Sunday, September 1, 2013 (full size gallery)
We had a slim crowd of 35 (Labor Day) on a day that seemed to get hotter as time went along until we remembered that it is still summer on September 1. Thus, a typical summer day
We had the Rev. Amy Turner as our supply priest. Amy will be back during the fall leading "Godly Play" for preschool through 2nd grade. We celebrated the 49th wedding anniversary of Dave and Dutchy Fannon
As with fall there are new activities – the ECW showed their new mug at Coffee hour $8 and Marilyn displayed a fund raiser for precious paws
Today was coffee hour provided by Marion and Crystal with ham, roast beef, vegetables and a number of desserts.
Amy preached on Luke and used the metaphor of the Table as a sign of hospitality, inclusiveness and God’s grace. (The readings are here, the bulletin here). At Virginia Thelogical Seminary (VTS) students were expected to go to class, chapel and have meals together as part of developing a community. Her community which involved Catherine became the "Breakfast Club", a group of students that had breadfast together from about 7:15am to 8pm before class. The crowd was diverse in age, sex and experience. And they welcomed all, adding new chairs or even table, if necessary, for new arrivals. At VTS the new one coming could be a bishop from another part of the world, a prospective student for next year and a current student. Or it could be an angel.
They were nourished with their life together in faith and the food which was hot and plentiful. She moved on to God’s table which invites for the same reasons the students were attracted to the VTS table.
The Gospel reading was about another table which was not organized on the principles that Jesus taught. It was all about power, prestige and inequality. The ideal is Jesus teaching in the Gospel to give us their seat to those more powerful. In the end, "for all who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted." They will be raised.
The banquet in Luke was between the leader of the Pharisees and Jesus. This week we celebrated the 50th anniversary of the MLK "I have a Dream Speech."
This speech was about blacks try to enter the banquet as free people, free from segregations, discrmination and the forces that prevent them from ascending the economic ladder
As King wrote in 1963 " But 100 years later [after the Emancipation Proclamation] the Negro still is not free. One hundred yearn later the life of the Negro is still badly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination. One hundred gears later the Negro lives on a lonely island of povedp in the mjidst d a vast meam of materia1 prosperity"
Jesus spoke of the need to invite these people "But when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind. And you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you, for you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous."
Just as in Jesus time it was about power and exploitation. At the time being invited to a banquet meant one owed something back to the host. In our dealings with other, this expectation could lead powerful to get more powerful and the exploited to get more exploited. The social system was corrupt. The poor were not wanted since they had litle to give. However, righteous action and life should be the standard which could only be promoted by a reform of the system.
As Rev. Dr. Shanell T. Smith wrote this week "What if America was a banquet, and at this banquet the servings were fair wages, just trials, civil rights and liberties, but offered by invitation only? According to those who “March(ed) on Washington,” this was exactly the case."
She writes "It was not unusual for Jesus to speak of the resurrection before the Pharisees, since this was a belief this religious sect held. What is significant, however, is that Jesus says only the righteous will be repaid at resurrection – a claim that is very different from what is recorded in Acts (Luke’s other volume): “there will be a resurrection of both the righteous and the unrighteous” (24:15). Only those who follow Jesus’ teaching – whose motives are pure – will be accorded as righteous…If our motives are pure, and if we are humble in our efforts to seek justice, Jesus will say, “Come. Sit here, next to me.”