Humble Hospitality
A sermon
delivered by Rev. Peter T. Atkinson
September 1,
2013
at Gordonsville
Presbyterian Church, Gordonsville, Virginia
Luke 14: 1, 7-14
Let us pray,
Help us to see despite our eyes
Help us to think outside of our minds
Help us to be more than our lives
For your eyes show the way
Your
mind knows the truth
Your
being is the life.
Amen.
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.
7 When 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; 9 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. 10 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. 11 For all who exalt themselves
will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.”
12 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. 13 But
when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the
blind. 14 And you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you,
for you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.”
We live in a controlled world of place cards
and wedding planners, where it is part of good hospitality towards your guests
to make sure that everyone is welcome and knows their place, so that the
awkwardness of, where do I sit? where do I rank? doesn't really apply today. At
least not at weddings.
But this teaching like so many of Jesus'
parables, is meant to be understood in a deeper context, I think, or at least
the deeper context is there. This is actually the first of the great run of
parables included in Luke's Gospel. He uses teachable moment after teachable
moment really pushing his hearers beyond their assumptions, so in that
tradition, I want to push a little bit this morning beyond the obvious literal
lesson to a more broad applicable understanding.
Though it's called a parable, this isn't like
his other ones. There is no story with other characters, no Good Samaritan, No
Prodigal Son, instead he uses the 2nd person, "you" as the
protagonist, speaking directly to his audience the chief Pharisee and his
guests. There obviously is parallel meaning, because though he is talking about
weddings, Jesus is not at a wedding when he says this, at least not at a
literal wedding, he has not just turned
water into wine, this is not the wedding at Cana, instead we are at a home, at
a dinner party, but it is possible to have in our minds the concept of the
Marriage Supper of the Lamb, I think it is good to have that there as we
continue, so keep that image of eternity somewhere within our thoughts, though
keeping it safely just in the background of our connected thinking. But here
real time, Jesus has gone to the house
of the head of the Pharisees. Yes the head of the Pharisees, and it is on a
Sabbath. . . if you think about the context there, you could probably cut the
awkwardness with a knife. All around this text, we see Jesus pushing the
Pharisees on their application of the law. Last week we looked at one such
example, where Jesus heals on the sabbath, in the text that we skipped in
today's reading, from the mention of the Pharisee's house being the setting, to
the discussion of where people were sitting, he does so again, Jesus heals a
man with dropsy, yes again on the Sabbath. So though a guest here, Jesus is not
the submissive supplicant dinner guest, but is pushing his hosts. . . and it
says they were watching him, and he must have known. Luke's Gospel follows
Jesus' journey from Galilee to Jerusalem, he is certainly on his way to the
cross here, there is both a physical journey taking place, and also a
constantly building battle of tension between Jesus and the Pharisees that is
leading him steadily towards the cross.
So what is Jesus saying to the Pharisees
through this parable? What does he want them to recognize about this situation and
about themselves? What does Jesus want them, and us to see? I don't think it is
about place cards and wedding invitations, not just a seating chart, but
instead our picture of how we see ourselves, our perceived status in contrast
to our actual status. Jesus seems to be challenging these Pharisees to look at
themselves, and just what their status is, and therefore, where these
perceptions come from, and what this perceived status is based on.
We talked a little last week about what a
Pharisee was, and how their mission was to foster a unique Jewish identity
within the constant pressure of marginalization from Greek and Roman forces. They
had done so by becoming the keepers of the law, but with any noble pursuit
there is the danger of falling into the trap of conceptions of self importance,
having it become about you, and not the original mission. Jesus is calling them
to task on this issue. They have become leaders in the community. They have
done great things, but their motivation comes into question, and when
motivation comes into question, the overall mission can become short changed
and misdirected, and watered down. Jesus calls out to them, what makes you so
great that you would choose for yourselves the places of honor? What makes you
so great? What do you feel like because I have come to your house for dinner?
Do you feel vindicated? Do you feel like it was expected that I do so? Are you
glad that now I have finally gotten on board, and am eating with you and not
all the publicans and sinners? Do you think you are winning? College football
started yesterday, so I'll quote Lee Corso from ESPN's College Gameday, and
say, "Not so fast my friend." I'm not here to tell you how great you
are. I'm here to challenge you on your perceptions of what makes you so great?
Look at what Jesus does, he makes it relative.
