Place Cards

Luke 14:1, 7-14

Have you ever been to a wedding that had place cards, you know assigned seating at the dinner? I have never been through the process of deciding such things as seating but I understand that certain people should be seated with certain other people and certainly not with some particular people.    Having 6 children, and up until Tuesday, having 5 of them in school has taught me that seating is also a strategic thing.  Who is sitting next to who matters as much as the one who is in the sight line of another.  This is true at the dinner table as well, by the way.

I guess it’s true of most assigned seating.  In a class room for example, it may be that seating is assigned for consistency and order.  We humans like consistency and order. Just look at where you are sitting you’re your seat much different than the last time you were in worship?

We want what we want.  We want to sit with who we want. We want to associate with who we want. We want to help who we want.

But is our Christian faith about what we want?

Who is in charge of setting the place cards at the banquet of life?  Is it God or is it us?  If God has set the place cards, how free are we to move them where we want them?

This church, St. Paul, is a part of a connectional system called the United Methodist Church.  Most of you know that.  In its current form this system had its birth in 1968 when the United Brethren and the Methodist churches merged.  Many of you know that as well.  The strength of the connectional system is that though our combined efforts, as a world-wide church, we can do things that we as an individual church could never do, such as disaster relief through UMCOR. Over these 40 some years of existence the greater church as asked of the individual church for funds to make this and many world-changing missions possible.  Over those same 40 some years there have been good and faithful Christians who have also pointed out that there is need right in their neighborhoods and sending money away makes it more difficult for the local church to server their communities. 

I had often heard it said that the larger church should be about strengthening the ministries of the local churches. 

Apparently someone was listening. The combined resources of the West Michigan conference of the United Methodist Church have made available a process where the local church can get expert guidance in being as effective as they can be in the mission to make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformations of the world. 

Last week after worship, the leadership team met and approved entering the process of gathering information so that those consultants can come in and give us an objective assessment of how to move in the right direction as a local church.

The connectional system of the United Methodist Church is about to directly benefit St. Paul UMC and I am so thankful for that.

It’s going to mean a lot more work for me, but I look forward to it. The process may feel a little invasive at times. It may feel authoritarian at times.  But I have never had a life changing moment in my life that wasn’t preceded by a little discomfort. 

We have a great church.  Everything works together.  The thing is we have our place cards set ahead of time.  Not just where we sit in church but in almost everything we do.  I have the feeling that God wants to re-arrange our place cards.  I have a feeling that we can benefit from a new perspective.

Jesus went to a dinner party at the leader of the Pharisees house, on the Sabbath no less! I think they wanted to grill him.  I think they wanted find out what he was all about.  The part of the scripture that I didn’t read was about a man that Jesus healed and dismissed.   Jesus healed and dismissed the man and before anyone could protest he asked, “If one of you has a child or an ox that has fallen into a well, will you not immediately pull it out on a Sabbath day?” And they could not reply to this.

If Jesus were there to prove that he could watch his Ps and Qs he has already started off on the wrong foot. He didn’t do any better after that.  Jesus noticed the Pharisees trying to jostle for position and get the best seats.  If being polite were the order of the day Jesus would just sit quietly and find a seat out of the way, but he saw it as an opportunity to teach! Don’t embarrass yourself by taking the seat of honor and then be asked to move.  Sit in a lowly position and you will be honored if the host re-seats you in a better place. 

Can you imagine?  You invite someone to your party so that you can scrutinize, control and perhaps intimidate them into towing the line and they start like this?  Healing on the Sabbath, criticizing the seating arrangement, but that’s not all.  Jesus goes on to criticize the guest list. He was in a group of Pharisees, a highly respected and powerful group of men.  But Jesus said, “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, 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, for you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.”

You know, God can really hit you where it hurts.  Just yesterday Diane and I had a get together for some friends and family.  It was a great time, but did it really have to be on the day before this scripture came up? If we take scripture seriously we have to apply it to our everyday life.  Should I have thrown a dinner party for the poor, the crippled the lame and the blind?  I can make excuses why I didn’t, or I can say, “Yes, I should have.”  Following Jesus is not easy. Read what Jesus says about what discipleship means and he never says it is easy.  Jesus went to the party and disrupted the whole thing.

That’s what Jesus did and that’s what Jesus does.  He upsets the apple-cart.  Jesus takes our spiritual blindness and opens our eyes. He takes our complacency and moves us into action. Jesus disrupts, disorients, discombobulates…when it comes to our desire to set our own place cards in life.

The good news is Jesus doesn’t upset the apple-cart and leave it at that. 

Jesus, as the invited guest to the banquet, doesn’t just ruin the party and leave it at that.

Jesus invites us to his table.  Jesus demonstrates what he really wants.

Though he may upset the apple cart of our lives he gives us something better to replace what we feel like we have lost.  Jesus gives us forgiveness.  Jesus sacrificed his own life.  Jesus bled and died so that those who believe that defeated death and was raised to life, and confess that he is the son of God, can have eternal life. 

When Jesus upsets our lives and makes things uncomfortable, it’s not to push us away it’s to make us more like him. 

So, how is it with you today?  Does the talk of changes in the church make you uncomfortable?  It makes me a little uncomfortable. But know that through our shared struggle, God will bless us and use our efforts to glorify him.