An Interpretation

"Table Manners"

Luke 14:7-14

September 2, 2007

All the guests had their eyes fixed on Jesus…. watching his every move. Several people were suspicious of Jesus and his strange ways of behaving. They were hoping to catch him in some slip-up they could use against him. At a Sabbath meal with one of the leaders of the Pharisees, paparazzi Pharisees, his table manners were now under scrutiny.

Pharisees spent their whole lives insuring that the Law of Moses was followed to the letter of it – followed carefully by the community of faith who took seriously the story of God’s saving action, and followed carefully by this itinerant rabbi Jesus as well, who was gathering quite a crowd, causing quite a stir.

Right off the bat, he spies a man hugely swollen in his joints, outside the banquet room. Maybe a street person wandered in. He healed this man with dropsy, even while the Pharisees questioned the appropriateness of this action on the Sabbath.

Tony Campolo, minister and author and well-respected speaker, tells this story, which I think is a modern day equivalent.

One day he was walking, and passed a street person. He had bits of food in his beard, greasy hair, rotten teeth, and was sweating under two overcoats in the intense summer heat.  “Would you like a drink of my coffee?”  he asked Tony as he walked by. As you might imagine, Campolo’s first impulse  was to turn the man down. But, then, for some reason, he had second thoughts. Turning back, he cautiously asked,  “Why did you offer me a drink?”  “Well,” the man explained, “I’m just so grateful to God for this wonderful cup of coffee, I wanted to share it with somebody.” So, Tony gingerly took a sip.

The, feeling generous, he asked the man if there was anything that he could do for him.    He was expecting that the man might want some money, for instance.

 “Could you give me a hug?” he replied. So Campolo cautiously hugged the unkempt man, dirt and sweat, and food bit beard and all.

But as he tried to release himself from the half-hearted hug, the man was not wanting to let him go. There he was, held fast in the grip of this earnest street person, held fast in his embrace, he tells. Campolo says that while he was waiting to be released, God allowed him to see the inestimable value of the man. God allowed him to see this “bum” from God’s point of view.

Here he was, locked in an embrace with one who was deeply and dearly loved by God.  And knew, in that moment, that he was too.

After healing the man, Jesus eyed the scene closely. He noticed how they selected their spots at the table. It wasn’t much different in Jesus’ day than in ours. There are places of honor at tables. Here, pastor, sit at the head of the table,  won’t you? We want you to feel special here. Will you offer the blessing too? Here, sit by me, please, while we eat supper. Why, here’s your place card with your name on it! Here, you get a place at the head table up front – aren’t you special?

We know how this goes. We’ve been at wedding dinners,  political galas. There are proper places the father/mother of the bride or groom sit at the  reception dinner and there are places he/she cannot. We know who belongs at the head table and who does not. It has always been so. And Jesus was watching them to see how they placed themselves around the table.

Just a little aside. When I attended freshman orientation with my son, Taylor, last month at Chicago’s Illinois Institute of Technology, I was impressed by what one of the college’s vice-president said about the role and work of the Placement Center in the student’s upcoming job placement in 4 or 5 years. Instruction will include the potential job seeker’s table manners. It is important to teach them how behavior at the table speaks volumes about who you are as a person who happens to be an engineer.

He said,  “Watch how a person eats – that will tell you all you need to know about their character.  Manners are what you do, not for yourself, but out of regard for others.”

Without hesitation, Jesus tells a story to the guests around the table, after noticing how each guest tried to elbow their way into the place of honor.

He was on a roll- first a healing now a story sure to prick their conscience.  Those watching for slip-ups were licking their chops and rubbing their hands in anticipation. They wanted him to be, above all, polite. They wanted to see if he would follow protocol.

He didn’t. He told them the protocol was wrong. He said,   REVERSE IT.   Like flying upside down. Choose the place of least honor for yourselves. Because if you don’t it’s going to happen to you anyway. All who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.

I like the way Eugene Peterson paraphrases this:

 “What I’m saying is,  if you walk around with your nose in the air, you’re going to end up flat on your face.   But, if you’re content to be simply yourself you will become more than yourself.”

And if Jesus wasn’t rude enough in their minds, he continues. Scanning the gathering as he talks, looking to see who is and is not present. And, by the way, when you give a luncheon or a dinner, do not invite your friends or your family or your neighbors, in case they might invite you in return, feeling they owe you one in return.

No, when you throw a party,  invite the crippled, the poor, the weak, and the blind. And you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you……

Tony Campolo had enough trouble being invited to share a cup of coffee and hug by one of the poor, and we know we may not fare as well as that.  Now, here’s where Jesus is pushing the analogy, this parable, to its ridiculous limit. Invite that dirty, smelly, intrusive person to your party, precisely because he cannot return the favor.

“But the favor will be returned -oh, how it will be returned! –  at the resurrection of God’s people.”    E. Peterson

And then Jesus took his place, more than likely, picked up his bread, drank from his cup, and let his words settle where they would.

Jesus’ table manners are simply not in good taste. Jesus – with all the really huge issues in the world today – sexism, racism, militarism – your fussiness over behavior at table seems a bit trivial! He would be an embarrassment to most of us, too, as he was that day to the Pharisees who had learned the proper protocol, from Miss Manners, but lost the surprises and promises of God in the process.

The promises of God were that at the day of reckoning, those that were in good standing would be those who  had bad table manners. This is still true today.

Here’s a poem, entitled,  So Say the Critics:

He teaches humility, this Galilean crank, the stuff of slaves and clowns, no citizens of rank.

The peasant prattles on about the lowest seat, asking the unwashed mob to come inside and eat.

He has not got a clue, this charismatic fool, about the real world and what it costs to rule.

It takes a clear head to keep them in their place; you cannot run a world on parables and grace.      B.D. Brewer, 2000.

For the rest of the world, food is a means of demarcating between social and economic classes. But for Christians, for those who follow Jesus, for those who would learn table manners like Jesus, food is a sign of the outbreaking of the reign of God in our midst.

It is an invitation to come be fed, a call to come and join a family where we are judged by criteria other than those of the world. Sometimes it takes one of God’s dearly beloved child who is most unattractive to us to teach us this truth, as Tony Campolo learned. Sometimes we can get there little by little on our own.

The Good News for today is – this table is set by God for God’s beloved, and that is everyone of us, and everyone else as well. If we would know blessing, let us come to the place of least honor and bring with us everyone we know who is in need of this nourishment and let us eat with deep gratitude, with broken, compassionate hearts, the banquet spread before us by the very hand of God.   Amen.

Sources:

Tony Campolo, The Kingdom of God is a Party: God’s Radical Plan for His Family, Word, 1990

Kathryn Timpany, Table Manners, Central Congregational sermon, 9.2.01

John Rottmann, Preaching, 9.2.01, p. 138

William Willimon, Mind Your Manners, Duke Chapel sermon, 8/30/98