Year C

Luke 14:1, 7-14

The Very Rev. Denise Vaughn

Eating Too Much of the Best Food

When I have visited my grandchildren, I have often remarked to my daughter rather humorously that I feel like we are always in the kitchen preparing something to eat. We would just get finished with a meal and before we knew it; we were back in the kitchen preparing snacks, then it was time for another meal and so forth. In the same somewhat humorous way, it is often noted that in Luke’s gospel Jesus seems to be “always eating.” It seems he’s either going to a meal, at a meal, or coming from a meal on just about every page. In fact, Luke mentions nineteen meals that Jesus attends, thirteen of which are not found in any of the other three Gospels, and in his teachings, Jesus frequently likens the kingdom of God to a banquet, a feast, a celebration.

In the gospel passage today, we are once again at table “at the house of a leader of the Pharisees on the Sabbath.” It’s no wonder that they call Jesus a “glutton and a drunkard” and criticize him for eating with tax-collectors and sinners. It does seem that Jesus eats too much and eats with the wrong people. Yet, more than likely this obsession Luke has with food originated from the early Christian worship which took place at meals. The early church when they could no longer met in the synagogue they began to worship in homes. Luke refers to worship in the book of Acts as “the breaking of bread” and many of the stories now found in the gospels were told by Christians seated around tables sharing a meal. Table fellowship has always held special meaning in every generation and in all cultures.

In fact, God has shown table fellowship by caring and feeding people since the Garden of Eden. God fed Israel in the desert, and led the people to a land “to eat its fruits.” Jesus, who fed the multitudes with a few bread and fish, calls for those who gather at the table in today’s gospel to care for each other following his example by showing humility and hospitality.  All the texts today remind us of the importance of these two virtues that are essential to the table of life, revealed in truthfulness and generosity.  We are reminded today of who we are before God and before one another. We stand before God as finite creatures, completely dependent upon God for our daily bread, for the countless gifts given to us by God, for life itself.

Yet today’s readings also remind us of the numerous times when our ancestors in faith have forgotten who they were before God. They failed to turn to God who never forsook them and constantly nurtured them. Thirsty, they turned from living water to cracked and dry wells. The belief that they were self-sufficient, or that some “worthless things” will ultimately satisfy, denies who they are before God and what God has done for them. There is a sting today in Jeremiah’s words: they have replaced God with leaky cisterns that cannot contain what is necessary for life and well-being and wholeness.

What was true for our ancestors is just as true for us today when we fail to turn to Jesus, the life-giving water, and love our own “worthless things.” We come to the table hungry and thirsty and we forget who will ultimately satisfy these needs. Yet, God’s constancy toward Israel and us, despite our rejection of God, shows us the truth of who God is and God’s generosity, which is not dependent on our behavior. God remains faithful. We might say we have a standing invitation to the table of the Lord, which shows us the truth of God and God’s hospitality toward us. And because we are made in God’s image, we have been created to live in that same truth, and generosity. We are kingdom people and kingdom people are inclusive and generous, meek in heart, and humble in character, as Jesus reminds us today.

He sets out the kingdom’s table etiquette; dismissing the honors and status of the world and calling everyone into the same meal, into the same place of caring. A sure sign the kingdom has come Jesus tells us is when the host invites the least and where all the people seated around the table reach out their hands to those who cannot provide a feast but who need to share in the feast. God sets a table for all and the truth is; we live in a hungry world. A world marked by the hungers of the body and soul. Our efforts to meet the physical hunger of the world are closely tied to meeting the hungers of the soul. Today, in Jesus’ words calling us to humility, hospitality and caring for the least of us, we are offered guidance and an agenda for meeting some of the most pressing needs in our world.

The Christian community is to be a living sacrifice of praise, revealed in lives of mutual love, hospitality, and care, especially for those who are usually excluded. The author of Hebrews today invites us to share what we have and as the writer reflects on the community of faith, we are told that love between sisters and brothers must continue, a love which knows no boundaries or distinctions or physical limitations. It is the love of God at work within us sending us, who have been invited to the feast, to share that invitation with all people. We are the most of who we are meant to be when we share what we have because God hardwired our brains so that being generous to others gives us pleasure. We can be gifts for one another because of our confidence in God’s abundance toward us.

We are fed this generosity of God every Sunday when we gather at the table of the Lord to receive the best food. We are gathered together as the household of God, gathered at the table as the body of Christ for the family meal. Hungry and thirsty, we are fed and our lives are strengthened in the meal so we can reach out in deeds of love and mercy. Being fed at God’s party should lead to feeding the hunger of others. Being fed, should always have us asking the question of how we can make sure that everyone gets an invitation to the table using God’s criteria? Through our humility and hospitality, we will know God and each other through loving hands, and the world will come to know God through us.

No amount of working our way up the religious hierarchical ladder is going to guarantee admission yet thankfully, God’s generosity and love is not dependent upon our behavior. God is the most hospitable host who invites all to the party. George Herbert wrote a poem where he takes up this theme of God as the host and reminds us that the banquet is about God’s generosity, and not our merit. When invited to the feast, the guest in the poem hangs back, suddenly aware of how dusty he is, and how he has come to the party unprepared, ungrateful and unkind. But love, the host is under no illusions about his guests. He knows what he is doing:

‘Love Bade Me Welcome’

And know you not, says Love, who bore the blame?

My dear, then I will serve.

You must sit down, says Love, and taste my meat;

So I did sit and eat.

We really ought to be known as the ones who are always in the kitchen eating too much—and with the wrong sort of people “for such sacrifices are pleasing to God.”