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Pentecost 13

29 August 2004

Luke 14:1, 7-14 “Table talk” – a blueprint for radical hospitality
Background
It is the Sabbath. Jesus dines at the home of a leading Pharisee (an important man) and observes the social behaviour of the guests and host.

Dinner on the Sabbath seems to have been a special meal with the food prepared beforehand and it was common to invite guests. Jesus’ enemies are present and watching him, hoping he would commit a chargeable offence.

Guests were carefully seated according to rank and status (as on formal occasions today!), but everyone wants a seat at the top table – Jesus comments on the undignified scramble that results. “It is in the small, apparently trivial act that character is most accurately reflected” - Plutarch. The presence of Jesus the Christ in our world teaches us that the frequent and familiar are not to be overlooked in defining life in the presence of God. Jesus is not forbidding normal social life. But he is emphasising that there is no generosity in giving to people who will repay our hospitality. We need to be careful we don’t get into a travesty of the meaning – everyone rushing for the lowest seat in the hope of being called up higher! Humility is the order of the day!

Hospitality in first century Palestine was as much about offering hospitality, an honouring of people, an acceptance of them, than it was about sharing food. There is a lesson here for hosts – beware the generosity that gains power over others and puts them in the host’s debt. Hospitality should not be offered with strings attached. Being a host involves generosity, graciousness and concern for the well being of others without expectation of return. Jesus’ expectation is that people will not confine their guest lists to their own friends, relations or neighbours who will return the courtesy. The poor, the maimed, the lame, the blind could not return the favour.

In preaching
The church is constitutionally committed to care for the poor and disadvantaged. But here Jesus says don’t just provide for them, invite them to dinner in your own home, offer them some real hospitality – respect them, engage with them, as persons. The word translated ‘hospitality’ means, literally, “love of a stranger”. Welcoming those who are in no position to return the favour. Sitting at table, breaking bread together, is a universal sign of acceptance, recognising each other as equals.

How open are our church homes and halls in this way?
To whom do we “chat over a cuppa” at the end of the service?
How free are we from the constraints of social standing, status, self importance, the need to “look good”, to impress others?
Who are the poor and disadvantaged (vv12-14) to whom we are called to offer hospitality in our context?
Who are the ones we do not value as people?

Jeremiah 2:4-13
God’s people who have turned away and failed to celebrate God’s gifts are likened to cracked water cisterns from which the life-giving water seeps away. The people have worshipped idols and turned away from Yahweh, despoiling the earth. They have been chasing after shadows, an exercise in futility.

Do we recognise in land and food the holy provision of God?
To be shared hospitably?
Just as the Gospel passage invites respect for God’s people, so Jeremiah reminds us of our responsibility to act as God requires toward all of God’s gifts.

Psalm 81:1, 10-16
The background is a liturgical festival. The essence of the Psalm is that God longs to move on to a new life in relationship with the people who do not have to suffer for ever in the mess they have made for themselves. There is the need only for obedient listening in order for the people to know the blessings that have always been available.

Hebrews 13:1-8, 15-16
Desirable practices for Christians – including attitude to strangers (to be marked by hospitality). Over against the debaucheries of the Caesars the people are exhorted to live in love, hospitality and morality. In giving hospitality they may find they “entertain angels unaware” (angels = messengers from God).

Prayer suggestion

Sisters and brothers – arise.
Arise and lift your hearts
Arise and lift your eyes
Arise and lift your voices.

The living God,
The living, moving Spirit of God
has called us together -
in witness
in celebration
in struggle.

Reach out toward each other.
Our God reaches out toward us!
Let us worship God!

(Elizabeth Rice)