Guess Who's Coming to Dinner

Text: Luke 14:7-14

Who is it who gets the best seat for dinner at your house? As you plan for the arrival of guests, do you figure out who will sit where, making certain that the most respected of guests is not relegated to the corner spot at the table--the one where the legs don't quite fit under the table and the challenge is to get fork to mouth cleanly because of the awkward angles?

Jesus speaks of two situations of entertaining for dinner. I find that fascinating in itself, that the Lord is so very familiar with the routines of social life in his time. I suspect he knows ours quite well also. The first is the occasion of being entertained; the second is about throwing the dinner party oneself. In each case he is particularly interested in the dynamics of invitations; in each case he gets at the heart of our real selves, our real concerns and desires for relationships and standing in this world. This is not a "raise your hand if you love other people" type of question. It asks it in a much more difficult but much more meaningful way. Where do you expect to be seated given your assessment of yourself with respect to the others present? Whom will you honor with the gift of an evening meal carefully and thoughtfully prepared?

I have a suspicion that most of us have more trouble with the second of Jesus' directions than with the first. We'd much rather invite to our homes the ones who can directly or indirectly provide us some benefit, even if it be only a return invitation. Of course, if the prospective guest also happens to be in a position to provide even more significant benefits or promotion in status, so much the better. "Invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind." The ones you'll have to work harder for just to serve the meal. When it's over, you might have a greater clean-up chore, and no return invitation or rise in prestige. In all honesty, few of us imitate Jesus by giving this kind of preference to the friendless and needy ones. What kind of invitation, if not to a dinner, will you offer, will I offer as an unmerited gift to another in response to our Lord? Let's at least think about it--and perhaps include our past failures as part of our Lenten confession.