It's a wonder people kept inviting Jesus to their house for dinner parties; he was not the easiest house guest, and often a dinner with him present devolved pretty quickly into tense awkwardness all 'round.
Sometime people who didn't like him tried to pick a theological fight with him to try to show how wrong he was in his theology, only to find the fight quickly and shrewdly turned against them and showing pretty clearly that it was their theology that was somewhat skewed and insufficient. Other times Jesus himself, upset at what he was seeing around him, couldn't hold his tongue and challenged the guests, or even the host, about their values and practices.
In this reading, of special note is the healing of a man with dropsy. Contrary to what I thought as a child and even for years after, "dropsy" is not a disease that makes you drop things. It's a name for a disorder by which a person retains too much fluid, becoming bloated and puffed-up, and because of the pain and sensitivity this can cause in the extremities these people can tend to avoid contact with others and with the world; it hurts too much. In Jesus' time "dropsy" came to be used as well as a metaphor for the condition of the affluent and rich -- retaining too much, becoming bloated and puffed-up, and doing what they can to avoid contact with the real world and with the pains of other people.
A word about this "sermon":
The Scripture (Luke 14:1-14) was read; then without introduction three persons staged the following chancel drama, "The Chair."
One change to the stage directions below is that in addition to having one plain chair available on one side of the sanctuary for the Host to carry and place front and centre in the sanctuary, facing the communion table to begin the drama, we also stacked 5 or 6 identical chairs on the other side of the sanctuary, and a little bit out of sight, for the Host to have access to at the end of the drama.
After the drama, I returned to the emptied "stage" and, standing beside the lone chair, offered the reflection that follows the drama below.
The Chair (By Annette Wetherbee)*
Cast:
HOST- non-speaking role, but
person has to be animated. Represents
Jesus.
GUEST ONE
GUEST TWO
Scene: Imagine a HOST preparing a banquet with a very
special guest in mind. The scene is a
bare stage with a “special” chair. What
the chair looks like isn’t the issue. In fact, the more ordinary it is, the
better; the issue is how the cast react to it.
Props: Chair
Costumes:
Recommend plain clothes, similar in style for all (i.e.- blue jeans with
similar t-shirts.)
HOST: (Enters
and “prepares” chair- possibly, dust, or put a special cloth over it to make it
look more unique/regal. Smiles at job
and exits.)
ONE: (Enters,
passing HOST exiting. Smiles at HOST,
trying to look appreciative/humble, but this changes when HOST is gone. Stands up straight, smirks and begins
“checking out the chair.)
TWO: (Enters
a few moments after ONE is in place.
Spies chair, and joins ONE.)
Boy, that is some chair.
ONE: Don’t I know it. I saw the HOST work on it.
TWO: (In awe) Really?
This must be the place of honor.
(Begins to check it out more
carefully.) The HOST must have
someone really special in mind to prepare a chair like this.
ONE: (Self
satisfied.) Yes, he must. (Sits
down.)
TWO: What are you doing?
ONE: Trying it on for size.
TWO: Are you nuts?
ONE: No.
TWO: What makes you think this chair is for you?
ONE: Whom else could it be for?
TWO: Lots of people. There are many here who deserve the place of
honor.
ONE: Like whom?
TWO: Lots.
(Pause.) Take me, for example.
ONE: Take you where?
TWO: That chair could just as easily be for me as
it is for you.
ONE: (Sits
back, getting comfortable.) You’re
joking, right?
TWO: No, I’m not. I’m just as important as you are to the
HOST.
ONE: Really?
Since when?
TWO: (Childish.) Since always.
ONE: Oh yeah?
TWO: Yeah!
ONE: We’ll just see about that.
TWO: Why don’t you go ask the HOST yourself, and
you’ll find out. (Pause.) I think I see him
there. (Points behind ONE.)
ONE: (Stands
up and moves in the direction of where TWO was signaling.) Where?
TWO: (Quickly
steals chair from ONE, and sits down.)
Over there somewhere.
ONE: (Turns
back.) Hey!
TWO: (Innocently.) Hey, what?
ONE: That’s my seat!
TWO: Really?
I didn’t see your name on it anywhere.
ONE: You tricked me.
TWO: And you’re observant.
ONE: Here comes the HOST. Now you’ll see whose seat that is!
(HOST comes up behind TWO, as ONE points behind the Chair.)
TWO: Yeah, like I’ll fall for that one.
(HOST steps into view of TWO, and looks down at TWO with a disappointed
look and shakes his head. TWO realizes
the seat is not for him, and embarrassed, gets up.)
ONE: See, I told you so! Pride goes before a fall! (ONE
smiles smugly and begins to sit down, but the HOST stops him. HOST looks at ONE and shakes his head no.)
TWO: Timber!!!
(Sees look of disapproval from
HOST and is quiet.)
(HOST looks at the two guests, shakes his head, and points to the “back”
of the banquet hall. Hanging there
heads, the two exit, but the exchange a few words back and forth i.e.- see
this chair is for me, I told you so, can’t you shut up as everyone exits.)
.....................................................
By way of reflection, I have only 4 questions and maybe the beginnings of answers to
some of them.
1. What is the chair?
It could be a place of a belonging -- a place where when you sit, you know you belong. You're one of the group, you fit in, you don't have to feel left out anymore. You belong.
