Readings
Sirach 10:12-18
Psalm 112
Hebrews 13:1-8, 15-16
Luke 14:1, 7-14
I grew up in a religiously mixed home. My father was a Roman Catholic, and my mother grew up in a Pentecostal tradition. From my father’s tradition I learned liturgical observance and religious obedience and from my mother I heard a lot of scripture and learned moral discipline. I can remember hearing scriptural warrants and warnings from my mom from time to time. In light of today’s Gospel, I can’t help but recall her saying a paraphrase of Provers 16:18, namely “pride goeth before a fall.”
Jesus, in today’s Gospel passage, is at a sabbath meal in the house of a leader of the Pharisees and notices how people are jockeying for position in terms of where they sit. You see back then, much like a wedding banquet today, where you sat in relation to the person of honor indicated your status and standing within that group of people. Are you seated near the front with the family, or are you in the back with the acquaintances? In this particular context people would be sizing up one another and trying to figure out just how close they could seat themselves to the host.
It is in this environment that Jesus begins to teach. He gives them what on firsthand seems to be quite practical advice to avoid embarrassment. Don’t take the seat of honor or even a higher seat, lest you be forced to take the only seat open at the bottom and shamed in front of everyone. Rather, take the lowest seat right away, and then when the host sees where you are sitting you’ll be the one moving up and find your status improved.
But he doesn’t stop there, he also gives advice to the host, who has invited his peers and superiors to the meal. He tells him to not simply invite those who can repay you (in other words who can improve your status), but invite the “poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind” and by doing so be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.
On first glance this seems to be practical advice for issues of pride and humility. It seems on the surface to almost be crass in terms of how “nuts and bolts” Jesus is being around questions of status and honor.
But I would invite you to reflect further and go deeper. Rarely, if ever, does Jesus simply give practical advice and rarely, if ever, does his teaching contain only the surface meaning.
No, I would argue that today’s teaching is once again about the Kingdom of God. It is a lesson in what behaviors are reflective of that kingdom and one way how we are to treat one another. It is a call to follow in the way of Jesus and to make the pattern of our lives match the pattern of his.
You see, God’s reign is not simply about being in paradise with God for eternity. No God’s reign is something at hand here and now. It is something to strive for. It is, put simply, a commonwealth of peace and just where the needs of all are met by all. It is a reality for the human community marked by equality and equity. It is a space where our lives are marked by humility and service of one another. And, finally, it is a place where those in the least position are raised up to the highest so that all may be honored.
Now, this is not the first time I have said something like this to you. And it is far from the first time I have heard or thought about this myself. Even so, it is often difficult for me to not take Jesus’ teaching from today and the idea of the Kingdom of Heaven and not turn it into an expectation of not only how I behave but where my heart and mind are also.
But, if you are attentive to what Jesus says today you will notice that he says nothing of the heart or mind. Rather his whole teaching is focused on behavior. And that my friends is the secret at the heart of today’s Gospel. Namely, that the Kingdom of Heaven is not an attitude but a set of behaviors. If we want to participate in God’s reign then we must be willing to change our behaviors first. To focus only on how we feel about the poor and the marginalized or how what we think about those who are less than ourselves is a trap that keeps us from actually reaching out towards the Kingdom of God.
No, my friends, the Kingdom of God is about how we behave. It is about whether or not the pattern of our lives matches the pattern of Jesus’ life. And what is that pattern? Well Jesus describes it in today’s Gospel, and I’ve already outlined it for us a moment ago. Even so, it bears repeating.
His life was marked by never presuming the place of honor and always taking the lowest place in the room. His life was marked by the service of all who sought him out. His life was marked by a commitment to raise up the lowly and to invite the mighty to humble themselves. And in that practice he was very human. While we are all too aware of his miraculous actions we do not recognize and closely pay attention to the fact that he also struggled with the heart issues all of us do. He could be impatient. He lost his temper. He got tired. And, in the case of one Samaritan woman, he even initially showed prejudice. Even so, his behavior and the pattern of his life overwhelmingly reflected the reign of God which he expressed as the Kingdom of God.
So, what are we to do with that?
Well, I believe we are called to set aside the presumption that we need to get our feeling and our thinking in order first and instead focus on our behaviors. We are called to be a people who love fully and unconditionally. Not as a feeling or idea, but as a choice of behavior. Regardless of our education, income, or status, we are called to never presume the place of honor. Regardless of our circumstances we are called to be people of service (in forms that make sense for where we are on the spectrum between the least and the greatest). And ultimately we are being called to be agents of transformation to raise up the lowly, not simply to a place equal to our own but even above us.
It’s okay if we don’t feel it or think it. It’s okay if we have our doubts. But that doesn’t get us off the hook. If we want the kingdom of God then we are called to act in this way. We are called to be the embodiment of God’s love even when our pride might get in the way, or our own love may be in short supply. But the good news is this, if we act in these ways we will know nothing less than the love of God ourselves. Our own lives will be transformed. And we will find ourselves one day standing within God’s Kingdom.