"Odds and Ends" at the Banquet

The Church of St. Paul & Incarnation, Jersey City NJ

September 1, 2019

Year C, Proper 17: The Twelfth Sunday after Pentecost

Jeremiah 2:4-13

Psalm 81:1, 10-16

Hebrews 13:1-8, 15-16

Luke 14:1, 7-14

“Odds and Ends” at the Banquet

            A couple of weeks ago some of us were over at Old Bergen Church for the annual peace camp, which is always a wonderful experience of helping children think about what it means to be neighbors – and to actually build a neighborhood made of cardboard – to actually build a neighborhood where Jewish, Christian, and Muslim children are friends.

            Unfortunately, whenever I’m at Old Bergen Church – or even when I pass by, which is just about every day – whenever I’m over there, inevitably I break one of the Ten Commandments - because I covet their parking lot so much!

            Just imagine if we had our own parking lot!

            Now, of course we make do and get by.

            We’re fortunate that St. Dom’s lets us use their lot nearly every Sunday and on some special days, too.

            And, we’re fortunate that so many of our parishioners live right here in the neighborhood or are willing to rely on buses that are usually few and far between on a Sunday morning.

            But, not having our own parking lot does hold us back in lots of ways.

            It’s hard for us to have events here on weekdays and weeknights.

            It’s a big reason why we moved next week’s choral festival from Friday night to Sunday afternoon. We’re hoping even more people will take advantage of the daylight and the parking to come out next Sunday for some really excellent music.

            Not having a parking lot is also one of the reasons why we don’t have too many weddings here, which is too bad because the church is so beautiful, right?

            But, I can understand why couples prefer to avoid the hassles of parking and instead choose to have their ceremony in the same location as the reception. Just keeping all of the guests in one location is much more convenient and safer, too.

            So, we don’t have too many weddings here in church but I do officiate at a fair number of weddings, almost all of them “off-site.”

            In my early years as a priest I used to always stay for the wedding reception.

            I figured, couples were nice enough to invite me and it would be rude to decline.

            After a while, though, I realized that in many cases they were just being polite.

And, I also quickly realized that usually they didn’t know where to seat me and so I often ended up far from the head table and close to the kitchen, sitting at a table with other “odds and ends “ people.

            Now, I’ll talk to anybody, but these wedding receptions are long! So, in recent years, unless I know the couple and their families really well, I usually politely decline the invitation to the reception and scoot out after the ceremony.

            Our own wedding was so long ago now I don’t really remember the process of assigning the seating at the reception but it’s a delicate task, right?

            The couple and their attendants get the seats of honor, of course, and then the immediate family, eventually reaching the back of the room and the table with the “odds and ends” people.

            Of course, you have to be aware of any interpersonal conflicts – people who need to be kept apart, for whatever reason.

            Now, there’s nothing new about any of this, as we heard in today’s gospel lesson.

            If you were here last week you may remember that we heard the story of Jesus in the synagogue on the Sabbath where and when he healed a woman who had been bent for eighteen long years.

            Now, it’s another Sabbath but instead of the synagogue, Jesus is having a meal in the home of a leader of the Pharisees.

            Remember that the Pharisees were a subgroup within Judaism, the predecessors of the present-day rabbis.

            They’re also the group that is usually depicted in the gospels as being opposed to Jesus - and the group that Jesus often harshly criticizes as “hypocrites.”

            Nevertheless, on this occasion, the leader of the Pharisees has invited Jesus to dine with him and others in his home.

            Why?

            We don’t know.

            It could be genuine respect for the mysterious teacher and healer from Nazareth, and a desire to learn more about him, even to learn more from him.

            It might have been sincere curiosity. Who is this man?

            Or, it might have been more sinister: maybe they’re hoping to trip up Jesus, to catch him violating the Law so that they can discredit him with the authorities and the people.

            But, whatever the motive, Jesus accepts the invitation and on this occasion, at least, dines with the well-to-do.

            At this banquet, there’s actually another Sabbath healing, too, though it’s cut out of today’s reading.

            At the start of the banquet, a man with dropsy appears before Jesus. (Dropsy is what we call today edema – a disease marked by painful swelling.)

            In the part of the text that was cut out of today’s reading, Jesus uses the appearance of the man with dropsy as an opportunity to ask the Pharisees if it’s OK to heal on the Sabbath. The Pharisees don’t take the bait. (Maybe they’ve heard how the crowd loved the healing of the bent woman!)

            Anyway, Jesus heals the man and then we move into the scene we heard today, as Jesus comments on the seating arrangements at the banquet.

            At points here Jesus sounds kind of like a first century Emily Post, offering etiquette tips to avoid embarrassment: don’t take seat of honor because the host may bump you and give your seat to someone more important!

            OK, fair enough.

            And then there is the hard teaching:

            “But when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind. And you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you, for you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.”

            Jesus is very much teaching about banquets here and now but he’s also looking ahead to the banquet at the end of the world – the great banquet when the “odds and ends” people, the poor and the smelly and the grief-stricken and the strange will get the best seats at God’s table.

            And, we’re meant to begin getting ready for the banquet at the end of the world right here and right now.

            We get ready for that banquet – get a taste of that banquet, even – when we gather for Communion, stretch out our hands, and receive the Bread of Life and the Cup of Salvation.

            We get ready for that banquet – get a taste of that banquet, even – every month at our Stone Soup Supper and at our monthly lunch at the homeless drop-in center where the “odds and ends” gather to break bread together.

            Jesus challenges us to throw a very different kind of wedding banquet – one where the people I might not want to spend much time with - “odds and ends” people - aren’t in the back by the kitchen, but they’re right up front, at the head table, at the place of honor, and together we eat and drink and celebrate, getting a delicious taste of the banquet that awaits us at the end of the world.

            Amen.