12 Pentecost/Year C
August 28, 2022
Proverbs 25:6-7; Psalm 112; Luke 14:1, 7-14
I think most of you know that I’ve had a very busy summer travel season, and I will have some other travels coming up every month through November…It feels like I’ve done more travel in these few summer months than I’ve done in the past 7 1/2 years I’ve lived in Sitka.…Apparently Alaska Airlines thinks I have too… because I got the Alaska Airlines notification yesterday that I finally reached the MVP status for the number of air miles flown… I’ve been traveling for family funerals and weddings, and travel for diocesan church-related meetings…
A few things came to mind, when reflecting on this week’s gospel reading, during my last set of travels – for my son’s wedding last week in Michigan…and my church meeting in Fairbanks…
In today’s gospel reading, Jesus tells another parable…this time the setting is at a wedding banquet…Just before he tells this parable, he is answering a question, AGAIN, about whether its lawful to heal someone on the sabbath…
Jesus had observed the guests trying to get to the best seats, the places of honor at the wedding banquet…but Jesus, being Jesus, liked to challenge people to re-think what they were doing…were they really loving God and their neighbor, and following the commandments or were they just trying to earn some special favor with God, and with those who were present, by associating themselves with those who might be able to return a special favor to them? Or perhaps they were hoping if they were in the place of honor, they would feel important and worthy in God’s eyes…and others’ eyes? Maybe God would see them in all the imperfections, yet still love them…Jesus reminds them, that in God’s kingdom, at God’s banquet…all are invited, and all are welcome…there’s no need to fight and scramble for the best seat …Because at God’ banquet…the tables are turned upside down…the seating arrangement is all changed up…to make room for everyone…there’s plenty to share with everyone…so it’s best, he tells them… to go and sit at the lower place, when they are invited to the wedding banquet…so that when the host comes…they may be invited to move up…and be honored in the presence of ALL who sit at the table together…Jesus passes on a few more words of wisdom to help them understand this…“For all who exalt themselves will be humbled, and all who humble themselves will be exalted.”
At my son’s wedding this past week, being the mother of the groom, Loyd and I had some “special” assigned seats…near the bride and the groom…What was really wonderful, though, that we noticed in the seating arrangements that night…was that at every table…there were two seats that were not assigned to anyone…I didn’t have a chance to ask…but I thought maybe it left open the option for the bride and groom, to come sit down and visit with others throughout the night...or maybe it was just an invitation for anyone to go sit down at another table to visit with others they knew or didn’t know yet…
I wonder what it would be like…to set aside two spaces at our own tables: a place for God and a place for our neighbor…Would it help us to be more mindful of God’s presence? Would it remind us of our call to invite and welcome others to join us at the table? To be mindful of other’s needs in our community – those who are often overlooked? Would we be reminded, that we are always worthy in God’s eyes, and that we don’t have to do anything more to earn our place at the table…other than to come, just as we are…knowing that we are welcome and loved, and then go out and invite our neighbors to join us…get to know them, let them see that they too, that they are worthy and loved by God, too…instead of us scrambling to see who can be first, or can sit in the best spot…there’s more than enough to go around, in the family of God…there’s plenty to share with each other…
In God’s kingdom…at the banquet table…when all are invited, and come to the banquet, and are seen as beloved in God’s eyes, and in the eyes of all of us, who gather together at the table…that’s where healing happens…that’s where the transformation of lives happens…that’s where we all come to know in our hearts and in our lives…that we belong to God, and each other…that we all have a home with God and one another...and where we know that the feast at the wedding banquet is set for all of us…to enjoy life in the light of God’s glorious splendor and abundance for us, and for all of creation…
Rev Julie Platson
St Peter’s by the Sea Episcopal Church
Sitka, AK
Hymn after sermon: (VF 93) - God, creator, souce of healing
God, creator, source of healing
here we pray for wholeness and health.
Guide our work, our thoughts, and feeling,
guide the sharing of our wealth.
Give discernment in our decisions
give compassion in our care;
reconcile our strife and divisions
as we search for means to share.
Jesus, known to friend and seeker
exercising healer’s art,
may the strong support the weaker
showing love with head and heart;
give fresh energy and purpose
when unreasoning blocks your grace,
spare us harm, in danger alert us,
show the radiance of your face.
Holy Spirit, bring us wholeness,
come with your transforming love;
give us freedom, hope and boldness,
raise our eyes to see from above;
shape our systems, institutions,
clarify our blinded sight,
as we seek God-given solutions,
help us greet the just and right.
Trinity of awe and wonder
yours the glory, yours the praise.
Strike our binding chains asunder,
liberate our cramping ways.
May our lives reflect your splendour,
in abundance Lord we ask.
God, our guide and our befriender,
give new meaning to our task.