NOTE: Here are my worship notes for Sunday, May 11th - Part Three in our series "Meeting God at Table with Jesus" - and also Mother's Day in the USA. We will all gather in the large open Chancel of our Sanctuary for this worship celebration with chairs being brought in and set up around the large communion table. The table itself will be covered with a festive cloth and set with baskets of pita bread and a clay pot with Syrian cheese to be shared as part of the morning feast. My comments are broken into two parts - the first with our children grounded in blessings - and the second with the adults.
Part One: Time
for Children
Today is… different from
other Sunday’s, yes? So let me ask you a
few questions about today’s feast:
+ How does our
gathering look different to you?
+ Can you tell me
what you see on the communion table? Is
this how it usually looks? What’s
different – can you tell me?
In
a way, everything is different today – where we’re seated, how it feels to be
up front and close to one another rather than spread out, the way the table is
set – even the type of food we’ve placed upon the table is different,
right? And there is a reason for
all this change: in this season after
Easter, we’re spending time trying to see what Jesus teaches us about God when
he gathered around the table. So I thought we ought to experience what that
looked and felt like when we gathered around the Lord’s Table up close and
personal.
Now,
before I tell you a story about Jesus – and ask you to help me share some of
today’s special food – I thought it would be a good idea to teach you how some
of the feasts that Jesus went to actually began. You see, back in his time and place, God’s
people began their meals – both the special as well as the ordinary ones – in
ways that are quite different from the way we eat supper.
So often we think
that the way we do things is the way everybody does things, but
that would be a mistake: not everybody dresses like we do, not everybody eats
the same foods that we do and not everybody has as many choices about
what they are going to eat as we do. You see, in the
time of Jesus at least half of the food that ordinary people ate was… bread. In fact, the Hebrew word, lechem, means both bread and
food. Bread was essential to the people
of Israel and Palestine and is truly what kept most people alive.
And
even though most of us don’t know Hebrew, we do know an important word
in Hebrew that tells us a lot about the ministry of Jesus: do you remember the town where Jesus was
born? We sing about it in a Christmas
carol that goes, “O little town of…?”
Bethlehem. Here two Hebrew words are joined together in this name – beth which means house (maybe you’ve
heard the word Beth-el which means the house of the Lord?) – and lechem which means bread. So Bethlehem
means what? House of bread – the place where Jesus was born means house of
bread – the essence of life.
In
addition to lots of bread each day, people in the time of Jesus also ate a bit
of ground beans called hummus, some olives and on special occasions some simple
cheese like we have today. But before
the meal began, there were two blessings said:
one while you were washing your hands and one before the bread was
broken and shared.
+ The first blessing
was a way to remember all of the goodness of God’s creation – and went
something like this: you poured water
three times over your right hand and then three times over your left hands
saying:
BLESSED
ARE YOU, O LORD OUR GOD, MASTER OF THE UNIVERSE, FOR YOU HAVE MADE US HOLY WITH
YOUR COMMANDMENTS AND CALL US TO WASH OUR HANDS BEFORE THIS MEAL.
+ Why do you think
this blessing was important at the start of the meal?
Then,
after the people were focused and ready – having their hearts set on God rather
than anything else – they said a blessing over the bread before it was broken
and shared: BLESSED ARE YOU, O LORD OUR GOD, MASTER OF THE UNIVERSE, FOR YOU BRING
FORTH BREAD FROM THE EARTH.
And I’d like to
teach you that prayer in Hebrew before sharing some bread and Middle Eastern
cheese with you, ok?
+ It goes like
this: BARUKH ATA ADONAI – ELOHEINU MELEKH HA’OLAM – HAMOTIZI LEHEM MIN
HA’ARETZ.
+ And we’ll do it in those three small sections: BARUKH
ATA ADONAI – ELOHEINU MELEKH HA’OLAM – HAMOTIZI LEHEM MIN HA’ARETZ
Now the feast can begin, so let me ask my helpers to
come forward now and help me share with you some lechem – bread – and gvina –
cheese. And as my helpers make sure you
all get a little treat, let me tell you this story about Jesus.
