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13th Sunday After Pentecost – Proper 17
Luke 14:1, 7-14

On one occasion when Jesus was going to the house of a leader of the
Pharisees to eat a meal on the sabbath, they were watching him closely.

When he noticed how the guests chose the places of honor, he told them a
parable.  "When you are invited by someone to a wedding banquet, do not
sit down at the place of honor, in case someone more distinguished than
you has been invited by your host; and the host who invited both of you
may come and say to you, 'Give this person your place,' and then in
disgrace you would start to take the lowest place.  But when you are
invited, go and sit down at the lowest place, so that when your host
comes, he may say to you, 'Friend, move up higher'; then you will be
honored in the presence of all who sit at the table with you.  For all who
exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be
exalted."

He said also to the one who had invited him, "When you give a luncheon or
a dinner, do not invite your friends or your brothers or your relatives or
rich neighbors, in case they may invite you in return, and you would be
repaid.  But when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the
lame, and the blind.  And you will be blessed, because they cannot repay
you, for you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous."