The Table.

A couple months ago in August, we went and did a service with them outside of Brittingham Park. So we're so happy to have you guys here and excited to be able to worship together.

We are going to be in Luke chapter 14 today. If you have your Bibles and you want to pull it out, you can do that. We are starting a new series here called The Table, where we're talking about the tables that Jesus set for people and the people that he invited to eat with him.

Show of hands here today, how many of you are people that like, you love to host people for meals and you like to cook and all of that. All right, how many of you here today like showing up when people cook for you and make you meals, right? That's probably all of us. I'm definitely both.

But I have been known like my whole life, even when I was little, I would want to always like throw parties for people. My parents started taking pictures of like all the cakes that I would make. I could find a reason to celebrate anything and make you a cake. And I still can. Like if you ever need someone to show up and like make you some desserts to celebrate, I'm your girl. I'll be there.

But in college, things got a little bit tricky for me because if you maybe still live in a dorm here and if you've ever lived in a dorm, you know that you're a little limited in your cooking ability and what you can do. So this is going to be one of those stories of like don't do as I did because it might have been illegal. I don't know.

Can you have crock pots in dorms? Is that legal? Maybe I don't know. Fire code or something like that. I don't know if I was supposed to, but I did. I had a crock pot. Sundays at my school, they closed the cafeteria. So you just couldn't eat Sunday night. You have to go out. And also, you know, when you're a student, it's inexpensive to go out every single Sunday night. So I would often cook for my friends in my dorm room.

There was one Sunday I was so excited to make my grandmother's mac and cheese, her famous recipe, one of my favorites. It's cooking. Everything's great. It looks delicious. So I gather my friends and it looks like the most amazing mac and cheese you could ever imagine. We all take a big bite of it. And something's not right.

You see, there's this thing called evaporated milk and there's this thing called sweet and condensed milk that can kind of look a little similar. And maybe you might mix them up from time to time, which is what I did. So instead of evaporated milk, I literally had sweet condensed mac and cheese. And it was disgusting. I still look back and I'm like, I don't know.

Maybe you can help me decide who my true friends were. The ones that ate it without questioning? Or the ones that were like, spit it out and were like, that's disgusting? I don't know. I don't know who was the true friend. Maybe some were a little more gracious than others. But it looked beautiful, right? From the outside, it's like, that's going to be amazing. And then you take a bite. That was not so amazing. But I think we all did eat it because we were too broke to go buy and make anything else again.

The story that we're going to read about today is talking about the difference where there's always this idea that sometimes what things look like on the outside are the most important. But what Jesus is going to start to address is that sometimes the things that we think are deemed so great and so wonderful and so presentable, those actually might not be the things that Jesus is after, after all.

So if you want to turn with me in your Bible to Luke chapter 14, we're going to begin reading today, starting in verse 1 through 14.

When he noticed how the guests picked up the places of honor at the table, he told them this parable. When someone invites you to a wedding feast, do not take the place of honor. For a person more distinguished than you may have been invited. If so, the host who invited both of you will come and say to you, Give this man your seat. Then, humiliated, you will have to take the least important place. But when you are invited, take the lowest place, so that when your host comes, he will say to you, Friend, move up to a better place. Then you will be honored in the presence of all your fellow guests. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted. Jesus said to his host, When you give a luncheon or dinner, do not invite your friends, your brothers or relatives or your rich neighbors. If you do, they may invite you back and so you will be repaid. But when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, and you will be blessed. Although they cannot repay you, you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.

Luke 14:7-14

Jesus is healing on the Sabbath, which according to the religious leaders at that time was not good, was not cool. They're watching him very closely at these moments of what he's going to do. Notice here in the beginning of the passage, it says they went to the house of a prominent Pharisee. So that was a prominent leader, or someone really fancy and really important at that time. Jesus is now noticing that people are trying to take these feasts of honor. Like they're trying to sit by the popular guys, right, the popular kids. They're like, how can I get close to them? That's what's happening here.

