A Seat For Everyone

The Rev. Dr. Skip Ferguson

Manassas Presbyterian Church

Manassas, Virginia

September 1, 2013

A Seat For Everyone

Luke 14:1, 7-14

Every elegant restaurant has them:

the preferred tables,

tables given to the best customers,

the wealthy, the VIPs,

tables under the watchful eye of the maître d’hotel,

who sees to it that the guests at those tables

have their every need fulfilled.

At those very same fine restaurants

there are tables near the back,

tables by the bathrooms,

by the kitchen doors,

tables for those the maître d’hotel

judges as not worthy of better seating.

The diners at those tables enjoy the same food

as those up front,

but every bite is accompanied by the banging of doors,

the shouting of waiters,

the clattering of dishes.

The good news for you and me

is that the table that awaits us in the Kingdom of God

is the preferred table – for all of us,

every one of us,

all God’s children,

with no one – not you, not me,

no one relegated to a lesser seat;

everyone graced with a seat of honor.

At God’s table there is no preferred seating for VRPs:

“Very Religious People;”

no special sections set aside

for those who in their lifetime were called pastors, priests,

even “princes of the church”.

All will have a seat of honor,

all will be in the presence of the Lord our God,

and our Lord Jesus Christ.

Now our logical, linear minds may buzz with the question,

how can that be – how can every seat be the same?

It doesn’t make sense.

But God is not bound by time, by shape,

or by dimension;

With God, all things are possible –

as we talked about last week;

So, with God, all of us, every one of us

can have a preferred seat, a seat of honor,

with no one by the kitchen door.

This is our future;

this is what we have to look forward to in the life to come.

But our Lord Jesus Christ calls us to work to create here and now,

even in part – a small part, a bit,

the Kingdom of God.

        

After all, our Lord has taught us

that the Kingdom of God is among us here and now.

Do you remember when our Lord told his listeners and us:

“The kingdom of God is not coming with things that can be observed,

…For, in fact, the kingdom of God is among you.”

(Luke 17:20-21)

Some Bibles have translated that last sentence as Jesus saying,

the kingdom is “within you”, rather than “among you”,

as though the Kingdom is something personal,

something one person may have, but another may lack.

But translating it that way misses the fact that

when Jesus says “you”, he is using the plural.

The Kingdom of God is found

not just in this person or that,

but in the community of disciples,

all of us together –

the kingdom of God is among us.

We together give life to the Kingdom,

create its foundation

even as we look to the day

when God will bring it

to its glorious fruition.    

The Kingdom is among us,

and Jesus teaches time and time again,

that it is to be found not in the recitation of creeds,

or the rattling off of statements of faith,

or by offering sacrifices,

or by following certain rituals or liturgies,

but by living lives of grace and love

in the same way our Lord Jesus did

as he walked with his disciples so long ago.

And Jesus teaches us that perhaps the easiest place

to find a piece of the kingdom,

to build a piece of the Kingdom,

is at a meal, around a table,

people gathered to share food and fellowship together.

How much of Jesus’ ministry and teaching occurred

at a table, a meal, with food?

From the feeding of the 5,000,

to the resurrected Jesus so lovingly

grilling fish on the shore of the Sea of Galilee

as breakfast for his disciples,

we find Jesus time and time again

feeding his followers with food for the body

even as he fed their spirit with grace and love.

Our text tells us of yet another meal,

this time with Jesus sitting at the table of

one of the leaders of the Pharisees,

one of the religious leaders at the Temple in Jerusalem,

a man who was part of the group that constantly confronted Jesus,

and eventually sought to kill him.

Here was Jesus, enjoying the fellowship of his adversary,

sitting with him, the two of them,

along with others,

sharing a table, sharing a meal.

        

His disciples must have wondered

what Jesus was doing eating with this man

a man who was more concerned with power,

with authority,

with the fear he instilled in others,

with the cut of his robes

than he was with God,

or with what Jesus was teaching.

Jesus could have preached,

condemned,

criticized,

judged,

but he didn’t.

Jesus simply taught.

With the Pharisee sitting at the head of the table,

puffed up with his authority, his prestige,

Jesus spoke of humility, of hospitality,

of the importance of making others feel welcome.

                                                              

What Jesus taught was Kingdom living,

pulling back the curtain just a bit

on the kingdom of God,

that place where there is no power, no preferences,

where the concern is not for the rich or the privileged,

but rather for the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind.

Do you remember our Lord’s words

from last week:

“Woe to you who are rich

for you have received your consolation.”

(Luke 6:24)

                          

As he taught, Jesus built on a theme that runs through Luke’s gospel,

that Jesus first spoke of when he began his ministry in Nazareth

and read from the book of Isaiah in the synagogue,

reading from the 61^st chapter:

“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me

because he anointed me to bring good news to the poor.

He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives

and recovery of sight to the blind,

to let the oppressed go free.”

(Luke 4:18ff)

It is a theme that we find even Jesus’ mother Mary

spoke of as she praised God after she learned

she was going to give birth to the Son of God:

The Lord has scattered the proud…

and brought down the powerful;

He has lifted up the lowly,

and filled the hungry with good things,

even as he has sent the rich away empty.”

(Luke 1:51ff)

Did the Pharisee listen to Jesus’ words?

Perhaps.

Did he learn from Jesus’ words?

No.

The question for us, then, is:

Will we repeat the Pharisee’s mistake,

or will we listen,

will we learn?

Will we embrace Jesus’ teaching?

Will we embrace Jesus’ desire

that we be transformed by his words?

“Repent, for the kingdom of God is at hand”

is what Jesus says to u.

(Matthew 4:17; Mark 1:15)

Repent, which means, “turn”;

Turn back where we have turned away;

Turn, which means we need to change direction,

change from the direction in which we were headed,

change to the direction Jesus would have us go.

Do we really live lives of humility,

lives of hospitality?

Last week we spoke of Jesus warning to us

not to store up earthly treasure,

those things that will turn to rust and dust,

but instead store up treasure in heaven.

As the writer of the letter to the Hebrews reminds us,

“here we have no lasting city,

but we are looking for the city that is to come.”

(Hebrews 13:14)

The city that is Kingdom.

Are we focusing our minds on building the Kingdom,

each of us doing our part to be kingdom builders,

creating a new world,

all of us reconciled to God,

and reconciled to each other,

all of us living peace,

with “God in his mercy,

and not us in our pride and pettiness,

in charge of the world”?

(Buechner)

If we are living in a world torn apart by racial injustice,

economic injustice,

by religious, ethnic and cultural differences,

by violence and warfare,

then we are certainly not building the Kingdom.

“God has created the peoples of the earth to be one universal family,”

our Book of Confessions teaches us,

going on to say,

“God’s reconciling work in Jesus

and the mission of reconciliation

to which he has called his church

are the heart of the gospel in any age.

(Confession of 1967, 9.06, 9.44)

The work we are called to do by our Lord Jesus Christ,

this work of reconciliation with all humanity,

begins with humility, with hospitality

extended to all,

building from there a world of justice and peace.

This work takes courage, and yes, it takes faith,

but our Lord shows us the way,

teaching us, equipping us,

guiding us, encouraging us.

The Kingdom is at hand, says our Lord,

and we can see a glimpse of it,

the part we each build.

It is as close as the nearest table.

AMEN