7 When [Jesus] noticed how the guests chose the places of honor, he told them a parable. 8 “When you are invited by someone to a wedding banquet, do not sit down at the place of honor, in case someone more distinguished than you has been invited by your host, 9 and the host who invited both of you may come and say to you, ‘Give this person your place,’ and then in disgrace you would start to take the lowest place. 10 But when you are invited, go and sit down at the lowest place, so that when your host comes, he may say to you, ‘Friend, move up higher’; then you will be honored in the presence of all who sit at the table with you. 11 For all who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.”
Luke 14:1,7-14
12 He said also to the one who had invited him, “When you give a luncheon or a dinner, do not invite your friends or your brothers and sisters or your relatives or rich neighbors, in case they may invite you in return, and you would be repaid. 13 But when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind. 14 And you will be blessed because they cannot repay you, for you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.”
My sermon from the 12th Sunday after Pentecost (August 31, 2025) on Luke 14:1,7-14.
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Tyler Yan is a stay-at-home dad and tiktoker who regularly posts videos of what he makes for his daughter’s lunch. Each video begins with a focused shot on an empty metal bento box sitting on a white kitchen counter waiting to be filled. As a person who has been making school lunches for years, I’m always looking for ways to spice up what my kids bring to school. But what Tyler puts in his kid’s lunch box puts my lunch making skills to shame. I’d like to share with you a short list of some of the recent lunches he’s posted on Tiktok. A few days ago, he packed for his daughter some herb baked salmon over sesame rice with sliced cucumbers, edamame, yellow dragon fruit, and half an avocado on the side. Prior to that, she feasted on a wagyu burger with caramelized onions, mushrooms, and swiss cheese on a gluten-free bun. Last week, the bento box was packed with an arugula salad under some filet mignon and included jasmine rice, shitake mushrooms, and a little gourmet chocolate for dessert. But my personal favorite was the fish tacos made out of fresh fried snapper with mango coleslaw, cilantro lime rice, and a side of freshly cut dragonfruit for dessert. Each lunch looks like a literal piece of art and you can almost taste it off the screen. Yet what I also really enjoy the most about these videos are all the comments people leave. Unlike the rest of the internet, the vast majority of those words are extremely positive, celebrating the food he made. And one thing I think is very cool is how many simply post a question wondering if they could become one of his daughters too. The beauty, grace, and joy at his table make all kinds of people want to be a part of it. And that makes sense because the meals we share are about more than simply giving our body the nutrients it needs to survive. Meals are events where care is offered, love is shared, and where people who don’t always see eye-to-eye with one another have to sit down together and chew. We want to be at the table where good meals are found. And in today’s reading from the gospel according to Luke, Jesus invites us to remember how being at God’s table changes every other table we have.
Now the meal Jesus was invited to probably resembled the kind of dinner parties popular in the Greco-Roman world at the time. The first order of business when guests arrived was for the lowest person on the social totem poll to wash their feet. That person might have been a servant, a slave, or one of the host’s younger children. And once the dirt, dust, and grime was wiped away, everyone would be invited to take their seat. Those seats, though, wouldn’t be chairs since the ancient Mediterranean world was all about stretching out on something resembling a chaise lounge. These couches were arranged at the center of the room within easy access to individual tables, trays, or a long plank where food would be placed. One thing that made these couches different, though, was they weren’t designed to seat only one. Each couch had space for three or four people to recline. Folks would lean on their left elbow and contort their body so their right hand could grab food while their feet pointed away from one another. During the meal, the enslaved or servants or maybe some of the hosts’ youngest daughters would be busy picking up plates, filling glasses, and making sure none of the food ran out. And that’s because this meal wasn’t designed to go fast. It was a long, slow event where everyone could be seen.
Now it wasn’t enough to simply be at the party; everyone needed to see that you were there. Whenever Jesus or anyone else drew near, it was even expected for the neighbors to look out their window to see who was on the guestlist. These guests, though, weren’t only there to be noticed; they also had a lot people watching to do on their own. Paying attention to who was talking to whom, where people were sitting, who was in that room with and who wasn’t helped people recognize how other people saw them. And when they took their seats, where they sat in relation to the host of the party reflected their social status and prestige. Those nearest the host would, most likely, be the rich, the successful, those with power, those who we’d like to be, and those who the host wanted to impress. Getting on their good side was important because they were the ones who might give them a job, join in on some financial endeavor, or offer some kind of gift that would make other people feel jealous since the so-called “right kind of people” knew their name. Who we’re with often determines how much admiration, care, and attention other people give. And in a world where how others saw you determined your worth, being seen reclining on the right couch really mattered. Who you lounged with influenced what your tomorrow might be. And if you claimed a spot others felt you didn’t deserve, the harm to your reputation would last for a long time. We might think that, today, we’re beyond this kind of behavior. But all we need to do is turn on our tv and open up our social media feeds to see how much we care about being seen. For some, it’s more important to be seen as strong rather than having the character, integrity, and values that make us strong in the first place. Others care so much about being liked by the right kind of people and disliked by those they despise that they let their perspective determine their truths rather than letting the truth shape who they choose to be. When we assume we can look at someone and without hearing their story decide they’re unworthy to be at our table, we make our world incredibly small. And when we act as if every one of our moments are picture perfect; that we are always at the top of our game; and that the only thing we do in life is win – the reality we actually move through is completely pretend. When we let our worth, value, and sense of self be defined primarily by what others see, then our life doesn’t belong to us. Now Jesus, at that dinner party 2000 years ago, could have told the host, the guests, and everyone in that room that their worth was primarily defined by the love God already had for them. But instead of telling them who they are, he invited them to change their lives by living as if everyone truly mattered to God. We don’t have to live as if being seen is what makes our life worth living. We can, instead, just be and notice how expansive God’s love always is. When we intentionally expand our guest list and choose to not think too highly of ourselves; when we let others sit in the places where we want to be and focus on the care we can give; it’s at those moments when this life becomes our own. Integrity, honesty, humility, and grace are a big part of how life should be lived. And when embrace them, the meal God has already set for us comes clearer into view. It’s through baptism, the gift of faith, and those times when Jesus became real to you – when we notice the place at the table God has made for us. And this place isn’t in the back or off to the side or even below those folks we know are way more faithful than we could ever be. The seat God has given to you is at the table where the Son of God sits. The desire to be seen will always be very hard for us to shake but trust that you are worth way more than the amazing – and not so amazing – lunches you get to serve. God’s table is big enough to include folks like you. And so we, in response, can make our own meals and our own tables bigger so that they better reflect who our God chooses to be.
Amen.