Luke 14

Jesus at a Pharisee's House continued

⁷ When he noticed how the guests picked the places of honor at the table, he told them this parable: ⁸ "When someone invites you to a wedding feast, do not take the place of honor, for a person more distinguished than you may have been invited. ⁹ If so, the host who invited both of you will come and say to you, 'Give this person your seat.' Then, humiliated, you will have to take the least important place. ¹⁰ But when you are invited, take the lowest place, so that when your host comes, he will say to you, 'Friend, move up to a better place.' Then you will be honored in the presence of all the other guests. ¹¹ For all those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted."

¹² Then Jesus said to his host, "When you give a luncheon or dinner, do not invite your friends, your brothers or sisters, your relatives, or your rich neighbors; if you do, they may invite you back and so you will be repaid. ¹³ But when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, ¹⁴ and you will be blessed. Although they cannot repay you, you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous."

While still at the house of the Pharisee, Jesus, noticing the seating arrangement, proceeds to tell a parable about seats of honor and seats of humility. So much for Jesus practicing proper guest protocol, right? He's a guest in the man's house and he proceeds to take over the conversation. Just when everyone wants to enjoy the food and fellowship, Jesus has to start preaching. For Jesus, every moment, every encounter, was an opportunity to plant seeds of God's will and God's kingdom. He understood his mission to be leading people toward the Kingdom of God and toward Kingdom living.

Sometimes I think we the Church at large get confused on our reason for being. While I support all our healthy efforts at being a growing church, our primary call is not growth. While I welcome the multitude of fellowship opportunities Germantown Methodist affords, we are not primarily a social organization. While we do a really good job of encouraging people to be in Sunday School and worship, we cannot forget that the reason is not primarily about full classes and a full sanctuary. Everything we do must be to serve Christ's call for the transformation of lives toward God's will; to guide and empower people to go into the world and share God's love and Christ's call; to lead people to an understanding that it's in proper relationship with God that we find the anchor we need for our lives; to encourage folks to find in obedience to God that meaning and purpose which can be found nowhere else; to do all we can to be a serving people whose actions really do help our community and our world be a better place.

While he's got everyone's attention (however peeved they may be), he proceeds to talk about humility as an essential quality in all those who seek to do God's will and who seek to live as Kingdom people. For us in the Church everything we do is to glorify God and honor Christ. Whatever successes we have, whatever gains we make, whatever lives we touch, to God be the glory!

Then he concludes (and everyone is thankful) with his normative stance that we must always give special attention to those most in need. As we've often noted, nothing reveals the heart of Jesus Christ more fully than self-giving service and caring love to the most needful among us.