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September 12th:  Grandparent’s Day Coffee Hour

October 9th:  Mission Study Team at Visioning Workshop

October 10th:  Coffee Hour

October 23rd:  Deacon and Elder Training at “Presbytery Day”

October 31st:  Children’s Sunday

November 7th:  Coffee Hour

November 14th:  Friends and Family Dinner

December 19th:  Christmas Breakfast

Luke 14:1-14
14On one occasion when Jesus was going to the house of a leader of the Pharisees to eat a meal on the Sabbath, they were watching him closely.
7When he 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; 9and 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. 10But 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. 11For all who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.”
12He 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 or your relatives or rich neighbors, in case they may invite you in return, and you would be repaid. 13But when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind. 14And you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you, for you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.”

Well it’s not communion Sunday quite yet, but again this morning we’re talking about food. I hope you don’t get too hungry. It’s just that Luke’s story of Jesus has a focus on food and eating, and all four Gospels seem to indicate that Jesus ate a lot, which is why it comes up so often. You might even say it was Jesus’ favorite past-time, as it is for many of us, which is why the table and feast are one of our primary symbols as Christians today.
But we may wonder if Jesus got a whole lot of food after all, considering how it seems in this story at least that Jesus wasn’t a very cooperative guest. Here he’s been invited to the home of one of the leaders of the Pharisees–They were the head honchoes of the time, so this must have been pretty important– But as soon as he arrives he goes out of his way to point out the bad manners of the other guests. “Don’t jockey for the best seats”, he tells them, basically quoting a verse from Proverbs, while wagging his finger around the table. “Those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.”
Humility. This is pretty standard advice these days. Humility is no longer a radical concept in our society as it was in his. Even the big-wigs feign humility today. People learn to punctuate their discourse with self deprecating humor and they often end judgmental statements with “but that’s just me, what do I know” or the new one that I haven’t quite figured out yet is when people put “Just sayin” at the end of their sentences. “Just sayin.” What does that mean? Clearly we all know it’s not cool anymore to be proud or arrogant, we quickly learn not to rush to be the first in the buffet line and if there are people who are all about getting the best seats, they sure aren’t coming to church because these front rows would be filled! No, what I think is most instructive about this story isn’t the reminder to be thoughtful when choosing a seat (as important as this can be), but rather the fact that we aren’t ultimately told where Jesus ends up sitting at all. Did he end up with the worst seat in the house? Did he ever sit down to this banquet at all? Where can we expect him to sit when he comes to our dinner? I want to know because if I’m sitting on the wrong end of the table I might not get to talk to him at all, you know what I mean?
It’s like there are two directions Christians often go in search of the good life. On the one side of the table are people who might traditionally be called upwardly mobile. Some of them may have read the Prayer of Jabez and believe that God wishes to expand their territory for the sake of the kingdom of heaven. They emphasize themes in the Old Testament that tell us how God wants to bless us with health and wealth so we can be a blessing to others. I have one close friend, for instance, who has considered going into missionary work, but believes instead that God has called him to be a sender, instead of a goer. Afterall, how can missionaries be sent, if there is no one to send them? Likewise there are many good folks who might be a little luke-warm on missionary work, but believe God would want them to climb as high as they can go in the world of influence so that they’ll be able to promote justice on a larger public level—“beyond charity”, if you will. It’s basically the same theology at work. Both require moving in circles where you may be required to wear nice clothes, eat good food, and use efficient gadgets. And it’s important to note that while Jesus doesn’t seem particularly concerned about his own status in society, he doesn’t necessarily denigrate this lifestyle either. In this passage for instance, Jesus doesn’t say not to eat with the powerful or rich, he even gives us instruction on how to make ourselves look good by being humble when we do eat in these households. That’s his advice to upwardly mobile.
And then on the other side of the table are folks who have felt called to a lifestyle that might be characterized as downwardly mobile. They choose a simple lifestyle so they’ll have more time and energy to devote to the people and issues God has put on their hearts—family, friends, the environment, the poor. For example I once met a fairly well-known man who now works with prisoners and migrant workers. He and his wife spent many years living at a subsistence level in Central America, organizing for social justice and teaching organic agriculture. These are often the type of folks who shy away from money or overt power. Their heroes are people like St Francis and Dorothy Day and Mother Theresa. Idealists. Saints. A news reporter once asked Mother Theresa what was most challenging about her work. Was it all the suffering she saw day in and day out? Was it the poverty and the pain? No, she said, “This” These interviews and these meetings, these questions. She’d have much rather spent more time with the poor and the lonely and the hurting. Theresa of Calcutta may have been born into a wealthy, upper class family, but she didn’t want to stay there. That’s what you call downwardly mobile.
So who’s chosen the better side of the table? The upwardly mobile folks or the downwardly mobile ones? Those who move in the halls of power or those who clean toilets in the slums? Well I think the interesting thing about Jesus is that he never really says explicitly. Instead we find him hanging out with both groups of people and he seems to have different things to say to each. When he goes to a rich man’s house he talks about giving money to the poor. But when he’s with the down-and-out he seems to be all about lifting them up, empowering them to seek and hope for more. It’s almost like both directions—upward, downward, can be appropriate depending on where you find yourself. When you’re on top you often need to be taken down a peg, and when you’re on the bottom you often need someone to help you to stand.
