SUSTAINING SPIRIT:  RISK-TAKING ACTION
Micah 6: 6-8    Luke 14: 1, 7-14
The Reverend Odette Lockwood-Stewart

My favorite restaurant on the Peninsula has a sign posted that makes me smile every time I see it. It reads,  "If you have a reservation, you're in the wrong place."

That is the Good News we celebrate today.   
At God's table, no reservations are accepted.  No VIP seating. No head table.  At God's feast, no belief, behavior, or sense of entitlement guarantees a place of honor.  

In fact, at God's table, claims of entitlement lead to humiliation and shame ... while humility brings honor.  Micah prophesies, What does the Lord require of you but to do justice, love kindness and walk humbly with your God.

In our text this morning from the Gospel of Luke:  One time Jesus went to a dinner ... at the home of one of the leaders of the religious community.  There, he noticed how the guests tried to get the best places, tried to move towards seats of honor.  He knew how these things worked ... and we know how they work yet today... people of influence inviting other people of influence to dinners ... or shows ... or special events.  And who sits where - at the table, in the cafeteria, on the airplane, -- reflects who they are and how important they are.  There was and is an unspoken assumption "Do unto others in hopes that they will do unto you."

Jesus directly called into question our preoccupation with position, our anxiety about affirmation, our seeking security in status.  He subverts it all saying, "When you go to a banquet, go and sit in the least and last place, honor others before yourself."  And, "When you give a banquet, invite those in need who cannot repay you."

Jesus' invitation to risk-taking action is:  "Give up your seat."  "Go to the end of the line." By risking location --we are freed from --location, location, location.

I remember meeting Mercy Odoyuye, 1977 - Black African theologian and women's rights leader speaking out against Apartheid (1977!) When we praised her courageous risk-taking, she took a U.S. passport, held it up, and said, "The only difference between you and me is that you still believe you have something to lose."

Images that first come to mind as risk-taking action are things like Witness for Peace delegations going into combat zones to act as human shields to accompany and protect civilian populations, or demonstrators (taking seats in trees, for example) inviting arrest in dramatic acts of civil disobedience.

But risk-taking action begins with noticing where we are located - where we live, work, go to school, shop, where we are invited in, what we are moving towards, and letting go to honor others.

Meal service isn't about who is who... it feeds the hungry. Community isn't about self-improvement, it is shared vision, shared need, shared joy, resources and pain.  Jesus calls to us:  whatever power you have, whatever position, protection, privileges you do have ... use them... to bless others.

Tomorrow is Labor Day.  Those of us who, day in and day out, in ways too numerous to count, rely on the labors of others to provide our daily needs, need to offer to workers the places of honor they are due. The justice they are due.

As Darren Cushman Wood said, "people who pick and process our food and who cook and clean up our meals must have a place at the table."

When feel entitled, we begin to think there are others whose place is ... literally or figuratively ... beneath ours.  When we have reservations, so many people can become to us invisible.  

On the other hand, preoccupation with position can tempt us to give up any place at all, when we feel the weight of our own failings or powerlessness, or experiences of being shamed, we might give in to the negative judgments we've been carefully taught, and that we carry around within us.  

I cannot count the number of times people have expressed to me that they didn't feel it was OK for them to come to church, let alone join the church ... because of something they had done, or hadn't done, or because of something they believed ... or didn't believe ... as though the church itself was the head table for the somehow superior.   The many times, when life is out of control ... that folks have said they will to stay away from church until they "get it together", as though church was a formal dinner with proper dress and proper appearance of every kind required.  

Miriam Therese Winter said, "All radical systemic change begins with a change in perspective."

We are all invited to this table.  We come not because we are worthy or entitled, but because we all stand in need of God's Grace. And coming to this table-freely, humbly-- transforms every other table in our lives and in this world.

This morning we heard a word of witness of our sister, a former worker at the Woodfin Suites.  If you want to experience dislocation, show up Tuesday in solidarity with those who have been unjustly fired and raise your voice with theirs.  Or at least, use the mail.  I received in the mail an invitation to a special offer at Woodfin with a response card - I wrote across it "I would be glad to accept this when your workers receive just treatment."  OK, not a big risk-taking action, but I did use a stamp! How ever we are able and willing, let us do so!

In the United Sates, more than 2 million full-time year round workers live below the poverty line.  

Wall-Mart workers have to wait 6 months-one year to quality for a health care plan with $1000-3000 deductibles and only 3 visits to a doctor per year.

There were more than 700,000 NEW uninsured children in 2006 ... now a total of 9.4 million children...in the U.S.

A friend of mine once said, "I'll bet that the people debating whether we can provide health care coverage for all the children in this country ... I'll just bet they have health care."

Abundance is the reality.  Scarcity is a lie. Redistribution is the key.  There is plenty good room at the table.

Perhaps this Labor Sunday ... this Communion Sunday ... the most risky thing we can do ... is come to Christ's table.