22^nd Sunday of the Year

Once upon a time, so the story is told, there lived a king whose daughters were all beautiful, but the youngest was so beautiful that the sun itself was astonished whenever it shone on her face.

Close by the king's castle lay a great dark forest, and under an old oak tree in the forest was a deep well.

When the king's youngest daughter was bored she went into the forest to play with a golden ball.

One day when the princess was playing near the well, the golden ball rolled straight into the water.

The well was so deep that the bottom could not be seen, and the princess started to cry and wail for her loss.

Her cries attracted a big, ugly frog who asked her what she would give him if he got the ball back.

The princess offered him her crown and her best dress, but our ugly hero had no longing to be the best dressed frog in the kingdom!

"If you promise to love me," he said, "I will bring you your golden ball."

The princess agreed readily; since frogs were unimportant, she thought, you could promise them anything.

When old splasher came back with the golden ball, the princess grabbed it and ran home leaving the frog and her promise behind her.

However, that evening when the king and all the courtiers were eating at table, there was a wet knock at the door.

The princess ran to answer it but slammed it shut when she saw the caller.

The king asked who it was and the princess was forced to tell the story of what had happened.

The king told her: "You should never despise those who have helped you in trouble. What you have promised, you must perform. Let him in."

His daughter rose from the table and reluctantly let in old splasher who took the place of honour at the dinner table.

The frog enjoyed what he ate, but the princess had a sudden loss of appetite.

After the feast, she took hold of the frog with two fingers, carried him upstairs, and put him in a corner.

He challenged her to keep her promise: in sympathy he suggested that she kiss him on the nose while closing her eyes and thinking of England!

Of course, then he was transformed into the most handsome prince she had ever set eyes on.

He had been under a spell and could be released only by a little love.

That was enough to transform him into someone who was recognizably human.

The next day, needless to say, the couple left to inherit the kingdom that was awaiting them.

But, as one lady remarked when she heard the story:

"That's all very well. In life you have to kiss a lot of frogs before you meet the handsome prince!"

In today's Gospel Jesus is at a meal in the house of one of the leading Pharisees.

He has noticed an undignified scramble for the places of honour and is moved to comment on what he sees.

When a guest arrives early at a feast to appoint himself a place of honour, his position is insecure because he runs the risk that a later guest will have more claim to his place.

And when the host insists that he vacates the place, he will have to pass all the other places already occupied and take the lowest place.

Jesus advises that his listeners take the lowest place at table - then the only risk they run is that of being exalted!

Since it is the host's party, he should decide who sits where.

When Jesus addresses his host he advocates a more radical style: learning humility not so much by playing musical chairs at banquets, but by associating with the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind.

The guest-list for Jesus' feast is a parable of the kingdom: God is the eccentric host whose delight is to feast those who are always overlooked in a society that scrambles for honour.

So the guest-list includes:

the old lady in the moth-eaten fur coat who carries her kingdom in plastic bags

the legion of the crippled who hobble where others hop

the blind who have to feel for the warmth of a fire they cannot see

the lonely who are never invited anywhere.

These are the ones who are led to the seats of honour in the kingdom.

We must invite the little people who cannot return the invitations and are hungry for the food and the company that table fellowship can bring.

Jesus has a belief that hugs these people into importance.

In the upside-down world of the fairy-tale and the Gospel there is a wisdom of reversal:

behind what appears to be ugliness there is beauty

behind what appears to be foolishness there is wisdom

behind the faces of the scarred and the broken there is great dignity.

Jesus keeps God's preference for the little people at the forefront of his teaching.

He has the kind of love that sees beyond appearances, the kind of love that pierces disguises, the kind of love that calls people out of imprisonment.

His love gives people dignity.

He asks that our love gives dignity too.

This week, then, watch out for the frogs!