But one thing Jesus makes clear whether you’re on an upward trajectory or a downward one, is that we are all called to a different way of being in the world that moves across these boundaries of class and status and power for the sake of the balance and wholeness of the community. You could say, as I will this morning, that God doesn’t call us just to be upwardly mobile or downwardly mobile, but maybe differently mobile. Because as a community in following Jesus, we don’t just eat with the powerful or the powerless, but with both—often at the same time. I think this is why we never know exactly where Jesus is going to sit at the table—because he has a way of moving around. And if we hope to have a conversation with him, we might just have to keep moving around too.
It’s like these thrones up here. Like Larry, I’m somewhat of a literalist. If Jesus says don’t take the place of honor, I’m not going to sit in the biggest throne because it should be reserved for the guest of honor. But then if you think about it, Jesus in his humility, might not even want to sit up here in his throne, so you folks in the back might be in the best seats after-all—right near the door. I suppose if it were totally up to me I’d sit back there too, but then what would happen if everyone sat in the back row? I’ve seen this in some churches–people pushing and elbowing for that last two feet of back pew space—it’s not pretty. I don’t think Jesus would be in on the race to the bottom either. So what about assigned seats, then? Let’s say each family just more or less claims a pew and takes their chances on that one spot forever after. I suppose there’s a chance that someday a stranger like Jesus might decide to sit next to you in your particular pew, but wouldn’t you have a better chance of meeting someone new if you moved around a little bit? Moved across the isle every now and then, checked out another perspective?
That’s where the second part of Jesus call to us comes this morning. When you have people over for dinner, he says to this rich man, don’t just invite people who look like you or act like you or think like you, because they don’t help you to change at all. If you only eat with people who sit near you, you’ll never see beyond your own pew. But if you want to hear a word from God, you might have to reach out once in a while. If you’re rich, try inviting someone poor to a meal. If you’re young, try inviting someone old. And so on and so forth.
Now this is easier said than done—particularly in Seattle where most people have a phobia about letting other people into their houses at all, but in my mind this is what makes the church unique. And it’s what makes Madrona so special. I like to think that the church should be a place where we are likely to meet people who are significantly different from ourselves. We come to church to be a part of this “everybody is welcome” ethic. It’s the gateway to community, our passport to social mobility—not upward or downward, but sideways, you see. From neighbor to neighbor. Connecting the happy with the grieving, the joyful with those who sorrow, the old and the young, the rich and the poor, the sick and the healthy. That’s the family of God. That’s the seating plan that we know is good and just and beautiful.
This isn’t to say that there’s anything wrong with inviting over your friends and family—God knows we’ll do this anyway, Just as we know Jesus often ate with Mary and Martha and Lazarus—his good friends with whom he had a lot in common. But Jesus reminds us this morning that we need to do more than that—more than just love those who love us. Which is why we need the church to help us welcome the other—to help us cross over to the other side of our social boundaries. No one can do this by themselves alone. Perhaps someone here has tried to welcome the poor and the sick and the lame into their homes all by themselves—we have those kinds of saints here I know—but most of us need a larger table for that kind of entertaining. And so here we are. Not just to feed people, but to eat with them. To pray for people, and to pray with them. As the psalmist says, to sit at a table “in the presence of our enemies” (Psalm 23). To laugh with those who laugh and weep with those who weep. To love together. To grow together. To care for one another both spite of our differences and because of them.
So how are we doing in making these kinds of crossings? How would Jesus judge our guest lists? I think we’re doing pretty well. The more I learn about Madrona the more humbled I am to be a part of this differently mobile community.
I remember several years ago running into Eckert at Harborview and thinking to myself, wow, here’s a gay black man inviting me to church—me–a young stuffy looking white guy. Sure, I’d visited before, but he didn’t quite get that. All he knew was that Madrona is a place that welcomes everybody—and I was one of that everybody. And he’s still inviting everybody to church, talking about wanting to welcome ex-offenders and homeless people. The kind of people who make Jesus more comfortable at our table. Like most people here he gets it—that Jesus has changed the rules for us. That it’s no longer about getting ahead or getting ours, but it’s about getting across—across cultures, across class, across gender. It’s about being on the move to become more of the body of Christ together.
On Thursday night I went to the memorial for Daisy’s brother Bob Tibbs who at one time was a member here. I was talking to a woman who remembers Bob from growing at Mt Baker Park Presbyterian Church. She describes Mt Baker back in the day as being the big white church up on the hill and she remembers Bob as the one who integrated that congregation. The story she told me was that when Bob was walking up the steps into the church for the first time there was a white man standing at the door who said to him, “You know, your kind isn’t welcome here.” To which Bob responded, “Well it’s about time then.” And he went in to worship. And stayed. Because that’s the kind of guy Bob was. He was on the move, looking to cross over those divides. Not for the sake of power or status, but for a greater reward. For righteousness. For community. For Jesus. For eternity. He also crossed denominational lines. Crossing over from Presbyterian to Baptist to Catholic, understanding that the same God who now holds Bob will someday hold us all, so we might as well get to know each other now because someday we’re going to be together for a good long time.

