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| Image by Greg Gjerdingen |
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A Greeting
You desire truth in the inward being;
therefore teach me wisdom in my secret heart.
(Psalm 51:6)
A Reading
He said also to the one who had invited him, ‘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.’
(Luke 14:12-13)
Music
Meditative Verse
The poor shall eat and be satisfied.
(Psalm 22:26a)
A Reflection
We all have privilege, a privilege that sometimes prohibits us from seeing people standing right in front of us. Our society, our world right now mirrors the gospel in that we, as individuals are encouraged to get what's ours, to not bend in our privilege, and to attend to our individual needs first and to not worry about what that means for our neighbour. We can see the privilege on a larger scale — the inattentiveness, the disregard — and we feel helpless, or unworthy, or shamed, lacking in the knowledge to change or even fix things… What’s the value of faith in our world today? Recognizing our individual privilege, being aware of it, perhaps acknowledging it and opening ourselves up to the bigger picture — is where faith breaks in, and we see each other more clearly, more equally.
- from a sermon preached by Pastor Tanya Ramer on October 6th, 2019
at Trinity Evangelical Lutheran Church, New Hamburg, ON
Verse for the Day
When you give to them, they gather it up;
when you open your hand, they are filled with good things.
(Psalm 104:28)
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| Image by Greg Gjerdingen |
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The Gospel of John account of the feast for Jesus to celebrate the raising of Lazarus is similar to the descriptions in Mark 14 and Matthew 26 of a dinner also given for Jesus. Both events include the moment when a woman lavishes anointing nard on him, causing controversy among the disciples. In Mark and Matthew, the feast takes place at the home of “Simon the Leper”. Assuming that these gospel accounts describe the same gathering, who was this man, whose name speaks of a life in distress, but who seems well enough to host a feast? In his book Mary of Bethany, former Primate of the Anglican Church in Australia Marcus Loane suggests that Simon might have been the father of the siblings. He intuits that Jesus may have cured Simon first, which is why the sisters believe Jesus will do so again with Lazarus. Reading between the lines of the text in this way can invite a deeper reflection on the significance of who Jesus was. Both Simon and Lazarus have lived with the disease and are cured of it. The disciples and other friends of the family dine and stay comfortably among them. Are we as willing to accommodate at our gatherings those in our own worlds who live with a condition that isolates them or makes us uncomfortable? It comes easy to put a premium on the family traditions, to say we will reach out at another time, but how can we be challenged to reconsider these choices? In today’s reading, Jesus exhorts his followers to choose the disadvantaged as their dinner partners -- at all our feast celebrations. As we know, Jesus routinely sat at table with those whom society had dismissed and discarded. By not just eating, but openly cherishing the friendship of those who have been stigmatized by society, Jesus makes the condition of all assembled equal -- and he invites us to do the same. When we challenge ourselves to include those who are alone at our table, the hand of privilege and the hand of need become partners in grace and everyone is transformed. Who do you know who might be alone this Thanksgiving? How can you be inspired by Jesus to make space for them at your own table?
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LC† Gathered at the Table is a project of
Lutherans Connect / Lutheran Campus Ministry Toronto,
supported by the Eastern Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada.
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