Preached at First Presbyterian Church of Rolla on August 31, 2025. Based on Luke 14: 1, 7-14.
Recently, Vicki and Lloyd turned me onto a great book called Jesus Through Middle Eastern Eyes by Kenneth E. Bailey. He was from Bloomington, IL, attended Pittsburgh Theological Seminary, and was an ordained PC(USA) pastor. However, he spent most of his career in the Middle East—Egypt, Lebanon, Cyprus, and Israel. Being immersed in Middle Eastern culture but educated in the West, he had a unique ability to analyze parables and other scriptural lessons that rely on their original culture and to translate them to our culture.
One takeaway is that Jewish writings are replete with a certain rhetorical form that he calls a “ring” structure. It’s a seven-part structure with symmetry, A-B-C-D-C-B-A, that emphasizes the middle of the passage. We’re used to focusing on the end, the conclusion of the passage, but common Biblical rhetoric emphasizes the middle.
Today’s lectionary reading has two short parables. The first one is about choosing your place at the table. The center of the ring structure is this: “when you are invited, go and sit down at the lowest place.” Huh, that’s odd. Why is that so important?
Well, let’s consider the setup. Jesus is dining at the house of a Pharisee on the Sabbath, and “they were watching him closely.” There is a short story that the lectionary skips over that is almost the same as last week’s reading: a man is suffering and Jesus heals him on the Sabbath, to the consternation of those who are gathered. These particular Pharisees have invited Jesus to dine with them not because they wanted to honor him, but because they wanted to catch him doing something wrong, something they could attack. So what does he do? He tells a story that reflects back their dishonor. He points out their obsession with honor and status, their self-righteousness, their self-centeredness.
Then he tells another short parable, which has an abbreviated ring structure that still puts emphasis on the middle statement: “when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind.” Where the first short parable talks about the proper behavior of guests, this one addresses the proper behavior of a host. In a world built on reciprocity, Jesus says, Don’t worry about being repaid, just do what’s right.
OK, maybe Jesus was just talking about the best way to throw a good party, but I doubt it. If that was all, nobody would have written these stories down, let alone put them in the Bible. Instead, I think Jesus was talking about THE Party, the glorious banquet that awaits us in the eschaton, at the end of history. From Isaiah:
On this mountain the Lord of hosts will make for all peoples
a feast of rich food, a feast of well-aged wines,
of rich food filled with marrow, of well-aged wines strained clear.
And he will destroy on this mountain
the shroud that is cast over all peoples,
the covering that is spread over all nations;
he will swallow up death forever.
Then the Lord God will wipe away the tears from all faces,
and the disgrace of his people he will take away from all the earth,
for the Lord has spoken.
It will be said on that day,
“See, this is our God; we have waited for him, so that he might save us.
This is the Lord for whom we have waited;
let us be glad and rejoice in his salvation.”
Isaiah 25:6-9
You know me—I always preach about the kingdom of God, which is universal flourishing. But you know what else God’s kingdom is? It’s a party! It’s a wonderful banquet that awaits us, a joyful banquet where Christ is our host!
So when you read parables about wedding banquets, you should always be thinking of what Jesus is teaching about His kingdom. In the first parable, the central teaching is: humble thyself. Do not take a seat of honor, lest you be demoted. Instead, take a low place and let Christ raise you. I am resisting the urge to sing “Humble Thyself,” but many of you know that song. Humble thyself in the sight of the Lord, and He will lift you up.
There are many, many problems in the modern Christian church, but I would say chief among them is hypocrisy, which is bound up with self-righteousness. The hypocrite says, You need to follow rule X, but I don’t really need to because I’m already holier than thou. We see it in politics—Christians holding members of their own party to lower standards than the other party, simply because the politician tells them what they want to hear. We see it in sports—fans tolerating behavior from star players on their team that they criticize from opposing players. And of course we see it in church governance—witness the many cases of sexual misconduct and abusive, exploitative behavior that church authorities have covered up in order to protect one of their own.
The truth is, we all need to pursue God’s righteousness, but we all need to recognize that we are no more or less worthy of membership in God’s kingdom than anyone else. Jesus didn’t tell the Pharisees that they shouldn’t go to a banquet, only that they should not think themselves better than other guests. Christ invites everyone to His Table. We have not earned the right to join Him. We come as guests invited.
And that’s a message for everyone, myself included. Maybe especially me, and people like me. I have a title and a role. On campus, I’m Dr. Kimball, professor and department chair. Here, I’m commissioned ruling elder or lay pastor. But in God’s kingdom, I’m just Jonathan. Those titles and roles mark me as someone who has certain training and is called to serve in a certain way, but the Lord does not look on our outward appearance. The Lord looks at the heart.
And the same goes for everyone here. Each of you has been given certain gifts and certain roles, in the church and in your life. A huge fraction of the congregation has at some point in time served as a deacon, an elder, or both. When you are ordained, you are marked as someone who the congregation recognizes, through the Holy Spirit, as capable of fulfilling an important part of our church’s ministry. When you are installed, you are marked as someone who is important to our church’s ministry at that particular time. But that does not make you any more worthy of honor in God’s kingdom than the others in the congregation.
