Expect the unexpected.

If one wanted to summarize Luke's Gospel in a nutshell, I submit, "Expect the unexpected" as a brief, clear, and worthy summary; today's Gospel serves us well as an example of it.

"On one occasion, when Jesus was going to the house of the leader of the Pharisees to eat a meal on the Sabbath, they were watching him closely…

We know from stories in the Gospels that, typically, Jesus hung out with tax collectors, harlots, and sinners-people whose association with Jesus made him ritually unclean according to the law, and socially unclean according to the influential and ruling classes-kind of like hanging out with the geeks, nerds or other unpopular kids in school, and thereby becoming unpopular along with them, in the eyes of the cool, "in" crowd. (By the way, this type of mentality and behavior doesn't necessarily end with high school or college graduation, but tempts us to play it as adults, too; a temptation to which many yield.)

But here in today's story, Jesus gets invited to a Sabbath dinner at the home of a leading Pharisee. Perhaps they did it to trap him; Luke says as much, "they were watching him closely," waiting for him to make a misstep. Jesus, probably a Pharisee himself, but of a different type (one who sees the spirit of the law as far more important than the letter of the law), sees past this little game and begins to challenge another little unwritten law that also has become far too serious a game for grown-ups to play.

"When he noticed how the guests chose the places of honor, he told them a parable."

Most of us sit down and eat nourishing meals so often and so easily that we lose sight of the fact that actually sitting down to a meal in someone else's home constituted a major social event in the Ancient world. Interestingly, Jesus chose as his example a wedding banquet. Now I can't imagine any seating difficulties associated with such a happy occasion, can you? Then, as now, where people sat and whom they sat with often said something about them in the eyes of their host. Yet Jesus sees through this pecking order game, and offers a rejoinder to give hearers something to think about:

"All who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted."

Now, any middle school age child or older can see the potential for abuse that lies in that statement; it can easily breed a false, self-serving "holier than thou" humility. We can see this, too, as no doubt his hearers did. So Jesus doesn't let it lie there, but goes on to illustrate this rejoinder with yet another example.

"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 neighbors, 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, because they cannot repay you; for you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.'"

Clearly, those who sat around the table did not expect this unexpected advice. To invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind is to invite havoc and chaos. "Don't you know how those people are? Why, they'll take advantage of us! Why should they get something for which they didn't work? What if they come back? Where will it end? You know, we're going to create a class of dependent people here if we're not careful!"

Biblical scholars in researching the Dead Sea scrolls have found the written expectation of what the Messianic banquet will look like, according to the Essenes, a Judean religious group that flourished in Jesus' time, and to which John the Baptist may have belonged. The Essene Rule lays out very specific instructions on who will sit where at the banquet, beginning with the high table which includes the high priest, the Messiah, the heads of the tribes of Israel, the elders of the various congregations, and on down, "each according to his place," says the rule very clearly. Prohibited from the banquet is anyone with a physical deformity, disabled hands or feet, anyone blind, deaf, or mute, of poor eyesight or senility.

Now this Rule would possibly have been known and discussed among the Pharisees, and thereby probably known by Jesus. For here at this banquet, he overthrows the Rule and all of its community-killing and life-killing assumptions-"Expect the unexpected from Jesus," says Luke's Gospel.

What Jesus proposes fulfills the first chapter proclamation found on the lips of his mother, "[The Almighty] has brought down the powerful from their thrones, and lifted up the lowly; he has filled the hungry with good things, and sent the rich away empty."

Outsiders have now become insiders. Those whom others have ignored or abused, Jesus says, "Bring them right up to the table. When you dine with them, you will actually come to know them, and see them as children of God, too. In doing so you will be repaid by God, not by those whom you've invited." And that blessing will be far more than a mere meal in the home of a friend, a sibling, a relative or rich neighbor.

In essence, Jesus asks us to get over ourselves so that we may begin to truly and humbly love our neglected and outcast neighbor as we love ourselves. As a parish community, we at St. James must prayerfully consider, "In what ways can we reach out to those who presently have no access to society's or the church's table and bring them to it?" How can we help the neighbors we have that no one else sees or invites or includes? Let me give you one example.

A few weeks ago, nearly a dozen volunteers went through a training class here at St. James in order to serve as respite workers. Soon, one Saturday a month, St. James will open its doors to provide a safe place for parents of children with disabilities and their siblings to have a few hours free babysitting provided for them, so that those parents can enjoy some much needed time to themselves.

On the surface, that may not seem like much, but to the parents, those few hours are pure gold, for rarely does a parent of a child with a disability ever get a break from caring for or working with that child; and if you add other siblings, too-well, you can imagine the amount of energy needed for parenting in that family.

Usually, babysitting a child with a disability is no different than babysitting a non-disabled child, with maybe a few twists thrown in-perhaps the child is not totally potty trained. But sometimes it can present a bigger challenge: maybe the child is non-verbal, or he or she gets tube feedings, or is not potty trained and won't be. Caring for these children may seem like an enormous amount of work and effort, and that it is, but these caretakers will soon discover a little known secret that the parents of children with disabilities also know: That these children, made in the image of God, are rewards unto themselves. They represent God's exaltation of those whom the world considers the lowly or downtrodden; and those who care for them are exalted by God through them.

Expect the unexpected, for every person contains within them the unexpected exaltation of God. "When you give a banquet," says Jesus, 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."

I ask you: What unexpected guests should we expect to invite to our table here at St. James?

The Rev'd Timothy M. Dombek
ST. JAMES EPISCOPAL CHURCH
301 Piney Mountain Road
Greenville, SC 29609-3035
(864) 244-6358
stjamesrector@mindspring.com
Copyright © 2001 Timothy M. Dombek All Rights Reserved.