Jesus is watching this take place, and he's like, okay, hang on a second. I have something to say. So he starts to tell this parable, and it's important for us to recognize here. These parables are stories, ways that Jesus is using different stories to kind of just completely shuffle things up a little bit. So they know one way. The way that they're living right now is, this person's important. I'm going to get close to them. This person from the outward, they look like they're the one that I'm supposed to be near. They have power. They have authority. So I'm going to get close to them, I'm going to sit as close as I can.

And Jesus says, let me tell you this parable instead.

Who sits at the table

Will you pray with me again today? Heavenly Father, we thank you so much today for your word. God, we thank you for your word that is alive, that is active, that even though it was written years and years ago, that it still has the power to speak to us right here in this current, modern, present moment. So we just ask that your Holy Spirit would come, that you would speak to us. Lord, the words that I say right now have no power unless you come. So Holy Spirit, would you come? Because we want to hear from you, God. We want to hear from your heart. We want to hear from your voice. We want to read this and draw closer to you.

So we just open up our hearts, ready to receive. We ask, Holy Spirit, would you come? In your name we pray. Amen.

So I want to talk about today who was at the table. Jesus is telling this story, and he's shuffling these things. He's flipping it backwards, and he's saying, no, don't actually go for the seat of honor. Give it up. Go to the least important place, the least important seat. That's the one I want you to have.

But Jesus didn't just tell this story. He lived this with his life. So we're going to talk about some of the interactions we see Jesus have with different people. You see, when Jesus was here on earth, not only did he call his disciples to come and follow him, but he also empowered them to go and to continue on with his mission.

The thing about the disciples is that they were all just kind of this diverse bunch of people, right? They didn't all have the same occupations. They didn't come from the same background. They didn't even all come in believing the same things. But that's who he chose to use and empower them to continue his mission.

When Jesus died on the cross and after his resurrection, before he ascended back into heaven, he left with us his Holy Spirit and he told those disciples, now you go and you continue this. We get to be a part of that continuation of fulfilling the mission of Jesus to reconcile people back to him. Jesus shows us in his life how to do that.

Every week we kind of have our "so what?" Like what are we talking about today? And our so what today is the table gathers, unites, and it empowers us. The now what is that we get to take our seat and then make room for other people. Take our seat and make room for other people.

Jesus, in this parable, is showing us that he wasn't here to impress the crowds. He wasn't here to impress the people of position and authority. Rather, he was here to be present with people and to usher in the presence of the kingdom of heaven.

I love in the gospels when we read the accounts of Jesus calling his disciples, that the first thing that he does is he calls them to just be with him before he asks them to do anything else. And specifically, in one of the Gospels, when Jesus is calling his disciples, Andrew and Simon Peter, one of his brothers, he tells Simon, all of a sudden he looks at him and he changes his name to Peter. He gives him this new name, he gives him this new identity before he even asks him to do anything else.

That same way that Jesus did that for Peter and for all who are in there, he's doing that for us. He continues to invite us in to come, and as we are with him, he will change us. He will transform us. He will give us new identities.

The people Jesus came for

Some of the people that we see that Jesus came for, that he interacted with, we see that he came and invited to the table the less than, the avoided, the oppressors, the enemies, and the unexpected. That's what we're going to talk about today. The first one being the less than.

Jesus spent time with people that everybody else looked at, and they deemed as less than. One of the places that we see this is when Jesus interacts with women. Women at that time, culturally, it would have been unacceptable for a man to even talk directly to them, because they were seen as less than. But if you've read scripture, you see moments where Jesus looked at women and he spoke to them directly.

In Luke chapter 8, we read a story of where there's this woman that comes with this issue of blood where she had been bleeding for years and years and years. She was seen as unclean. She was seen as impure and she was seen as someone that you would stay away from. But Jesus has this interaction with her where not only does he talk directly to her.

In Luke 8:48, he calls her daughter.

