3rd September 2025

The gospel reading for this week consists of two short stories told by Jesus in Luke 1:7-14. Picture the scene. Jesus has been invited to join one of the leaders of the Pharisees for a meal. It is the Sabbath; perhaps they are on their way back from the synagogue. Wait a minute… are these not the same Pharisees who will be pressing for Jesus’ execution before the gospel is done? Why did they invite Jesus for lunch? Why did Jesus go?

Anyway, back to the text. Jesus’ first story is a little bland. It is the sort of advice you would find in a guide to social etiquette (think Emily Post’s Etiquette in Society, in Business, in Politics and at Home). When you are invited to a meal, the story goes, do not sit at the top of the table because someone more important may arrive and you will get moved down. How embarrassing. It is better to sit at the bottom and wait for the host to honour you by moving you up the table.

I imagine the other guests nodding sagely at this point. Good advice.

Then Jesus upsets these nice people with his second story. Actually, Jesus says, do not invite your friends and relatives and rich neighbours, expecting an invitation in return. Instead, when you put on a banquet you should invite “the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind” (Luke 14.13) and perhaps we would add “the refugee, the homeless, the parolee”.

Now that is what eating in the Kingdom of God is like. It is challenging. Outside our comfort zone. Maybe a bit scary. But that is the kind of meal where Jesus is to be found.

Ian Waddington