August 31, 2025
Earlier this year, the talented young actor Timothee Chalamet’ created quite a stir when he accepted the Screen Actors Guild of America award for best actor for his performance as Bob Dylan in the movie Out of Nowhere. In his acceptance speech, Chalamet’ spoke candidly:
“I can’t downplay the significance of this award. It means the most to me. I know we’re in a subjective business, but the truth is, I’m really in pursuit of greatness. I know people usually don’t talk like that, but I want to be one of the greats. I’m inspired by the greats … I want to be up there with them. This award doesn’t signify that but it’s a little more fuel to keep me going.“
There were many reactions to his speech. Some were very critical of what appeared to be his near absence of humility, citing the actor’s place of entitlement and privilege. One critic called him a “brat.” Others were impressed and inspired by his drive and his pride. Others noted that he was merely speaking for a lot of people in show business who feel the same way but never say so. Instead, they have chosen to feign humility.
We’re not here today to judge the actor or his motives. When I saw the speech I immediately got theological. I do that a lot of times. I can’t help it! For me, the actor was speaking for all of us.
As Martin Luther rightly observed, every human heart is turned in on itself. We all desire glory. In one way or one degree or another, each of us wants to be great. So, you need not look for such behavior only among the famous. You can find it most anywhere among people in ordinary, everyday life.
Why, you can even discover it around a dinner table.
Luke tells us that on one occasion Jesus went to the home of a leader of the Pharisees for a meal on the Sabbath. Jesus was often invited to such dinner parties. The religious leaders who hosted them invited him over to watch him, to see what he might do next as he already had the reputation of being a trouble maker who upset the world of sacred tradition. The leaders weren’t the only ones closely observing. Jesus was observing too! Jesus watched closely, observing both the guests and the host.
Jesus watched closely because he knew that dinner parties like these at the homes of important people were about more than just getting together for a bite to eat. To be a guest on such an occasion was a sign of status. When the guests sought the seats of honor, close to the host, they were caught up in the movement of being great. If you were a guest at the end of the table that meant you were considered the least among the dinner guests. If you were near the table of honor you had higher status.
There was another glitch. There was an expectation of reciprocity. In other words, you were expected to repay the host by inviting that person to your home where you would be the host.
So, Jesus noticed and watched closely. Jesus noticed how the guests were jockeying for the higher seats. Then Jesus spoke, echoing the proverb, instructing the guests not to take the place of honor but to take the lowest place. First, he says you might be embarrassed when someone more distinguished asks you to vacate their seat. Secondly, should you move up higher after taking the lowest place, wait for someone to invite you. In practical terms, Jesus called out the ugly system pervading the dinner party. “Those who exalt themselves” said Jesus, “will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.”
Many dinner parties continue to feel that way. We continue to hold seats of honor at banquets. We continue to sell cheaper tickets for the lower places at baseball games, concerts, and alike. Fine dinners are reserved for those who have the means to pay. More broadly, we see these machinations played out in the world of politics, the workplace, the family, and generally within the vast complicated world of relationships.
I wonder if Jesus was especially bothered by the fact that this particular dinner party took place on the Sabbath. The command to remember Sabbath and keep it holy is all about setting apart a day to honor God but Jesus saw people vying for honor. He observed that on Sabbath, a day of rest was replaced by restless human hearts. Jesus observed that on the Sabbath, a day for the faithful to remember that they were once slaves in Egypt and rejoice in the God who delivered them and led them to freedom, the guests were involved in something that smacked of Pharaoh’s domination system.
Jesus was both teaching and demonstrating the great song of Mary who sang of God lifting up the lowly and scattering the proud in the imagination of their hearts.
Just so, Jesus spoke not only to the guests. He spoke as well to the host.
When you give a luncheon or a dinner, do not invite your friends, or your brothers and sisters 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.
Do you see? Jesus calls out and undermines the whole system of reciprocity and therefore the whole system of seeking honor. Jesus had the audacity to radically reorient the system toward meals shared among equals. The sacred nature of meal was sharing among all with a particular bent toward sharing meals with people on the margins who are often forgotten.
Jesus says this is what the kingdom of God looks like.
Once in a while, we see the vision of Jesus played out or hinted at in one meal or another.
The “National Night Out” takes place on the first Tuesday of August. It is a national movement to promote community. This year, someone in our neighborhood hosted a National Night Out get-together for anyone and everyone in our neighborhood encompassing several blocks. Perhaps you were part of one of these events as well. Finally, we got to meet our neighbors and get acquainted with new people around a BBQ. We met a diverse group of neighbors of all ages and stations in life and we had great fun. There was even a sign-up sheet to write your email address and phone number so that in case of emergency you could contact a neighbor.
It felt like a kind of kingdom of God event.
A couple of weeks ago I was at a conference with other colleagues who care deeply about the liturgy of the church. There was a banquet on the day before the conference ended. I was looking forward to the festive dinner and I knew who I wanted to sit beside. I wanted to be at the same table as friends, acquaintances, and some of the new people I met and found interesting. Instead, I found assigned seating. Many of us were surprised by this. I found my name at a table where none of the names were familiar to me. Others reported the same thing. It was as if the banquet gurus knew what they were doing – bringing strangers together and avoiding cozying up to only those who made you comfortable. It turned out to be a rich blessing.
A kind of kingdom of God event.
These are examples of Kingdom of God behavior which may happen in or outside the church. Jesus both models such behavior and calls out our struggle to live in a Kingdom of God sort of way.
The dinner table seems to be one of those appropriate places where Kingdom of God behavior may take place. We know the hard truth that Jesus speaks. Invariably when we exalt ourselves something or someone will humble us. In humbling ourselves we are exalted with the experience and enjoyment of behaving like Jesus.
Whenever such behavior takes place around our dinner tables or in the places we live or within the community of church, they are mere hints of the great vision cast by the prophet Isaiah who describe that day when God’s desires are fully known:
On this mountain the Lord of hosts will make for all peoples a feast of rich foods, a feast of well-aged wines, of rich food filled with marrow, of well-aged wines strained clear. And he will destroy on this mountain the shroud that is cast over all peoples, the covering that is spread over all nations; he will swallow up death forever. Then the Lord God will wipe away tears from all faces, and the disgrace of his people he will take away from all the earth, for the Lord has spoken. It will be said on that day, “See, this is our God; we have waited for him that he might save us. This is the Lord for whom we have waited; let us be glad and rejoice in his salvation.”
What a day it will be!
In the meantime, God gives us this sacred meal [in holy communion] where royalty and beggars alike, rich and poor alike, receive the same gifts. All are given the same food, the same gifts, and no one is regarded more special or more holy than another. By the gracious hand of God, all are fed and loved the same through Jesus who gave his life for us that we may share in the mercy he gives us through ordinary food that is his very body and blood.
It is the glory of the Kingdom of God among us and a foretaste of the feast to come. Amen.