August 28, 2022 Sermon
Sermon title: "Dinner Party Advice - NOT!"
Scripture: Luke 14:1 and 7-14
(Other lectionary suggestions include Jeremiah 2:4-13, Psalm 81:10-16, and Hebrews 13:1-5 and 15-16.)
Luke 14:1 and 7-14
Jesus Heals the Man with Dropsy
1On 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.
Humility and Hospitality
7When he noticed how the guests chose the places of honor, he told them a parable. 8"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; 9and 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. 10But 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. 11For all who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted." 12He 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. 13But when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind. 14And you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you, for you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous."
The title of this sermon is "Dinner Party Advice - NOT!" Jesus was of course not trying to teach us how to behave at certain social occasions. But he WAS trying to show what true humility is about. And that quote in the middle of today's reading is sort of a variation on what he has said before: the first shall be last and the last, first. What he said today was, "For all who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted."
As I was preparing this sermon, I ran across this story about humility. Some of you know the name Thomas Hardy, the author. The story is that even after he became famous, he would always send along a stamped, self-addressed envelope with anything he submitted for publication to a newspaper. "Even in his greatness, he was humble enough to think that his work might be turned down." That envelope, of course, was for the return of his manuscript should it have been rejected.
And here is another story about humility, from the Scottish scholar William Barclay. There was a man named John Cairns, the Principal of the United Presbyterian Divinity Hall of Edinburgh in Scotland. He would never enter a room first. He would always say, "You first, I follow." "Once, as he came on to a platform, there was a great burst of applause in welcome. He stood aside and let the person behind him come first and began himself to applaud. He never dreamed that the applause could possibly be for him; he thought it must be for someone else." Isn't that amazing? How could a person be so humble? And yet he apparently was. Now we in our modern times might think, "Come on! Was this guy faking it? He HAD to have known how famous he was." Apparently not. Now is there any such thing as FAKE humility? Well, of course! We are not called to be STUPID or naive. But I think we get the point. As the Apostle Paul says in one place in the New Testament, let no one think more highly of himself than he ought. And I believe the Apostle Paul was channeling Jesus when he said those words.
Something else I learned while preparing this sermon....the Gospel according to Luke has LOTS of stories about parties and banquets! Luke evidently thought that every happy gathering was a sort of "dress rehearsal" for the great heavenly banquet that he thought all believers would eventually enjoy! Isn't that neat? It's as if every time we share food with friends, we're practicing for the time when we'll all be at the heavenly banquet with the Lord. I like that!
But before we start celebrating TOO soon, let's make sure we heard what Jesus said at the end of today's reading. "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...." That's a tough one! Who wants to go to a Thanksgiving meal or a Christmas dinner with people we don't even know? But there's the command. Were we listening? By the way, Jesus's urging us to invite WHOEVER may come from the Hebrew and Jewish practice of hospitality. I want to compliment Harlane's family, which regularly invites people who have nowhere else to go on certain holidays. It’s a Jewish TRADITION which we followers of Jesus are urged to emulate.
In Jesus's day it was easy for the "haves" to think they were better in God's sight than the "have nots" - and it wouldn't be too far off the mark to say that in our day and age, the same problem exists. We don't want to pray the Pharisee's prayer when he thanked God that he "was not like other men". But also, let us not forget the prayer that says "there but for the grace of God go I." This Christian faith of ours calls for us to use our heads and minds as much as we use our hearts - and I'm not sure which comes first! Faith has always been a combination of head and heart. I'm reminded of that guy whose daughter Jesus healed, and the guy said, "O Lord, I believe. Help Thou my unbelief." Belief and unbelief in the same breath! I love that because I think a lot of us live that way.
One more point......while Jesus's general point about humility is important, Luke may have had another issue in mind as well. Quoting N. T. Wright, "In the world for which Luke was writing, there would be an obvious wider meaning. Within Luke's lifetime thousands of non-Jews had become Christians – had entered, that is, into the dinner party prepared by the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Many Jewish Christians, as we know from {the book of} Acts, had found this difficult, if not impossible, to understand or approve. They were so eager to maintain their own places at the top table that they could not grasp God's great design to stand the world on its head. Pride, notoriously, is the great cloud which blots out the sun of God's generosity: if I reckon that I deserve to be favored by God, not only do I declare that I don't need his grace, mercy, and love, but I imply that those who don't deserve it shouldn't have it. Jesus spent his whole life breaking through that cloud and bringing the fresh, healing sunshine of God's love to those in its shadow..... The small-mindedness which pushes itself forward and leaves others behind is confronted with the large-hearted love of God. All Christians are called to the same healthy dependence on God's love and the same generosity in sharing it with those in need." Amen.
Pastor Skip
