“All who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.” Jesus, in today’s Gospel Luke 14: 1, 7-14.
“Take your elbows off the table, Geoff.” My mother, who was a teacher, to my father at Sunday lunch when I was a child. His reply cannot be circulated!!
As a child, table manners were always considered important at home particularly with four children at hand and my father sometimes being treated like a fifth by my mum, who occasionally forgot that she was not in the classroom. Dad’s response usually reminded her, sometimes more politely than others! Today, it seems that families often eat different meals at separate times, some while watching TV or perhaps with mobile phones at hand and conversations or activities taking place with others not present. Today’s Gospel deals with the etiquette practised in the time of Jesus and his interpretation of what it meant in terms of God’s kingdom and the heavenly banquet.
In Luke’s passage, Jesus has been invited to the house of a Pharisee – this is not about hospitality but an opportunity to meet Jesus at close quarters and try to trap him. Jesus notices that the guests choose the places of honour for themselves – often these occasions were used for social advancement but Jesus warns against this. Instead, he suggests that a guest should choose a lowly place in case other more distinguished people are present and then be invited to move up higher if they are not. In that way, due recognition could be accorded rather than eclipsed and Jesus also reminds those present not to give invitations in the hope of being repaid with a return invite. He suggests that friends and family should not be invited to a meal for that reason but that the outcast, the poor and disabled should be welcomed, specifically because they cannot repay the social etiquette expected in those days. Jesus exaggerates to make a point, for the Pharisees believed that they would be rewarded for generosity and charitable acts at the resurrection of the righteous – but, meanwhile, are acting unrighteously by favouring those who may favour them in return.
That often applies today, too, and an invitation to a dinner has been much in the news this week. The Liberal Democrats Party leader Sir Ed Davey has announced that, although he has been invited by King Charles to a banquet at Windsor Castle for the visit of President Donald Trump next month, he will boycott it in protest about the situation in the Middle East. Sir Ed said that he and his wife Emily “…have spent all summer thinking about this and have prayed about it. There is no honour like an invitation from the King, and not to accept his invitation goes against all of our instincts…. Boycotting the banquet is the one way I can send a message to Donald Trump and Keir Starmer that they can’t close their eyes and wish this away. We have to speak up, they have to act. Donald Trump must act to end this humanitarian crisis.”
There are many who would disagree with his political assessment and response just as there are many who would agree with it. But it echoes the points made by Jesus as he finds himself a guest at a meal where politics are at work, duplicity is afoot and all is not necessarily as it seems. His remarks are pertinent to us today, as we are also asked to ponder our genuine invitation from another King to his heavenly banquet – but on very contrasting terms. Jesus’ parable suggests that God’s criteria for his guests will be very different from the usual expectations and that the invitation shows his generosity and grace rather than our merit. As George Herbert writes, ‘Love bade me welcome…. So I did sit and eat.’ Will we be at Love’s feast in due course and might we be astonished to see who else is or isn’t there? And might they be surprised about us?!
With my prayers; pob bendith,
Christine, Priest Guardian.