The Twelfth Sunday after Pentecost - August 31, 2025

Summary Mother Suzanne explores Jesus' teaching on table manners from Luke's Gospel, where Jesus instructs guests to take the lowest place and hosts to invite the poor rather than those who can repay them. She connects this lesson to Grace church's Thursday food ministry and shares a powerful story about welcoming an unexpected couple in need. The sermon emphasizes that God's kingdom is like a table where outcasts and oddballs are welcomed not because they're worthy, but because they're hungry and there's always room for more.THE GOSPEL                                                                                                                                              Luke 14:1, 7-14On 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.When he noticed how the guests chose the places of honor, he told them a parable. "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; 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. 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. For all who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted."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. But when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind. And you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you, for you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous." Artwork: The Village Feast, by Hans Bol (1534-1593)