Introduction
I love name placards and place settings.
For one thing, I am not one to refuse fancy and beautiful things. But also, there’s something really nice about have your seat picked out for you. You know exactly where you’re supposed to be rather than having open seating where you have to negotiate with others whether or not a seat is taken. It’s so much easier to look at a list and find out what table you’re supposed to be at, find your name and take a seat. A place at the table that was meant especially for you.
Seeing your name at the table reduces the stress, the anxiety of wondering whether you are truly wanted. Seeing your name already set before you signifies that you belong in this space.
That being said, for all the good of seating charts and placards, they tell you a lot about what your host might think of you. Sometimes good and sometimes that can be not so good.
I think most of us experience seating charts at weddings. Personally, I have attended a lot of family weddings and of course usually will be seated with family. You get to catch up with other relatives and it’s often pleasant or at the very least you know who you are with and what conversations you can have. At weddings that I’ve attended for friends, we usually sit with other friends. Seminary buddies, college friends. A very enjoyable time catching up on life.
But have you ever been to a wedding and you’re just not sure where they’re going to seat you?
For me, it is in my professional capacity that is always a wildcard. Where do you seat the pastor of your wedding?
For me, it has ranged anywhere from the head table (which I did not like because too much happens there, pictures, toasts, and so on) to being seated in the far corner of the room away from everyone else. I have sat with the grumpy old aunts and uncles of the family and with the random assortment of business partners of the groom’s father. I think the most interesting table I was ever put with, in my professional capacity, was with the groom’s fraternity brothers. I learned far too much about his college life that evening.
We see a lot in these moments of invitation. We see who the host feels are important enough to be invited to such an event. And then, from the seating, we may be able to infer who they see us as and what value we are to their life.
So, the societal question of respectability is: who is given an invitation and where are they seated?
Now weddings are probably the most common example of today but there are many other occasions where invitations occur. And in those spaces, where there is more politicking and social climbing, these questions become even more important. Who is on the invitation and where are they seated?
But today, Jesus wants us to ask different questions.
This is why I love this Gospel text so much. Because what I hear Jesus saying, is that personal invitations are important. They make us feel included and welcome. AND our invitations should be farther reaching.
Narrative Context
Think back to who Jesus has been around to this point in the Gospel of Luke. Jesus has been spending most of his time with the disciples, with people in need of healing, people in need of food and nourishment, people who are nowhere near the elite. Some of these people have struggled to survive for most of their life. Some were scorned by just about everyone from the elite to underprivileged. Jesus’ most recent dinners were with sinners, tax collectors, people who were sick, and people who were outcast.
But in this instance, Jesus is heading to a dinner at a home of a religious leader, and he is surrounded by other religious leaders. All who are heading to this gathering together.
These are all people, who expect to have a seat at the table. They are so important, that it doesn’t even cross their mind that they wouldn’t have a place to sit, to eat, to drink, and to socialize.
And Jesus looks around and sees who is present and who is not.
The religious elite are present. They are deemed worthy and holy and are wealthier than most. But that’s it. Only the religious leaders are present.
Those that Jesus healed are not present. Those that Jesus fed aren’t present. Not even the disciples seem to be present.
This “invitation-only” dinner is full, and only those who are worthy have a place at the table. And where you sit, matters.
What About the Politics?
I could talk about the politics of the time. That respectability was important. Where you sat suggested your importance, and if you had the ear and attention of the most important people in the room. That if you received a better seat, you may be expected to repay the gesture or to owe a favor. But, things wouldn’t be much different at a political party today. Priority seating, favors, and social climbing are all things we’ve heard about or maybe even experienced ourselves.
Jesus sees this unfolding. The invited folks jostling for the best seats at the table. The host currying favor with those he needed to impress. All the while, Jesus knows who’s not in the room. And so, Jesus calls this out. Jesus confronts this system that claims to understand God’s wishes and clarifies a few points.
Table Etiquette
First, jockeying for position at the table shouldn’t matter. The goal of community should not be to lift yourself up ahead of others, the goal should be to lift one another up. Mutual success and benefit.
Second, is to notice who is not invited. Who has been excluded from the table?
Jesus making these points is not just to scold the religious leaders for this dinner party that they are throwing, but to try and show a different way of seeing society and community. Society and community shouldn’t be a game to play and win but instead a mutual support system that enables all to thrive. And in that, Jesus gives US a promise that is so powerful. And one that we need to be reminded of frequently.
The incredible promise that we hear in this text is that Jesus, God, is insistent that everyone has a place just for them at the table. Without exception. Without payment or expectation.
Preaching Possibilities
God’s Table
When this broken world around us sets a table with expectation of repayment, or expectation of respectability, and bringing a dish or a card, God sets a table for each of us to have a place, only wanting our company and nothing in return, serving grace upon grace.
God sets a table where your name is waiting, showing that you are most certainly wanted and that you belong in this space.
There is nothing that excludes us. There is no order or preferential treatment given. No matter who we are. Where we’ve been. What we’ve done. No matter our lineage, our profession, our economic status. No matter our country of origin, our ethnicity, our gender, our sexuality, our immigration status. Each of us has a seat at the table. That is God’s promise for you this day from Jesus. You have a seat at God’s table.
But that is true for everyone else too. Even those we didn’t think to invite. Even those who we didn’t think were worthy. Even though we may feel like we earned it, and they didn’t. Even though it may seem unfair. Everyone, especially those that we see as different or unworthy, are invited and welcome with open arms at table of God.
That is God’s table. A table for everyone to experience God’s grace. God’s nourishment. God’s community and company. A place where God’s invitation reigns and not our own.
Micah Krey 
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