12 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. ¹³ But when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind. ¹⁴ And you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you, for you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous."

As soon as I think of meals being served in a relatively formal setting to a whole of people, I immediately picture the scene as it takes place in my Grandparents home pretty much every Thanksgiving and Christmas. Now if you had ever seen the way that their home is set up, this might surprise you because there is no formal dinning room. They have a table (the same table that they have had for the last 35+ years) that sits in their kitchen. The table almost sits six people comfortably.

However, when the holidays roll around, this very humble table becomes the foundation for a ginormous table that (in a pinch) sits close to 25. You might be thinking to yourself, "how could this be possible?" Well, let me tell you, it is no small feat. Three to five people are dispatched to three different corners of the house. One person gets the table leaf that goes in the humble dinette. The other two to four head downstairs where three large and rather heavy tabletop pieces sit in two different rooms. These pieces are brought upstairs and placed on top of the dinette and two people stand on either end and proceed to not so delicately slam them together until the small table becomes huge. Once this process is completed the tablecloth come out and the folks who just put the table together then have their mission switch to finding enough chairs for all those who will be attending. The women of the family then go through the various machinations to get everyone seated at the table appropriately.

For the most part, there is no hierarchy as to who sits where. It’s more about need and comfort. However, there is no doubt that there is a definitive head of the table for there are two settings at one end that have a little bit more space. This is where my grandparents sit so that they might be able to look over all of the family and friends, children, grandchildren, and now great-grandchildren who are all assembled. No one, with the exception of an unknowing little youngster sits in those chairs, because everyone knows, those are the places of honor and recognition: those are the places for Earl and Eileen.

Many of you have similar traditions and expectations in your families. The same was true in Jesus day as well. However, the setting was quite a bit different. For Jesus and his contemporaries the dinning room was an arrangement of couches that three people each reclined upon. Much as is the case with my family’s table, there was one seat, one couch that was the place of highest honor and distinction. However, unlike the table at my grandparents, the rest of couches also represented how distinguished a guest was. The closer you sat to the center couch, the greater the honor that the room perceived you to have.

Jesus is sitting in such a room for such a meal and he’s watching how the people are conducting themselves. He’s watching as people are jockeying to get as close to that center couch as possible. He’s watching as people are, figuratively speaking, placing themselves up on pillars so that others might behold their glory. Jesus is watching this take place, and he’s says, "do not sit down at the place of honor" (in case that seat was not intended for you). Instead, "go and sit down at the lowest place, so that when your host comes, he may say to you, ‘Friend, move up higher’. For all who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted." In other words, don’t get too full of yourself because at some point and in some way, you’re going to have a reality check and that check is going to put you in your place, your real place.

On the surface, this is one of those messages that we hear, and go, "yeah, that makes sense." But, in reality, almost all of us have those moments where we do get too full of ourselves and invariably the crash that results when we are put in our place is incredibly difficult to take. One of classic places we are able to watch this thinking more of one’s self and the reality check that follows is with people who become ‘big stars’ in movies, TV, or music. We watch as these ‘stars’ climb the ladder of fame and then shake our heads when they ultimately realize that they are nowhere near as important as they had been told they once were.

We watch that all the time, and yet, how often do we emulate these self-aggrandizing actions? How often do we put ourselves up on some pedestal, or allow ourselves to be placed there by others, and wrongly begin to think more of ourselves then we really should? How often, in our actions, do we head for that seat of honor, a seat that we have no real right to sit in, instead of expressing a sense of humility and acting as we should, living as God would have us live?

Speaking for myself, I have had quite a few times when I have been unable maintain that spirit of humility, when I’ve gotten full of myself, full of what I thought was right, full of what I thought should be done. In doing so, I have wronged others. At various points I recognized that I was doing it, but for whatever reason I couldn’t stop it.

Thankfully, most of those people whom I have offended have called me on it, and in doing so put me in my place. Was it a tough pill to swallow when it came? Absolutely. Was it something that needed to take place? Without a doubt because I needed to recognize that I had begun to think more of myself then I should; I needed to recognize that there was a fellow child of God whom I was not offering the respect that they deserved; I needed to recognize that I needed to seek the forgiveness of those whom I had hurt while I was feeling all full of myself.

Being put in your place is not an easy lesson, and yet if it allows us to recognize the spirit of humility that God would have us exhibit, then it is a lesson that is vitally important.

God wants us to live with each other with a spirit of humility, a spirit that lifts others up and helps other in their need. Sometimes we do this well. Other times we take the accolades that we have been given and have earned and begin to build ourselves up so that we think we are more important then what we really are. Our scripture lesson this morning acts as a mirror to remind all of us that regardless of how important the world may view us, of how important we view ourselves to be, we should live our lives with a spirit of humility.

We have been called by God to be servants. Let us go out into the days that are before us, and do that very thing.

Gracious Lord, it is so very easy to forget how You would have us live with You and each other. It is so very easy to forget that You would have us live with a spirit of humility. God, help us to be put into our place and recognize who we are, and how You would have us respect each other. In Jesus’ name we do pray. Amen.