Jem ran to the kitchen and asked Calpurnia to set an extra plate, we had company. Atticus greeted Walter and began a discussion about crops neither Jem nor I could follow.
“Reason I can’t pass the first grade, Mr. Finch, is I’ve had to stay out ever’ spring an’ help Papa with the choppin’, but there’s another’n at the house now that’s field size.”
“Did you pay a bushel of potatoes for him?” I asked, but Atticus shook his head at me.
While Walter piled food on his plate, he and Atticus talked together like two men, to the wonderment of Jem and me. Atticus was expounding upon farm problems when Walter interrupted to ask if there was any molasses in the house. Atticus summoned Calpurnia, who returned bearing the syrup pitcher. She stood waiting for Walter to help himself.
Walter poured syrup on his vegetables and meat with a generous hand. He would probably have poured it into his milk -glass had I not asked what the sam hill he was doing.
The silver saucer clattered when he replaced the pitcher, and he quickly put his hands in his lap. Then he ducked his head.
Atticus shook his head at me again. “But he’s gone and drowned his dinner in syrup,” I protested. “He’s poured it all over —“
It was then that Calpurnia requested my presence in the kitchen.
She was furious, and when she was furious Calpurnia’s grammar became erratic. When in tranquility, her grammar was as good as anybody’s in Maycomb. When she squinted down at me the tiny lines around her eyes deepened.
“There’s some folks who don’t eat like us,” she whispered fiercely, “but you ain’t called on to contradict ’em at the table when they don’t. That boy’s yo’ comp’ny and if he wants to eat up the table cloth you let him, you hear?”
You might remember this episode from Harper Lee’s novel To Kill a Mocking Bird. It is one of my favorite images of hospitality and the discomfort and humor that frequently accompanies true hospitality. I love the molasses pouring out all over everything, and I can picture in my head the eating of the table cloth.
Who do we invite? Who do we not invite? Who is on the invitation list? Are we on the list? Have we ever not been invited? Have we ever left some one of the list?
And then the consuming question for not only Church history but world history, “With whom do I eat?”, or to be more blunt, “With whom do I not eat?”
Luke’s Gospel lesson for us this morning revolves around two lessons: First: how to be a guest and Second: how to be a host. The word “invite” or “invited” is used eight times. Jesus is seated at table with others and he talks about banquets and luncheons and dinners. He talks about how to eat with others, where to sit, the proper way to be a guest is to be humble. And he talks about how to be a host: to invite all those who are left out, forgotten and abandoned, all those folks who don’t make the invitation list for some reason, the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind. Jesus sits at the dinner table and teaches us that humility and hospitality are the stuff of salvation.
Our lives revolve around meals and with whom we do or do not share them. It is a practical necessity of human biology and human society. This is the basic foundation of being human and human culture. And Jesus challenges how do it, he challenges how we go about being human, he challenges our table manners. But this is not about etiquette or what Mrs. Manners says. What this is really about is our salvation and about God’s kingdom. Humility and hospitality are the stuff of salvation.
What we have are competing and divergent religious visions: one vision is particular about how things are to be done. It is very clear about who is invited and who isn’t, who makes it and who doesn’t, and this is where all the energy and attention is given.
The competing and divergent religious vision is not like unto the first. This vision is messy and unclear about most things, molasses is poured out all over it, the table cloth is in jeopardy. But it is very clear about one thing and this is the one thing: God is looking for everyone who is left out and forgotten and God is inviting them over to our house this afternoon. Jesus is living out this vision in today’s Gospel lesson, in fact Jesus himself is that invitation of God, inviting, going forth, cajoling, searching, finding, bringing, dragging in.
In this vision of God’s kingdom the table is always being expanded, another leaf is being added, then another and another. Just when we think we have the table set Jesus pokes his head in the door yet again and says to fix another plate, we have company. “Put another leaf in the table, company is coming over!”
The table has gotten so long with so many leaves that it is starting to sag and go all sway backed. Who knows how many mismatched china and silver sets have been set out and all those different table cloths patching one into the other, stretching out who knows how far? There’s always room for one more.
In this vision all the energy and attention is given to seeking out and making room, giving the invitation, putting another pot on the stove, and finding another chair and place setting. Most questions go unanswered, greeted with a shrug as we busily point to which cabinet to pull out the syrup pitcher because we’ll most likely need it.
The Mission Statement of Grace Church comes from this religious vision: we “proclaim and celebrate the Word and Sacrament that God in Christ embraces the world.” Jesus is God’s embrace, God’s invitation and we live out that invitation that is Jesus.
We are each invited to be humble guests in one another’s lives; we are each invited to be hosts of radical hospitality always finding ways to expand the invitation list. Here is the point of emphasis: we are especially invited to intentionally look for those who are missing, who are left out.
Why do we do this? Because this is what God does and Jesus is that going forth and seeking out hospitality of God in the flesh. We do this because this is what it means to live in God’s saving grace; this is what it means to live in God’s kingdom.
This is what our ministry celebration is all about today. This is what God’s ministry at Grace Church is all about.
It’s all about with whom we eat. It’s all about molasses, syrup pitchers, table cloths and putting another leaf in the sway backed dinner table.