Once, when Jesus was at a Sabbath feast, he noticed
how each of the invited guests had
tried to elbow into the place of honor, he said, “When someone invites you to
dinner, don’t take the place of honor. Somebody more important than you might
have been invited by the host. Then he’ll come and call out in front of
everybody, ‘You’re in the wrong place. The place of honor belongs to this man.’
Red-faced, you’ll have to make your way to the very last table, the only place
left. When you’re invited to dinner, go and sit at the last place. Then when
the host comes he may very well say, ‘Friend, come up to the front.’
That will give the dinner
guests something to talk about! What I’m
Then he turned to the host.
“The next time you put on a dinner, don’t just invite your friends and family
and rich neighbors, the kind of people who will return the favor. Invite some
people who never get invited out, the misfits from the wrong side of the tracks.
You’ll be—and experience—a blessing. They won’t be able to return the favor,
but the favor will be returned—oh, how it will be returned!—at the resurrection
of God’s people. (Luke 14: 7-14)
+
Two more questions and then you can
head off to Sunday School, ok? First,
what did the lechem and gvina – the bread and the cheese – taste like to you?
Have you ever had any food like this before?
And second, was this mini-feast on
the Sabbath fun? The Sabbath is a
special day – it is supposed to be joyful and nourishing – a delight rather
than a duty. That’s why the people of Christ’s time closed their feasts with a
prayer that went something like this.
Would you please stand and join me in prayer?
BLESSED
ARE YOU, O LORD OUR GOD, MASTER OF THE UNIVERSE, CREATOR OF ALL LIVING THINGS AND THEIR NEEDS: YOU HAVE GIVEN TO US EVERYTHING WE NEED TO SUSTAIN THE SOUL OF EVER LIVING
BEING. BLESSED ARE YOU FOR YOU ARE THE
LIFE OF THE WORLD. AMEN.
Let us sing together as you head off to Sunday School…
+
Part Two: Adult Conversation
So, we too are gathered around the table of the Lord
on the Sabbath: like our children, we know that there are some things to
consider and practice around this table that Jesus then asks us to make flesh
when we depart. Because, you see, in the
old world of Christ, meals were “ceremonies” rather than rituals – ways of
practicing and remembering your place in the real world – “a microcosm that
paralleled the macrocosm of everyday social relations.” (Malina/Rohrobaugh, The
Social Science Commentary of the Synoptic Gospels, p. 381)
+ Now think about that with me for a moment: a ceremony is regular and
predictable and reinforces the status quo, while a ritual confirms a change in
status. I think of the ritual of my ordination, for example, that marked the
change in my role from being a lay member – or ordinary participant in the
congregation – to that of being a teacher, preacher and healer who was set
apart for special tasks.
+ Can you think of other rituals where afterwards the person’s role in
the world has been changed?
+ Now consider a ceremony and how that is different from a ritual – the
way a ceremony reinforces what is expected and predictable – can you name some
ceremonies out loud? (Opening Day at
Fenway Park, marking the solstice and the equinox, some of our public holidays
like Veteran’s or Memorial Day…)
In today’s meal, however, where Jesus gathered at
table with some of the Pharisees to observe the ceremony of Sabbath, he turns
things upside down in ways that upset what was expected. In fact, he
articulates a NEW set of social relations for those who want to be allies of
the community of God rather than just people who maintain the status quo. And
he asks us to learn and practice this new way of living at both our regular
Sabbath meals and at our special feasting tables.
Specifically, Jesus gives us three distinct challenges
in today’s lesson that show us how live into the wisdom of the prophet Micah
when he asked, “What does the Lord require but to DO justice, to LOVE mercy and
to WALK with humility with our God!” If
you will, today’s gospel reading is a primer in what it looks like to trust
that “the Lord is my Shepherd…who prepares a banquet table before me even in
the presence of mine enemies!”
