LUKE 14:1, 7-14
(With a nodding reference to the upcoming general election and the psalm set for Sunday)
Where to sit, where to sit?
Always a dilemma.
Free choice
and one might avoid
particular guests.
Set places
and one can be saddled
with some of those
particular guests –
and they with you!
The host’s prerogative, the Teacher says.
It’s tempting to over-estimate
one’s importance,
or standing.
But beware false humility
and be glad:
you are invited.
Invitations go
to friend, neighbour, relative;
those who might repay
in kind.
These are safe seats.
The harder invitation,
hospitality at the margins.
The Teacher,
always guest,
invites friend, neighbour, relative,
rich, poor, marginalised, broken
to a meal none can repay:
a feast ‘with the finest of wheat,
and with honey from the rock’,
where all the seats
are safe seats (the host’s prerogative):
and you are invited.
© Jeff Shrowder, 2013.
More for Sunday 22C…