Text: Luke 7:36-50

In our new Voices Together hymnal, (801) you’ll find the hymn “I’m Gonna Eat at the Welcome Table,” which is very similar to a hymn that was in Sing the Journey – aka ‘the green book’ – previously. That’s the version that many of us are familiar with. In that version we sang the words, “You’ve got a place at the welcome table.”

If you’re like me you might feel a little dissonance with the ‘I’ language in the Voices Together version. Maybe it feels kind of entitled. But the reason that Voices Together adopted the version that it did is: those are the original words! (I especially like verse 2 🔥)

“I’m Gonna Eat at the Welcome Table” is an African American spiritual first recorded in 1922 by the Florida Normal and Industrial Quartette. An article from the Voices Together committee goes on to say:

The 1930 publication The Negro Sings a New Heaven includes a verse “I’m gonna tell God how you treat me.” During the American (USA) civil rights movement the song took on contemporary potency, confronting white supremacy. One of the more famous adaptations of the song during this period was the verse “I’m gonna sit at the Woolworth counter.” 

So, yeah. It does express entitlement! It claims a place where no place has been made. 

That same article goes on to explain that the language of “you’ve got a place” came from composer Alice Parker and was not properly attributed. The article states

While the text may seem to make an inclusive statement,” it actually establishes one person or group as having power over others. Singing welcome is important, but misrepresenting this song does not reach this goal. It both undermines the call for justice and erases the vision and voices of those proclaiming God’s welcome.

Not for nothing, I’ve also heard that using that personal ‘I’ language has also been important language of accountability – a personal claiming of each individual’s part in the movement. A collection of ‘I’s each with a part to play. “This little light of mine, I’m gonna let it shine.” So obviously I’m all in on the new/original language. 

And for the purposes of this sermon I was hearing the voice of Jesus say, “You’ve got a place at the welcome table.” [Sigh.] Because so many people in the life of the woman in this story were telling her that she did not have a place at the table. Or in the room. Or maybe even in the town. 

Before we even get into the story I want to ask you to disentangle this hearing of the story with the versions that appear in the other gospels. In those versions there is a woman who anoints Jesus’ head and they take place shortly before Jesus’ crucifixion so it’s a sort of anointing for death thing. And there’s no pharisee named Simon present but there is an argument about the money it would cost. And also, by the way, there is no reason to think that this woman is a sex worker or that because she was called a ‘sinner’ that it was something of a sexual nature.

It does seem clear that she’s not well regarded in this community. When Simon thinks (though to his credit does not say out loud) that Jesus should know who he’s dealing with here, that seems to indicate that other people do know what she’s all about. We do not.

We might think about who the people are that we’d keep at arm’s length. Who we think of with distaste. Unhoused folks. Addicts. Yes, also sex workers of various kinds. The people we give the side-eye.

Jesus is reclining at the table with the other (probably all) men when the woman arrives, hair loose, with a jar of ointment, sobbing. And in her tears she begins to anoint his feet. Now, did I go down a rabbit hole of how people would be eating and the configurations for dining in the ancient mediterranean world? Yes I did.

And I’m going to tell you about it: The diners would have been reclined on their side with a cushion under the elbow. They’re at a diagonal on elevated couches or platforms that are arranged in a U shape around a central table or tables – like three sides of a square or rectangle, one couch per side. There are usually three people on each side. Sometimes they’d squeeze in four. Their heads are toward the center, so that their hands can reach to the table for food. Their feet to the outside. 

So as I was saying, the woman comes into this room, where she has heard that Jesus is dining and there are his feet at the outside of this circle. She leans over them and sobbing, her hair loose around her face, she begins to anoint him. 

What could have made her so overwrought? Why is she overwhelmed with feeling? Before this week it had never occurred to me: She’s already met Jesus. This action doesn’t just come out of nowhere. She is ALREADY FORGIVEN!

Did you know that loosened hair for women is a sign of grief or gratitude?  comes in with every sign of having had some kind of amazing and beautiful and freeing experience with Jesus and is compelled to seek him out.

Jesus tells this parable about forgiveness of debt. Really big debt. We’re talking in amounts equal to a couple months wages to a year’s salary. Different in scale but both significant amounts. 

I don’t generally like the comparison of forgiveness or salvation to debt relief. I don’t have a ‘paid for my sins’ kind of theology. But I have some appreciation for the way Jesus uses it here. It reminds me of the Biblical instructions for Jubilee. In this economic ideal, there is a cycle in which all people will be released from all debt, land will be return to original families, there will be a leveling of wealth.

The woman must have had a significant enough release from some shame or burden or weight that she is now here, already forgiven, and pouring out her demonstration of love. Jesus re-iterates it, saying again to her: “Your sins are forgiven.” 

She may have come in without an invitation, coming to Jesus feet because his head was inside the circle. She may have started with “I’ve got a place.” But Jesus assures her “You’ve got a place at the welcome table.”

When Jesus says this to the woman, by the way, he is not excluding Simon from the offer of release and forgiveness. He too is ALREADY FORGIVEN! Jesus has some critiques of his hospitality, but Simon is already at the table. He’s been at the proverbial table the whole time. For all the critiques that Jesus has of Pharisees like Simon, he continues to be at the table with them.

I suspect that many of us are more like the Pharisee in this story than like the woman. In that mostly have resources. We ‘follow the rules’ (whatever those are) and show up faithfully. Maybe we’ve even been at this church thing since we were children. It’s easy for us to be able to decide who has a place at the table and who doesn’t. Even if (like Simon) we keep those thoughts to ourselves. Jesus is onto us.

But Jesus also has already forgiven us! 

Whether or not we are more like Simon or more like the woman or somewhere in between, there are all sorts of things that we carry that weigh us down. Shame for things we’ve done or that have been done to us. Things for which we rightfully or unrightfully carry blame. Guilt for action or inaction. Things that if we could release the shame and blame and guilt we might feel a measure of the release and relief that brought the woman to grateful tears. 

Friends, you are already forgiven. You are already forgiven. Together we can sing in celebration and praise: I’m gonna eat at the welcome table! Thanks be to God.

—

image: James Tissot (Nantes, France, 1836–1902, Chenecey–Buillon, France). The Ointment of the Magdalene (Le parfum de Madeleine), 1886–1894. Opaque watercolor over graphite on gray wove paper, Image: 8 3/4 x 10 15/16 in. (22.2 x 27.8 cm). Brooklyn Museum

—