"Table Manners"
David C. Myers
September 16, 2007
Psalm 23
Hebrews 13:1 - 2
Luke 15:1 - 10
Text: "And the Pharisees and the Scribes were grumbling and saying, 'This fellow welcomes sinners and eats with them.'" . . . Luke 15:2
Parables, such as the ones of the lost sheep and the lost coin that comprise our Gospel Lesson this morning, were Jesus' most frequently used and most effective teaching method. Jesus would begin with common, ordinary settings with which the audience would quickly and easily identify. Each listener would have clear images in their minds and a great familiarity with the subject matter. As Jesus finished, each listener would take away a very personal interpretation of what had been spoken.
After they had returned home, they might begin to realize that Jesus had not supplied all the answers; or, that the meaning wasn't always clear with direct orders of how to behave or what to do in the next day's living. Part of the intrigue of the parables is that Jesus rarely spelled out what we should conclude. That part is left up to us. That part is our responsibility.
And with today's parables, we have some work to do.
This morning's lesson is usually referred to as the parables of the repentant sinners, with the implied lesson being that these are stories about people who are lost and then come to their senses and repent. They have gained this title because of verses 7 and 10 which refers to the joy in heaven over a sinner who has repented. God celebrates with great joy - like the shepherd who finds his lost sheep and the woman who finds her lost coin.
But there is a problem with today's parables. The metaphors of sheep and coins simply do not work. Not, at least, if the central theme is repentance. Sheep can certainly get lost on their own; and they frequently do. They will bury their heads in the grass and graze wandering about not paying attention to where they are going - only paying attention to the grass they are eating. They can become hopelessly lost. But I have yet to see a sheep repent. And certainly, if you have lost a coin, it doesn't jump up in front of you while you are looking for it and say "I was wrong and I change my ways and will stay in your pocket (or purse) until you need me. Lost coins stay lost until they are found. So, in this case, God does the finding! And whatever you may call it - grace, salvation, mercy, luck (if you want) - repentance it is not!
So I don't believe today's Scripture reading from Luke is fundamentally about sin and repentance. Something else is at work here.
And this is why it is so important not to take the parables in stand-alone fashion; we need to pay attention to the context in which they are given. The context for these parables is given in the first two verses of Luke, chapter 15, and it reads like this:
Now all the tax collectors and sinners were coming near to listen to Jesus. And the Pharisees and the Scribes were grumbling and saying, 'This fellow welcomes sinner and eats with them.'"
So He told them this parable:
"So He told them this parable: . . ." The operative word here being "So"; meaning, because people - good church people of that day, mind you - grumbled about whom Jesus welcomed and whom He ate with, so He told them this parable. So . . . these two parables are neither about repentance nor about the God Who won't give up. Rather, these two parables are about whom you welcome and whom you eat with; and, conversely who you don't. This Scripture Lesson is about whom you are willing to eat with - not anonymously in adjoining booths at your favorite restaurant, but across the table from, in your home and in your heart. Initially these parables are about who Jesus welcomed and ate with.
And whom might that include? Hmmmmmm . . . How about the fundamentalist, if you're a liberal; the liberal if you're an evangelical; the non-believer, if you've been born again; the pro-life, if your pro-choice; . . . and we could come up with quite a list if we moved into the political world as the national election creeps upon us. "Tax collectors and sinners." Each of us has his or her own cast.
Many scholars suggest that Jesus wasn't crucified for his theology or His politics. They suggest that Jesus was crucified because of who He associated with. Jesus' most radical act may have been who He ate with and accepted lodging from, and how He counted on meals at the hands of His hosts and hostesses. The people He associated with were poor, the hated people of society, the disenfranchised, and the outsiders.
New Testament scholar John Dominic Crossan drives the point home:
"In all societies, both simple and complex . . . eating is the primary way of initiating and maintaining human relationships. . . . Once [one] finds out where, when and with whom food is eaten just about everything else can be inferred about the relations among society's members. . . . To know what, where, how, when and with whom people eat is to know the character of the society."
