Knowing Your Place

It’s International Women’s Day as I write this, and the scripture for this Sunday is from Luke 14 about Jesus eating at a Pharisee’s house and the dynamics of dinner invitations and party etiquette.

Interestingly, not a single woman is mentioned in the reading. I’m sure they were there, perhaps not worthy of their own invitation but possibly attending with their husband or, more likely, there as servants or family preparing and serving the food and very much in the background.

Jesus talks about how some people presume the best seat at a wedding banquet but are then asked to move to a less important spot. Others, recognizing their lack of importance and taking the least popular seat might get asked to move up to a more honoured place. Humility leads to greatness, and ego leads to being humbled, Jesus says. He also later says that those who typically are not valued and who can’t return the favour should be the ones we invite to dinner. His list includes the poor, the lame, the crippled and the blind.

There are many who would love a seat at the table, any seat at all. Women have fought for recognition that they are more than housekeepers and cooks and baby producers. Their gains have enabled them to have a spot at board room tables and behind Communion tables. They have turned the tables in many spheres to ensure that their voices are acknowledged. When I was in high school the push to promote women going into trades, engineering and other traditionally male careers was fairly new. We have come a long way.

The current fight for LGBTQI+ rights continues the battle for equal representation and value in society. Full accessibility for those with vision, hearing and other physical impairments is another ongoing challenge and call to action, as well as dignity for the increasing number of impoverished and homeless as the cost of living climbs ever higher and social services are stretched to the limit. Sincere welcome of immigrants and also respect for Indigenous Peoples who were here first is also important. Some churches welcome children and youth fully into congregational life, including Communion and leadership in worship, but many pay lip service to “the future church”.

A popular meme on facebook a while back that sometimes resurfaces is, “if you have more than enough build a bigger table”. We can look at Jesus’ teaching in Luke 14 as telling us to be welcoming of guests in our own homes, offering hospitality to those who probably can’t invite us over any time soon. But we also can see the promise of the heavenly banquet, whether that’s here on earth together as God’s family, or in the world to come. Sadly, some would want to keep that guest list pretty exclusive with just those who we understand and get along with well.

Of course, as Jesus points out, the first step is to accept your invitation and go to whatever God is inviting you into. But we equally should be going out and finding more people to bring along with us, because there is room for everyone. Our God is a god of abundance. There is a place at the table for all, no matter what our colonialist roots seem to tell us and no matter how ingrained our beliefs based around fear and entitlement are.

For those who have just found their place at the table, it can be fascinating how they respond by either holding on to it tightly for themselves afraid it might be taken away and that there isn’t enough for others or by eagerly sharing what they have received with arms wide open to embrace and bring in anyone needing the love of God.

I pray that we can live out what Jesus is asking of us in these verses. I pray that we can recognize our need for humility because we are invited in by a loving God despite our faults. I pray that we can fully welcome in those who could never give back what we are offering to them. And I pray that we will make sure that the invitation goes far and wide, and that it includes all who may feel unworthy, because they are the most worthy to come and sit at table with Christ.