You can listen to this reflection here. Sunday's gospel reading is here.
It can be amusing at Episcopal clergy gatherings watching people try to work their way toward the bishops, angling for seats next to them at meals. Access to the “important people” is often restricted. So imagine my surprise, in my third week in a new diocese, when I had the opportunity to have lunch with my new bishop not once but twice in two days. I must be hot stuff.
Jesus might say, “Cool your jets!” He had a few things to say to those Pharisees who were observing his table manners so closely. In fact, he turned the tables on them: “If you’re invited to a wedding, go sit at the place furthest away from the action, where you feel the least honored. You might get upgraded, maybe to a table with the bride or groom’s family. But if you pick out that better seat, look out. You just might be asked to move down.”
“For all who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.”
Some people go through life expecting to be seated in the “lesser” seats – and they tend to be a lot happier than those of us who think we know what seats we merit. It can be a great spiritual practice to walk into any event or party and just end up where and with whom we end up, not trying to plan or maneuver it. Sometimes, though, when I’ve been seated with strangers at a wedding, it’s been challenging; instead of a delightful surprise, I just felt I was sitting with people I found uninteresting. And that just means I didn’t take the spiritual practice far enough. What I should have done was to seek Christ in them.
It doesn’t really matter where we sit, or with whom, as long as Jesus is at the table. And he’s already sent us an open invitation. So any time you don’t know where else you’re going to land, go to his house. Every seat there is perfect.
© Kate Heichler, 2025. To receive Water Daily by email each morning, subscribe here. Here are the bible readings for next Sunday. Water Daily is also a podcast – subscribe to it here on Apple, Spotify or your favorite podcast platform.
No comments:
Post a Comment