A Place in the Kingdom
Our proverb today is good advice. Although it is one that is largely forgotten these days. But then, you know many people who do not follow it. People who enter a room and assume the most important places. They have learned that, without a king, no one will ask them to move. Most of the rest of us are too polite to embarrass another. Even one who is so haughty as to assume he or she is the most important person of those around her or him.
While it seems that Jesus is repeating this good advice from Proverbs, Luke tells us that it is a parable. This indicates to us that Jesus is not talking about where you may sit when entering a room full of people. It does not take too much thought to understand this parable to be about the kingdom of God. The clues are plentiful. The first is that Jesus tells us it is a wedding banquet. The Bible often talks about our relationship with God as one of a marriage. The New Testament calls the church, “The bride of Christ.” That is why John has Jesus start his ministry at a wedding banquet – a story about water and wine. Our second clue is verse eleven which echoes Jesus’ reminder that the, “first shall be last, and the last first.” Our third clue is the list of those we are to invite when we have a banquet ourselves: the poor, the cripple, the lame, and the blind.
Since it is a parable we can explore what it means to us, members of the kingdom of God. First of all, there is an invitation to the banquet. Although this is like no other invitation. It is not to an exclusive group or a, “no children please,” invitation. The invitation is to all. We also note there is a reminder that you do not need to worry about the things in this present time. God will take care of that. Instead, you should work to build up treasure in God’s kingdom.
That treasure may not be what you think. What more do you really need? You have been given the gift of faith, hope, and love. You have been made a child of God, sisters and brothers to Jesus. There is no more need for treasure unless that treasure is to bring other people to the place you so love. There is a story about St. Lawrence that when the Roman precept demanded that he bring the treasure of the church to him, he brought the poor, the sick, and the outcast of Rome. That is the treasure that you are called to build up in heaven. We are called to proclaim the love of God by how we conduct ourselves in the world. (Back to the parable.) We are not to claim to be important, setting ourselves out before others. Instead we are to humbly serve Jesus. We do that by living our lives with Jesus as our role model.
You have been set free from the bondage of sin and death, filled with the gifts of the Spirit, nourished at this table, and called to a life of service to others. You have been given all that you need. Armed with God’s love you now are able to be the hands, feet, and mouth of Jesus proclaiming God’s salvation to all the world. Go and build up God’s treasure in heaven.