Cathy Cox<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Sunday, August 28, 2022<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When Jesus enters the house of the Pharisee for a Sabbath dinner, he watches – Now he is also being carefully watched by others, of course, too –
He notices how the people choose their seats at the table.
In the Greco-Roman world, people were seated according to their place in society – (still true)
But there are always people who think they know where they fit – and are ready to demonstrate it by moving up close to the host – toward the head table.
And Jesus speaks to them, first –<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Humility was not a Roman virtue, of course – so he upsets some of them by suggesting that their presumption might be misplaced – sit lower – wait to be invited up higher –<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But then – he turns to the host himself – He is the one who sets the \u201crules\u201d of this particular game – or at least he enforces and assume the value of the Roman social norms around him –<\/p>\n\n\n\n
First remember – these are Jews – this is not supposed to BE their \u201cgame.\u201d But it is. They have conformed to the world around them – even at the most sacred place of social interactions – the table –<\/p>\n\n\n\n
So he says to him: Jew to Jew – believer in God to believer in God – What you really ought to do is what God does: invite the poor and the lame – the blind and the helpless who cannot repay you.
His advice to the host undermines the very system that upholds the social rules of honor and dishonor – WHO is to be honored – WHO isn\u2019t worthy of honor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Jesus upends the very idea that social payment and repayment should govern in God\u2019s kingdom – His understanding is that it should not –<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It is those who cannot repay who should be top of your guest list –<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Guests have to follow the social norms you set – but YOU should be upsetting the social norms of the Empire – which does not reflect the values of God\u2019s kingdom –<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And he goes on to tell this story – (read)<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But why is this an obligation for Jews?
And why does Luke think it continues to apply to Christians?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Now we return to Jeremiah – read –<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Remember that there is only one story in the entire Bible – It is the story of the Exodus – It is the story that demonstrates that GOD rescues, chooses as his own, elevates the weak, the helpless, the poor, the nobodies of the world – and makes them a kingdom and priests to serve our God – That is what the New Testament understands Jesus\u2019 life and death and resurrection to be as well – a rescue mission – an act of God coming down into Egypt and raising us up out of it – by GOD\u2019s choice – not ours –<\/p>\n\n\n\n
THAT is who God is. And so – that is who we are also called to be – if we are his.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
That is why he rebukes – gently, of course – but seriously – anybody who wants to claim the highest seat – AND the host who supports such a system of distinctions –<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The host needs to remember who HE is, too – one of those who was brought up out of slavery in Egypt – into freedom –<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When we don\u2019t extend that same freedom to others, we have exchanged our God for another – and that is always tragic – don\u2019t do it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Cathy Cox Sunday, August 28, 2022 When Jesus enters the house of the Pharisee for a Sabbath dinner, he watches – Now he is also being carefully watched by others, of course, too –He notices how the people choose their seats at the table.In the Greco-Roman world, people were seated according to their place in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":3351,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3519","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-sermons"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stalbansbolivar.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3519","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stalbansbolivar.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stalbansbolivar.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stalbansbolivar.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stalbansbolivar.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3519"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/stalbansbolivar.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3519\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3520,"href":"https:\/\/stalbansbolivar.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3519\/revisions\/3520"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stalbansbolivar.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3351"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stalbansbolivar.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3519"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stalbansbolivar.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3519"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stalbansbolivar.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3519"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}