Proper 17 (22) – Year C
TWELFTH Sunday after Pentecost: August 31, 2025
Gospel Lectionary Text
Luke 14:1, 7-14
14:1 On one occasion when Jesus was going to the house of a leader of the Pharisees to eat a meal on the sabbath, they were watching him closely.
14:7 When he noticed how the guests chose the places of honor, he told them a parable.
14:8 "When you are invited by someone to a wedding banquet, do not sit down at the place of honor, in case someone more distinguished than you has been invited by your host;
14:9 and the host who invited both of you may come and say to you, 'Give this person your place,' and then in disgrace you would start to take the lowest place.
14:10 But when you are invited, go and sit down at the lowest place, so that when your host comes, he may say to you, 'Friend, move up higher'; then you will be honored in the presence of all who sit at the table with you.
14:11 For all who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted."
14:12 He said also to the one who had invited him, "When you give a luncheon or a dinner, do not invite your friends or your brothers or your relatives or rich neighbors, in case they may invite you in return, and you would be repaid.
14:13 But when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind.
14:14 And you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you, for you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous."
Context
Welcome to the Twelfth Sunday after Pentecost. Once again, Jesus is reimagining the Sabbath in light of God’s love. Last week, Jesus right-sized the Sabbath bed for a woman in need of rest. This week, he resets the Sabbath table to include the excluded in need of nourishment. He does this at the house of a prominent religious leader hosting the Sabbath meal.
Luke tells us the religious leaders are “watching closely.” The air is thick with scrutiny. Why? On the way to the meal, Jesus breaks with tradition and heals a man, making himself ritually unclean. It’s the “wrong” thing to do on the Sabbath, and the “wrong” person to touch before a holy meal. His presence at the table threatens to render the Sabbath meal null and void. And so they watch — not with curiosity, but with judgment and resentment that belies a hidden envy. It is the kind of watchfulness described in Psalm 37: “The wicked watch the righteous and gnash their teeth.”
But Jesus is watching too, and it is a very different kind of watching. He notices guests scrambling for the best seats, where the food is richer and the host serves them by hand. So he tells a parable, exposing the irony of a Sabbath meal that requires us to elbow our way to the front, grasping for glory and favor from the host, hoping for a better portion.
Then he goes further. He invites the religious leaders to throw out their seating chart altogether and host a party where those who “can’t repay” you — the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind — are at the center. At this party, there’s no inner circle. No social ladder. No shame. Only the deep assurance that all are fully accepted by the Host. That assurance breaks the need to compare and frees us to see others as companions, not competitors, in the feast of life. The only requirement for entry? Be hungry.
Question
In this week’s text, Jesus invites us to imagine a party where everyone belongs, especially the most vulnerable. At this party, no one is preoccupied with status — a chronic condition for most of us. What would it mean to give up our need to compare and rank, and instead enter the celebration of life with the assurance of full acceptance?
Reflections
Guests of Honor
By Joel Van Dyke |
I have an 18 year-old young person in my life; they have not had an easy go of things. This person recently graduated from high school, which was a touch-and-go situation. They haven’t had a stable home environment for all the years I’ve known them. And they are rarely ever, what I would describe as,...
Guests of Honor
By Joel Van Dyke |
It’s the Sabbath again and Jesus is being carefully watched as he goes to eat in the house of a prominent Pharisee. He senses the angst in the hearts of those in attendance who are trying to maneuver into position nearest to the host. Jesus decides to expose those present at the dinner to the...
Praying Eucharistically - Weekly Homily by James Alison:
Understanding the Bible anew through the Mimetic Theory of René Girard.
Poetry
This week, we invite you to read and reflect on “The Guest House,” by Jalal al-Din Muhammad Rumi.
In this week’s lectionary text, Jesus upends the very idea of a Sabbath banquet and its competitions over cleanliness. He instead makes those who “can’t repay you” the center of the party. All who recognize their hunger and are willing to sit are fully accepted by the Host. In fact, Jesus says, “You will be blessed, because they cannot repay you.”
Rumi, a Sufi mystic, adds an interesting wrinkle to this picture with his famous poem. He extends this hospitality not only to other persons, but to the failures and foibles of his own soul: the “depression” and “meanness” that come upon him every day as “unexpected visitors,” threatening to crowd out “joy.”
How often are we guilty of “exalting ourselves” over these base, uncomfortable feelings in ourselves, or in others, pushing them down to the lower places so that they don’t mess up the careful “seating chart” we have for our own emotions? Is it possible that our shaming of the poor, the crippled, the lame and the blind reflects a deeper shame we feel over our own disordered souls?
What would happen if we were to humbly acknowledge and entertain even this mess, this “crowd of sorrows” that makes us who we are? Could we better see ourselves as the poor, but ever-welcome guests of a great and generous Host?
The Guest House
by Rumi
This being human is a guest house.
Every morning a new arrival.
A joy, a depression, a meanness,
some momentary awareness comes
as an unexpected visitor.
Welcome and entertain them all!
Even if they’re a crowd of sorrows,
who violently sweep your house
empty of its furniture,
still, treat each guest honorably.
He may be clearing you out
for some new delight.
The dark thought, the shame, the malice,
meet them at the door laughing,
and invite them in.
Be grateful for whoever comes,
because each has been sent
as a guide from beyond.
Prayer
This week, the call to prayer comes from the Street Psalms Centering Prayer:
Come, Holy Spirit, wild and free. Do as you please. Shine your light on me that I might see things as they are, not as I am. Free me to act in your name with courage, creativity, and compassion.
