First United Methodist Church, Birmingham, Michigan
Feb 17, 1999
Scripture: Luke 14:1, 7-11
“One Sabbath….when he went to dine at the house of a ruler who belonged to the Pharisees…. they were watching him.” (Luke 14:1)
Have you ever been watched while you eat? Years ago, my mother told me that people would notice the way I ate and draw conclusions about me….and about the people who raised me. To some extent, she was right.
Much is revealed by the way we eat. I know a man whose corporate responsibility includes selecting candidates, from among those newly hired, for his company’s executive training program. He is the one who has to figure out which of the fast-trackers can cut the mustard. So he holds interviews, gives tests, reads letters of recommendation, and reviews transcripts….all the traditional things. And then he takes each candidate out to dinner and observes his or her behavior. “Watch how a person eats,” he claims, “and that will tell you all you need to know about their character….given that manners are what you learn (and what you do) not for yourself, but out of regard for other people.”
Which reminds me of Will Willimon’s story about being interviewed for a job at Yale. The first evening they took him to Mory’s (as in “from the tables down at Mory’s, to the place where Louie dwells”). There he was, face to face with five Yale professors. And his host said that he must have….in fact, his host ordered for him….the French onion soup. Then everybody sat back with perverse delight as Willimon fielded question after question, while trying to plunge his spoon through the thick, cheesy crust, without sloshing liquid over the side in the process. And then there was the matter of the cheese which never quite broke free from the glob and ended up stringing itself from chin to spoon until severed by the fingers. Which is why I never eat the Swiss onion soup at Peabody’s when I am dining in polite company, lest I embarrass myself by wearing more of it than I consume.
But on this occasion….while they were watching Jesus….Jesus was watching them. At issue was not the “how” of their eating, but the “where” of their seating. To be specific, Jesus ended up addressing the seat selection process and the way that certain people plunked themselves down at the head table (or as close as they could get to it). Leading Jesus to say: “Don’t do that. It could get embarrassing, you know. I mean, you could be sitting in one of the front seats and your host could approach you and ask if you would mind ‘movin’ on back.’ I mean, it could get ugly.”
“Instead,” said Jesus, “take the lowest seat when you enter, the one with the clear view of the dishwasher (every time they open the kitchen door). For you never know. You could get lucky. And the host could come over to your table and say: ‘Hey friend, how about movin’ on up?’”
I know a fellow who is employed by a great university. And he’s hung around the place so long that he knows all the signs that tell whether you are on the “inside” of university politics or on the “outside” of university politics. A big indicator is your table assignment at major university dinners. The head table is best. Tables 1-3, next best. Any table, 10 or under, you’re pretty much okay. But if you wind up at table 20, you’d better update your resume.
As one who, by dint of title, often sits near the front, I appreciate (and, to some degree, enjoy) the status of high placement. And yet I hear the words of Jesus when he says: “Hey friend, don’t presume anything. Start down low. Consider yourself lucky to be there at all. Let your host call the shots.”
What’s involved here? More than meets the eye….I’ll tell you that. And I’ll tell you how I know that. There’s a little clue in Luke’s narrative that gives it away. For Luke tells us that the “banquet” in this story is a “marriage feast.” And whenever you see the words “marriage feast,” you know that they are meant as symbols for the Kingdom.
And this is one of those stories. Its purpose is to give us a glimpse of “end time.” It says: “Don’t count on what you count on now, counting then. All this jockeying for position. All this wanting to be in the right seat. All of this wanting to be number one. None of that is going to count.” The only thing that is going to count in the Kingdom is humility. Which means that at that banquet….at that time….the appropriate place to gather is at the foot of the table.
And, concerning that, listen to what Mark Trotter says next:
Nobody knows what is going to happen at the banquet. I get impatient with people who think they know what is going to happen. They seem to know who is going to heaven and who is not, as if they were privy to the guest list….as if they knew beforehand who had been invited….as if they had access to the seating chart….and as if they knew who was going to be at the head table right next to Jesus. I notice that the people they say are going to be in heaven tend to be the people who agree with them. And the people who aren’t going to be there are the people who do not agree with them. These people pass themselves off as Bible-believing Christians. But one wonders if they have even read the Bible. Because if you read the Bible, it’s as clear as it could be. Nobody knows. The only certainty is that there are going to be surprises. As the old spiritual suggests: “Everybody talkin’ about heaven, ain’t goin’ there”….at least, right off.
Except there is one clue. The humble are probably going to make the first cut with the least trouble. Which leads to a pair of concluding thoughts.
The first concerns a test for humility. I picked it off the Internet the other day. It’s amazing what you can find there. Consider this:
During my second month of nursing school, our professor gave us a pop quiz. I was a conscientious student and had breezed through the questions, until I read the last one. “What is the first name of the women who cleans the school?”
Surely this was some kind of joke. I had seen the cleaning woman several times. She was tall, dark-haired and in her fifties. But how would I know her name? I handed in my paper, leaving the answer blank. Then I heard another student ask if the last question would count toward our grade. “Absolutely,” said the professor. “In your careers you will meet many people. All are significant. Each deserves your attention and care, even if all you do is smile and say hello.”
I’ve never forgotten that lesson. I’ve also learned that her name is Dorothy.
My second concluding observation concerns the whereabouts of Jesus at the banquet. I mean, you might want his autograph. Or you might want to have your picture taken standing next to him. So you’ll want to know where he’s sitting, won’t you? Of course you will. So I’ll locate him for you. He’s at table 20.
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Oh, by the way, their names are Tony, Stan, Chito and Martin. I’m talking about the guys who clean the building. Just so you’ll know.