Luke 8:48

Jesus looks at her and he talks to her directly, face to face. He was present with her. So if you're here today and maybe there's things in your life where you feel like you are less than, you feel like other people look at you or don't look at you because of things that you have done or things that have happened to you, maybe you feel unworthy, unclean. No one would want to come and talk to me. Jesus wants to look at you, and he wants to talk to you, and he wants to be present with you in those moments, and heal you, and change you, because he does not see you as less than. He sees you as someone that he wants relationship with, and he wants you to help usher in the kingdom of heaven.

That's who Jesus is.

Jesus came for the avoided

The next that we see is he came for those that others avoided. The avoided. The poor. It says in Luke 4:18.

Jesus says, The spirit of the Lord is on me because he has anointed me to proclaim the good news to the poor.

Luke 4:18

Jesus spent time speaking about this. He used his words and his times with people to say, this is what I'm here to do. I have come to bring the good news to the poor, those who other people might be avoiding because they don't have anything to offer them.

There's another passage in Luke 6:20 where Jesus, he looks at his disciples, the men that were following him, and he said.

Blessed are you who are poor for yours is the kingdom of heaven.

Luke 6:20

He showed this time and time again that he paid attention to people that had nothing to offer him in return. Another passage of this is in Luke 14, verses 13 through 14, like we just read there about the banquet, where he's saying time and time again, this is what the kingdom of heaven is going to be like. It's not going to be for the people that can repay you, but the ones that maybe could not offer you a thing in return.

That's who I want you to pay attention to. That's who Jesus paid attention to when he was here on earth. We see Jesus spending time with the unclean, with those that also would have been avoided because of that, those who were sick. One of the common things that you read in the Gospels is Jesus interacting with the lepers. Leprosy was a terrible disease at that time. It would have been something that was contagious, so you wouldn't want to go near people because it was contagious.

It was something that you would be then seen as unclean if you touched them. I love this. I love that in the Gospels we read this. In Mark 1:40 through 45, we read that Jesus, he's not only healing a leper here, but in order to heal him, he touched him. He touched the leper to heal him. Jesus' response to this man who everybody else was saying, don't go near him because what he has is so bad that it's contagious. What he has is going to rub off on everybody. He's that sick. He's that unclean. Jesus touched this man. He was so present with him, and in doing that, he ushered in the healing that the kingdom of God has to offer us.

Jesus and the oppressors

The next thing, and this is where it gets real fun when we talk about the people Jesus interacted with, the oppressors. I want to read a story in John chapter 4, another gospel.

A royal officer comes to Jesus and says, Sir, come down before my child dies. Go, Jesus replied, your son will live. The man took Jesus at his word and departed. While he was still on the way, his servants met him with the news that his boy was living. When he inquired as to the time when his son got better, they said to him, Yesterday at one in the afternoon, the fever left him.

John 4:49-52

Another place that we hear a story of Jesus that's similar is in Matthew 8:5 through 9.

Jesus heard this. He was amazed and said to those following him, Truly I tell you, I have not found anyone in Israel with such great faith.

Matthew 8:10

Here's what's happening in these situations. You see, at this time, the Jewish people hated Rome. Rome was their oppressors. Rome was ruling over them in harsh and unfair way. There was oppression that was taking place upon this group of people. Their leaders are coming to Jesus and saying, will you heal my son? Will you heal my servant? And Jesus, without contempt, without hesitation, says, yes, I will heal them.

Jesus was able to heal and to love even the oppressors. This is where it gets really hard for us as followers of Jesus, because it's easy for us, and not always, but it can be easier, I should say, for us to love and to serve and to make space for those who are being oppressed because we can understand this is unjust, this is wrong. But that's a whole other level, to be able to heal the oppressors and to say, hey, there's room for even you.

So that should open our eyes to recognize that no matter what we came in here with, Jesus has room for us. He has room for us to come. He recognizes this man is saying, I'm not worthy, Jesus. And Jesus is calling out his faith and looking at his faith and saying, I have not found a greater faith in Israel yet. This is someone who was oppressing people. But he's recognizing that I am the Lord. He's recognizing that I can heal and I have that power.

Man, sometimes I'm like, my heart isn't ready for that. My heart isn't ready for that.

