Hebrews 13.1-8, 15-16, Luke 14:1, 7-14
The Eleventh Sunday after Trinity 1 September 2019, Eldroth
So here is Jesus, once again challenging our ideas about our conventional values, showing us a way to transform them into something so much more - this thing which he calls the kingdom of God.
In the home of a leader of the Pharisees Jesus' fellow dinner guests were watching him, these good folk who staunchly stood for the traditional values of their day. Who believed in eating sabbath dinners with a good measure of the proper decorum, grace, and respect. They were watching tis Jesus, because he’d built a reputation for breaking the rules, especially the rules of purity and cleanliness. He worked on the sabbath, even when it meant reaching out to heal unclean, sick people. He and his disciples had been seen eating with dirty hands. And the biggest affront of all was eating with unclean people, with known sinners like tax collectors! So these keepers of traditional values were keeping a close eye on Jesus.
But Jesus turns the table by watching them. He carefully watches the way in which they lobby to take seats of highest position and honour, to sit at the head of the table, so to speak. And, then, with what must have come as something of a surprise, Jesus offers some sage advice to them:
"Do not sit down at the place of honour, … 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 honoured in the presence of all who sit at the table with you." (Luke 14.8-10)
Now this shows Jesus playing within the rules, for a change. It was smart, wordly-wise advice. But then comes the characteristic Jesus turn, the one offering the real depth to his insight: "For all who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted,” he said.
Jesus has seen right through the unspoken rules of the dinner party game; the game we all play at times: the game of justifying ourselves, the game of trying to look good before others. The game of building our reputations, often at someone else's expense. Jesus came to fundamentally change the rules of that game. For when we come before God, our Creator, we know that’s no way to win; we all fall far short of the glory of God. (Romans 3:23).
There's more. If his first words to the guests that day were at least sage advice, Jesus' final words to his host were anything but:
"When you give a luncheon or a dinner, do not invite your friends or your brothers or your relatives or rich neighbours, 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." (Luke 14.12-14)
These words virtually turned their whole enterprise upside down. The party’s host would have found them blasphemous. If a Pharisee was serious about keeping the traditional values of purity, they would never even think of inviting such people.
But Jesus is exposing their game. In essence, the games of self-justification, of building reputations, these are all human power games. And the results of such games are that some people rise to power and some don't. Some people become part of the in-group and some are left out. And this is precisely why so many of our so-called traditional values need to be transformed and taken to another level. If we talk about family values for instance: we can never truly claim to be family when some people are left out; when we’re playing power games in which some families win and those who are left out lose. The same goes for Christian values; or our community’s values.
Jesus came to expose and challenge all that. He came and took the very lowest place. He came and let himself be perceived as a sinner, a lowest of the low, a common criminal hanged on the cross. But his challenge to us, if we have eyes to see it, is a gracious one. For it relieves us of all that burdensome work of justifying ourselves before other people. His own resurrection was both the challenge to the world that only God can justify our lives and the promise that God does do precisely that: God mercifully forgives all who repent and claims them as God's own. Whether worshipping adults or baptised infants, God graciously forgives us and embraces us as children into his family, a family which seeks to embrace all of God's creatures.
'Friend, move up higher’, Jesus says. Does this make you think of a time in your life when someone who has noted your humble position did or said something to lift you up, to graciously elevate you. A friend or family member, a teacher, colleague, or pastor?
'Friend, move up higher' - maybe there’ve been people you have lifted higher than they had been before, by your gracious help and encouragement? These gestures are wondrous signs of the kingdom of heaven breaking through into our lives. How much we need to apply these values to our lives in this world today.
'Friend, move up higher' - who might I apply that to in my life this week? A child, a young person, a lonely or struggling one? That person in the village who usually I avoid?
The Son of God who willingly took his place with the lowest of the low on the cross entreats us to truly embrace his spirit by reaching outside our conventional circles to include all God's children in our lives; to go beyond expectations and take our place with the least of our brothers and sisters, celebrating with them our share in God's grace and love in Jesus Christ.
Note
[1] This sermon is a my own version of Paul J. Nuechterlein, Beyond Traditional Family Values. I first preached it as Friend, move up higher at Whitegate, September 2013.
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