Father John E. McGinn, Rector
Saint John’s Episcopal Church
Sandwich, Massachusetts 02563
September 2, 2007 Pentecost 14
Today’s sermon is taken from
the Gospel of Luke, chapter 14. verses 1 and 7-14.
Jesus begins today’s Gospel
lessen with a rather whimsical teaching:
“When someone invites you to
a wedding,” Jesus said, “do not take the place of honor, for a person more
distinguished than you may have been invited.
If so, the host who invited both of you may come to you and say to you,
‘Give his man your seat.’ And, humiliated, you will have to take the least
important place. But when you are
invited, take the lowest place, so that when your host comes, he will say to
you, ‘Friend, move up to a better place;’ and then you will be honored in the
presence of all your fellow guests.”
Then he adds the punch line, “For everyone who exalts themselves will be
humbled and those who humble themselves will be exalted.”
The setting of the story from
the Gospel this morning is the home of a prominent Pharisee. Jesus is attending a dinner party, and he
notices how guests are vying for seats of honor. Jesus decides this is a good setting for an
object lessen about humility. “For
everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be
exalted.”
I think there is some
psychology here - practical psychology.
Let me ask you a question. What
do you think of when you see someone who sincerely is trying to be the center
of attention, or continually seeks to impress others? The impression is not favorable. When you encounter someone who is so desperate for attention, so
desperate to be recognized, don’t you wonder about his or her sense of
security? Why should it matter whether
you sit at the head table or not? A
secure person carries his or her status with them. So when Jesus said that everyone who exalts
themselves will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted, Jesus
is giving us a glimpse into human behavior.
People who are always seeking after status have something lacking in
their lives.
Jeremiah Wright, is the
Senior Pastor of the Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago, and he was
once asked why African American worship services often last much longer than
one hour. “They last that long,” he said,
“because we need them to last that long.
The world beats us down day after
day, grinding God’s image out of us, making us feel lower than low, and
we worship for as long as it takes to build ourselves back up, to remember
again that God loves us. No matter our
color or the amount of dollars in our pocket, we too are created in God’s
image. We worship until we have sung
enough and prayed enough and revived enough to go back into the world and stand
against all that oppresses our people.”
And here is where we find our
self esteem; not in the eyes of our neighbors, but from the knowledge that God
loves us. Here is where we find our
sense of security, from the knowledge that we were created for a purpose that is
eternal. The person always seeking after
the honored seat lacks the sense that they are a whole person. In this seemingly whimsical teaching, Jesus
helps us see what our real need is.
I suspect though, that a
lessen in psychology is not really what Jesus was after here. I believe he is setting up his listeners for
his next words, because he continues:
“When you give a luncheon or dinner, do not invite your friends, your
brothers or relatives or rich neighbors.
If you do, they will invite you back, and so you will be repaid. But when you give a banquet, invite the poor,
the lame, the crippled, the blind and you will be blessed; and although they
cannot repay you, you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.”
Here is where we move from
psychology to the message of the cross. It doesn’t matter what your status is in
society. Your picture may be on the
society pages every week. The President
may call you for advice on matters of importance.
You may know the story of
three executives who were defining status, and one said, “Real status is when
you are invited to the White House for a personal conversation with the
President.” And another replied, “No,
you know you‘ve arrived when you’ve been invited to the White House for a
conversation with the President, and the hotline rings, and he just looks at it
and decides not to answer it.” The third
executive said, “You are both wrong.
Real status is when you are invited to White House for a conversation with
the President, the hotline rings, and the President answers it and says, ‘Here,
it’s for you.’”
Jesus doesn’t care how much
status you have in the eyes of the world.
Do you love your neighbor, are you generous with those in need, are you
willing to reach out in love to those who cannot help themselves? That is what I think Jesus really cares
about.
Many of you may recognize the
name, Jim Wallace. Jim Wallace is a noted author and long-time activist for
social justice. He is the editor of a
magazine entitled Sojourns. A few
years ago he was invited to speak at the Clergy Conference. He told a story about a time that he attended
a Chicago Sunday Evening Club as the guest speaker. His words are words every Christian, I think,
needs to hear, especially Christians in this affluent land.
Here is what Jim Wallace had
to say that night:
“I
was a seminary student in Chicago many years ago, and we decided to try an
experiment. We made a study of every
single reference in the whole Bible to the poor and to God’s love for the poor,
and to God being the deliverer of the oppressed. We found thousands of verses on the
subject.
The
Bible is full of the poor. In the Hebrew
scriptures, for example, it is the second most prominent theme. the first is
idolatry, and the two are most often connected.
In the New Testament we find that one of every sixteen verses is about
poor people. In the Gospels, one of every ten, and in Luke, the Gospel we just
read from this morning, one of every seven.
We
find the poor everywhere in the Bible.
