Reserved Seating
A Sermon by Brent J. Eelman
September 2, 2007
Abington Presbyterian Church

Luke 14:1, 7-14
    On one occasion when Jesus was going to the house of a leader of the Pharisees to eat a meal on the Sabbath, they were watching him closely. 7 When he noticed how the guests chose the places of honor, he told them a parable. ⁸‘When you are invited by someone to a wedding banquet, do not sit down at the place of honor, in case someone more distinguished than you has been invited by your host; ⁹and the host who invited both of you may come and say to you, “Give this person your place”, and then in disgrace you would start to take the lowest place. ¹⁰But when you are invited, go and sit down at the lowest place, so that when your host comes, he may say to you, “Friend, move up higher”; then you will be honored in the presence of all who sit at the table with you. ¹¹For all who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.’
    12 He said also to the one who had invited him, ‘When you give a luncheon or a dinner, do not invite your friends or your brothers or your relatives or rich neighbors, in case they may invite you in return, and you would be repaid. ¹³But when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind. ¹⁴And you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you, for you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.’*

About twenty-five years ago my church took the confirmation class to Chicago for a special field trip. I was serving a little country congregation and this was an opportunity for the young students to see the “big city.” One of the things that we planned was a trip to “Operation Push”. We wanted them to experience an African-American worship service. We arrived at the sanctuary and like good Presbyterians, we sat in the back of the room in the last row of pews. (What is it about Presbyterians that we think that the best seats in a worship service are all the way in the back?) We were met by our hosts who immediately said, “Oh no! You are our special guests. We have reserved seating for you here in the front. And so we moved to the places of honor in that sanctuary. We moved to the front of the church and took our reserved seats.

Jesus was also concerned about where people sat, and how they were treated. The occasion for today’s message was a meal. This was no ordinary meal that Jesus was attending. This was a Sabbath meal, modeled after the Greek banquets. The food was secondary; this was an occasion for teaching, story telling and lectures. It took place in the home of a Pharisee, a devout Jew who believed that righteousness demanded obedience to God’s command. The Pharisee’s world was ordered and regulated by all types of laws and rules including who was to be honored and where people were to be seated for various occasions. This was no ordinary meal that Jesus was attending. No.. And you can be sure that the Pharisees and their guests were watching him. Luke wrote: “They were watching him closely.” But Jesus was also watching them and he noticed something about their behavior. The guests chose places of honor. They went for best seats…. And that is what caused Jesus’ comment on the events of the day.

It was simple practical advice: when you are invited as a guest to a special occasion, do not assume that you are the guest of honor. Do you assume that the best seats are reserved for you. Take one of the humbler places, and allow the host to honor you by moving you to a better place. The reverse could also be quite humiliating. “Please move, you don’t belong in this section.” This was simple practical advice that all of us should remember. But this teaching was not about manners. Jesus was talking about something a lot more important: it was about the Kingdom of Heaven, and how we should treat other people. It was about who is important in the eyes of God, and who should be important in our eyes.

Jesus’ message is troubling because he said that we should not assume that we are as important as we think we are. Now remember, Jesus was talking to some very devout and self important people: Pharisees. They expected to be honored by Jesus. They believed that God had a special place for them, because they deserved it. Jesus’ parable was a caution to them. Don’t assume. It is consistent with many of his other teachings: “the first shall be last, the last first.” It is consistent with the song his mother sang at the very beginning of Luke when she proclaimed that the mighty shall be brought down from their thrones and places of power and the poor given good things.

This message was hammered home by the second lesson. When you give a dinner party, “do not invite your friends or your brothers or your relatives or rich neighbors.” Who should we invite: “invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind.” What could Jesus have possibly meant, except that the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind are honored in the Kingdom of Heaven. It is interesting, that Jesus did not merely use an economic model to challenge the Pharisees. It was not just their treatment of the poor that concerned him. Consider: the crippled, the lame and the blind were all socially ostracized within the ancient world. Their condition was seen as a judgment upon them, and they were not acceptable to be in presence of God. Jesus’ words must have stung like nettles when he suggested that these were the very people with whom God chose associate. God has a different view of who is honorable; a different view of social status.

In a few minutes we will be celebrating another meal: the Lord’s Supper. Communion is the meal that anticipates the great banquet in heaven…. Jesus’ words in this section of Luke should challenge us to ask, “Who sits at our tables and who is invited to sit at God’s table? We know who is allowed to sit at this Lord ’s Table and partake of communion… But who sits at our other tables? In other words, how do we treat the poor and the outcast? There is an ethical and social dimension to this teaching of Jesus. Jesus challenges us in our day. Consider:

1. Who do we invite to the table of good medical care? 45 million Americans are not invited to that table.

2. Who do we invite to the table of Education? 27 % of our nation’s schools did not even measure up to the lowest acceptable standard.

Jesus also challenges us personally…. Who do we invite into our lives and who do we restrict. I will conclude with a story: When I was 14 years old, I, like most adolescents, was extremely self-conscious. I did not want to appear to be “un-cool”. I wanted to have cool friends. Who doesn’t? I was sitting on the bus going to school when we made a stop. A strange looking boy named Timothy entered the bus. He was new to our town, from India. He looked different. He acted differently. He dressed strangely (he buttoned the top button of his shirt!). He walked on the bus, and I found myself thinking, “Please don’t sit next to me.. please.. please…” and you guessed it. He did. He wanted to talk and try as I might to ignore him and give him a cold shoulder, he pushed his way into my life. It wasn’t enough that he sat next to me on the bus, he called my house and wanted to come over. Other kids made fun of him. They didn’t want to be with him and neither did I. But he wouldn’t leave me alone. I don’t know what the tipping point was, but I started to appreciate Tim. Then he became a friend and then a good friend. I wasn’t very nice to him at first. But he taught me a lesson I take with me today. He taught me that there are no places of honor, and there are no reserved seats on a school bus. Often when we discriminate or exclude, we deprive ourselves of friendship and love and there is nothing greater than that.

That day on the school bus still haunts me, and the words of Jesus in this section of Luke are hard ones for me to hear.. Because in my heart, I know that they are related. Who do we invite to our tables and places of honor? Who is allowed to sit with us, and who do we avoid or exclude? This is the challenge of Jesus’ teachings for many of us… and it is also the Good News of the gospel. Ponder it, struggle with it. Believe it. Live it. Amen.

*The New Revised Standard Version Bible, (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson Publishers) 1989.

Abington Presbyterian Church, Abington, Pennsylvania,  www.apcusa.org