The Middle Back Seat

Proper 17C

Luke 14:1, 7-14

September 1, 2019

St. Matthias

Growing up - my seat was in the middle – the middle of the back seat in our family car.  My sister ALWAYS got to sit by the window because she said she would get car sick sitting in the middle.  I’m not sure how we knew that because I don’t ever remember her sitting in the middle.  My younger brother ALWAYS sat by the other window because he was the youngest and would whine the whole trip if he didn’t get to sit by the window.  I tried car sickness.  Another time, I whined.  Neither worked.  I was the oldest and not the youngest and the middle was my place and my parents said that I should be glad that we had a car to ride in because there were millions of poor children in the world who didn’t have a back seat at all.  So, there I sat on every family trip - unhappy. 

THEN came the day my Uncle Jim told me that the trick is to WANT the middle seat – to act like it is the very best seat in the car – and to insist that I get to sit there every time.  Since Uncle Jim was young and cool and drove a 1959 VW Bug – then I figured he must know.  So, the next time – I ran toward the car and yelled – Dibs on the middle!  My brother and sister STARTED to protest THEN stopped.  They weren’t quite sure what to do.  I jumped in the back seat and headed straight for the middle.  I sat proudly.  My sister looked at me as if I had lost my mind.  My mother complimented me.  My father gave me that look he got when he was wondering what I was up to.  My brother began to whine that HE wanted to sit in the middle.   BUT the middle seat was now my place and I wasn’t going to give it up – at LEAST until enough time had passed and I could look like the benevolent older brother - who was occasionally willing to give up the honored middle seat. 

Jesus said, “When you are invited to a wedding feast – take the lowest seat at the table – for that is the seat of greatest honor.”  PICTURE a long banquet table.  At the head sits the host and to his right was the traditional seat of honor.  The best seats were the ones closest to the host.  When dinner was announced – guests would rush to the banquet hall hoping to sit near the head of the table.  It would then be up to the host to rearrange the order of guests and it was quite embarrassing to be sent to a lower seat.  What you wanted was for the host to invite you to move up.  So, Jesus says think differently, sit at the lowest seat and you will be honored.

But of course, Jesus is talking about far more than seating arrangements at dinner.  This is a parable about the Kingdom of Heaven.  The banquet is real life and too often we see only what we wish we had.  It is easy to think our time and energies and spirit should be spent trying to somehow get closer to God.  It can be a frustrating journey and, yet, despite our best efforts it can seem that we only move farther and farther away from the head of the table.  But Jesus is saying – think the other way around.  All who exalt themselves will be humbled and those who humble themselves will be exalted.  Perhaps we need to sit in a new place. 

Several years ago, Phyllis and I took my parents to the Amana Colonies in Iowa.  Founded as a utopian community by Germans in the 1800’s, these are the same folks who once built Amana refrigerators, dishwashers and other kitchen appliances.  Everyone in the Amana Colonies did everything for the good of the community.  They ate together, worked together, and worshipped together.  And when they gathered for church or meals, everyone had their place.  And how they decided who sat WHERE was all based on age. With men and boys on one side and women and girls on the other, the youngest sat in the front -and it went from there to the back - according to age.  And the oldest member of the colony sat in the seat of honor at worship and the dinner table – the last seat on the last row.

In the seat of honor at the heavenly banquet - everyone comes first because we put them there.  The hungry are fed because we want to feed them – we want to serve them.  We give the homeless family a place to live and a bed to sleep in because we want to help, and we want to serve – not just because it is the nice thing to do.  The difference between me sitting in the middle and Jesus calling us to serve our neighbor is that - in our family car it was still all about me.  In the Kingdom of Heaven, it’s all about loving our neighbor because Christ first loves us.  We pray for the sick, feed the hungry, and welcome the stranger because God hears our prayers, calls us his own, and feeds us with spiritual food.  We are invited to give our whole lives to Jesus because he gave his life for us.  And we rise to new life in Christ’s resurrection every time we help another person in his name.  And we will grow closer to our Savior at the Head of the Heavenly Banquet Table where we will join the very Saints of God in the seat of honor.    Then it won’t matter where we sit for we will all be seated in the middle beside the person on one side who is searching for the Savior whom we have found and on the other side will be Christ who is with us always.  Every seat is a seat of honor in the Kingdom of Heaven.  So, think again about your place.  It’s pretty good advice that Jesus gave that day. 

And by the way, my Uncle Jim still has that 1959 Volkswagen Bug and he’s also still pretty cool.  Amen.