14th Sunday after Pentecost
Proper 17
Lectionary 22
September 2nd
Luke 14:1, 7-14
"What Do you Do?"
"One sabbath when he went to dine at the house of a ruler who belonged to the Pharisees, they were watching him." Luke 14:1, RSV.
"Now he told a parable to those who were invited, when he marked how they chose the places of honor, saying to them, "When you are invited by any one to a marriage feast, do not sit down in a place of honor, lest a more eminent man than you be invited by him; and he who invited you both will come and say to you, ’Give place to this man,’ and then you will begin with shame to take the lowest place. But when you are invited, go and sit in the lowest place, so that when your host comes he may say to you, ’Friend, go up higher’; then you will be honored in the presence of all who sit at table with you. For every one who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted." He said also to the man who had invited him, "When you give a dinner or a banquet, do not invite your friends or your brothers or your kinsmen or rich neighbors, lest they also invite you in return, and you be repaid. But when you give a feast, invite the poor, the maimed, the lame, the blind, and you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you. You will be repaid at the resurrection of the just." Luke 14:7-14, RSV.
The following story is a paraphrase of a story written by the late Peter Marshall, the chaplain to the U.S. Senate, which appears in his book, "Keepers of the Springs."
"Suppose someone in the rich suburbs of Washington D.C. opened his Bible one night and came across this passage which is our gospel lesson this morning. As he reads this section of the Bible, the thought comes to him that Jesus was not only addressing this passage to the disciples in his day, but to his followers today. Suppose this man had the courage and the love of Jesus to take him at his word? What do you think might happen? The man closed his Bible and thought about the parties he had given in the past. His guests always included the Who’s Who in Washington" the best of business finance, clubs and politics were always included. They were not the poor nor the maimed or lame or blind. The man decided to put this thought out of his head so he went to bed.
But the next morning, the thought was even stronger’ so he made preparations for his great banquet. He went to his engrave and had the following card printed:"Jesus of Nazareth requests the honor of your presence at a banquet honoring the Sons of Want on Friday evening, in a home on Massachusetts Ave.Cars will await you at the Central Union Mission at 6:00.
When the invitations were completed, the man took them and walked walked downtown giving them out to the people in the area. Within the hour, all who had received a card had-gathered together talking about this kind man in well dressed clothes and what this invitation meant.
At 6:00 on that t Friday evening cars were walling at the Mission for the men. It was touching to see the lame get in, dragging one foot. Swinging up with a twitch of pain, and to see the blind man fumbling for the strap to help him slide into the great car. They arrived at the great mansion, where the host greeted each guest with a "I am so glad that you came." He seated them around the fine table, offered a prayer, and the food began to come. The host sat back and watched these men whom he did not even know, eat and how he marveled at their hunger. The host noticed how different the conversation was at this party. No off-colored stories, no whisperings of scandals but these men were talking about their friends in misfortune wondering how they were doing. After dinner, there was music at the great piano, with the men joining in on the familiar tunes.
Following the music, the host told the men that he knew they were wondering what this all meant. So he read to them our gospel lesson, and then said. " Now I haven’t done much tonight for you, it has made me very happy to have you here in my home.
I hope you have enjoyed it half as much as I have. If I have given you one evening of happiness, I shall be forever glad to remember it, and you are under no obligation to me. This is not my party. It is His! I have merely lent Him my house. He was your Host. He is your Friend. And he has given me the honor of speaking for him. He wants you all to have a good time. He is sad when you are. He hurts when you do. He weeps when you weep. He wants to help you, if you will let Him. After his speech, the host gave each man a Bible and escorted them back to the cars.
The blind man greeted the host with, "God bless you my friend, whoever you are.
Another said, "I’m going to try again, mister. There’s something’ worth living for."
Another said, "Mister you are the first man who every gave me anything. And you’ve given me hope."
"That is because I was doing it for him," replied the host as he bid good night to his guests."(1)
I wonder what would happen if all of us were like the man in our story, the host, who had read something in the Bible and then went out and did it? I wonder what kind of world we would be living in then? Remember, life is measured not by what you don’t do, but by what you do do. Jesus is giving a specific example of how one might enter the narrow door.
Now you are probably wondering or saying to yourself, but pastor don’t Lutherans believe that you are saved by grace through faith and not by works, and all you have been talking about the last couple of weeks is doing, working, living my Christian faith? What it gives, pastor??