Just this next week, I'll be headed to meet with other pastors. We gather once a year and we gather for this purpose of coming back to our churches. We've been a part of this for the past two years and raising funds to buy homes for women and children that are being rescued from human trafficking.

The first year that I went to this gathering and we got together and we started to pray, the woman who founded this organization 25 years ago, she has worked with people all over the world. She has seen some of the most horrific things of people being oppressed and taken advantage of, abused. She began to pray during our prayer time for the oppressors. She began to pray for the abusers. She began to pray for the pimps and for the men that were doing all these horrible things.

My heart began to weep and say, Lord, I don't know if I can pray for them. I don't know if I'm ready for that. But to recognize that that's what Jesus did. He, even those who were the ones that were harming people, the oppressors, the abusers, he had space to say, I will come and I will heal you too. There's room for you.

Jesus and racial enemies

The next is the racial enemies. There's a lot of talk in the gospels about the Samaritans and the Jewish culture and all of that. Jesus tells this famous parable that maybe if you grew up in the church, you've been around the church at all. It's the famous story, famous parable of the good Samaritan. It's this profound moment when Jesus is telling people what it looks like to love their neighbor. He's saying, this is it. To love even, and to love and to cross those racial barriers with even your racial enemies.

Another time that we see this is in John chapter 4, verses 4 through 42, where we read Jesus meeting the woman at the well. In this story, Jesus comes against both racial and gender discriminations. You see, Jesus ends up alone with this Samaritan woman at this local watering hole. All of a sudden there starts to be some murmurings and discussion because the disciples are looking on. Not only is it bad to say okay, he's talking to a woman, but he's talking to somebody else that's not of his same race and ethnicity. We don't do that right now. We don't interact with the Samaritans.

So what Jesus is doing, sometimes we read it, we're like, oh, that's so nice. He was over by the well with this woman. But there was a lot happening that Jesus went and did this. The disciples, the men who followed Jesus, who walked with him, who got to learn from him face to face, share meals with him, they're like, you shouldn't be talking to her.

What does this show us? That you can follow Jesus, and you can still have really, really deep roots of racism deep down inside of you. That you can read your Bibles, and you can be around these different things, and you can still have prejudice. You can still have sin that is in you. The disciples walked with Jesus, but these things were so marinated into who they are that they didn't even see it. They're like, don't talk to her. Don't talk to someone that was made in the image of God.

Jesus is like, well, watch me. Watch me talk to her. Watch me give her a drink and tell her about the living water that I have to offer her.

This is why it's so important for us as followers of Jesus to take time to pray and to take time to ask the Lord to really show us what's going on in my heart right now? What's going on in my heart that I don't even see, that I don't even realize? Because all of us, we come from our own culture, our own way of life, where there's things that are just baked so deep inside of us that sometimes we don't see. We need the Holy Spirit's help to come along and show us and help us uproot that from our lives.

Because ultimately, Jesus came for the people that nobody else was expecting. He was tearing down walls of division day after day, moment after moment, meal after meal, as he shared meals and tables with people that nobody expected him to go near.

For he himself is our peace who has made the two groups one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility by setting aside in his flesh the law with its commands and regulations. His purpose was to create in himself one new humanity out of the two, thus making peace, and in one body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross by which he put to death their hostility.

Ephesians 2:14-16

He came to tear down every single wall that divides us and to unite us, to gather us, and empower us to continue to usher in his presence everywhere we go. How did he do this? He talked to them. He set the table for them. He looked at them. He got close enough to touch them. He was present with them.

You see, God knew, and his plan from the very beginning was to be present with us. That's why he didn't just send us a book, although we do have the Bible, right? He didn't just, like, record something and say, all right, everybody watch this. He sent a person. He sent his son. He sent Jesus. He came to become flesh, to be present with us.

Barriers are hard to cross

So the question then is, why is it, like, why does this not happen? Why is it hard for us to sit with people and share tables with people that are different from us? Why is it hard for us to not want to take the seat of honor, like in the story we started with? Why is it hard for us to invite people that are less than, invite people that can't repay us?

