Twelfth Sunday after Pentecost, Year C, August 31, 2025
Food is a big part of what we do here.
We are always gathering food
or gathering around food.
We make sandwiches
and collect food
for people struggle to eat.
We are planning to offer a meal
of bratwurst and hot dogs
along with a free concert
to share with our community.
Even our worship
culminates around a sacred meal.
In today’s gospel Jesus finds himself
invited to share a meal with a Pharisee.
Just as a quick reminder,
Pharisees are spiritual leaders in Judaism
who often get a bad rap.
These leaders were responsible for interpreting Torah,
God’s law in the Holy Scriptures,
and understanding God’s intentions
for God’s people.
For a while now,
these religious leaders have been watching Jesus,
curious and concerned about the way
he interprets the law,
who he accepts,
and how he practices Sabbath.
You see in Luke chapter 7
these leaders have witnessed a notorious woman
anoint Jesus’ feet at a table.
In Luke chapter 11,
Jesus and his disciples
have not properly washed themselves
before eating at a table.
And prior to this exchange today,
Jesus has healed a dinner guest
on the Sabbath.
And the religious leaders,
like these Pharisees,
aren’t quite sure what to do with this.
Jesus is very aware
of the invitation he is accepting.
Jesus knows that a dinner invitation
in the first century,
is not just a dinner invitation –
it has strings attached.
Dinner invitations were a measure of status.
Tables were often arranged in u-shapes
with a defined social order,
with those seated in the middle
being part of the upper class
and those on the ends
part of the lower class.
And not only that,
the table was a place of networking for
male upper-class individuals
who were expected to return the invitation
back to their own tables.
A dinner party was not just a dinner party,
there were strict expectation.
Nothing says “Party Time!!”
quite like a list of inscrutable rules.
But we’ve been watching Jesus ourselves.
The Monday Bible study and the Lectionary
have been following Jesus
over this season after Pentecost
as we wind our way through the gospel of Luke.
We know that Jesus
is not going to attend a dinner party
and play by the rules.
Jesus is mission minded.
He’s always looking for a teachable moment.
If he’s going to attend,
he’s likely to expose the whole thing
in order to reveal of the Kingdom of God.
Recalling the Proverbs,
to these experts in the scriptures,
he says,
don’t embarrass yourselves
by choosing a seat of honor,
assuming it belongs to you.
Instead,
chose the lower seat
and assume that is your position
so that if the time comes
you will be honored
when you’re asked to move up.
Do you hear echoes of Mary’s song here?
Earlier in the gospel of Luke,
Mary sings,
“God has looked down with favor on the lowly …
God has scattered the proud …
God has brought down the powerful
from their places of power and lifted up the lowly …
God has filled the hungry with good things
and sent the rich away empty …”
But this is the opposite
of how we have been trained to think.
We live in a society that encourages us to
learn the most,
earn the most,
own the most,
be seen the most,
and post the best version of ourselves
on social media.
In most of our lives,
when we share a table,
it is often a game of “one up,”
of social and political power plays,
comparing accomplishments and wealth.
We judge ourselves
and each other
by our proximity to power,
by our allegiance to a political ideology,
or even a specific politician.
We even judge our churches
by how many people attend worship,
how they set the table for worship,
and by how formally or casually
they approach God’s table.
And all the while,
God judges by a different metric,
looking around for the people
who have no proximity to power,
for those who are missing from our tables.
Beloved, who is missing?
When we gather around our tables,
who is not there?
- Who is missing at the tables in our homes?
- Who is missing at the tables in our social circles?
- Who is missing at the tables in our neighborhoods?
- Who is missing at the tables of our children’s cafeterias?
The late Rachel Held Evans once wrote:
“This is what God’s kingdom is like:
A bunch of outcasts and oddballs
gathered at a table,
not because they are rich or worthy or good,
but because they are hungry,
because they said yes,
and there’s always room for more!”
And at God’s table all are welcome,
There is a place for everyone!
It doesn’t matter what your bank account says,
what your relationship status is,
what gifts you bring or what gifts you lack;
whether you are young or old,
there is a place for you around God’s table,
in the midst of this meal of love.
Beloved,
when we gather here at God’s table,
who is missing?
The demographics of this part of the county
say that on average,
our neighbor is a 35yo person of color.
And yet,
our average parishioner
is a white person twice that age?
We do an excellent job
of making sure our neighbors’ tables
are filled with good food.
But Jesus challenges us
to find a way to share not only our food,
but our table,
to share our meal,
and to share God’s meal,
with those who don’t look like us,
who don’t share our proximity to power,
who don’t share our socio-economic status,
who suffer in ways that make us uncomfortable,
and whose experience challenges us
to reexamine our understanding of the world.
This is the very work and witness
of Jesus,
who set aside equality with God
to stand,
or sit,
in solidarity with the human condition,
with all its joys and sorrow,
until life and death and everything in between
is swallowed up in the very life of God.
We are called to move beyond
simply sharing our food
to sharing our table
and indeed,
our very lives
with those our social structure
has pushed to the margins.
As we move toward discerning
where God is calling this congregation
to invest our lives and our resources,
we are beginning to reexamine
and reimagine
the ways we embody the kingdom of God
in our community.
In the coming months,
we will be inviting you
to take a seat at the table
as we discern together
where God is calling this congregation
to engage our neighbors
and to make a seat for them around this table.
For some of us,
that we mean that we will have to take a “lower place,”
that we will have to put the needs of our neighbors
ahead of our own preferences and comfort.
It will call us to witness
and to stand in solidarity with
the suffering going on around us.
It will call us to free our lives
from the love of money
and the status it brings,
trusting God to be our provision
as we work to provide for our neighbors.
And we will not take on this work alone.
God has promised
that God will never leave us
or forsake us,
and that Jesus Christ is the same
yesterday,
today,
and forever.
So, let us come to this table
trusting that it is Jesus himself
who invites us to move up,
and to move out,
to invite others in.
Amen.








