“Seats of Honor” Colchester Federated Church, August 31, 2025, Twelfth Sunday after Pentecost (Luke 14:1, 7-14)

I was recently chatting with friends about our experiences of landing in Connecticut.  It was striking that we grew up in different states and even different regions—Arizona in the West, Iowa and Ohio in the Midwest, and New Jersey in the Northeast.  We were laughing about New England culture shock (our friend from Jersey less so). 

Obviously we live in a large country and there are regional differences.  There’s this map from YouGov called “The Personality Map of the USA” that compiled words from a national survey used to describe each region of the United States.  They showed respondents a list of 20 adjectives and asked which four they most associate with each region—the West, South, Midwest, and Northeast.  The results were analyzed to figure out which words were especially associated with each region.  In the end, the West included words like: uninhibited, experimental, and imaginative.  The South included words like: polite, easy-going, and kind.  The Midwest included words like: self-reliant, self-disciplined, and conscientious.  Finally, the Northeast (oh my beloved New Englanders) included words like: rude, impatient, and aggressive.[1]  Now I know you are thinking—who do these people think they are? (in an impatient/rude/aggressive way)  Though perhaps we can acknowledge that where we are from may have some influence on our personalities.

And this does not just apply to us.  This applies when we think about Jesus and how he lived and what he taught.  Because Jesus was influenced by his region of the world just as we are influenced by ours.  As we continue exploring the Gospel according to Luke, today’s text involves a parable about a wedding.  One Sabbath Jesus went to the home of one of the leaders of the Pharisees to share a meal.  While in his home, Jesus observes how the guests were seeking out the best seats at the table.  People watching causes Jesus to tell a parable.  To remind those who had gathered that when someone invites you to a wedding, you should not take your seat in the place of honor.  Because someone who is more highly regarded may arrive, and then you would put your host in the incredibly awkward position of having to tell you to give up your seat.

Jesus explains, “When you receive an invitation, go and sit in the least important place.  When your host approaches you, he will say, ‘Friend, move up here to a better seat.’ Then you will be honored in the presence of all your fellow guests.  All who lift themselves up will be brought low, and those who make themselves low will be lifted up.”[2]  A little bit of humility goes a long way.  Let’s not assume that we are the most important people.

Because hospitality was a big concern in Jesus’ culture.  In the book of Hebrews, we can read: “Keep loving each other like family.  Don’t neglect to open up your homes to guests, because by doing this some have been hosts to angels without knowing it.”[3]  This echoes the famous episode of Abraham and Sarah offering hospitality to three men who randomly showed up at their tent in the heat of the day.  Abraham said to the strangers, “Let a little water be brought, and wash your feet, and rest yourselves under the tree.  Let me bring a little bread, that you may refresh yourselves, and after that you may pass on.”[4]  The strangers ended up being angels who blessed Abraham and Sarah with their son Isaac.  The desert environment could be harsh.  Water and shelter were precious commodities.  The importance of hospitality in Jesus’ culture cannot be overemphasized.

The editors of the Common English Bible explain that Jesus went to dinner parties with Pharisees, tax collectors, and the poor throughout the Gospel of Luke.  These meals are images of God’s kingdom.  In Jesus’ world, dinner parties were an important aspect of maintaining one’s place in society.  To prepare to attend a dinner party—people bathed, put oil in their hair, and perfume on their bodies in the afternoon to be ready for the social event.  Remember that hygiene at that time was not like our hygiene (people couldn’t just jump in the shower before going someplace important)!  Sometimes a servant would even travel around to inform the guests when the party was ready to begin on behalf of their master.  As the guests entered the host’s home, a servant would wash their feet to ensure that they felt comfortable (just like when the angels showed up at Abraham and Sarah’s tent).  Because perhaps folks traveled a-ways to attend the event. 

Once in the dining room, the guests would recline on cushioned benches that were in a U-shape and rest on one elbow.  After being seated and comfortably reclining, servants would place food on low tables in front of the benches.  The diners would slowly eat and drink with one hand while having conversations with their neighbors.  The best seats (the seats of honor) were the seats in the middle of the U.  That was where the action took place.  The farther away that a person was from the center, the less significant their status.[5]  What Jesus is observing at the Pharisee’s house is that people were seeking to be in the middle of the U.  And if you did that and someone more important arrived, then the host would have to ask you to move (in front of everyone).  What Jesus is getting at is that by puffing yourself up with the seat of honor, you’re actually embarrassing yourself.  Though you’re also embarrassing your host.  And you’re possibly embarrassing the person who’s deemed more important because you’re having to move for them to have an appropriate place at the table.  The bad etiquette horror of it all! 

Instead, Jesus says that when someone receives an invitation—that person needs to sit far away from the center and show humility.  At the same time, all of this is a little sarcastic.  Because among Jesus’ follower’s, status and being recognized publicly for who one happens to be or for one’s accomplishments doesn’t matter that much anyway.  As Paul wrote to the Galatians: “There is no longer Jew or Greek; there is no longer slave or free; there is no longer male and female, for all of you are one in Christ Jesus.”[6]  All of us are one in Christ Jesus.  Jockeying for status as the most important person in the room?  Jesus seemingly didn’t have a lot of time and patience for that.

Jesus ends this parable with, “When you host a lunch or dinner, don’t invite your friends, your brothers and sisters, your relatives, or rich neighbors. If you do, they will invite you in return and that will be your reward.  Instead, when you give a banquet, invite the poor, crippled, lame, and blind.  And you will be blessed because they can’t repay you. Instead, you will be repaid when the just are resurrected.”[7]

Jesus ends this discussion of humility and hospitality and seats of honor by challenging people.  Don’t just think about being humble and not placing yourself in the center of the action by putting yourself in the center of the seating arrangement.  Also think about inviting people who never get invitations to fancy dinner parties.  Because when you host a meal for someone who can’t repay you, that’s even more significant.  The invitation to invite those in need emphasizes Jesus’ call to share our resources with our neighbors.  Jesus ends this lesson by being more radically open, calling for an open table where everyone is invited. 

This image of the banquet open to all is one of my favorite images of the Kingdom of God.  Because it’s an image that remains so relatable.  It has implications for how some Christian traditions (like ours) view Communion and who’s allowed to receive the Sacrament.  Who’s in and who’s out, if you will.  Everyone is invited here.  The radical hospitality is what makes the invitation so holy.  Everyone’s in.  The open table doesn’t need a ton of translating to understand.  Though it still feels a little uncomfortable to imagine hosting a wedding or a dinner party and not inviting those closest to you, but inviting complete strangers instead.  And not just strangers, but the poor, crippled, lame, and blind.  This is remarkable!  All are welcome.  And this is what the church can be at our best.  Thanks be to God.  Amen.

[1] William Jordan, “The Personality Map of the USA,” YouGov, January 28, 2014, https://today.yougov.com/politics/articles/8443-personality-map
[2] Luke 14:9-11, CEB.
[3] Hebrews 13:1-2, CEB.
[4] Genesis 18:4-5, NRSVUE.
[5] “1st Century Dinner Parties” in the Common English Bible, 124 NT.
[6] Galatians 3:28, NRSVUE.
[7] Luke 14:12-14, CEB.

Photo by David Butler (from Rev. Lauren & Neill Ostrout’s Wedding in Hartford, Connecticut).