{"id":4430,"date":"2024-10-13T20:49:23","date_gmt":"2024-10-13T20:49:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/fumcschenectady.org\/blog\/2024\/10\/13\/for-everyone-born-based-on-luke-147-14\/"},"modified":"2024-10-13T20:49:23","modified_gmt":"2024-10-13T20:49:23","slug":"for-everyone-born-based-on-luke-147-14","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fumcschenectady.org\/blog\/2024\/10\/13\/for-everyone-born-based-on-luke-147-14\/","title":{"rendered":"Untitled"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cFor Everyone Born\u201d based on Luke 14:7-14<\/h1>\n
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Today, in our gospel lesson, we hear Jesus giving dinner party advice. Which is, let’s be honest, kind of unexpected from Jesus. To be fair, the Jesus Seminar thinks this narrative is Luke’s creation \u2013 it fits both Hebrew literature and Jesus’s priorities but seems a little bit too much like a narrative device. That said, it does fit both the values we hear throughout the Bible and from Jesus, so I think it is plenty worthy of our attention.<\/p>\n

According to my beloved commentary A Social Science Commentary on the Synoptic Gospels:<\/p>\n

\u201cDinners were important social occasions that were used to cement social relations. \u2026 It was very important who was invited. Moreover, accepting a dinner invitation normally obligated the guest to return the favor. Sometimes guests refused invitations knowing that the return obligation was more than they could or wish to handle.<\/small><\/p>\n

\u2026 Table fellowship across status lines was relatively rare in traditional societies. In the inclusive early Jesus groups, it was an ideal that caused sharp friction on several counts. It was especially difficult for the elite, who risked being cut off by families and social networks if seen in public eating with persons of lower rank. That was especially so in the city (the setting for the text), where status stratification was sharp and members of the elite were expected to maintain it.\u201d1<\/a><\/small><\/p>\n

Well, that helps make sense of why this is in a gospel \u2013 this reflects the radicalness of the early Jesus movement and just how significant it was for people to dismiss the social norms. The early Jesus movement mixed people across class lines and dismissed the concept that anyone mattered more than anyone else and it was \u2026 well, just the opposite of how things worked then.<\/p>\n

And maybe now.<\/p>\n

While sometimes I want to think things are better now, when I look at social policy, I notice that our systems and structures treat those living in poverty as expendable. When it would be easier, cheaper, and more just ease people’s lives and we don’t \u2013 I can’t find many explanations other than we CHOOSE to enrich the elites at the cost of the lives of the poor and marginalized.<\/p>\n

Maybe there isn’t social cost to going to the wrong party in the same way anymore- although that may depend on one’s social circle \u2013 but we still function as if some people are expendable and that’s the same core problem.<\/p>\n

Thank God the Jesus movement saw through it. Thank God the Hebrew prophets saw through it, and Jesus helped too.<\/p>\n

Thank God for each and every person who refuses to be at peace with anyone being expendable and truly believes we are all made in the image of God! My goodness it matters, and my goodness it requires us to keep reminding each other to pay attention!<\/p>\n

It requires that we let go of hierarchies \u2013 for ourselves and for others. The gospels tells us to always sit at the bottom, instead of fighting for the top. And, we are to invite those whose presence will lower our social standing, instead of those who can help pick us up.<\/p>\n

I wonder, if someone had followed Jesus’s advice in this (and I think they did), what it would be like to be one of \u201cthe poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind\u201d invited to a fancy dinner party for the elites. It seems like it might be terrifying. Would people have declined because they were playing by the rules and couldn’t repay the invitation \u2013 or agree because they were too hungry to care? Would they worry about what to wear and who else would be there? Would they be comforted or upset when others in their own social class were the other attendees?<\/p>\n

Because, it turns out that the narratives of who matters are also taught to those society says don’t matter, and it isn’t easy to let go of it even when you know it is a falsehood.<\/p>\n

What would it be like to be a host used to formal dinner parties with people engaging in social climbing, to suddenly be at a table with people you are used to ignoring and dismissing? Might it be uncomfortable? Refreshing? Would there be a lot of laughter? What might the host learn?<\/p>\n

One of the things I learned in seminary studies of urban ministry is that people do best in mixed income housing situations. And they mean all people. Because we have so much to learn from one another. It benefits kids of families who are living in poverty to see other ways of life. It benefits those who are well off to see that those who are struggling are real people with gifts and passions, and to see their way of life. It creates stronger communities, with more empathy and more creative solutions when we don’t segregate ourselves \u2013 by any measure. Further, it encourages everyone to be generous with what they have which benefits all the givers and all the receivers. It makes generative space for everyone born.<\/p>\n

It is funny to think of this dinner party. The host might teach about expected table manners, but the guests might be honest enough to admit what doesn’t taste very good \ud83d\ude09 Or exclaim with delight at a delicious bread the host had stopped noticing years ago. Or just be happy to be full, and remind the host that such a gift is one to be truly thankful for.<\/p>\n

In our We Cry Justice reading, Carolyn Jean Foster imagines that shared table as a place for meaningful conversations between equal conversational partners \u2013 a pretty beautiful image that fits the Jesus movement well. She reminds us that people who are well off often try to solve issues of systemic poverty \u2013 but don’t actually understand them, \u201cPeople who live in poverty know the solutions that would alleviate their suffering; they just do not have the resources. They need to be at the table.\u201d2<\/a><\/p>\n

In the world, this is still an oddity!! The world still seems to believe that those who are successful are more capable of solving problems for others instead of trusting that those who have experienced injustice are most capable of identifying their own problems.<\/p>\n

But what a wonderful thing it is when people follow God’s way instead of the world’s ways! What a wonderful thing it is when we refuse honor, invite the unexpected guests, accept unexpected invitations, and learn from each other!<\/p>\n

Now, you may not have noticed it, but socio-economic differences are not the only kind that exist. Around here they may not even be the ones we struggle with the most. I think for many of us, listening to those whose values differ from ours can be incredibly difficult, and even triggering. What would this gospel passage feel like if it said, \u201cdon’t invite those who already agree with you, invite those who are voting for a party line you abhor?\u201d<\/p>\n

Feels a little harder to me already. But, then I remember all the times God has worked in me to undermine my assumptions.<\/p>\n

These floods and hurricanes recently have had me thinking about 2011 when there was major flooding in the town where I was pastoring. I ended up coordinating volunteers who came to help people, some of the holiest work of my life. It also put me in some positions I wouldn’t have otherwise agreed to be in. Some of the volunteers came from churches that didn’t permit women clergy, and refused to accept women’s authority \u2013 but they cared more about helping people than avoiding my leadership role. Some of the UM volunteers came from what are now GMC churches and we’d sit down and eat lunches on muddy former lawns and talk about things and realize how many places we disagreed \u2013 and how it didn’t seem to matter one little bit when we were both there to share love.<\/p>\n

A few weeks ago I shared on facebook a recommended set of questions for just such a dinner party, \u201cHow to have conversations with people who disagree with you\u201d which suggested asking:<\/p>\n