Why is that so hard? Why is it not happening? Well, it's because it's going to cause some challenge for us. Because if we're sitting at a table with people that we don't know, we might have to eat some food we don't like. We might have to talk about things that we don't really know about. We might have to ask questions. We might have to go through the journey of getting to know people and knowing their stories and knowing their past.

I mean, if it was easy to cross barriers like Jesus did, we'd all be doing it, right? I think that our world would look a whole lot different than it does in this moment. But it's hard work, but it's the work that Jesus invites us into because he's saying, this is what my kingdom is like. This is what it's like.

Jesus didn't just tell us, but he showed us in his everyday life what it looked like to come and cross those barriers, to gather people, have conversations with them, unite them, and empower them to go.

The invitation and the challenge

I'm going to invite the worship team to come back up as we get ready to close tonight. There's a couple things that I want to kind of mention. It's one that if you're here today and you're feeling like, oh, I would love to be in community with people like that. I would love to understand what it looks like to have a relationship with Jesus.

Know that he invites you to the table. Jesus has invited you and there is an invitation for you today. Whatever your background, whatever your life story is, whatever has happened to you up until this moment, there is an invitation for you to come and to share life with Jesus.

My also challenge with that is to say, if you're here and you're like, man, I feel like nobody's ever really gone out of their way to invite me. Nobody's ever gone out of their way to include me. Can I encourage you that maybe there's tables that Jesus is wanting you to set? Maybe there's pockets of community that he's wanting you to create because he loves you and he trusts you and he wants to empower you to usher in the kingdom of heaven?

So if you feel like you have been invited, know that your wounds do not have to have the last word today. Those wounds of maybe rejection. Maybe you have been invited and you showed up and then you didn't feel welcomed anymore and it didn't go as you thought it would. Know that Jesus has more for you, and that situation does not have to have the final word today.

I want to read the text from Luke 14 one more time.

But when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, and you will be blessed. Although they cannot repay you, you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.

Luke 14:13-14

You see, God's heart for the world is God so loved that he gave. God so loved that he gave his one and only son that whoever believes in him will not perish, but will have everlasting life. Relationship. Feasting at the table with him.

You see, to love is to give with no expectation of being repaid. To love is to give to those that maybe could never even repay you, even if they wanted to. God gave us his first. He gave us his best. He gave us his only. And guess what? We did not deserve that. But now we have the invitation to not only receive that love, but to go and to give that love. To not give our leftovers, but to give our best to those around us.

Because to love those who look like us, think like us, treat us kindly, are nice and loving towards us, that's just being a good human. But to love those who could never repay you in return, that is ushering in the kingdom of heaven. That is following the way of Jesus.

Mother Teresa said if you judge people you won't have time to love them. I'll add to that. If you start to follow Jesus' footsteps and you have conversations with people you share tables with them, then you won't have any time to judge them anymore because you'll start to see people for who they are created in the image of God, worthy of love, worthy of sitting at the table.

In 1 Corinthians 13, which is the love chapter, it says love is patient, love is kind, it does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud, it does not dishonor others, it keeps no records of wrong, it is not self-seeking, easily angered. Love does not delight in evil, rejoices in the truth, always protects, trusts, hopes, perseveres. Love never fails.

The thing that stood out to me this week. I was reminded of this scripture and the word, "it is not self-seeking," just kept jumping off that page. Love is not self-seeking. That is what Jesus is trying to get deep inside of us with this parable of the banquet. Love is not self-seeking.

It's not going out looking for your invite to the table, but saying, who can I invite to the table? The kingdom of heaven is backwards to what we know, to what we're used to, but it's so much better when we start to submit to what Jesus is asking. Because Jesus, he was always about people, always.

What we do with this

And so what do we do with this? Well, really practical for a minute. What does it look like for you to start to make more tables for people in your life? My challenge to you would be think of, okay, this month, in the next 30 days, how can I share a meal? How can I share a table with someone? Someone that can never repay me, someone that's different from me, maybe someone that would never feel comfortable walking into a church like this. How can I share a table with them?

