Brief synopsis of the readings: We begin, yes, once again, in the book of Sirach. Apologies to my Protestant and Jewish Friends. A father advises his son to do business in humility and he will be beloved. As a matter of fact the greater the person the greater the need to be humble. The Lord will see this and be pleased. “There is no cure for the proud man’s malady, since an evil growth has taken root in him.” Luke’s Gospel describes Jesus going to the house of a leading Pharisee for a meal. He knew he was being closely watched by his followers Seeing this he spoke a parable where someone was invited to a wedding feast. Jesus advised against choosing a place of honor lest a person of higher status “bump” him to a lower place. Instead he advises his followers to choose a lower place where he may be invited to a higher place. Jesus went on to advise his followers to be a good host. He told them not to invite their families or wealthy neighbors because they have the means to repay. Conversely, a host who invites the outcasts (the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind) will receive payment from God.

I have a feeling that I’m not the only one who read this Gospel and immediately went back to our high school cafeterias. There were always hierarchies in high school (athletes/cheerleaders on top, those with socialization problems on bottom) but these levels were particularly obvious when we gathered to eat.

Ambition was always possible (and sometimes successful) but attempts were fraught with the possibility of being rebuffed and needing to slink back. This embarrassment can even hit horrifying peaks. I once attended the wake of a coworker and saw two other mourners who were asked to leave. The funeral home employee explained that the family requested their exit at once as they were not welcome. I’m not sure what the cause was but the result was pretty harsh.

But let’s face it: Neither Jesus nor Luke were in the habit of giving social advice. The idea that Luke would have preserved this 30 to 40 years after the event (when he wrote his Gospel) seems crazy. Frankly this would reduce Jesus to a 1st Century “Miss Manners.”

We do have a few clues. Jesus was normally critical of the Pharisees and other religious leaders of his time and sometimes referred to them as hypocrites. Yet here he was dining on the Sabbath at the home of one of the leading Pharisees. Perhaps he recognized that the optics were not good or that he could have himself be accused of hypocrisy.

And so Jesus, being Jesus, didn’t put the spotlight on himself to try to defend his actions. Instead he used this as a teaching opportunity on what to do in this type of situation. We don’t know what place Jesus was offered, though I imagine since he was a guest he was giving a high place. Nor do we know where Jesus claimed his seat.

But that doesn’t matter so much as what he says next. He talks about the virtue of humility, the eagerness to do a kind thing even if (especially if) it’s not noticed. People may remember the 1990s sitcom Seinfeld; there was an episode where George put a tip in the tip jar at a deli but saw that the server was looking away and didn’t see it. Being George he attempted to remove the tip and replace it when he would be noticed. Of course it didn’t work: he was spotted “stealing” from the tip jar.

George was often a foil for events like this and I couldn’t help but feel some sympathy for him. But he would have done well to have known about the Medieval Jewish “Ladder of Tzedakah.” It teaches that all giving is good but giving in a way that isn’t noticed, or giving to someone who can’t give back elevates the giver in God’s eyes.

Now we can all nod our heads and agree with this in principle but doing this in real life runs against much of what we see today. How often do we tune into or read about the “Top Ten Most Popular” or see who’s in “Who’s Who”? How often do we follow fashion advice from someone who is famous when we don’t know what made them famous? In the last few years we’ve begun to hear about young people who make a lucrative living as an “influencer” in social media.

Contrast that with what Jesus calls us to. He clearly doesn’t mean that we never enter the home of a wealthy person. It doesn’t mean that we put ourselves down as many have been told. It certainly does not mean we are to think of ourselves as “less than” others. But it does mean that we carry our humility with us.

Humility calls us not to put ourselves down as much as to lift others. When Jesus tells us to invite the outcasts it reminds us that God pours out his love evenly, seeing the thief with the same eyes as he sees the king. Jesus also recognized that the road to the kingdom runs through that recognition. One of my first hospice patients, Phil, came to hospice dying of lung cancer. He was still smoking and drinking and I learned that his alcohol abuse had destroyed nearly every relationship in life and nobody was surprised that his next of kin was a son who would complete the legal stuff but wouldn’t visit his dad (who he called Phil).

But as I got to know Phil I realized there was a kind man down deep. He was a math whiz and when he found out that his nurse’s son was struggling with algebra, Phil taught it to her so she could teach it to his son. His team talked about him a great deal and we all agreed he was a child of God that was sometimes hard to love. At the end of his life he recognized that he could never repay us for the kindness and healing we provided. But he was OK with that.

So were we. I sometimes imagine him teaching the quadratic formula.