14th Sunday after Pentecost [Pr. 17] September 2, 2007 “Series C”
Grace be unto you and peace, from God our Father and from our Lord, Jesus Christ. Amen.
Let us pray: Dear Heavenly Father, through the death and resurrection of your Son, Jesus the Christ, you have given us the gift of your love, your redemption, and the hope of life eternal in your heavenly kingdom. Through the power of your Holy Spirit, help us to realize our dependence upon your grace for our lives, and empower us to care for others as your forgiven disciples. This we ask in Christ’s Holy name. Amen.
Throughout the Gospels, but especially in Luke, Jesus uses the occasion of meals to teach and reflect upon the meaning of the kingdom of God, and what should characterize our relationship to him, as his disciples. Our Gospel lesson for this morning provides us with such an occasion, as Jesus is invited to have dinner on the Sabbath at the house of a leader of the Pharisees.
And it doesn’t take long for Jesus to spring into action. When he noticed how the various guests, presumably friends of the host and perhaps Pharisees themselves, came in and jockeyed for places of honor at the table, he told them this parable. “When you are invited to a banquet, do not sit down in a place of honor, for someone more distinguished than you may have been invited, and arrive after you. Then, upon this guest’s arrival, the host might embarrass you by asking that you give up your seat in honor of the more distinguished guest.
Rather, Jesus suggests that when we are invited to a banquet, we should humble ourselves, and take the lowest place of honor at the table. In this case, the host may come to you and invite you to take a place of more respect, and you will be honored in front of all who are invited.
And then Jesus turns to the host, the one who had invited him to dine with him that day, and told him that when he gives a dinner, he shouldn’t invite his friends, or relatives, or his rich neighbors, who would be in a position to return the favor. Rather, he should invite the poor, and those who would not be able to return the favor, for then he would be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.”
I think the meaning of these teachings of Jesus are quite clear. In the first case, when we are invited to be a guest at the table of another, we should accept the invitation with humility. If the host chooses to bestow on us a greater honor, that is his or her choice, not ours to assume. And in the second case, as disciples of Christ, we are called upon to humble ourselves, to care for the poor and those in need, rather than cultivating earthly status.
Should this surprise us, as teachings of Jesus, who, as the Son of God, totally humbled himself through the incarnation, coming among us in flesh and blood to reveal the grace of God and redeem us from our sins? As a matter of fact, Jesus totally identified with the poor and the needy, and those in need of God’s forgiveness, that he lived his life in total dependence upon the grace of God and the caring of others.
In one of the commentaries that I read, this point is driven home. It is one of those interesting insights that I’m sure not many of us have ever pondered in trying to understand the Gospels, and what characterized the life Jesus and his disciples. It was for me, anyway. Think about this for a moment.
How did Jesus and his disciples get the food that they ate, and the bare necessities of life? We know that in the society of his day, sons were trained in the occupation of their fathers, and so we assume that in his early life, Jesus was a carpenter, working beside Joseph in the family business. But following his baptism and the beginning of his three-year ministry, there is no record of Jesus ever doing any carpentry to earn the money needed to support himself. Jesus lived as one of the poor, begging from others to support his ministry and existence.
And think of his disciples. Some of them were following various trades, like fishing and tax collecting, except for those who left John the Baptist to follow Jesus. But once Jesus called them, none of them are reported to have ever really plied their trade again, to earn money to sustain themselves, as Paul is reported to have done, making tents. They all became poor, dependent upon the generosity of others to sustain their ministry, and literally, their lives. [1]
According to Dr. Willimon, “I can’t remember ever seeing in discussed any where [in the Scriptures, but] Jesus and his disciples must have been beggars. All those meals that Jesus and his disciples attended, none of them were at Jesus’ home. Jesus and his disciples were utterly dependent upon invitations to other people’s homes.
When Jesus talks about not refusing to give to somebody in need, or a cup of cold water offered in love, or giving one’s children bread rather than a stone, he wasn’t just speaking figuratively or spiritually. He was talking about his actual need. If no one was there to offer hospitality… how could they have survived? Probably, there is no time when the Gospels step aside and put the matter directly, because the matter of begging is so obvious as to need no mention.
This is really a counter-cultural, challenging insight for me. I live in a society where begging is always bad. At worst, it is a sign that someone is lazy or inept… [To be independent] is what our society honors. We are very big on looking after ourselves. To us, one of the worst possibilities is to be reduced to the level of begging. As I face the retirement years myself, I know in talking with older people this is a great fear – I don’t want to be dependent upon my children. I don’t want to be dependent on anybody. I want to be able to take care of myself.” End quote. [2]
And yet, that is how Jesus and his disciples lived. From the time of his incarnation, Jesus lived a life of humility, trusting that he could teach us that if we place our faith in God, and truly care for one another, God would provide for our needs. He does not call upon us to become idle, lazy, or to shirk the responsibility of earning our living. On the contrary, Jesus and his disciples did work, as they went about the countryside, proclaiming the kingdom of God. They were not idle beggars, but those who were called to witness to the grace of God in Jesus the Christ.
And so are we! Every person who has ever come to receive the waters of baptism, have not only received the redeeming grace of God, but have also been called as one of Jesus’ disciples. We have been called to care for those in need, and to proclaim through our witness and support of the church, that we have humbled ourselves, and have accepted our Lord’s invitation to join him at his table. For at the end of his ministry, Jesus did invite all who have faith in him to join him at his table, for the feast of life.
And how do we come to this table, this feast that our Lord sets before us? We come in humility, as beggars. We come with empty hands, kneel or stand or sit, but with hands empty, outstretched to receive the gift of nourishment our crucified and risen Lord has to offer – the gift of himself to sustain us as children of God. We come, as did his disciples of years past, trusting in the grace of God, to sustain them in their search for God’s truth, and their work of proclaiming that truth to others. We come, and we receive more than we deserve, for none of us have really taken our Lord’s teachings to heart.
And the fact that I say that none of us have truly taken our Lord’s teachings to heart, is a confession of my own. I know that many pastors in the Lutheran tradition are the first to commune, and then commune those who will distribute the sacrament to the congregation. The thought behind this practice is, that with their having received the forgiveness of their sins, they can then offer that forgiveness to others.
Well, that has never been my practice. I am not the host of this meal to which our Lord invites us – he is! And I am a guest at this banquet, just like everyone invited this day. And just because I am a pastor doesn’t mean that I am not in need of his grace, perhaps even more than you. I come to this table, presiding over the meal because of my ordination, but that does not make we any more worthy to receive this meal, than any one of you.
As disciples of people in need. We all come as beggars, in need of God’s redeeming grace. And we are all called to humble ourselves before him, and to serve those in need. We are called to acknowledge our need. To admit that we are dependent upon the grace of God, and through our recognition of dependency upon God’s grace, to care for those who truly are dependent on us for their very existence. May God, through his grace and the power of his Spirit, give us the power to amend our lives, that we might truly reflect his grace to others.
Amen.
[1] Commentary by William H. Willimon, Pulpit Resource, Year C, 2007
[2] Ibid.