Crossan argues that to pay a worker for his or her work - in coin - is not the same as to pay him or her by sitting down for a meal together. Thus, to say that a worker is worthy of his or her wages is not the same as to say, "a worker is worthy of his meal."
Who Jesus welcomed and ate with shocked his contemporaries. It was as if Julie Child had endorsed "The Road Kill Cookbook."
"Now all the tax collectors and sinners were coming near to listen to Jesus. And the Pharisees and the Scribes were grumbling and saying, 'This fellow welcomes sinners and eats with them.'"
Table manners.
It was one thing to observe the Hebraic laws of gleaning - leaving some of the harvest for the widows and orphans to come in afterward and pick up the leftovers. It was one thing to help the poor by giving them the scraps left-over from the meal. That is fulfilling the Hebraic Law
Many of you know that before I came to this church I was at St. Luke's United Methodist Church in the District. Part of the ministry there is to house a community based transitional homeless shelter. Every night of the year there are 6 homeless men in the church. Every night of the year some local restaurant or family or local church group would prepare them their dinner meal. While the restaurants would prepare the food, the residents of the homeless shelter had to go get it and bring it back. And getting that meal is great. That is - if you will - fulfilling the "Law". But most of the families and churches on the nights that it was their turn to prepare the meal would stay and share the meal and enjoy fellowship with them; hear their stories, share their struggles. Feeding is one thing, talking, listening and sharing is quite another - it gives dignity.
But Jesus wasn't the first one to be radical about table fellowship. In my travels to the Middle East I have seen the Bible come alive. One of the images that has forever transformed my understanding of the Bible is the concept of table fellowship. Three great world religions have emerged from that small part of the world and share a gathered richness - Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. In that very passionate place, diverse of religious beliefs - all three religions share part of the cultural base that is best stated in Psalm 23 - "He (God or the Good Shepherd) sets a table before me in the presence of mine enemies." You see, in the Mid-East, there is a sacred sense of peace and calm when people are "at table" - even in the presence of enemies.
"And the Pharisees and the scribes murmured, saying, 'This man welcomes sinners and eats with them.'"
Now, if you have managed to stay with me thus far, hang on a bit more for this scripture has profound implications for us. Namely, it changes how we place ourselves in this story. Let me suggest that the importance of this Scripture is not in seeing ourselves as the ones who are lost and at some point found by God, but that we see ourselves as the ones who seek the lost.
In the early Christian church the word God was made into a verb, as in you "God-ded" me; meaning, you treated me with the qualities we ascribe to God - grace, love, mercy, comfort. Another way of considering this is that we are made in God's image, and Jesus teaches us to act in ways that are attributes of God. In other words, we are to seek justice and mercy, we are to include the marginalized people of the world, we are to love unconditionally, we are to welcome and eat with "tax collectors and sinners."
Remember the One Who rejoices in these parables represents God. God is like the shepherd who goes out to seek the lost sheep. God is like a woman who lights a lamp and sweeps a dirt floor and searches carefully to find the coin that is lost.
So consider the surprise twist of these two parables that we might be far more capable of behaviors associated with God than we ever dare imagine. Perhaps we can realize that as ones created in God's image, we too, can love with no stings attached, that we can search for the lost in our society, and that we can work for justice for others. We too, are called to be more like God than we can imagine.
Table manners.
"Now all the tax collectors and sinners were coming near to listen to Jesus. And the Pharisees and the Scribes were grumbling and saying, 'This fellow welcomes sinners and eats with them.'"
It's all about table manners.
We are created in God's image, and therefore we are to be like God. Setting a table in the presence of enemies; loving with no strings attached, searching out the lost and the sinners, seeking justice for all; welcoming and eating with "tax collectors and sinners."
We too, can be more like God than we can imagine.
We just need to remember our table manners, and that the author of our Book of Etiquette is God, and not Emily Post.