So let me highlight these three practical challenges
that upset the status quo and ask you both what you think we should do with
them and how they might matter to us as a faith community, ok? First,
there is the opening of today’s story, where Jesus is going to feast on the
Sabbath with some of the Pharisees and they see a man with dropsy. Let’s talk about some of what’s being shared
with us just below the surface here:
+ Jesus is going to another feast with some more Pharisees: what does that tell you? Like I said last week, too often we
Christians have painted the Pharisees to be bad guys – I’ve done it before and
regret it – but we’ve made them into straw men who are easy to ridicule and dismiss
so that we look better. Like Mark Twain
once said: a Pharisee is a good man in
the worst sense of the word.
+ But that doesn’t seem to hold water with Jesus because he is regularly
eating with them and arguing theology and ethics with them – and that should
tell us something. Namely, that the both
Jesus and the Pharisees considered one another social equals – they respected
and valued one another – because in Christ’s day you didn’t eat with those who
were above or below your status.
+ Are you with me on that point?
The simple fact that Luke’s gospel gives us a number of stories where
Jesus is meeting and eating with the Pharisees tells us that they took one
another seriously. It doesn’t mean they
always liked one another, right? Today’s
text tells us the Pharisees were watching Jesus closely – and the Greek makes
it clear that their watching wasn’t friendly – they were suspicious and
searching for a way to denigrate and dismiss him. But that’s because they took
one another seriously.
And that’s the context in which we need to wrestle
with what might seem like a
+ Physically it means that a person is afflicted with edema or swelling
due to water retention; but spiritually and morally there was an ancient notion
of disease that believed the physical symptoms were a reflection of an inward
sin. In this case, the retention of
water and swelling was a sign of… greed.
+ We may find such ways of thinking superstitious and morally abhorrent,
but we didn’t write the story! And if we
want to understand the clues Luke is giving us about Christ’s upside down
kingdom, then we have to know what is going on.
And it would seem from this detail that what Jesus was
asking his religious opponents was something like this: on the day set aside to give glory to God and refresh our bodies and
souls, is it acceptable to the Lord for us to heal a person who is consumed
body and soul by greed? When the
Pharisees were silent, Jesus does not shame or ridicule those who are out to
get him; rather, he brings healing to the afflicted and articulates a new rule
of mercy: Is there anyone here who, if a child or animal fell down a
well, wouldn’t rush to pull him out immediately, not asking whether or not it
was the Sabbath? Like he says
elsewhere, the Sabbath was made for you and me, not the other way around, so we
need to observe the Sabbath in ways that honor life. Tell me: what are your reactions
and/or thoughts about this first challenge to the status quo?
The second
challenge takes place just as the ceremony was starting and has to do with
where people were seated at the feast. In Christ’s
day, when you went to a special dinner not only did you recline while eating –
it was considered a sign of trust because you weren’t ready to jump up and
defend yourself with a weapon – but you wanted to have the most prestigious
place of honor – usually at the center table in the middle of all the action –
where you would be seen most clearly and have the best shot at getting the best
foods first.
+ Modern people know something of this, too: think of banquets where the honored guests
are seated at the front on the dais, right?
Or at wedding parties where there is a head table and members of the
wedding are seated in descending order with the special couple dead center.
+ Well, Jesus offers a 180 on the predictable etiquette of this ceremony
when he tells his hosts that the way of the Lord cuts deeper than the social
rules of Miss Manners. In fact, Jesus
reclaims the wisdom of Proverbs 25 – the ancient book of Jewish wisdom – that
reads: Don’t work yourself into the
spotlight; don’t push your way into the place of prominence. It’s better to be promoted to a place of honor than face humiliation by being
demoted.
Not only is Jesus using his own tradition to criticize
prevailing practices – some-thing that would have infuriated the Pharisees – but
he is telling his hosts that the true way to live into the Sabbath is to become
a servant. There’s that pesky word that
keeps resurfacing in every worship gathering we’ve celebrated since Maundy
Thursday, right? The authentic way of
living as members of the community of God is in humility – on our knees –
washing the feet of others rather than striving for first place.
