Guess who showed up for dinner

A man, a woman and a guest of honor show up at the same dinner party.  He was the host; she wasn't invited and the honored guest was the most recent media celebrity.  She hadn't been invited for solid socially acceptable reasons.  Her behavior proved the host right.  The honored guest's behavior left the host wondering what he was thinking when he extended the invitation.

Really!  All that weeping and groveling! Washing the guest's feet with her tears; anointing them with oil.   Her demeanor and her behavior told the truth about who she was - even if no one ever got her name and in fact she left without speaking.  But this I can tell you- the host had his shorts in a knot!  She had the audacity to touch his guest of honor. And his very important guest permitted this outlandish behavior as if it was to be expected and then forgave her. [see Lk7.26ff]

What to do?  What to think? Just who was in charge here?

Jesus of course.  Jesus wasn't just some generic 'guest of honor' he was the one with the authority and power to forgive - to grant a cosmic 'do-over', to make possible a new beginning, a re-framing of how one lives life. Caught up in all the drama of a dinner party where no one follows the rules, Jesus is simply Jesus, the one who forgives. 

We talk about forgiveness all the time here in church.
    We listen to the words of absolution granting us forgiveness.
       We hear stories about Jesus forgiving others.
          We are called to make forgiveness the motto of our lives as people of faith.
But how has it changed us?  Where have our lives gone after receiving this awe inspiring gift?

Because either forgiveness changes you or you haven’t really understood what was at stake in the first place.   Either it gives you freedom to live within that forgiveness; free to go where you are not invited; free to thank others; free to serve others; free to make a fool of yourself for Jesus, or you have no idea just how much you need this forgiveness that Jesus is offering.

And if you don’t understand forgiveness, you don’t understand Jesus or his mission in the world – or yours for that matter. 

Who gets to sit at the table?

Thanksgiving at my grandmother's house meant sitting at the kids' table.  There were simply too many of us to fit around the other table.  I always felt slighted.  (I have often been prone to feeling slighted, but that's for another day).

My grandmother did not own a fancy dining room table, used only on Sundays and holidays.  In fact, my grandmother did not own anything fancy.

Hers was a 'farm table' - that enormous kitchen table that dominates a farm's kitchen.  It was the center for all life in my grandmother's house.  It was where bills were paid, arguments were started and resolved, forgiveness handed out.  There local stories were told, tragedies remarked on, children reprimanded, and of course, hardy meals of meat and potatoes accompanied by rhubarb or apple or cherry or quince pie were served.

In my mind, having a seat at the 'big table' meant belonging to this family.  Whether distant relative, cranky neighbor or complete stranger, being invited to a seat at the big table meant being a part of the family for this meal.

That is what it means in Jesus' mind as well.  It took a foreigner and sometimes enemy, a woman who would not take 'No' for answer, to bring this to Jesus' attention.   She knew that what Jesus was offering at his table could bring new life - and that's what her daughter needed right at this moment.  All she wanted was a few crumbs - because crumbs from this table were enough - and in her asking, Jesus begins to understand that the new life that will come through him is open to all.

All are welcome at the table.  Strangers, foreigners, children, cranky neighbors......sinners.  Come and eat and be whole again.