A Seat at the Table

 Luke 14:1, 7-14    August 31, 2025

When I lived in San Francisco,

The Banquet
Hyatt Moore

I worked for a wine shop 

in San Francisco

(It was a wine shop when 

important people called,

but it was really a liquor store.)

The owner was named Tony –

One day, the owner of the San Francisco 49ers

called Tony and asked him which winery he and his wife might go to

for a tasting and some lunch.  He was rich obviously.

 

Tony gave him the name of one and right after they hung up,

Tony immediately called up the winery and told the manager –

“when he comes to the winery, give him the best of anything,

anything he wants and don't charge him.”

And the manager agreed and thanked Tony for letting him know.

The wineries did whatever Tony asked because

they know he would buy their wines if they did.

 

I shared an office with Tony and heard the whole conversation. 

I turned around to Tony, kind of incredulous and said,

“Tony, this guy can afford lunch, he can afford anything,

he could even afford to buy the winery,

why should they give him their stuff for free?”

He said, June, that’s how the world works.

The rich and famous eat for free.

 

And that is how the world works.

And that’s how the world has always worked.

We treat the rich and famous with honor

and we expect some attention in return.

I’ll scratch your back, hopefully, you scratch mine.

  

The rich and famous and powerful get treated differently.

They get free stuff, they get treated better.

They get accolades and honors for doing not much of anything.

They get away with crimes that other people go to prison for life for.

We treat wealthy or famous people with a little more respect,

a little more honor, a little more attention.

 

Maybe we think that their fame will rub off on us,

Or that they will remember us some day.

Or maybe we think they’ll drop little packs of money

where ever they go?

 

In our Gospel today,

Jesus is invited over to dinner at the house

of another of the leaders of the Pharisees.

 

These are big and important religious people,

they’re probably the richest people in the community.

They are very adept at this upward mobility stuff.

They have learned to work like the world works.

They scratch the backs of the rich and famous

and the rich and famous scratch their back.

So they've invited Jesus over.

Now Jesus isn’t rich, but he is a little famous now.

He’s the “it” guy around town, so it would be

beneficial for them to have him over.

 

They were probably hoping for a pleasant meal,

something they could tell their friends about the next day.

Maybe cull some favor with Jesus,

just in case anything good comes out of him

 

But as we know, meals with Jesus and the Pharisees

are not usually good. Jesus is very good at giving

everyone indigestion and making those dinner parties

pretty awkward. He did it back in chapter 11

and he doesn’t let us down in chapter 14.

 

When he gets there, he sees people jockeying

for the best seat at the dinner party so he tells them:

“Don’t try and get the most important seat.

Sit in the least important seat, then you won’t be embarrassed

when the host needs to move you somewhere else.”

Well, this could be seen as helpful party etiquette.

 

But then, instead of following the custom and

telling the host how honored he is that he was invited

to join them that evening, Jesus tells the host,

“Next time you give an expensive dinner, why don't you do it right?

Don't invite your friends, or your rich neighbors,

or the governor, or the owner of the football team,

don't even invite me to the party.

 

To do the party right: Invite the poor, the disabled,

the ex-cons, refugees, immigrants,

the guys who have signs on the highway exits.

You should invite people who can't repay you.

Who have nothing to give.

That would be a party that God would enjoy.”

There goes Jesus again, giving people heartburn.

The story doesn’t say this time if they all got around to the meal.

 

Now Jesus gives them and us these helpful party hints for two reasons:

 

One: to prove to us, and remind us over and over again

that the status that the world puts on us is irrelevant.

The money, the fame the power, the money, 

the poverty, the shortcomings, the addictions, 

those don’t count in the eyes of God.

 

Our self-worth doesn’t come from how much we have

or who people perceive us to be, or where we sit at a dinner

or if we’re invited to the party in the first place.

Our worth comes from God. And we’re all beloved children,

no matter what our status here on earth.

This is a worthy lesson to be reminded of all the time.

And Two:  Jesus tells us these party tips because

This is God’s vision for the world. This is the sign that God’s

kingdom is breaking into the world.