You see, when we choose to follow Jesus, we choose to follow his mission. People were his mission, and people like me and you were his method of ushering in the kingdom of heaven. We are still being sent today in the same way Jesus was sent here to be a presence of peace, a presence of restoration, a presence of love. We are here today being sent in that same way.

So I want to invite you to stand as we are going to spend some time and the worship team is going to lead us. But I do want to take a moment to just create space for those of you who maybe you have never said yes to that invitation to surrender your life to Jesus.

I want to be clear here today that sometimes it can feel like, okay, does this even mean anything if I just say this prayer? What does that even mean? Here's this. If you are here today, know that Jesus wants to have a relationship with you. He came and gave his one and only life and died on the cross to pay the price for your sins, to make way for you to enter into a relationship with him for all of eternity.

These people, something happened when they met Jesus that their lives were changed and never the same. But there was a decision for them to make to say, this is the moment that I'm surrendering to your lordship.

So I'm going to ask you all to just close your eyes for a minute. If you're here and you want to say yes to that relationship with Jesus, I'm going to invite you. We're going to say a prayer together. I'm going to invite you just as a way to just kind of mark this. Not as a way of saying I'm going to leave here perfect, but as a way of saying I'm going to leave here surrendering my life to the one that can come and do a work in my life, the perfecter of all things. Not as a way of saying, okay, now everything's going to be better, but just acknowledging to say, okay, I want to have a moment that marks me of saying, Lord, I'm going to say yes to that invitation.

Maybe you feel less than. Maybe you feel like you're not worthy. Know today that you are. I believe that there is a reason that you are even here in this room today, that it's not a mistake, that on this Sunday you're here with this scripture and this text and these people. The Lord continues to go above and beyond to send people into your life to say you're welcome here.

So if you want to just have a moment where you just raise your hand and say, Lord, I'm ready. I want to follow you. I want to say yes to the invitation to relationship with you. With every eye closed, would you just slip your hand in the air so I can pray for you today? You can put your hands down.

We're all just going to pray together because what an incredible moment to mark us. So would you just repeat these words after me. And you say, Lord, I'm here surrendered to you. I believe in my heart that you are the savior of the world. I believe in your death and resurrection. I give my life to you. Come and be my Lord. Amen.

If you just prayed that prayer, I want to encourage you that Alpha is a great space for you to come. If you have yet to make that, if you have made that decision, a next step is to go public with that in baptism.

But we're going to continue now. With your eyes closed, I just want to invite everybody here today to just invite the Holy Spirit to come and show you. Is there any way that I have not been saying yes to the invitation still? Is there anything that I have been holding back from you? Any reason that I haven't wanted to come to you, Lord?

In that same way, just ask the Holy Spirit to begin to even show you right now. Are there people that you need to invite to the table? Are there ways that you have been seeking that position of honor and you need to go back and say, Lord, who is around me that I need to be inviting? Who is around me that I need to be serving and loving and present with that cannot repay me?

So would you just begin to ask the Holy Spirit to show you. Show you what it is that he wants to speak directly to you in your heart. I believe he wants to do that in this moment.

So God, would you come? Would you speak to us in a way that only you can? Would you show us? Would you begin to give us glimpses of what it looks like for us to usher in your kingdom in our place, with our people? Would you begin to even put people on our hearts that we need to share a table with, people that we need to share meals with, people that we need to love and be present with in the same way that you were?

God, I still pray that if there's people here and they feel unworthy of coming to you, unworthy of sitting and sharing in that fellowship with you, God, would you just begin to show them that all you're looking for is their yes? All you're looking for is their surrender. All you're looking for is them to say, yeah, I want to sit with you, Jesus. I want to be with you, Jesus. You will come and you will do the rest. You will come and you'll provide and you'll heal and you'll restore. We no longer have to hold on to broken identities or our past. We can have freedom and healing in you.

You love us because you created us in your image and you are longing for that relationship and communion with us, God. So would we walk with that authority and from that place of love, would we be able to give love and usher in your kingdom here in Madison? God, we pray.

So Holy Spirit, would you come? We are willing. We are ready. We say yes to you, God. In your name we pray.