PENTECOST XII (Proper 17) 2019

• Sirach 10:12-18
  
• Psalm 112  • 
• Hebrews 13:1-8, 15-16  • 
• Luke 14:1, 7-14

Limbourg Brothers - Banquet Scene

This week’s Gospel is another passage in which Jesus appears to set impossibly high standards for Christians. "When you give a luncheon or a dinner, do not invite your friends or your brothers or your relatives or rich neighbours, in case they may invite you in return, and you would be repaid. But when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind. And you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you." How many Christians have ever followed this instruction, still less done so on a regular basis? How many of us are going to follow it? Do we simply ignore it, then?
        It is important in understanding this passage to see that these remarks are addressed to a specific individual, namely a leader of the Pharisees who has invited Jesus to dinner on the Sabbath. It is equally important to register the context in which they are made – religious people jostling for prestigious positions around the table. The somewhat excessive language Jesus uses, consequently, is aimed at forcibly turning our thoughts in the opposite direction. It is humility, not pride, that should motivate us, especially in religious gatherings. That is because the kind of honour we ought to value can only be bestowed upon us as a gift. Status secured by social maneuvering is a very poor substitute for what truly religious people want – the blessing of God that is their reward “at the resurrection of the righteous”.

---

Giotto - St Francis giving his cloak to a poor man

​Of course, the context Jesus addresses has undoubtedly been replicated many times by Christians whose attachment to the language and practices of their religion sees them primarily as a means to social, and perhaps economic, advancement. When this is the case, they warrant Jesus’ rebuke no less than the Pharisees did. The underlying idea, however, resonates beyond that kind of circumstance, and calls on all Christians to be ever mindful of others, regardless of their status and importance. The passage from the Epistle of the Hebrews for this week offers us valuable examples of what this means.

• Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for by doing that some have entertained angels without knowing it.
• Remember those who are in prison, as though you were in prison with them; those who are being tortured, as though you yourselves were being tortured.
• Keep your lives free from the love of money, and be content with what you have; for he has said, "I will never leave you or forsake you.
• Do not neglect to do good and to share what you have, for such sacrifices are pleasing to God.

These are expressed in less extreme terms than Jesus’ words to the Pharisee. In reality, though, they are not much less challenging.

---