The Sabbath Supper, Miss Manners, and Jesus

Pentecost 14

Ruskin Heights Lutheran Church

St. Luke 14:1, 7-14

August 29, 2010

May the words of my mouth and the meditations of each heart be acceptable in the sight of God, who is our strength and our redeemer. Amen.

How do you behave at a first century dinner party? That seems to be the subject this morning. It’s like somebody wrote a letter to Miss Manners.

Anyway, the advice seems pretty sensible. First off, you don’t just walk in expecting to sit at the head table.

This is pretty practical advice and it can save you later embarrassment, and it echoes a couple verses found in Proverbs — sit low so you may be called up higher.

This advice of Jesus, reported from St. Luke, is sometimes regarded as a lesson in how to practice humility.

I suppose it could be read that way.

A humble spirit will cultivate humble behavior.

But is that what it really is?

Jesus sounds a little calculating to me . . . some human cunning, sharp foresight, even political maneuvering.

Figure it out — Do you really want to run the risk of embarrassment?

Then, think ahead. Sit at the end of the table, lower than you think you should, and then wait to be recognized.

Now, that’s clever, sure enough.

So sure enough, I don’t think this has a thing to do with humility.

And for that matter, if this is about mere humility, I don’t think Jesus offered very good advice in any case.

All I can see happening is a crowd of important people scrambling for the lowest seats — each hoping to prove “I am more humble than thou.”

This Gospel report is not a first century advice column from Miss Manners. We know that from a couple hints in St. Luke’s report.

First, this is at dinner on the Sabbath (more of that in a moment).

Second, St. Luke calls this a parable. There is always something more going on in a parable than meets the eye. A parable is a story like a double-bottom drawer. Open the drawer and everything seems to be on the surface. Find the second bottom, dig a little deeper, though, and there’s more to be revealed.

That’s what we need to do here, find the second bottom.

The dinner Jesus is attending is the festive table meal that concludes the weekly Sabbath observance. It is called the Shabbat or Sabbath supper and it remembers the 7th Day when the Lord rested. It is a meal with blessings and prayers and blessed wine. There is ritual around this food and worship and companionship, a prelude to the Sabbath banquet in the kingdom of God.

And the first thing Jesus does at this party is challenge his Pharisee hosts about their own sense of pride, their own sense of self-assurance — Jesus is challenging their place at the Sabbath Table.

These are Pharisees, remember, who keep the law and live righteous lives. When Jesus elsewhere calls them hypocrites it wasn’t because they pretended to keep the Law. They did keep it. Their observance of the Sabbath and their admission to the Sabbath meal is unquestioned.

But Jesus questions both.

And then Jesus describes the true Sabbath meal.

This is the challenge Jesus gave to his host at the Sabbath dinner:

Invite the guests God invites.

Invite the low to come high.

Invite the poor, the crippled, the lame and the blind.

And make a special note of this.

These people Jesus just named — the crippled, lame and blind — were the very people forbidden by Leviticus 21:17-23 from “presenting the offerings made to the Lord. . .”

They were “unclean.”

Their presence would desecrate the sanctuary.

Just so, says Jesus, invite them, for they cannot repay.

And that is the very reason for their invitation, they cannot repay.

Jesus invites us to his Sabbath Table — and we find ourselves in the same condition as the poor, the crippled, the lame and the blind.

The Lord has called us up higher, and we cannot repay.

Jesus invites us.

And by that invitation, he exalts his Father’s love for us.

Who among us is not crippled in spirit?

Or not lame in our walk of faith?

Or not poor in love and charity?

Which of us is not still blind and in need of light?

Who comes to this table able to repay?

Here we may only receive. And from end to end, there is no place higher or lower at this Table of the Lord.

But where Jesus is proclaimed Lord of the Sabbath, all are invited and no one is refused a place of honor.

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.