Nor, for that matter, does it make you any more worthy of honor in God’s kingdom than those outside the church. That’s part of the hypocrisy and self-righteousness that is so pervasive in American Christianity. The belief that insiders, people who go to church—as long as it’s the right kind of church—are somehow better in God’s eyes than outsiders. We’re not.
What sets us apart from church outsiders is not worthiness, but spiritual enrichment. We come to church on Sundays, and read, and pray, and join in Christian fellowship, and engage in a wide range of spiritual practices, so that we can fill our faith cups. You can’t pour from an empty cup, so it is essential to find a way to recharge, to abide in Christ so that Christ can abide in you. We all have different needs, but I hope that worshipping together satisfies some of your spiritual hunger. I am spiritually restored in many other ways. I read the Bible, I pray, I run, I serve at the Mission, and I have some dear friends who nourish my soul. Each of us needs to find the combination of spiritual disciplines that will fill us.
But the point of spiritual enrichment is not personal satisfaction. Maslow’s hierarchy of needs has physiological and safety needs at the bottom, followed by love & belonging, esteem, and self-actualization. The baseline need that a church should fulfill is love & belonging. Everyone should be able to find a church that will embrace them just as they are and will love them as a fellow sibling in Christ. If a person can find such a place, they can begin to flourish and hopefully have their esteem needs fulfilled and pursue self-actualization.
But the pinnacle of Maslow’s hierarchy is something more: self-transcendence. The goal of the spiritual journey is to be able to share the abundant life that God gives each of us. Our faith cup shouldn’t just have some dregs in the bottom. It should be overflowing, so that we have spiritual food to share.
I’m often reminded of the dark valley of my life back in 2013, when Rhonda was battling facial pain. I was empty. I was drained. I was hopeless. Into that dark place stepped so many people who were filled with God’s light—deacons, friends, and others who could share from their abundance. I don’t mean time or money, I mean spiritual abundance. You all helped me through that dark time and helped me become the man I am today. In the same way, I strive to fill my faith cup, through worship, study, prayer, and fellowship, so that I have spiritual resources to share with those who are struggling.
The second short parable centers on the admonition to “invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind.” Now, I believe in God’s preferential option for the poor. I do believe that Jesus was telling the rich Pharisees to share their material abundance with those who were in need. In that time and place, being crippled, lame, or blind meant being a beggar, so in all of those ways, Jesus is saying that we should share from our material wealth. But remember, he is also teaching us something about the kingdom of God. He is telling us to include those who the world deems unworthy. He is telling us to welcome the outcast, those who are spiritually hungry, those who are treated as unworthy of receiving God’s abundant life, and bring them into our fellowship. As United Methodist pastor Rev. Eston Williams said, “At the end of the day, I’d rather be excluded for who I include than included for who I exclude.” Jesus is telling the religious traditionalists that on the Last Day, at the end of history, everyone will be welcome in His heavenly banquet.
But the kingdom of God is at hand! The kingdom of God doesn’t only come at the end of history. It comes here and now. We can experience a foretaste of the heavenly kingdom whenever we live as Jesus taught us to live: with open hearts, minds, and doors, welcoming the stranger, comforting the broken-hearted.
You may recall that last year around this time, I asked you all to evaluate this church against the six Great Ends of the Church. I was surprised to see that by and large, everyone rated us pretty high on all measures. I would say that we do pretty well on some, and less well on others. But the one that really matters to me is the last one listed in the Book of Order: The exhibition of the kingdom of heaven to the world. To me, that is the core of the Gospel: living into the kingdom of heaven now, not when we die, not at the end of history when all things are reconciled to God. Now.
But how do we do that? The other Great Ends build up to it. The shelter, nurture, and spiritual fellowship of the children of God, along with the maintenance of divine worship, helps us all individually and as a congregation to build up spiritual riches that we can share. We leave on Sunday, or on Wednesday after Bible study or choir practice, or on Friday after First Friday Out, filled with the Spirit, refreshed and renewed in our commitment to God. That empowers us to proclaim the gospel for the salvation of humankind and promote social righteousness.
For as long as I’ve been in this church, we have talked about the importance of reaching the community. The key is human connection. The key is relationships. We don’t need a program or a media blitz. We need to love those who are spiritually hungry, in word and deed. Not by telling them about God’s love, but by showing them love. Entering into relationships of mutual respect and love, not from a position of superiority or special blessedness, but as a channel of the Holy Spirit. Embracing those outside the church as beloved children of God, equally worthy of honor at God’s Table.
We have been given a great gift: each other. Let us be united in our commitment to the divine Truth that all are worthy of full participation in God’s kingdom, which is universal flourishing. Let us lean on each other to be filled with the Spirit, and then share our spiritual bounty with our community. Amen.
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