Table Talk

Luke 14.1, 7-14

Sometime back a man was asked in hotel if he would like the continental breakfast. To which he replied - I dont want any of that foreign rubbish just bring me rolls and coffee!

Things are different today. Since have you noticed the new British obsession? And it is for food. Turn on the box and you are greeted with a row of white clad hopefuls waiting, as if for the firing squad, while some self proclaimed guru decides if their pud is up to the mark. Go into a cafe in the back of beyond and you are faced with menu that would put the Ritz to shame. Even the common or garden supermarket sells comestibles that even a few years ago would be unavailable due to there being no call for them. No wonder my cousin said - as we surveyed the vast array of culinary wonders at a farm shop in Oxfordshire - hasn't Britain changed in the last twenty years. Nevertheless whilst cooking and ingredients may have improved, their way of consumption has not. For no matter what is on offer we all too often give in to the temptation to eat it in front of the telly. Families rush in and out and grab eatables with ipad in hand. Others graze from fridge and microwave. No wonder over a decade ago the oxo cube adverts with the family grouped around a table were stopped in admission that the nuclear family was irrelevant as was the dinner table. And as Linda Bellinghams character said in one of these commercials - and thats the surprise!

All this means we need to work even harder than previous generations to get inside the importance of table fellowship in the ancient Middle East. Yet such an effort is worthwhile as that provides the key to today's passage from Luke. Moreover it might just be a temptation into a genuinely gracious way of living.

For you see in the ancient world, eating together was a huge social occasion. Indeed, it probably was the most frequent form of meeting together. Even today both the Sikhs and Jews see community meals as a central part of their religious life. Our very own Eucharist could well have arisen from the earliest Christians eating together and developing a sense of its parallel with Christs last supper. Therefore maybe we do need to rediscover the power of a communal meal a dinner of providers and receivers a banquet where the giving of fellowship and food is offered to those impoverished of either. Because as the ancient Greek philosopher Plato wrote in his book symposium - roughly translated as the dinner party - the person touched by love is again made a whole person.

But there is more than just being a gracious host or guest to our lesson. For there is little doubt that for Christ this was not a cosy tete a tete supper with family or a cheery take away with his disciples. No the necessary conversation accompanying this meal was for all intent and purposes an examination. He had probably been asked along for the Pharisees to work out what was the nature of this character before them. And in return he by his parables interrogated them. The question - who are you therefore was in the air. And that is the theme of my little meditative piece in front of us today kindly set up by Ann Anderson. Since at a meal round a table, we are seen and known

better than most other occasions. Or put another way, at every common meal, the question - who are you - is in the air. Let us think then what the mirror before us should show. And here again Jesus gives us guidance.

Since he did not come out with a doctrinaire statement that they had to believe. He did not demand that that his hosts give in to that all he said. He did not give a self-righteous moral lecture. Instead, he let his view rather like in parable sit at the lower place at the table. He expressed his points with humility and allowed their natural authority to move them up in peoples minds. He let his topics inherent ethical depth require top billing on the companys agenda. Indeed he allowed his dinner companions to ask of themselves who am I by holding up a mirror and showing them wearing a rather mean spirited mask. Let us then at any table not wear such a mask because to do so is dangerous. For, as a schoolboy I once heard a tale which I have never managed to find again. It is of the mask maker.

The mask maker lived and worked in a dark allay in the citys centre. One night the door of his shop opened and there stood one of the nations rising political stars. He asked for a mask to be made. It would show him honest when he lied. It would show him as smiling when he was stabbing his opponents and friends in the back. It would show him humble when he was entirely out for himself. The mask maker said he could make such a mask. Please return in a week. But be warned once fitted it could not be removed.

Many years later and when the politician had become the countrys ruler, the shop door opened again. this time it was the mans wife. She asked could you make me a mask which shows me smiling when my loathsome husband touches me. Can it show pleasure when I abhor his kisses. Can it show me content when I am disgusted merely by his company. The mask maker said - yes but remember once fitted it cannot be removed.

Let us in company never wear a mask. Let us be ourselves. Let our opinions be humbly expressed and with thought. But then let them rise in the conversations agenda and allow the other to be unmasked, to start to answer who are you and who am I. In truth, let us invite the high and lowly to look with you in the mirror and see not two faces but just one the face of the master gazing back.

Amen

Offering

HYMN