The Guest List
With thanks to The
Ven. Irene Egmalis-Maliaman,
of the Episcopal
Church of St. John the Divine in Tamuning, Guam
In our Baptism, we are asked a series of questions. Perhaps
the most challenging asks: Do you promise to follow and obey him [Jesus] as
your Lord? To which we say: I do.[i]
It may be surprising, but it may well be that obeying Jesus, challenging as it
is, can be easier than following him. In Luke chapter 14, just look where he
goes and where he tells us to go, and then ask ourselves: Are these places we
usually go, and the kind of people we usually seek out?
It is the Sabbath. Jesus is at a home of a Pharisee.
Pharisees are represented as often questioning what Jesus says and does, and
are frequently oppositional. And yet, here is a Pharisee welcoming Jesus into
his home for the important weekly Sabbath meal. How often do we receive, let
alone accept, invitations from those we disagree with? The Pharisee is to be
complimented for inviting Jesus into his home. Especially, when the first thing
Jesus does upon seeing a man with dropsy, or edema, ask his host and the other
guests if it is alright to heal a person on the Sabbath. This has already been
a controversy in Luke. The host and guests, who are all jockeying for a seat
near the host, remain silent. Jesus heals the man, saying that if they had a
child or an ox that fell into a well, they would rescue them. Again, silence.
Then he disparages all of the guests for seeking a seat of
honor, suggesting it is better to take a seat at the foot of the table so that
the host might ask you to move closer to the head. This is not about party or
table manners, or even how to get ahead in the world. It is about virtue of
humility in God’s world. “While self-promotion is the accepted way to get ahead
in the world, humility is the way to please God.”[ii]
Then Jesus instructs them and us that when inviting people
to lunch or dinner, do not invite your best friends and important folks who
very well might reciprocate and invite you over one day, but rather “invite the
poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind. And you will be blessed, because
they cannot repay you, for you will be repaid at the resurrection of the
righteous."[iii]
The idea is that rather than think only of ourselves, we are to act more like
the humble and the poor who most often make room for others, even with limited
resources. It’s all about the guest list.
We are not told by storyteller Luke how the host and his
guests respond, but I am sure it is easy to imagine since we would probably be
as scandalized as they probably are to be told how to arrange their social
life! It is all too common to take a selfie with a visiting bishop, or a famous
musician, or get a book signed by an author, and then post it on social media.
And there is nothing wrong with this. The impulse to exalt ourselves, as Jesus
would say, is connected to our desire for love, admiration and attention. But
Jesus offers another way. A way that begins with accepting that God his Father
already loves us, admires us and is attentive to us – both personally and
through the community of the Jesus Movement that reaches out to care for all no
matter who you are or what you do. There’s just no need to jockey for position
in God’s world. Which is this world.
Jesus follows with a parable, which we don’t get in the
lectionary, that illustrates the extent to which our God desires for us to
literally “beat the bushes” to invite the poor, the blind, the lame and just
everyone else we can find to come to the banquet – this banquet we call
communion. Jesus wants us to know what he means by things like, “the last will
be first, and the first will be last,” and “those who save their life will lose it,
and those who lose their life for my sake will save it.” That is, all things
are meant to be different here and now in God’s Community of Love. His
community is to be inclusive, not exclusive.
We might ponder, what the kind of guest list Jesus might
commend in today’s world:
·
Drug addicts
·
Immigrants, strangers, and people who do not
speak and look like you
·
Homeless people
·
Members of the LGBTQ community
·
People who disagree with you politically and
religiously
·
People who have hurt you in the past
The list goes on and on. No doubt, Jesus invites his
audience and all of us to ponder: if we do not regularly invite these folks and
all others, are we saying Jesus is not welcome at our table? As we look around
at our weekly banquet, do we see such a diverse crowd as Jesus says is to be normative
in a world ruled by God’s Love? Do we still say, “I do” to follow and obey
Jesus?
More importantly, perhaps, have we ever considered that we
very well might be those who are poor, crippled, lame and blind? Blinded by our
ambitions, our insecurities, poor in spirit and crippled by our sins. And yet
here we are, welcomed, loved, admired and accepted to be members of the Jesus
movement, and guests at his table, week in and week out.
As to our guest list, a colleague from the church of St.
John the Divine in Tamuning, Guam sums this all up:
“We are sinners, and yet, by God’s grace, we have seats
of honor at God’s table. It is a wonder that we get welcomed, though we cannot
reciprocate God’s hospitality. How are we to respond to the gracious generosity
of God? We reciprocate by opening our lives to those who are different from us
and those with whom we would not normally associate. As the writer of Hebrews
reminds us …, “Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for by doing
that some have entertained angels without knowing it.” [iv]
Amen.
[i]
Book of Common Prayer, 1979, p.303
[ii] The
Ven. Irene Egmalis-Maliaman, of the Episcopal Church of St. John the Divine in
Tamuning, Guam, https://www.episcopalchurch.org/sermon/watching-pentecost-12-c-august-28-2022/.
[iii] Luke
14:14
[iv]
Ibid Irene Egmails-Maliaman
