Borrowed Tables

This morning’s Gospel parable puts in front of us the complexity of a wedding banquet. The parable itself is not difficult to follow, it is quite simple and to the point.  Do not sit in the place of honour in case some greater dignitary has been invited ...what you should do is go and sit in the lowest place.
We all know it is far more complicated than that.  Consider the wedding dinners you have attended and the people with whom you have had to sit.  Consider seating arrangements you have drawn up. How do you decide who to invite, or not invite? Who sits where and with whom?  Do you choose not to have a seating arrangement – where people find their own table mates? How will the tables be placed to be most equitable? Do you take into consideration the attendees feelings or personalities? How do you inform people where they are sitting?  If you don’t like those you are sitting with, do you move or exchange places? And in planning, do you sit the most undesirable of guests, or left-overs, with the pastor and their spouse ... assuming that the pastor has an extra dose of patience and compassion?... trust me, this happens.
Such a parable is a great way for Jesus to start a conversation.  We all have stories, or experiences, of inviting or being invited to a meal at someone else’s table. The wedding dinner nicely showcases the variety of human emotion and the complexity of human relationships.

The Welcome Table is the name of the book I use for First Communion instruction.  The book is told from the eyes of a little girl who participates in her baby brother’s baptism.  As he gets a little bigger she teaches him about Jesus, helps him fold his hands in prayer, says table grace for him, and when in church gets him to loudly say the response to Go in peace. Serve the Lord. The little girl also invites a friend to church and invites her to come to the welcome table to receive a blessing.  She explains the importance of the meal. She says that it is kind of like celebrating Thanksgiving where everyone in the family can have a seat at the table.  She tells her friend if she likes to come to church, one day she too can eat the meal, just like her brother when he is older. When the little girls are at the altar rail, the friend notices all the people who share the meal: young and old, different races, males and females, people who are single, families, the grouchy and the happy.  She sees friends from school and complete strangers. It is obvious that everyone comes as they are and they are welcome.
When Jesus came on a sabbath to eat a meal in the house of one of the leading Pharisees, they observed him closely.
Let’s take a moment to think about this line. First note that it is the sabbath, a day set aside for people to right their relationships with God and with each other. A day for rest, relaxation, rejuvenation.
Second it is at someone else’s table. The Gospels never record Jesus eating at his own table, in his own home.  The Augsburg Fortress resource for this week says that Jesus eats at borrowed tables.  It began from the moment of birth, being laid in a borrowed manger.  He eats at the home of Mary and Martha; Jesus eats with Simon’s mother-in-law after raising her from her sick bed; Jesus eats at Zacchaeus’ table after calling him to change his ways; Jesus makes wine at a wedding feast; Jesus eats at borrowed tables with sinners;  the Last Supper is in a borrowed upper room; Jesus post resurrection meal is on a beach.  Borrowed tables.
Thirdly, Jesus borrows the table, to which he has been invited as guest, as a platform, a moment to usher in the Great Banquet, God’s feast. It is in the breaking of bread that a miracle happens...thousands are fed with two loaves and a few fish; at a borrowed table a woman is forgiven as she washes Jesus’ feet with her tears and wipes them with her hair.  When Jesus comes to dinner women and Gentiles are directly included in the conversation; people are healed; water is made into wine; Jesus washes the disciples feet and tells them to love one another; Jesus interprets the Law in new ways, pointedly admonishing the host in the process; besides this diners, at various dinner parties are challenged to see the world through different eyes and to act accordingly.  No wonder the Pharisees were watching when Jesus sat at the table with them.
When Jesus came on the sabbath  ...
When Jesus comes on the sabbath to eat a meal  ... in this house .. .what happens?

During my teenage years I spent summer weekends on a friends farm, a borrowed table.  My friend had a dad and three older brothers who were responsible for 75 head of milking jersey cows, a mom who was responsible for a number of pigs, my friend’s chore was to tend to her baby sister and to have supper ready when chores were done. I would help her in the kitchen.  The first night she said, “take the dish of what you would like to eat the most to the table last and keep it on your lap until after grace; help yourself before passing it.” I was perplexed but listened to her. No sooner was grace said, when all the dishes of food on the table were scooped up by the family; by the time dishes were passed, there was often little left in the bowls. The family were hard workers and they were hungry come supper.  It was no holds bar.  Give thanks then grab, eat, and go.

