You might get ‘bumped’ by somebody more distinguished.

          How embarrassing!

          No—sit in the lowest place.  Then, when the host comes,

          He’ll say, ‘Friend, move up higher!’  What an honor!

“FOR ALL WHO EXALT THEMSELVES

          Will be humbled,

          And those who humble themselves will be exalted.”

HE DIDN’T STOP THERE.

          “Next time you put on a dinner,

          Never mind asking friends, family, rich neighbors,

          Who will pay you back by inviting you to dinner.

“INVITE THE ONES WHO CAN’T REPAY YOU:

          The poor, the elderly, the disabled, the dysfunctional.

          The resurrection of the righteous will be your reward.”

WHAT JESUS DID

          With a few remarks,

          Was create a whole new world,

          And redefine our places in it.

IN THE WORLD WE ARE USED TO,

          Twenty percent of us own eighty percent of the resources,

          Which is probably not what God intended.

          Yet we twenty percent readily assume

          That we deserve that eighty percent—we’re decent folks!

WE THANK GOD

          We aren’t like others—

          Those illegal immigrants over there,

          AIDS victims who had it coming,

          Welfare recipients we work to support,

          The poor who just want a free ride.

WE INVITE FRIENDS TO OUR PARTIES:

          People like us,

          With the same blessings and opportunities,

          The same politics and beliefs,

          The same language and skin color.

          We take care of each other.

WITH A FEW WELL-CHOSEN WORDS,

          Jesus did away with that twenty/eighty-percent imbalance.

          It’s no longer “them” and “us.”

          Now it’s God, and everybody else.

          We are all brothers and sisters of one heavenly Parent.

          There is only one banquet table.

UPON WHAT

          Is our own self-esteem founded?

          Were we successful in business?

          Valedictorians at school?

          Devoted parents?

          Green-thumbed gardeners?

          Pillars of church and community?

          Unusually good-looking?

          Lucky to have rich uncles?

WHATEVER IT IS

          Upon which we base our self-esteem—

          Jesus invites and challenges us

          To let our worth as persons be determined from now on

          Only and entirely by the grace of God .

          As Paul observed,

          After dumping a lot of baggage of self-esteem:

          By the grace of God I am what I am.

JESUS CALLED THAT “HUMBLING YOURSELF,”

          And he recommended it as the way

          To be exalted at the resurrection of the righteous.

IT’S THE BEATITUDE

          Of being satisfied with a low place at the feast,

          And honestly surprised when your host summons you

          Closer to the head of the table.

          It’s being able to identify with the poor

          Because you realize your own poverty.

THE POOR,

          The disabled, the victims of disaster,

          The registered offenders, the habitual offenders,

          The addicts, the abusers, those on death row—

          And, last but not least, you and me:

          We have ALL fallen short of the glory of God.

          That is the radical democracy of our faith.

BY THE GRACE OF GOD, WE HUMBLE OURSELVES

          Enough to identify with the ones just mentioned,

          And invite them to the party—

          Not in spite of their inability to return the invitation,

          But because of it!

          And, that’s Christianity!

WE ARE A CLOSE-KNIT CHURCH.

          We know each other.   We know the order of worship.

          We know who Gloria Patri is, and where the restrooms are.

          We know what brunch costs.

          We know which pew not to sit in,

          Because it’s where Bertha sits.

SOMEONE NEW WALKS IN HERE.

          They don’t know where Bertha sits.

          They don’t know Gloria Patri from Gloria Vanderbilt.

          They aren’t sure if they are welcome and wanted.

          Only we know that.

          Only we can show them they are welcome,

          By opening the comfortable circle.

IN THIS CHURCH,

          You may have a place at the head of the table,

          To which you are entitled by long years

          Of serving on committees, helping with suppers,

          And paying your yearly pledge.

JESUS IS SUGGESTING

          That you voluntarily take a chair farther down the table,

          To make room for some newcomer with no history here—

          No dues paid, no casseroles baked—

          No claim at all except a burning desire

          To sit here, and know Christ through you.

          Do you love your church enough to share it?

IT MAY BE A BLOW TO OUR SELF-ESTEEM,

          But when we take communion next week,

          It won’t be because we are entitled to it,

          By long years of being decent, responsible, and industrious.

          We take communion because Christ

          Allows his body to be broken for us—

          That’s right, even for us.

AS THE OLD WORDS OF INVITATION SAY:

          “Come to this sacred table…

          To testify not that you are righteous,

          But that you sincerely love our Lord, Jesus Christ…

          Not because you have any claim on heaven’s rewards,

          But because, in your frailty and sin,

          You stand in constant need of heaven’s mercy and help.”

          That’s our place at the table!

FORGET “I’M WORTH IT.”

          Let God decide that.

          Give up your place at the table to someone

          Who’s had to stand apart for most of his or her life.

          God will notice.

LET’S TRANSFORM OUR SELF-ESTEEM

          Into “God-esteem.”

          If we exalt ourselves, we’re going to be humbled,

          So why bother?

          Let’s save time, and humble ourselves.

          Let God do the exalting, if God chooses.

MUCH OF THE POLARIZATION

          That has divided our country

          As much, perhaps, as at any time since the civil war,

          Is centered on questions of who is welcome, and who is not,

          At the table of our life as a nation.

          It becomes “us” versus “them,”

CHRISTIANS, SAD TO SAY,

          Seem lately to have as much of an us-them mentality

          As any other constituency in our conflicted national life .

          How sad, when we have received from our Savior

          A vision of a better, more inclusive way—

          A table set, a place prepared, a house of many rooms.

WHAT ATTITUDES

          Do even Christ’s followers need to adjust,

          In order to become, as we like to say,

          Part of the solution, rather than part of the problem?

IN THE WORDS OF EMILY DICKINSON:
          “I’m nobody!  Who are you?

          Are you nobody too?

          Then there’s a pair of us—don’t tell!

          They’d banish us, you know.

          How dreary to be somebody!

          How public—like a frog—

          To tell your name the livelong June

          To an admiring bog.

LESS POETICALLY,

          Homiletics professor Shauna Hannon reminds us:

          “True humility is evidence of wisdom.”        

AMEN.