15 Pentecost C/ Lectionary 22 September 1, 2013
Luther Memorial Church Seattle, WA
The Rev. Julie Guengerich Hutson
Proverbs 25: 6-7 + Psalm 112 + Hebrews 13: 1-8, 15-16 +
Luke 14: 1, 7-14
May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, our rock and our redeemer. Amen.
Very often, if I am in the building alone, I will come and sit in this holy space. In the quiet and in the solitude, I still sense each of you here. One of the reasons I do that is because I can picture you here. Bruce sits ¾ of the way back on the pulpit side. Ruth and Elaine and Lorraine sit just a few pews from the front, also pulpit side. Delia and Shirlee are lectern side sitters, near the windows on the west side, a couple of pews up from the transept. It’s funny, but true, that we become creatures of habit, especially in where we sit in church.
This morning’s Gospel reading is about where we sit. And so before I being the sermon, I’m going to ask you to do something. We are going to take a minute and a half….90 seconds….and if you are physically able to do so without a great deal of discomfort….I would like for you to move to a different place in the sanctuary and to remain there, if you can, for the rest of our worship service. And because I won’t ask you to do something that I wouldn’t do, I will also move my place of preaching. (Allow time for movement)
So, back to Jesus. In our Gospel reading today, Jesus has gone to the pastor’s house for Sunday dinner. Ok, not exactly that….but he did go to the Pharisee’s house, and they were the religious leaders, for a meal on the Sabbath. Jesus told the other guests a story, that he apparently based on watching them vie for where they would sit at this meal. We can only imagine what they felt when they realized he was actually talking about them when he told the story. And he would have wanted it that way. What he says to them is that they shouldn’t jostle and struggle for the best seat in the house, given that someone much more important than they might come in. Sit in the last seats, in the back, by the kitchen, away from the windows….and then later you might be invited to a better seat.
But his story with a moral isn’t just for the dinner guests, it is also for the one throwing the party. Jesus tells this religious leader not to invite his friends and family and rich neighbors to the party, but to invite the poor, the crippled, the lame and the blind.
What Jesus is talking about is how the places of privilege at the table are determined.
This week I went to see the movie “The Butler.” It’s the story of Cecil Gaines, a long time White House butler. He is the son of a slave and a former slave himself and the movie tells the story of his life from the cotton field to the election of President Obama. And of course, the Civil Rights movement is a vital piece of this story, which is partly historical and partly fictional.
But the parts of the movie that capture the civil rights movement quite literally address what Jesus is talking about in the Gospel reading today. Who has a place at the table? Who has a place at the lunch counter?
As I sat at my place in the theater, it occurred to me that I watched this movie as I watched the aftermath of the Civil Rights movement, from a place of privilege….white privilege. From where I sat…from my place at the societal table….I felt shame. I felt remorse. But I have never been told I could not come to the table because of the color of my skin. I have, however, been told that there is no place at me for the table because of my gender.
Where we sit determines what we see.
The reading from Hebrews today is a reminder to us of the Gospel call to hospitality and care. What do we see when we are showing hospitality to strangers? Sitting with someone we do not know feels much different than sitting with the people we know well. What does the person at breakfast see when no one else comes to sit with them, leaving them at their table alone and choosing instead to go and sit with their friends? Are there people among us that you do not know? I encourage you to take your seat with them, to see what they see, and to learn from where they sit. For those of you who have been a part of this community of faith for a long time, what might we see if we sat with a visitor? For adults, what might we see if we sat with a child? For those of us who are well fed, what might we see if we sat with the hungry?
Where we sit determines what we see.
What do we see when we are visiting those in prison? It’s almost too hard to imagine. Do we see hopelessness or sheer survival? Do we see loneliness or fear? Do we see grace and mercy?
Where we sit determines what we see.
What might we see when we sit with those who are tortured? Can we imagine that? It’s not terrible hard. The people of Syria who were exposed to nerve gas were tortured. Women are mutilated and tortured in Africa as a part of a controlling coming of age ritual. Jews in Germany were tortured. Slaves in the American south were tortured. Blacks at lunch counters and in public schools were tortured. What might we see if we are sitting with those who are being tortured?
Where we sit determines what we see.
Luther Memorial sits on the corner of Greenwood and 132nd. But we also sit on the corner of two very different ways of living in this community. On the one hand, many of our neighbors live in well built, well cared for single family homes. They have cars and jobs and their children have options for their education. They know they will have food for the next meal. They know where their place at the table is.
On the other hand, many of our neighbors live in apartments; some of those are in better shape than others. There is not a sense of permanence or a sense of place. They may have several jobs just to make ends meet and to put food on their table. They likely walk wherever they go or depend on public transportation. Their children attend the closest public school to their apartments. Because of the up-rootedness of their lives, they likely have not established close connections.
So, if we are giving a banquet….if we are having a feast….if we are laying the table….who are we inviting? Jesus said “When you give a luncheon or a dinner, do not invite your friends or your brothers and sisters or your relatives or rich neighbors, in case they may invite you in return, and you would be repaid. But when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame and the blind. And you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you, for you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.”
The poor. The crippled. The lame. The blind.
Jesus wants us to invite them to the meal. To give them the seats of honor that we have kept for ourselves. To share what we have with all people….those who are women and men, gay and straight, black and white, poor and rich, sick and healthy, differently-abled and able bodied, old and young.
Where we sit determines what we see.
And here is the best news about the banquet….about the banquet that is prepared for us on this day. Jesus saw where we were sitting. He saw us as we struggled to come in…he saw the burdens that we brought with us into this place, our struggles and the struggles that the world put upon us. And when he saw all that was making our place at the table so very difficult, he came and sat in our places, so that he could see what we saw and so that he could make it right.
In return, we sit where he was, making it our job to share the love he spoke of, to teach the grace he taught, to show the mercy he showed, and to invite others to the table…all others….even us.
Because where we sit determines what we see.
Thanks be to God. Amen.