Surely this is not how Jesus finds us, when Jesus comes on sabbath to eat a meal in this house.
Each week we give thanks and invite Jesus to this house for a meal, a meal in his honour. Jesus comes to this borrowed table -to borrowed tables and places around the world- and is manifest in our midst, in the breaking of bread, in the sharing of wine. Christ’s presence opens our hearts and the rail -the seats around the table- to be a table of welcome; where all of us in our glorious diversity come and share equally bread of life and wine of blessing.  In the moment, Jesus challenges us:  to set aside greed, to enter into relationship, to eat side by side, to forgive others as we have been forgiven, to receive grace and love when we don’t feel we deserve it.  Jesus challenges us to eat our fill through a tiny morsel of bread and to go abundantly share it. The idea of eating at this borrowed table is to realize it is not our table, God borrows it for the purpose of miracles, healing, conversation, forgiveness, challenge. The expectation is that eating here is not like eating at my friends farmhouse table with her family, where diners were greedy, only focused on food, forgetting each other to fill their own bellies. Being part of God’s meal, at a borrowed table, has host and diner – every diner- sitting side by side.

There is a story of a journalist who is given the opportunity to have a tour of the afterlife; God’s great banquet.  St. Peter is the tour guide.  The journalist, of course, is interested in seeing what heaven looks like; so is shown a large room with a warm hearth, a large pot of yummy smelling soup, and loaves of freshly baked bread. The people seem relaxed, well fed, and enjoying each other’s company.  The journalist noted that the people were curiously tied to each other by their wrists; meaning everything they did they did together – co-operating. There was a large dinning table and those sitting at it were feeding each other with long handled spoons dipping into the tureen in the middle of the table, and serving the person opposite them.  The journalist appreciated the relaxed nature of the meal, the inclusion of all present, and the rich conversation.
St. Peter than took the journalist to see hell, which was the room next door.  The room had been set up identically to that of heaven. Yet the room felt cold, the fire in the hearth didn’t cast much heat- rather it put out quite a bit of smoke and soot. People looked annoyed, hungry, and lost. The large dinning table had a similar tureen and long handled spoons, as the counterpart in heaven.  The only difference was that those seated at the table were not eating. Due to the length of the spoon handles it was impossible to feed oneself...the hell of it was that no one would feed the person across from them at the table.

When Jesus comes on a sabbath to eat a meal in this house I like to believe that our welcome is as hospitable as that offered to us by Jesus through the meal. I wonder though, if we extend such a welcome because we have failed to send out invitations, meaning we are happy and comfortable with those who are part of the community and have not invited those who make us squeamish. Perhaps we have invited our friends, our families, people we know can add a few dollars to the collection plate, people we don’t mind sitting beside for an hour, people with whom we will gladly share a common cup.  Jesus has come to us on the sabbath, a day of rest in which to make right our relationships with God, all people, and creation. Jesus has sat down with us and borrowed the table to challenge us on our invitation practices. Via a wedding dinner parable Jesus pointedly admonishes us – the importance we have given ourselves; the choice we think we have in sending out invitations and making seating arrangements; insinuates that we are greedy, withholding bread and wine for ourselves. 
This week as Jesus comes to us at this borrowed table, may we be so filled with thanksgiving for being invited, welcomed, and included, that we are changed, recognizing the abundance given to us to share. Let’s be lavish in righting our relationships with all people. Let us have conversations with people – all people, every people, each person we meet. Let us invite your friends, relatives, or wealthy neighbours – remember though you may get invited to a meal in their house of worship -  and most importantly let us invite and welcome everyone -everyone- those without a faith home, those we would not want to sit beside at a wedding dinner, the person we would have trouble sharing the common cup with, the person we would not want to rub shoulders with at the altar rail, the person with the hand we would no want to shake during the sharing of the peace, the person we would not want to get stuck with during coffee fellowship...invite them specifically. These invitations are a top priority!

Do not neglect to do good, showing hospitality to strangers, and share what you have for such sacrifices are pleasing to God.