It might be a place of honour -- a place where when you sit, where when you're invited to sit, you feel special. Honoured and set apart. Where when you sit in this chair, you know you're respected by others, and you have no reason not to respect and feel good about yourself.
It could be a place at the table -- a phrase we hear a lot these days, as different groups negotiate things, and try to determine policy. People want a place at the table, to have a voice in what they need, what they have to offer, and what's going to happen to them or be done for them. It's about being consulted and part of the decision-making process, rather than have other people speak for you and about you, and make decisions for you -- whether you're parents of children on the autism spectrum wanting a voice in government decisions about support for services, disabled folks wanting to be consulted about accommodations for them, or people of the First Nations wanting a seat at the table with other levels of government when it comes to discussing treaty rights, settlements, and steps towards reconciliation. Having a place at the table is important.
It could be a place at the general feast of life -- a chance to enjoy along with others all the goodness of creation and of life given by God. The bounty and the blessings of life, meant for the enjoyment and nurture and well-being of all people.
The chair and having a place at the table with others is what God intends and desires for all people, and all creatures.
2. Is the world (actually, this is intended only as a rhetorical question!) ... is the world and every separate little piece of it (including our piece here in Winona) always divided between those who have a place at the table, and those who do not? And the nature of the time defined by the struggle between the two?
3. If it is God's desire, and is Jesus' work and way to reach out and give a chair at the table to those who for whatever reason do not have one, who may those people be today in our little part of the world?
Yesterday there was a story in The Hamilton Spectator about recent findings that immigrants who come to Hamilton these days do not stay long. After choosing to come to Hamilton to get settled and start a new life, they find themselves feeling unwelcome here, and many of them move in short order to the Greater Toronto Area. Because there they feel more welcomed, and more able just to get on with their life and make a good life for themselves and their family. In Hamilton are new immigrants today among those without a chair and a place at the table?
Historically in Canada the people of the First Nations have been without a chair at the table. This was their land, but as the confederation of Canada was created it was created without a chair for them, and they still suffer the effects of that in a lot of ways.
We're quite concerned these days about the imminent closing of the Wesley Urban Ministries Day Centre -- a one-of-its-kind drop-in at the heart of the city where persons who are homeless, hungry and at risk can come 24/7 and find a safe place to be, friends to be with, and access to almost any service they might need from mental and physical health issues, to a meal, to help in finding a place to sleep, permanent housing and a job. It's the only centre in the city with that scope of service, and if it closes next year as it seems it may have to, will all those people be left without a chair and a place at the table? Will their chair be taken away?
We're quite concerned these days about the imminent closing of the Wesley Urban Ministries Day Centre -- a one-of-its-kind drop-in at the heart of the city where persons who are homeless, hungry and at risk can come 24/7 and find a safe place to be, friends to be with, and access to almost any service they might need from mental and physical health issues, to a meal, to help in finding a place to sleep, permanent housing and a job. It's the only centre in the city with that scope of service, and if it closes next year as it seems it may have to, will all those people be left without a chair and a place at the table? Will their chair be taken away?
Last week I visited a woman in a complex care ward in St. Joe's Hospital. She's white, recently retired, educated and articulate, and quite personable. She says the nursing staff and others who deal with her, while they're overworked and stretched too thin, treat her with care and compassion. There's a second patient in the room as well -- an elderly woman from India, who understands and speaks English only with difficulty, who is in a wheelchair and bent over into herself even in the chair, and I was told that when people talk to her -- one nurse in particular, it's often just to shout at the woman, tell her brusquely what she should be doing, tell her what she's doing wrong, and then to walk away. Is she someone who is without a chair -- a chair of belonging, a seat of honour, a place at the table?
And then I thought of us here. As I prepared for the drama about "The Chair" I thought about ending it -- after shooing away the two puffed-up characters who each thought they were so entitled to sit there, by inviting someone from the edge or the back of the sanctuary to come and sit. But I wondered who? Maybe little James, because he's the youngest and least articulate person here. Maybe Josh, because he struggles to find safe places to be, and people who will be his friends. Maybe Betty sitting in the back with her walker, a faithful servant of God all her life and all over the world, now immobilized by age, physical weakness and injury. Maybe Ed and Ed, each of them strong pillars of our church, each of them recently having lost a life-partner -- not something they would ever have asked for, now having to learn to live alone. And as I look around, at each one here -- myself included, each and every one of us in some way feels like we are without a chair, not quite belonging, suffering some loss or struggle that sets us apart and makes us feel we don't quite fit in, makes us feel a little bit cursed and unacceptable.
And how then do you choose, who to invite to the chair? How do we choose between people out there, and ourselves in here? And even if we focus just on ourselves, how do we choose among ourselves?
Who do we reach out to, and give a place -- a special place of belonging and honour at the table? Who do we reach out to, and help bring to the chair?
Which brings us maybe to the fourth question.
4. Is there only one chair?
(At this point, go to get the extra 5 or 6 chairs identical to the one used in the drama, stacked off to the other side. Place them beside and with the one from the drama, also facing the communion table -- if space allows, maybe in a circle or semi-circle.)
Or are there more? Enough for all? And is this maybe part of what Jesus means when he says, "Do this in remembrance of me."
* Copyright Annette Wetherbee, all
rights reserved.
This play may be performed free
of charge, provided no entrance charge is made. In return, the author would
like to be told of any performance. She may be contacted at annettebee2001@
yahoo.com
No comments:
Post a Comment