Hebrews 13.1-16, Luke 14.1, 7-14
The Eleventh Sunday after Trinity, 28 August 2022
Do you remember when you were younger ever having to sit at the Children’s Table at a family gathering or wedding party? Do you remember how that felt?
Perhaps quite an adventure, if you were four or five years old, especially with the sweet treats and party games you’d enjoy sharing with the other children.
But what if you were say, seven or eight, or ten, and put on the Children’s Table? Then, did it irk you that you were being left out of the grown-ups’ party, particularly when it looked like they were getting bigger helpings of better food?
You may have even had the experience of being an adult placed at the Children’s Table. I read a recent news report of a 23-year-old who stormed out of a wedding when he discovered that he’d been assigned amongst the kids; and I’m told that it was once quite routine for the younger unattached women - the spinsters - to be placed there as babysitters whilst the parents got the grown-up treatment at the adult tables.
Jesus was spot-on in identifying that there’s a hierarchy at play when it comes to who sits where at parties. His observations are even more profound if we try to read them through the eyes of a child. And if I were a child, I wonder if the reasons that adults give for separating us at parties would truly add up.
We have a Children’s Table because there’s not enough room to fit everyone around just one table. In which case, ok, but why does it have to be children who get separated off? Why not have a table for the golfers and another for the non-golfers? A table for those who want to talk politics and a table for the rest?
We have a Children’s Table because if you put them with the adults they’ll want to be the centre of attention. Oh really? More so than loud Uncle Dave the travelling salesman with his endless stories of motorway misdemeanours and lists of speed cameras to avoid?
We have a Children’s Table so we can have some unspoiled adult conversation. But doesn’t that mistakenly assume that all adult conversation is worthy and elevated when we know that it’s mainly mundane and competitive? Doesn’t that short-sightedly think that children, though freshly engaged in full-time education, will have no interesting questions to ask or perspectives to share? [1]
People not only eat at table, they also learn, celebrate, and experiment there. Social hierarchies are mirrored there just as much as hospitality and compassion. Eating together shapes the structures of a society, its customs, language, and theology. [2]
Jesus is impassioned to transform those structures which diminish us by introducing new customs, fresh language, and enlivening theology. He challenges us to disengage from those hierarchical games we play when we’re invited to take our seat at parties. He says, “When you are invited, go and sit down at the lowest place”. The reason? Not to punish or diminish us, quite the opposite: to give us the chance to open our eyes to the world in fresh ways … from the Children’s Table.
And Jesus suggests to those planning a dinner, to not invite your friends or your relatives or your rich neighbours, but instead to invite ‘the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind’. The reason? So we will know the blessing of abandoning the usual games we play, which catch us in a spiral of trading party invitations to keep up our social appearances; and so we will know the blessing of shaping original conversations with new and different people whose fresh perspectives will raise for us many insights and enlivening questions and fruitful challenges.
The writer of the Letter to the Hebrews, in his own particular way, reminds us that Jesus set the example for this when he “suffered outside the city gate” and entreats those who wish to follow to “go to him outside the camp.”
Christians, like everybody else, are always drawn to gather in like-minded groups, and engage in clannish behaviour, for it is our human instinct to do so. But we are called to the discipline to disengage from this drive to belong to some at the exclusion of others - and to go to where the excluded ones are, to listen to them, to learn from them, and so to experience a fuller life through cultivating these relationships.
After our service today we will gather for refreshments. There will be no Children’s Table, but the whole gathering will be focussed on The Children’s Society, a charity which many of us know. It’s an opportunity for us to say ‘thank you’ to those of you who support The Children’s Society year on year, and it’s also a chance for anyone to make a modest donation today, should you so wish. I’m grateful to Alison, our Children’s Society rep, for arranging this gathering.
What do The Children’s Society do? Lots of work supporting vulnerable children including those missing from home, living in poverty, suffering sexual and criminal exploitation, and young carers looking after dependent parents and peers. And how do The Children’s Society do it? “We stand up for children’s rights by including them in everything we do,” they say. “From designing our services to leading on our campaigns, we put young voices first.” [3]
The Children’s Society choose to take a place at The Children’s Table, to listen to them, learn from them and then advocate for them, help them speak out. “If a child doesn’t agree with something that affects them, our advocates make sure they’re listened to,” they say.
A recent example of this was how young people from The Children’s Society started a campaign to cut the cost of school uniforms, which was championed by Mike Amesbury MP, and eventually became a bill passed through parliament which becomes law next month. You may have seen The Children’s Society’s Chief Executive Mark Russell discussing this in the news this week. [4]
Take a seat at The Children’s Table: it’s what Jesus encourages us to do; it’s an encouraging place to begin.
Notes
[1] Can I sit kids with adults at a plated dinner? Food52 discussion forum, October 17, 2011.
[2] Luzia Sutter Rehmann, Rage in the Belly: Hunger in the New Testament. p.xiii.
[3] The Children’s Society, Childrens rights and advocacy.
[4] Richard Hansen, New school uniform law to come in after Cheshire MP's long battle - here's what it means. Cheshire Live, 29 April 2021. Rebecca Wearn & Tom Beal, Do new school uniform rules save parents money? BBC News, 22 August 2022.
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