“There’s A Place For All Of Us”

Text: Luke 14:7-14

© September 2, 2007 by C. Edward Bowen at Crafton United Presbyterian Church.

I have a confession that I need to make. You see, I need to confess that going to wedding receptions is not one of my most favorite things to do. And that’s mainly because of a wedding reception that I went to about 12 years ago, a wedding reception that ended up leaving me emotionally and psychologically scarred for life.

Now you need to understand that the wedding service at the church went just fine. There were no problems there. But since I had to wait around at the church after the service while they took pictures so that I could turn off the lights and lock up the building after everyone left, that meant that I was the last person to arrive at the reception.

And so I walked into this massive firehall, where something like 300 guests had gathered, and I asked someone standing at the door where I was supposed to sit. And much to my dread and dismay, the person answered by saying: “Sit anywhere.” Well, I didn’t want to sit anywhere! I wanted to have a seat that had my name on it, where I knew I was supposed to be. And so quite reluctantly I began roaming around that crowded room, like some poor pathetic vagabond begging for some table to take me in. But it seemed that every time I asked, “Is that seat open?”, invariably the response was “Taken! Taken! All the seats here are taken.”

Well, after being told that by about a dozen different tables, I started to wonder: Were all those tables really full, or were they just shooing me away because I was the minister – after all, who really wants to have the minister sit at their table at a wedding reception? Finally, after what seemed like an eternity I eventually located a table with an empty chair at it, way over in the most remote, distant corner of the room – I wasn’t even sure if that table was in the same county as the wedding party’s table – but I plunked myself down there because I decided that that was going to be my seat whether the other people at the table liked it or not.

So I guess the bottom line is: If you ever invite me to a wedding reception, or to any kind of a party for that matter (by the way, I’m free next Saturday), please don’t tell me to sit anywhere! I don’t want to have to try and figure out if I should sit here or sit there. It’s too stressful – I can’t take it. All I want is for the host to point to a chair and say, “Here is your place. This seat is for you.”

The reality is that worrying about where to sit at parties was something that was going on even back in Jesus’ day. In fact, as we listened to this reading today from the Gospel of Luke, when Jesus attended a wedding reception one time he noticed that a lot of the guests were scrambling around and fighting with each other about who would get to sit where. In particular, they were scrambling around and fighting with each other about who would get the best seats, because the thinking was that if you sat in the best seats that meant you were more honored and had more status than those who had to sit out in the other seats.

That might sound kind of silly, but oftentimes even today where people sit at a table says a world about how much honor and status they have. For instance, probably you’ve seen pictures of the president sitting at a table with other government leaders at some meeting. Well, when they have those meetings, those leaders don’t just sit anywhere at the table. No, they sit at the table based on their rank, based on their status. Whoever is the second most important person gets to sit at the president’s right hand, and the next most important person gets to sit at the president’s left hand. And then the next most important person after that gets to sit two seats over on the president’s right hand, and the next most important person after that gets to sit two seats over on the president’s left hand, and so on. And so when you see a picture of the president at a meeting, you can tell with 100% accuracy who are the important and honored people, and who aren’t – based on where they’re sitting.

And that sort of thing goes on not only when people sit down at tables in the White House. No, that same sort of thing goes on every day in school cafeterias across the country. After all, when the lunch bells rings and the students head into the cafeteria, the students know that you don’t just sit anywhere. No, where you sit says a world about who you are. And so the brainy kids get together at one table, and the band kids sit together at another table, and the athletic kids sit together at another, and the criminal element sits together at another.

And if you can get a junior or senior high student to be honest with you, they’ll admit that about the worst possible thing that could ever happen to you at school isn’t getting detention or having a pop quiz on a subject that you’re not prepared for. No, about the worst possible thing that could ever happen to you at school would be to walk into the cafeteria and not have a place to sit, to not have a place where you’re welcomed and included. And if you can get a junior or senior high student to be honest with you, a lot of them will admit that the night before the first day of school they were on the phone with their friends making arrangements with each other about where they would sit together for lunch the next day so that kind of thing wouldn’t happen to them.

The sad fact is that we live in a world where many people end up feeling left out. The sad fact is that we live in a world where many people end up feeling that they’re not welcome, that they just don’t fit in, that there’s no place for them.

But even though that’s the way the world often operates, that’s not the way that God wants it to be. Instead, the vision that God offers us is summed up in the words of Scripture that I often recite as we get ready to share in communion, where Jesus says, “They will come from east and west, and from north and south, and will sit at table in the kingdom of God” (Luke 13:29). In other words, the vision that God offers us is of a day when the whole world will share together in one huge cosmic feast of a party. And when that day comes, we won’t have to scramble and fight with each other about who will sit where. We won’t have to struggle against each other, trying to lift ourselves up by pushing other people down. Rather, the vision that God offers us is of a day when we’ll be able to see for ourselves that at God’s table there truly is a place for all of us.

From time to time in our lives we might wonder if we really do fit in. From time to time in our lives we might wonder if there really is a place for us. But especially as we come together to share in communion, we find God reaching out to us and saying, “You’re welcome here. In my kingdom, there is a place for you. In my kingdom, there is a place for all of you.” Thanks be to God!