A gathering prayer:
Lord, we come to worship you,
the one who cares for us more deeply
than we can understand.
Give us the confidence to care deeply
for others, as you care for us.
Amen.
STF: 28 – Jesus calls us here
Jesus calls us here to meet him,
As through word and song and prayer,
We affirm God’s promised presence,
Where his people live and care.
Praise the God who keeps his promise,
Praise the son who calls us friends;
Praise the Spirit who, among us, to our hopes and fears attends.
Jesus calls us to confess him,
Word of life and Lord of all,
Sharer of our flesh and frailness,
Saving all who fail or fall.
Tells his holy human story;
Tell his tales that all may hear;
Tell the world that Christ in glory
Came to earth to meet us here.
Jesus calls us to each other
Vastly different though we are
Creed and colour, class and gender
Neither limit nor debar.
Join the hands of friend and stranger;
Join the hands of age and youth;
Join the faithful and the doubter
In their common search for truth.
A prayer of adoration
In your presence, in this place, we come to you, Almighty God.
You are the God we adore.
You are the reason for our being, and our being here. You are the one who created us, who breathed life into us.
You are the giver of love, the welcomer to all.
Almighty God, as we gather, we are humbled by your greatness, by your generosity and justice.
Together, we offer you our prayers for who you are and what you are.
You are the God we adore.
Amen.
Bible Reading
Luke 14: 1,7-14 (NLT)
1. One Sabbath day Jesus went to eat dinner in the home of a leader of the Pharisees, and the people were watching him closely.
7 When Jesus noticed that all who had come to the dinner were trying to sit in the seats of honour near the head of the table, he gave them this advice: 8 “
When you are invited to a wedding feast, don’t sit in the seat of honour. What if someone who is more distinguished than you has also been invited? 9 The host will come and say, ‘Give this person your seat.’ Then you will be embarrassed, and you will have to take whatever seat is left at the foot of the table!10 “Instead, take the lowest place at the foot of the table. Then when your host sees you, he will come and say, ‘Friend, we have a better place for you!’ Then you will be honoured in front of all the other guests.
11 For those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.” 12 Then he turned to his host. “When you put on a luncheon or banquet,” he said, “don’t invite your friends, brothers, relatives, and rich neighbours. For they will invite you back, and that will be your only reward. 13 Instead, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind. 14 Then at the resurrection of the righteous, God will reward you for inviting those who could not repay you.
Reflection:
Jesus was often invited to the big social functions of his day – although why is never really clear. Perhaps his hosts wanted to observe him to confirm their opinion of him as a dangerous lawbreaker (v.1b). In one sense, he will not disappoint here; in another, he will show himself to have a greater grasp of living the life of faith than his fellow diners.
Any story, in the gospel, that starts with a reminder that it was a sabbath usually ends in conflict.
Jesus, as ever, meets it head-on. In the omitted verses (vv.2-6), Jesus heals a sick man and challenges the other guests to find fault – but they are silent. Perhaps they didn’t even notice the healing. Perhaps they did but had little concern for a nobody in the crowd.
What mattered was that they got their rightful place at the table.
In the social conventions of the day, there was nothing wrong with this jockeying for position. Roman society (even in Judea) was structured around status and honour. The invitation to dinner meant that you were somebody; just how important was shown by how near the host you were seated. It was crucial that everyone knew their place and played by the rules.
Jesus notices this and tells a stinging little parable containing really common-sense advice. It is interesting to note the Pharisees invited Jesus so they could watch him – yet, all the time, he had been watching them. The parable is a gentle put down of the social one-upmanship.
But it is also an allusion to Proverbs 25.6-7. Don’t demand an audience with the king or push for a place among the great.7 It’s better to wait for an invitation to the head table than to be sent away in public disgrace.
His supposedly ‘Torah observant’ fellow diners seemed ignorant of how their Scripture advised them to live. Jesus says it is far better to be humble, because in the kingdom such people will be exalted.
God is also pointing out that if Israel thinks she has an unassailable right to sit at the top table of His ‘messianic banquet’, she has another think coming!!
If this parable is about God and his Kingdom, it is a reminder that we are always utterly dependent on His generosity, not our own presumed value. Jesus reminds his audience that we are called to be like God. Just as we can never repay God’s abundant gifts to us,
we should model a community that offers what we have, to those who can never pay us back in kind.
Prayers for others:
Gracious God we bring to you our broken world, so full of injustice and exploitation, suffering and sorrow, hatred and division.
We pray for all who work for change; all who strive to bring help and healing, hope and wholeness.
Loving God bring healing and renewal, through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen
The Lord's Prayer
Please use the version that you prefer
Our Father, who art in heaven,
hallowed be thy Name,
thy kingdom come,
thy will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our trespasses,
as we forgive those who trespass against us.
And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil.
For thine is the kingdom,
the power, and the glory,
for ever and ever.
Amen.
Our Father in heaven,
Hallowed be your name,
Your kingdom come,
Your will be done,
On earth as in heaven.
Give us today our daily bread.
Forgive us our sins
As we forgive those who sin against us.
Save us from the time of trial
And deliver us from evil.
For the kingdom, the power
and the glory are yours
Now and for ever.
Amen.
STF 481 The Lord’s my Shepherd
The Lord’s my shepherd, I’ll not want;
He makes me lie in pastures green.
He leads me by the still, still waters,
His goodness restores my soul.
And I will trust in You alone,
And I will trust in You alone,
For Your endless mercy follows me,
Your goodness will lead me home.
He guides my ways in righteousness,
And He anoints my head with oil,
And my cup, it overflows with joy,
I feast on His pure delights.
And I will trust
And though I walk the darkest path,
I will not fear the evil one,
For You are with me, and Your rod and staff
Are the comfort I need to know.
And I will trust.
Blessing:
Go forth in the knowledge that Jesus is the same
yesterday, today and for ever;
may he be your constant in a world of change.
Amen.
