Now the text doesn't say this, but I think Jesus moved his chair to the very back of the room, and then announced to the crowd "Please turn your chairs around, for now the head table is here." The great were humbled, and the humble were made great. (The remainder of the sermon is delivered from the back row).
When we come before God, we can come, clinging to all our worldly stuff: Our checkbooks and college degrees and professional titles. Our hands will be full, but our hearts will be empty. Or we can come to God without anything; humble, broken, needy--asking God to bless us.
Rather than limiting our guest list to people who are clones of ourselves, people with whom we're comfortable, invite instead those who are different, people who make us uncomfortable, but whose difference from us may bring with it a blessing.
Rabbi Joshua visited Rome. He was astonished at the magnificent statues, covered with fine cloth. Then a beggar asked for a crust of bread. He observed, "Here are statues covered with expensive clothes. Here is a man, created in the image of God, covered with rags. A civilization that pays more attention to statues than to people shall surely perish."
When I first began Seminary, a professor said, "You think you're safe here? You think that because you made it to seminary that you're safe from the devil's wiles and temptations? You're in more danger now than ever before in your lives. The devil has to tear you away from this place."
An example of the trust exercise appears in a story Jesus tells. Two people fall backward. One is unable to trust, and cannot be caught. The other one closes his eyes, falls backward, and is caught by the one behind him. The trustful one we know as Lazarus.
George Barna, the sociologist of religion, has written about the end of congregations as we know them and how the future of the church may be small house churches, gatherings of highly committed people who pray for one another and challenge one another in their Christian life.
The good news is that Christ behaves like the manager in the story from Luke. Christ suffers unjustly, but what he does is set us free from debts we can never pay. The whole business of the cross looks like a scandal, yet it is a bestowal of life and freedom.
Jesus calls Herod a fox. Then, in the next breath, he uses the image for himself of a hen protecting her brood. And what is the natural enemy of a hen? A fox.
The point of the story is this: Long-term security is more important than short-term gain. The man's long-term security had to do with his relationships with other people and his relationship with God. His sacrificial act would benefit him greater than any short-term profit.