Mealtime

Two movies we recently viewed seem to me to have overtone to our Gospel account this morning.

The first is entitled Chocolat, and I assume many of you have seem it.

The story centers around a young woman and her daughter who are blown into a French town on a north wind , just before the lenten season is to begin.. She rents an empty store front and apartment, and opens a chocolate shop, and in the process tempts the villagers to break their lenten fast. This is very offensive to the mayor of the village who is the moral and spiritual arbiter of the community. The fable develops the community tensions that are raised because of her style of refusing to bow to the demands of the mayor, who feels under obligation to maintain the rigid standards set by his predecessor.

In the story Chocolate becomes a symbol of rebellion and freedom .As people bite into a piece of the delicious confectionary, they feel a surge of life, they make peace with their neighbours. Old hostilities are laid aside. Because she is open to those rejected in the community, she models how those on the outside can be included. Her chocolate feast draws those who desire to break with the restrictions of the past.

One of the interesting notes is that in the process of offering freedom to others, she comes to experience her own freedom from the order from her grandmother that had forced her to move from town to town. She now has the freedom to belong, to be on the inside rather than forever on the outside. She now has the freedom to take care of herself, and offer her daughter some permenance.

The second movie is not a recent issue, it is entitled:

This fable is set in the rugged and forbidding north shore of Denmark. The community is very insular, both geographically as well as psychically. It has been ruled by a dominating religious leader, and later by his memory, kept alive by his two daughters.

Into this setting arrives Babbette , a young woman who has escaped from the revolution in France. Babbette accepts an unpaid position as servant in the household of the daughters of the now dead religious leader. Fourteen years go by, then one day Babbete receives word that she has won a great deal of money in the lottery. To everyone's surprise, rather than making a quick exit from this bleak world, she instead offers a great feast for the community. Her supplies are shipped in from France, and a marvelous meal is served. To everyone's surprise this strange food she serves them is delicious. It then emerges that she had been the head chef of the most famous restaurant in Paris prior to the revolution..

I have recounted these two stories because they have similarities to the account in Luke of Jesus' presence at a feast in the home a Pharisee.

Both fables sound quite similar notes:

1. Exclusivity determined by rigid rules and standards breeds self-protection and hypocrisy.



2. In both stories food was the vehicle to break down the barriers.



3. Grace, as expressed in openness and generosity was the central motif.



4. In both stories the one expressing the generosity that led to freedom for others, was also the means of experiencing freedom to the giver as well.

It is interesting that Luke often couches accounts of Jesus ' teaching ministry in the social setting of a meal. In the passage read this morning, from Luke chapter 14 Jesus challenges the common social practices with which we are all familiar.

The first was his observation of those seeking the places of honour at the banquet table. The closer one sat to the host, indicated one was most favoured. The second thing Jesus spoke into was the practice of only inviting to our homes and to a meal those with whom we are most comfortable, and from whom we are likely to receive a reciprocal invitation. Does that one sit close to home ?

The fable of Babbette seems most closely connected to the first issue Jesus raised. We all like to experience the place of prestige and importance - if we can get it. Babette came into town making no demands, not even indicating her background.She not only did'nt indicate her cooking expertise, she took instructions as if she knew nothing of cooking. She quietly accepted the role of the servant in the women's household, who even though they were now the spiritual leaders of the community, did'nt even include her at their table.

In our text, Jesus is pointing to the nature of Humility. Humility is not something our culture tends to emphasize. One of the striking descriptions of Jesus is given in Phil. 2 in the context of encouragement to humility. That scripture says that Jesus "emptied himself" - took on human nature and expressed himself in total love and service.

Humility is described this way by one author: "Authentic humility accepts to find its sense of self not in self but in another, God, and to realize its sense of worth, not by striving for power, fame or recognition, but by serving others".

Not long after he became co-host on the "Today Show"on NBC in 1976, Tom Brokaw was in Bloomingdales in New York City. He was suddenly accosted by a man who came up to him . "Tom Brokaw, right?" Tom responded, "right". "You used to do the morning news on KMTV in Omaha, right?"

"Right again", Tom responded, expecting to hear accolades. Then the man added the clincher , "What ever happened to you ?"

After Omaha, Tom had gone to Los Angeles, then to New York. Tom, in recounting this episode said that he used this incident to keep himself in focus. He often recalled that question: "What ever happened to you " . It was a good lesson in humility.

What Jesus is pointing to is a radical realignment of our sense of what life is about. This is the essence of the Good News. This is life-transforming. In both of the fables mentioned, freedom was experienced when they laid down their barriers, their rightness and reached out to others. The mayor in Chocolat was brought to utter humility when his repressed desire for chocolate got the best of him and he was found in the chocolate shop on Easter morning gorging himself on chocolate. Humility in the Gospel is not subservience nor being a door-mat. It is the practice of finding one's identity in serving others.

The second note that Jesus sounds in this passage is in reality a picture of how we are to do church, at both the corporate and the personal level. Jesus call is to reach out to the outcast, to the disadvantaged, to the poor, the dispossessed. Those on the 'outside' may be not necessarily poor in the conventional sense, however, they may be the singles, or those who are 'again single', often ruled out of our social system.

My life was spend for many years in a church that by its nature was exclusivist, in sharp contrast to what Jesus is portaying as inclusive. One of the things I most highly value in our life at St. Johns is our open-door policy. Quite close and nearby is a church whose doors seldom open except on Sunday. I hope we can always make people feel accepted and at home at St. Johns.I believe this is one of the most striking characteristics of life at St. Johns. Its not always easy to make people feel at home, to feel they have a place here. But if we hold to a policy of openness, that is what Jesus is talking about here.

But I have to admit that I sqirm when I realize that Jesus' instructions are also personal. His is a call for social interaction that is not reciprocal. Invite those who can't return the invitation. Quite a call, isn't it?

In both fables, this was clearly portrayed. In Chocolat, she gave out her treats whether the person could pay or not. The key was that her "calling" was not primarily to make chocolate, it was to set people free. Babette gave a marvelous feast, knowing it could not be reciprocated, and so it was an act of pure Grace. After the meal is served, she reveals that she has spend everything she had won in the lottery on the meal she has served, and thus willingly accepted that her life was there in the village. She may have arrived in town simply to hide out until the revolution ran its course, but now she has committed herself to the life of a servant, willingly.

So Jesus attacks the common notion of what church is. The poor, the downtrodden, the marginalized are to be accepted, loved and included. He went further to say they are to be included in our homes as well. As if that was'nt enough, he makes a strong call for a life of humility. All of this counter to our cultural assumptions, and probably, at least at the personal level, rarely practiced.