Twenty-Second Sunday In Ordinary Time, Cycle Or Year C-- Table Talk: Take The Lowest Place

Recently there was a man from Ireland who became an internet sensation for a silly mistake he made while on vacation. This gentleman was visiting Las Vegas for the first time. So he borrowed his son’s GoPro camera, put it on a stick, and walked all over the Las Vegas Strip. He was filming all the famous hotels and narrating his experiences of what he saw. But when he got home and uploaded his film from his exciting trip, he discovered that he’d been pointing the camera in the wrong direction the whole time. Instead of filming the lights and sounds of Las Vegas, he filmed close-ups of his own face.

Although that is a comical mistake, it reminds me of Luke 14:9 from our Gospel today: “Then you will proceed with embarrassment to take the lowest place.”

The problem with the Greco-Roman and Jewish U-shaped tables, featured in our Gospel today, is that the best seats were deep in the U. They did not have “seating cards” back then to direct guests to the table they've been assigned or “place cards” to tell them their seat. Consequently, you had to navigate the social hierarchy by yourself by choosing your own seat, which Jesus infers perpetuated an “honor” and “shame” system depending on who else was invited.

The remedy comes from applying a spiritual technique called “moving in the opposite spirit” which means to do the exact opposite in a prevailing negative situation or sinful spiritual atmosphere. This is what Jesus advises when he says “Rather, when you are invited, go and take the lowest place.”

Jesus freely chose the lowest place. Philippians 2: 8 says: “He humbled himself, becoming obedient to death, even death on a cross.”

But the next verse, Philippians 2:9, says that, because Jesus humbled himself, he was exalted.

To illustrate, Rabbi Simcha Bunim, a great Polish Hasidic master, taught that “Everyone must have two pockets, with a note in each pocket, so that he or she can reach into one or the other, depending on the need. When feeling lowly and depressed, discouraged or disconsolate, one should reach into the right pocket, and, there, find the words: ‘The world was created for me.’ But when feeling high and mighty one should reach into the left pocket, and find the words: ‘I am but dust and ashes.’" (Gen. 18:27)

In reality, because when we humble ourselves we are exalted, if you dip into your left pocket, you will always end up in your right.

Jesus knows that our need for status is rooted in pride which produces fear.

James 4:6, says "God resists the proud, and gives grace to the humble.”

Humility also reduces defensiveness (Van Tongeren et al., 2016) and may serve to protect us from the psychological burden of being preoccupied with one's self-image, which could lead to destructive outcomes such as self-harm, substance abuse, eating disorders, and masochism (Baumeister, 1991).

[source: Still Waters Run Deep: Humility as a Master Virtue, from internet]

We won’t compare our insides to someone else’s outsides, and so humility is said to be the foundation of the spiritual life.

2. A round table is better than a U-shaped table because round tables convey more equality and unity which is highlighted in the legend of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table.

Plus, seated meals at round tables reduces such exchanges with other guests like, “after you...no, after you - no really, after you - but I insist, after you…

It’s easier to ignore people at rectangular tables, and more guests can fit at a round table, like the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind; which is Jesus in disguise.

e.g. There is a famous sculpture by Canadian sculptor Timothy Schmalz, called the ‘Homeless Jesus’ which I saw in Seattle recently, on an ordinary street. The statue is made to look like a realistic park bench with a homeless person laying on it, covered by a too-small blanket. When you come up and look at the statue, you see that there are holes in the feet that are sticking up past the edge of the blanket.

Humility has been defined as the ability to transcend oneself, including being able to keep in perspective one’s abilities, accomplishments, and limitations (Tangney, 2000). Along similar lines, van Dierendonck (2011) defined humility within a servant leadership context as understanding one’s strong and weak points, keeping one’s accomplishments and talents in perspective, and admitting one’s fallibility and mistakes.

Source: Humility in Servant Leadership among Christian Student Leaders: A Longitudinal Pilot Study by Elizabeth J. Krumrei-Mancuso, Department of Psychology, Pepperdine University, Journal of Psychology & Theology, Date: January 1, 2018.

A simpler way to say it is: “I see a turtle on the fence post.” Translation: You didn’t get there by yourself. People who succeed do so with the help of others.