You see Jesus is a realist. He doesn’t say cross over and you’ll be perfectly happy. He doesn’t say cross over and you’ll have a good time. (Although I think we do have a pretty good time!) He says do it for the reward you cannot see. Do it because it’s the right thing to do. If you’ve ever had someone over for dinner who’s radically different from you, you know that it’s not always a walk in the park. Sometimes folks can be offensive. They can be picky. And eating together can be awkward to say the least. But it’s important to eat with these others because it tends to disarm us and keep us from playing the same old game that has kept us separate for so long. We’re stripped down to our basic humanity and forced to learn once again what it means to do justice and love mercy and walk humbly with our God.
So consider inviting someone different to dinner this week, and imagine Jesus will be coming too! What will you eat? What will you wear? Where will you sit? Fortunately for us it is Jesus who will host the meal, and we can simply follow his lead. Simply watch and learn from our Lord Jesus, who did not consider equality with God as something to be grasped, but instead humbled himself, taking the very form of a slave, in order that one at the name of Jesus every knee would bow, on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. To the glory of our God in heaven. Thanks be to God.

We’re well on our way to raising $100,000 to install a new furnace for the church. Every dollar helps!
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Beginning on Thursday January 14th at 7:30 (note the new time) p.m. at Jonathan and Drew’s home on 5220 42nd Ave. S. #211 (corner of Rainier Ave. S. and 42nd), we will be holding a weekly Bible study entitled “Making the Grace Connection.” All are invited to this wonderful opportunity for learning and fellowship. If you have any questions, please call Jonathan at 206-214-6443.

A big Thank You! to all those who worked so hard and to those that attended the December 7th Gospel Experience Choir Christmas Benefit Concert. It was the Best!

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Please bring any socks, jackets, shoes and blankets you can donate.  Money donations will be accepted.  See Eckert White.