God wants the world to be a place where the poor and the lame

and the outcast are not just given charity and patronized and pitied

or tossed aside and hated.

But where they are invited into the banquet,

Where they are given a seat at the table.

Because that’s how it is in the kingdom of God.

 

Jesus is not just talking in terms of dinner parties,

but in the whole aspects of community and life society.

Where all they are given power and a say

in their destiny and how they live.

Where they are not just nameless statistics,

but where they are given a voice and

treated with respect, and welcomed.

 

And as followers of Jesus we are called to love

for love’s sake, and not for what we can get back.

And to share God’s love, and our power,

with those who have the least of what the world has to give.

 

We live in an upwardly mobile world,

But the gospel calls us to be downwardly mobile.

We are called to work our way down that ladder.

We are called operate like Jesus not like the world.

  

Even after two thousand years of living with Jesus,

Christians almost always neglect Jesus’s call to this.

We play the world’s game of status and power.

Even the church has its celebrities who are treated with

deference and who have gotten very wealthy.

Members with money and power are still treated with

more respect and honor than others.

We still give extra attention to those with the most

hoping to get something back.

We still try to get to the head of the table, and

we try to invite the right people to our parties.

And this is contrary to the gospel call.

 

We are living in a time right now in the US where the

religious leaders have made themselves government leaders

Or maybe the government leaders made themselves religious

leaders – it’s hard to tell.

This has always been a tendency in the US, but

lately, it has reached a blatant point.

And if you ask anyone who knows history,

this isn’t the best arrangement that

humanity has come up with over the years.

But the thing that passes itself off as Christianity,

the religious concept that is running the government

is so horribly converse to Christianity that it’s unrecognizable.

In my opinion, it’s doing harm to the government,

and it’s doing great harm to Christianity.

It’s warping it and manipulating it.

 

And the way that this emergence of

Christian government is defying Christianity

the most is in this concept that Jesus is

telling the religious leaders at this dinner.

 

It’s making a coordinated effort to

take the poor, the disabled, the immigrant,

the black, the Latino, the gay, lesbian, and transgender,

anyone who is not white, male, and maybe

certain kinds of approved women –

and moving them further from the table and

not even giving them a seat,

and some seem to be trying to ostracize some people  

from society all together.

 

And it’s giving the already rich and already powerful

and already privileged the best seat at the table and the biggest

helping of food, and telling them they

can take the dishes and the silverware home with them if they like.

 

This is the opposite of what Jesus followers

should be doing and the opposite of what

Jesus tells us that God’s kingdom on earth is to be like.

 

Honestly, it doesn’t seem like God’s kingdom has any chance

of breaking into this world sometimes.

It seems like God isn’t winning here at all.

It seems like Satan is getting the upper hand.

And it might feel like the best option is to give up.

We might say that Christianity is a lost cause,

it’s been manipulated too far and it’s best to give up on it.

Many people have already given up on Christianity

 because of that very reason.

It’s easy to give up hope and to turn away.

 

But then we have scriptures like this.

We have Jesus stories and parables and life, in this bible

that is still ours and we still honor, and we are given 

stories like this, and we are constantly reminded of God’s vision for us,

and it calls us back to service and gives us hope.

 

When Jesus started his ministry,

he was a lone voice shouting in the wilderness,

going to dinner parties, giving people heart burn.

He probably wondered at times what could

one person do? He probably also thought at times

that society was too far gone and what was the use.

 

He probably wondered what could one person do,

and why was God always pushing him to

speak up about everything and cause trouble.

 

But then he kept being called to act,

and to heal and to teach and eventually

he realized that he was called to save the world.

 

And soon large crowds were gathered with him.

And one voice, turned into many voices,

and more followed.

 

And 2000 years have passed and we’re still here,

being informed and challenged by Jesus.

We’re still trying to understand what he’s calling us to

we’re still trying to be faithful and to get it right.

God’s kingdom will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

God’s vision for diversity, equity, and inclusion

will happen with or without us.

But God has called us to be part of this movement,

To join with ,and follow Jesus and be

part of the voices that are raised.

God has called us to see this through,

to the day when all people do

get a seat at the table.