Banquet

Sunday Reflection – August 31, 2025

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Pick the less important seat

Luke 14 One Sabbath, Jesus was having dinner in the home of an important Pharisee, and everyone was carefully watching Jesus.

7 Jesus saw how the guests had tried to take the best seats. So he told them:

8  When you are invited to a wedding feast, don’t sit in the best place. Someone more important may have been invited. 9 Then the one who invited you will come and say, “Give your place to this other guest!” You will be embarrassed and will have to sit in the worst place.

10 When you are invited to be a guest, go and sit in the worst place. Then the one who invited you may come and say, “My friend, take a better seat!” You will then be honored in front of all the other guests. 11  If you put yourself above others, you will be put down. But if you humble yourself, you will be honored.

12 Then Jesus said to the man who had invited him:

When you give a dinner or a banquet, don’t invite your friends and family and relatives and rich neighbors. If you do, they will invite you in return, and you will be paid back. 13 When you give a feast, invite the poor, the paralyzed, the lame, and the blind. 14 They cannot pay you back. But God will bless you and reward you when his people rise from death.

Kids Korner: Act with humility (August 31st)

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Read Luke 14:1, 7-14 with your family.

Have you ever been to a wedding? Lots of times kids and teenager are never invited, but sometimes they are. When you get to the reception it is usually a big hall, and almost every table has cards that say who is supposed to sit where. The people getting married and their families spend a lot of time making that decision so that no one sits in the wrong space or at the wrong table.

In Jesus’ time, there were no place cards, so when people attended a wedding reception, something that could go on for days if the family was rich enough and there was enough food and drink, people had to find their own seat. This story is like a warning. Pick the seat that you think is worse than the others. If the host is happy with where you are sitting, you have picked well. However, if the host wants you closer to the main table, have the host make that decision, not you. How embarrassing it would be in a room full of people to have the host tell you to move because someone else was more important.

Jesus was using this as an example of what it is like in God’s world. Do not assume that we are as important as we think we are. Now… the difference is in God’s world all of us are equal so there is no better or worse than anyone else. But in our world today, it is hard to remember that.

Sunday Reflection – August 28, 2022

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How To Be A Guest and Host A Party

Luke 14 One Sabbath, Jesus was having dinner in the home of an important Pharisee, and everyone was carefully watching Jesus.

7 Jesus saw how the guests had tried to take the best seats. So he told them:

8  When you are invited to a wedding feast, don’t sit in the best place. Someone more important may have been invited. 9 Then the one who invited you will come and say, “Give your place to this other guest!” You will be embarrassed and will have to sit in the worst place.

10 When you are invited to be a guest, go and sit in the worst place. Then the one who invited you may come and say, “My friend, take a better seat!” You will then be honored in front of all the other guests. 11  If you put yourself above others, you will be put down. But if you humble yourself, you will be honored.

12 Then Jesus said to the man who had invited him:

When you give a dinner or a banquet, don’t invite your friends and family and relatives and rich neighbors. If you do, they will invite you in return, and you will be paid back. 13 When you give a feast, invite the poor, the paralyzed, the lame, and the blind. 14 They cannot pay you back. But God will bless you and reward you when his people rise from death.

Performed by Margaret Whisselle

Kids Korner: Be humble and generous (August 28th)

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Read Luke 14:1, 7-14 with your family.

Jesus had dinner with all sorts of people, and in today’s story he was having dinner with a pharisee, that means someone who spent their time studying the Hebrew Scriptures, and often taught other people what God expected of them.

Jesus taught two lessons. The first was basic social behaviour when you are a guest: Make sure you take a further seat from the head of the table and if the host wants you to sit somewhere else, let the host make that decision. You don’t want to be embarrassed by the host coming to you and telling you to move to a seat further away from the head of the table because he wants to give the closer seat to someone else.

The second lesson was the lesson about God: When you are the host, invite people who are usually forgotten by most people. Invite the poor, the sick, the disabled, the people who can’t host a dinner party in return. They are the ones God wants us to pay special attention too. This is how God treats us. At God’s banquet everyone is invited and none of us have the ability to show God the same level of gift giving that God shows us.