I am glad you might be thinking those questions because what gives is that faith and works are two sides to the same coin. They are two facets of a whole. We need to keep a balance between our faith and our works. Take for example my heart. My heart beats if I am alive. A heartbeat does two things. It pushes blood out into the body and receives it back into the heart. The. heart keeps it moving. So faith receives the lifeblood of the Christ and then pushes it out in action, good works. If my heartbeat only received, I would die. If it only pumped out, I would also die. Both functions are part of the same beat. So faith and works are part of the same heartbeat of spiritual life. When I am alive in Christ, then my faith receives the life giving blood of Christ and I then push that out into the lives, the stuff of living, all around me. There is a constant getting from Christ and then a giving to my neighbor.
Remember in Matthew’s gospel Jesus is asked what is the greatest commandment and he says, "You shall love the Lord your Cod with all your heart and with all your soul, and with 11! your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And the second is like it, You shall love your neighbor as yourself."
Notice Jesus did not give a negative in his commandments, there are no thou shall not’s, nor don’ts but these are positive commandment, you shall love. You shall do something, love God and love your neighbor! Jesus gave these two commandments because he knew after he had secured our place in heaven for us through his death and resurrection, that we would need some guidelines about living in this in between age, living on this earth. So these commandments were given to those who believed and are waiting out their lives here to join him for eternity.
Jesus wants all of us to do something positive with our lives, not negative. Remember life is measured not by what you don’t do, but by what you do, do. And Jesus is saying our trust and faith in his salvation should be seen in same positive action in our lives. Jesus is saying that when we become more concerned about him and others, when we become humble, our lives will be able to touch those around us with the good news, with the hope of the gospel.
Luther says, "I must even take to myself the sins of others as Christ took mine to himself. Thus we will that the Christian lives not to himself but to Christ and his neighbor through love."
Our lives touch or come in contact with many others lives each day. How do I influence those lives? How do I touch others.
We touch lives with Heart Prints
Whatever our hands touch
We leave fingerprints!
On walls, on furniture
On doorknobs, dishes, books.
There’s no escape.
As we touch we leave our identity.
Oh God, wherever I go today
Help me leave heartprints!
Heartprints of compassion
Of understanding and love.
Heartprints of kindness
And genuine concern.
May my heart touch a lonely neighbor
Or a runaway daughter
Or an anxious mother
Or perhaps an aged grandfather.
Lord, send me out today
To leave heartprints.
And if someone should say,
"I felt your touch,"
May that one sense YOUR LOVE
Touching through ME. (2)
The world, those around us will come to know God when they sees us as people of God who humble ourselves, confess our sins of selfishness and pride. We are people who then honestly accept the forgiveness from God which is not man-made but God-given. Then God will be seen, and you will then merely be the window through which others will see God.
I would like to close with a story which sums up very well the thrust of this sermon.
"A preacher had just finished his sermon and asked that if anyone was moved to make a commitment to Christ. Among the dozen or people who came forward that evening there was a woman of wealth and social position. She asked the preacher if she could speak a few words. "I want you to know, " she said, "why I came forward. It was not because of any word spoken by the preacher. I stand here because of the influence of a little woman who sits before me. Her fingers are rough with toil, the hard work of many years has stooped her low; she is just a poor washer woman, who has served in my home for many years. I have never known her to be impatient, to speak an unkind word or to do a dishonorable deed. I know of countless little acts of unselfish love that adorn her life. "
"Shamefacedly, let me say that I have openly sneered at her faith and laughed at her fidelity to God. Yet, when my little girl died it was this woman who caused me to look beyond the grave and shed my first tear of hope, The sweet magnetism of her life has led me to Christ. I covet the thing that made her life beautiful."
"At the request of the minister the little woman was led forward, her eyes streaming with tears of joy. "Let me introduce you,’ said the minister, "to the real preacher of the evening." and the audience arose in silent though not tear less respect."
WOULD THAT EACH OF US WOULD BE INTRODUCED AS THE GREAT PREACHER SOME DAY.
Amen
Written by Pastor Tim Zingale August 27, 2007
(1) Peter Marshall, the chaplain to the U.S. Senate, which appears in his book, "Keepers of the Springs."
(2) from [WordsOfFaith] Heart Prints
