Dear Rehoboth,

                We are going to jump right back into Luke, and this week we are going to learn about table manners. Or maybe party going tips would be a better way of putting it. Jesus is attending dinner at the house of a pharisee. I point this out because the scripture says “one time,” and to me that indicates that Jesus ate with the Pharisees on multiple occasions. We often like to pit Jesus directly against the Pharisees and paint the Pharisees as all bad, but if my reading is correct we may need to adjust that thought. Jesus often eats with Pharisees and this is simply a story of one of those meals. I think this could be a great preaching opportunity for us in this time and age. We are so divided politically. We are so divided in our denomination. We are divided by simple things like Pepsi and coke. There is a commercial that is pitting the left Twix against the right Twix. We divide ourselves for the sake of division even when the two options are the same. But, how often do we actually come in contact with people on the other side? How often do we actually sit down and have a conversation with those that have a different viewpoint? How often do we actually hear what others are saying? I don’t mean what the media tells us people are saying. I don’t mean what someone tweets. Or what we see on television and movies. I mean how often do we sit face to face and have a conversation and interact with people that are different from us? I venture to believe hardly ever. We let media, social media, and our assumptions be the filter through which we see people. But notice what Jesus does. He meets with the people he is supposed to hate. He eats dinner with those that he opposes. He doesn’t sit in his house and speak terrible things about them. He doesn’t stick to his friends that have the same views as him. No, he goes to dinner with them. He sees them. I would venture to say that he cares for them. You cant care about someone that you don’t want to meet. You cant see someone else’s perspective if you never want to be around them. You cant hear someone else’s voice if you never let them speak it. This goes for people on each side of every issue. We silo ourselves and never can see the humanity of those on the other side.

                We read Jesus as hating the Pharisees. We read Jesus as wanting nothing to do with them. But I think the opposite is true. He corrected their behavior because he cared deeply about them. He wanted them to thrive. If he never went to be with them he couldn’t have wanted them to thrive. We want people to have our views, and to change their beliefs, not out of the desire that they thrive but out of the passion that we are right. When we sit behind screens and yell from places of power and advantage we deny the humanity of those with different views. If we never put ourselves into uncomfortable experiences and sit and talk with other people I don’t think we have the right to tell people they are wrong. Jesus knew that to change behavior he had to be willing to care for them, to live with them. To eat with them. If we would never eat a meal with our enemies, then I’m not sure we are the ones that are in the position to correct behavior.

                Now again. I don’t think Jesus ate with them simply to tell them they were wrong. I’m not saying you should eat with some different than you simply to be able to chastise them. But I do believe that when we choose to have a meal and have conversations with those that think, speak, vote, act, and look different from us we will find that we are a lot more similar then people want us to think. We will see that Jesus and the Pharisees agreed on a lot of stuff. We will see it’s a lot harder to call some group a terrible name. We will see it’s a lot harder to dehumanize someone else. And in that we will find that maybe that door for teaching will be opened both ways. I’m not sure, but I think we have to start getting together again. We need to start eating together. We need to start talking again. Maybe then we can see some change in this world. We need to be willing to be with people. If no one is willing to eat together then no one has the opportunity to thrive. Thanks for letting my mind ramble this morning. Maybe what I said makes no sense. And if it didn’t I want you to think about these two questions. When was the last time you had a conversation with someone you disagreed with on some hot topic issue? Or, why aren’t we willing to leave our silos? I would love to hear back from you.

Grace and Peace,

Pastor Lee