren’t forgivable. We jostle for position in our church, in our community, in our state, nation, and in the world. All trying to attain something. But the parable says, we can’t attain anything. Only God gives us honor.
When we put ourselves in a corner because we feel unworthy, God comes to us in Jesus Christ, and says. You are worthy. Because you are my brother or sister. And no one can take that away from you, and there is nothing that you can do to change it. You can’t become MORE my brother or my sister by anything you do. You can only live in the honor that I have given to you. Come over here, I want you to meet my Father, the creator of all that is, and all that will be.
All people need to know this. That is why Jesus tells the host of the dinner, don’t invite the people who can repay you, invite those who can’t. Because you were once one of them. Because that is who God honors. When you can be a blessing to others, then you live as a child of God.
I want our church to begin thinking about how we can be a blessing to others. Does that mean a new building? Does that mean more programs? Does that mean we invite others here because we are excited that God has honored us and we want others to feel that way too?
Maybe. But most importantly, we want all people to come to the banquet, and introduce them to Christ. Because then, their honor will become a blessing as well. And in our honor, comes humility and grace. Something that God’s created world needs an abundance of, and something that we can give. So let us begin with our fellowship together, as we feast at the heavenly banquet.
And when we gather at a feast, we must first say a blessing. I want to suggest one from the Northumbria community in Scotland, which is a Celtic Christian community, and once in which I find myself constantly drawn.
Celtic Prayer.
Bless, O Lord, this food we are about to eat, and we pray You, O God, that it may be good for our body and soul, and if there is any poor creature hungry or thirsty walking the road, may God send them in to us so that we can share the food with them, just as Christ shares His gifts with all of us.
Let them come here, because God will honor those at the feast, and does not care about status or what we have done, or what we have left undone. God simply loves his children, and wants us to eat together for our family meal.
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