One member of our group was a very zealous young seminary student, and
he thought he would try something just to see what might happen. He took an old Bible and a pair of scissors,
and he cut every single reference to the poor out of the Bible. It took him a very long time. When he was through, the Bible was very
different, because when he came to Amos and read the words, ‘Let justice roll
down like waters and righteousness like an every flowing stream,’ he just cut
it out. And when he got to Isaiah and
heard the profit say, ‘Is not this the fast that I choose to bring homeless
poor into your home, to break the yoke, and to let the oppressed go free?’ He just cut it out. And all those psalms that see God as the
deliverer of the oppressed disappeared.
In the Gospels he came to Mary’s wonderful song where she says, ‘the
mighty will be put down from their thrones, the lowly exalted, the poor filled
with good things, and the rich sent away empty.’ And, of course, you can guess what happened
to that. In Matthew 25 the section about
the least of these; that was gone. In
Luke 4, Jesus’ very first sermon; what was called his Nazareth manifesto where
he said, ‘The spirit of the Lord is upon me because he has anointed me to
preach good news to the poor people.’
That was gone too. ‘Blessed are
the poor.’ That was cut out. So much of the Bible was cut out, so much so,
that when he was through, that old Bible literally was in shreds; it wouldn’t
hold together. He held it in his hands,
and it was falling apart. It was a Bible
full of holes. He would often take the
Bible out with him to preach, and he would hold it high in the air above
American congregations and say, ‘Brothers and sisters, this is the American
Bible full of holes from all that we have cut out. We might as well have taken that pair of scissors
and just cut out all that we have ignored for such a long time. In America the Bible that we read is full of
holes.’”
Now do you think perhaps that
Jim Wallace got the attention of his listeners at that Chicago event? Did he get your attention this morning? Most of us do not want to feel guilty when we
come to church, and neither do I. I
don’t like feeling guilty about my affluence in a world in which so many people
have so little. And yet I don’t want to
stand before you as a minister of the Gospel with a Bible that is full of
holes. We need to realize there is an
alternative to the status seeking and materialistic lifestyle that advertisers
tell us is our birthright.
The television program Twenty
Twenty on ABC shared the stories of people who have restructured their
lives in order to be able to share what they have with others. One person had given away her
three-million-dollar inheritance, saying she already had what she needed and
other people didn’t. Should couldn’t
live with having a second home when others don’t have their first. The interviewer was incredulous as she asked,
“But you see pretty things…don’t you think you’d like some of them?” “Sure, I’d like them,” she replied, “but I
don’t need them.”
Another man donated sixty
percent of his income to charity, with a goal of contributing one-million
dollars in his lifetime. He does this by
living in a small apartment and by driving a small, used car. Could you do that? Could I?
This is not a question for
someone who is a follower of Jesus in name only. Sharing your wealth with others will not buy
you a seat at Jesus’ table. He has
already done that by his death on the cross, but it will show that you have
Jesus’ heart.
“When you give a luncheon or
dinner, do not invite your friends, your brothers, your relatives or a rich
neighbor. If you do, they may invite you
back, and so you will be repaid. But
when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame and the blind,
and you will be blessed. Although they
cannot repay you, you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.”
Here is a man I want to
introduce you to this morning. He is a
Roman Catholic priest, named Cardinal Emile Lesaire. At one time, Cardinal Lesaire was one of the
most powerful men in Canada and within the Roman Catholic Church. He was a man of deep conviction and humility,
and had a tremendous spiritual life.
Then one day, he laid aside his red vestments and his stately hat, his
miter, and the office that he held in Montreal and Quebec City, and he
disappeared. Years later he was found
living among the lepers and disabled outcasts of a small African village. When a Canadian journalist asked him why,
here’s what Cardinal Lasaire had to say:
“It will be the great scandal of the history of our century that six
hundred million people are eating well and living luxuriously, and three
billion people starve, and every year millions of children are dying of
hunger. I am too old to change all that. The only thing I can do which makes sense, is
to be present. I must simply be in the
midst of the poor. So just tell people
in Canada that you have met an old priest.
I am a priest who is happy to be old, and still a priest and among those
who suffer. I am happy to be here and to
take them into my heart.”
Now, is that your
calling? Is it mine? Probably not.
Jesus didn’t tell everyone to take everything they had and sell it and
give it to the poor. But it ought to
cause us to re-evaluate the meaning of our lives. Have we let our values get a little
skewed? Again, being generous with those
who have little will not pay our passage through the pearly gates; but it will
show who we belong to. It will show that
we believe in a Holy Bible and not a Bible filled with holes in it where
concerns for the poor have been cut out.
“When you give a luncheon or
a dinner, do not invite your friends or your brothers or your relatives or rich
neighbors. If you do they may invite you
back and soyou will be repaid. But when
you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame and the blind, and
you will be blessed. Although they
cannot repay you, you will be repaid at
the resurrection of the righteous.”
Amen