He makes their status relative. You may be great, but you should humble
yourselves, because how do you know who else is invited? If you place yourself
at the bottom there is nowhere else to go but up. Now at first when I was
looking at this, I was wondering to myself, why is Jesus so wrapped up in
things like, Honor, and perceived status, being exalted. Why is Jesus
explaining to them in the terms of if you do this you shall be exalted, when
his overall message is humility. I've come to the conclusion that Jesus is
speaking the language of the Pharisees. He is trying to get them to see that
exaltation and honor as they see it falls far short of what is real. Think
about it this way, their exaltation comes from them being respected by people
as good teachers and as good law abiding people, but what are they teaching?
They are teaching the law, and the law comes from God, and isn't about looking
good for others, setting apart for apart's sake, but instead, being set apart
as a child of God, following God's will. Is this where the Pharisees are? Do
they wish to be exalted by God, or by the people, and not just the people, but
by the Romans? Yes the Romans, the very people they are supposed to be in
opposition to. But how much do the Romans benefit by the Pharisees action in
quelling the people, creating law abiding citizens. Remember the Roman's
conquered the world by being above all things practical. They want the Jewish
people peaceful, by any means necessary, including using and propping up these
religious leaders and giving them, yes, status.
See how fast motivation goes awry, when self service and self importance
come into the equation?
What is it that gives you status, pharisees?
Why do you think you are so important? These are the questions this parable
shouts. The other thing the parable shouts is in the line, verse 9, "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." Now, isn't this exactly the message Jesus is
sending to the Pharisees. As the son of God coequal, coeternal, he is the host,
the originator of their law keeping, the source of their status, and he is
saying to them, "Why do you think you are so great?" Is then
"disgrace" what they feel? Certainly it wouldn't be the first time
they had felt such disgrace at the expense of Jesus' words. So many times,
which is why they are watching him. Jesus isn't a threat to the law and their
traditions, maybe he is to some extent, but what the real problem is that he is
a threat to their status.
In the same way I think this parable
challenges us. Not necessarily in a critique of what we as Christians and
Churches do but why? Motivation again comes into question. So many churches
across the U.S. are looking around them at a world that they don't understand.
It is a world that is rapidly changing, and the traditions of the church are
very much running against the mainstream of popular culture. Now as they do, as
churches try to fight against the culture, holding on to certain things,
holding up tradition, fearful of loss, the big challenge is having compromised
motivation like the Pharisee's, not having the glory of God in mind, but the
glory of the status quo, and the old remembered place of status. Let's look at
some of the more tame issues that the church deals with. Mainline churches,
like Presbyterians are, are losing members. People have other avenues to do
things. Families have conflicts over what their busy schedules allow them to
do. Soccer games are being held more and more on Sunday. How do we deal with
that and why? These are the issues. Obviously we feel as churches we have
something positive to offer people in today's world, but how often are we
skewed in that mission to the bottom line of numbers in church and getting the
budget balanced? How often are we concerned with our place in the society and
not with the glory of God? How would our action be different if our motivation
was building up the body of Christ in the world, and not filling up our
buildings and budgets? I'm not sure. How often do we determine our success as
Christians and fishers of men as to whether or not we get people into these
doors on Sunday morning at 11:00 each week. Another battle we face, it seems,
is what we say around Christmas time in greetings to one another. Is Christ's
mission in saving the world really hampered each time a business owner says,
"happy holidays" instead of "Merry Christmas?" But yet we
fight that battle and leave so many others untouched, why? Are they more
challenging? Do they force us to risk? Risk what? Our status? Maybe. There are
so many others, more hot button culture war type issues, and some of those
battles should be fought, but in order to do so we need to constantly remember
what our call is, who calls us to it, and why, lest we fall into the trap of
self importance.
Like Jesus in his parable I'm not
challenging the action, but the motivation. I do think there is a role the
church must play in this world, something that Christians can do, an important
mission of discipleship that we are called to for a world in need, but I think
we have to constantly be questioning why we do things. It is the way of the
humble. It's the way of love and it is this humility and love that can really
transform our world in God's way.
Look at the second part of the
parable. He looks at his host and says, “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. 13
But when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, and
the blind. 14 And you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you."
This Pharisee has given a luncheon, this is not a parable, but a real rebuke.
Jesus says look around, why did you
invite these people? Why do you want me here? Who is it about, is it about you,
or me? Because if it's about me, I don't need it, invite the poor and the lame,
those who can't repay you, those who can't give you any status, because then
you will be rewarded at the resurrection of the righteous, that marriage supper
of the lamb, that we've kept in our mind, the only status that eternally
matters. Another way of saying that is, "Seek ye first the kingdom of God,
and it's righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you, Alleluia
and Amen.
[1]The
Holy Bible : New Revised Standard Version. 1989 (Lk 14:7-14). Nashville:
Thomas Nelson Publishers.
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