+ Are you still with me here? Do you see that servanthood first
articulated at the footwashing ceremony of Maundy Thursday showing up yet again
here?
+ And what does that say to you? What are you thinking and feeling about
all of this so far?
I think Jesus wants to make us uncomfortable at first
so that we notice where our habits and proclivity towards comfort get in the
way of the community of God. You see, maturing in the faith has to do with
practicing trusting the grace of God. It isn’t automatic – we don’t get it
right all at once – we have to bump up against our failings and discomfort so
that we can try again. Mary Luti, once
the pastor of First Church in Cambridge, MA and now the Visiting Professor of
Church History at Andover Newton Theological Seminary, put it like this:
The disciple Peter wrote: Like newborn infants,
long for pure, spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow into salvation. That makes organic sense to me. When I was little, I was taught to achieve salvation by building up a
bank account of merit until I'd acquired enough to please God. Later, I was
taught to work out my salvation in fear and trembling. There'd be consequences
if I didn't do it just right. Then I heard that salvation's a gift, which
should've been a relief, but wasn't. If something's really a gift, a giver can
withhold it just as easily as bestow it. That worried and confused me…
Then I read the words from
Peter... and instead of anxious effort; instead of an iffy gift; instead of the
exhausting spiritual aerobics we confess in church every Sunday …this made organic sense to me: we're infants at
God's breasts, helpless at the start. As we're fed the milk of mercy, we grow.
As we're held in the arms of the family of disciples, cooed to with songs of
faith, read to with stories of Jesus, we grow. As we toddle along the Way and
speak our first Word, we grow. (What a great Mother’s Day image, yes?)Maturation is not without its pains. And it takes effort—everyone's, since it really does take a village to raise a child. But there comes a day when we stand back and admire, wondering how this graceful thing happened, knowing that we did not make the splendid grown-up, the mature disciple, standing before us, even though in a way we surely did. And for this mystery of growth, we give God all the glory.
She then goes on to offer this
prayer: Nurse us, Mother God. Set us
growing until the day we stand before you in the splendid maturity you nurtured
us into, you and the church that forms us in your name.
That’s how I hear this second challenge from Jesus: if
we want to live into an alternative to greed – if we want to make the community
of God flesh – we have to practice it – and the best place to practice it is
where we take our nourishment – in our meals and ceremonies and celebrations.
And just so that there is NO ambiguity about his intent, Jesus gives us the
third challenge: MAKE IT A PART OF YOUR REGULAR PRACTICE TO INVITE THE FORGOTTEN ONES TO
YOUR CEREMONIES AND PARTIES!
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.
Did you get that? Your blessing will come through humility – not what
the powerful say about you – but through a purified heart and a compassionate
soul. Again, that servanthood thing in spades…
Jesus asks us to practice nourishing humility at our
tables – especially our feasts – but our ordinary tables, too. He invites us to make flesh the prophetic
clarity of what the Lord requires: doing
justice, loving mercy and walking through life in humility.
+ What does all of this say to you?
What are your reactions? And what do you sense you need to do about what
you’ve heard today?
+ Who have you forgotten about – and what can you do about that? How are
you being called to practice servanthood as a result of being fed at the table
of the Lord?
At
the close of a Jewish feast – and often at the table of devout Jews every day –
there are four blessings offered up to the Lord– the Birkat Hamazon – they are
prayers acknowledge that it is God rather than our own striving who gives us
all we need. Let me close our time at
the table with part of the first blessing:
Blessed are you, Lord our God, Master of
the Universe, for you nourish the whole world in goodness, grace, kindness and
compassion. You give bread to all flesh and your mercy endures forever. Through your great goodness we have never
lacked nor will we lack food forever… for you are God who nourishes and
sustains us all and does good for all and prepares food for all your create.
Blessed are you, O Lord, for you fill us and all creation. Amen.
credits:
1) Leo Mazzeo @ https://www.facebook.com/leomazzeofineart
3) Christ of the Desert - Robert Lentz
4) First Church 250th anniversary - Joe Durwin
6) Maria y Jesus
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