Playing the World’s Games by God’s Rules
22nd Sunday of Orinary Time, 2007
Children’s Sermon tie-in - Luke 14:11 - Using the game of "Chutes and Ladders" we discussed and how sometimes when you think you are going to lose you land on a ladder space and move forward and sometimes when you think you’re going to win you land on a chute and slide back.
I love to play games, well, most games. What I don’t like to play are “elimination” games. Games where the goal is to be the last person standing. Games like the limbo or musical chairs. Maybe I don’t like these games because I have never been really athletic. And while I’m a highly competitive person in “thinking” games, I don’t have that killer spirit when it comes to racing for the last chair when the music is shut off. In fact, I was that geeky kid at birthday parties that would intentionally NOT fight for a chair in an early round of musical chairs, because I just didn’t like to play the game.
Games like musical chairs teach children at an early age that they have to fight to get ahead of everyone else. Okay, maybe that’s too rough – for the youngest kids musical chairs can be fun. But have you ever played with teenagers? It is a whole different beast. When the music is turned off, elbows fly and people push and shove trying to get to one of those last chairs. The teens know that there is one less chair than people playing and they don’t want to be the one singled out as having no chair.
Some people see life as a huge game of musical chairs – at any moment the music is going to stop and when it does there is scarcity. When the music stops, there won’t be enough of what we need (food, money, water, etc) to go around. So, people push and shove and hoard in order to ensure that they will have what they want and need.
But, playing musical chairs by God’s rules is different. In a traditional game of musical chairs there is always one or two chairs less than the number of people playing. And after each round another person and chair is eliminated. But not so when we play according to God’s rules. With God, chairs are added after each round. With God, instead of eliminating people, when the music stops more are asked to join into the game. Musical chairs by God’s rules is a game where there are always more chairs than players. It’s a game where whoever wants a seat is given one.
Our gospel lesson today is about Jesus teaching the Pharisee and his guests how to play worldly games by God’s rules.
You see, in Jesus’ day, when you were invited to a dinner party, cushions were placed on the floor in a horse-shoe shape. The guest of honor (and the host) would sit in the center of the curve. Then the other guests would fill in according to their self-perceived honor. But everyone always wanted one of these seats, up close to the host and guest of honor. Of course, as in any earthly game of musical chairs, there were never enough seats of honor! So people would push and shovel and jockey for position. And occasionally the host would have to come and ask someone to move to another seat, giving up their seat of honor because someone more important is in attendance.
I observed this humiliating event happening once. It was at a wedding reception in Pennsylvania. As with most wedding receptions, the guests arrived LONG before the bride and groom and their families. We walked into the reception hall and there were no tables marked as reserved and there were no place cards to help people find their appropriate seats of honor. So, everyone just found a table, sat down and began enjoying fellowship with those at their table and eating the hors d’ouerves. About an hour later the families of the bride and groom began arriving and they asked several tables of people to move because they were sitting at the tables that were to be reserved for the bridal party and their families. I was embarrassed for the people sitting at those tables – how were they to know that they were seats of honor? And if I was embarrassed for them, how must they have felt being asked to find other seats after they had already made small talk with the other table acquaintances, after they had already used the napkins and utensils for the hors d’oevers.
Imagine how you would feel if you were asked to move elsewhere because someone more important than you was now in attendance! It would certainly be quite a blow to the old ego, now wouldn’t it? But this was common practice in the first century.
Jesus was the Pharisee’s guest of honor at this dinner party, so he was sitting in the seat of honor which gave him a wonderful vantage point from which to observe others trying to get close to him. Once they were all seated he told them the parable that demonstrated the sin of pride. I’ve often wondered if any of the guests had another opportunity to dine with Jesus, and if they did if they thought twice about the seats they chose!
For Jesus, watching this dinner party struggle for seats must have been like watching a game of musical chairs – everyone wanting the few seats of honor. So Jesus decides to teach us how to play musical chairs by God’s rules. You see, none of us are really worthy of sitting in the seats of honor, but God, through the gifts of grace and mercy, invites us from the lowly seats to the inner-circle of honored guests. When we recognize our own unworthiness, God responds to us. Now, Jesus is not teaching us here that we should be out flogging ourselves because of our sinfulness. Rather he is teaching us to be honest with ourselves. As Jan said this summer at our Bible studies in the park, many of us suffer from too much vitamin “I.” Just as last week we were reminded that we fool ourselves into thinking we’re too busy to take a Sabbath. This week we are reminded that we fool ourselves into thinking we’re more important than we really are. In God’s eyes all of his creation is equally important this is why there are always more than enough chairs for everyone when God sets up a game of musical chairs.
Jesus goes on to tell a second story and this one is not about where to sit at a dinner party, but about who to invite to a dinner party. This parable picks up on the theme of who God sees as important. Again, the world tells us that we should invite people whom we are trying to impress or people who can reciprocate for us. When I was a child I loved to watch reruns of Bewitched. I’m not sure an episode ever went by without Samantha and Darrin hosting or attending a dinner party for one of Darrin’s advertising clients. In our culture (as in the first century), the dinner table has become a place to conduct business and impress people. A dinner party is seen as way to showcase your hospitality in the hopes that others will be impressed.
But God says, when you host a dinner party you should invite people who cannot reciprocate. You should invite the lame, the crippled, the blind. Why? Because to God, these people are just as important and deserving of honor as you and me. These are the people that God will add chairs to accommodate. These are the people who will be given a seat of honor at God’s table.
Theologian and author Fred Craddock suggests: "Jesus, therefore, is calling for behavior that lives out this conviction of the kingdom; that is, inviting to the table (quite different from sending food to) those who have neither property nor place in society." Many of us are comfortable with giving food to the poor and those in need, but how many of us would be comfortable inviting the poor and those in need into our homes? How many of you would want to drive into Lexington, pick up some street people and bring them to your home for a nice family dinner? At Thanksgiving or other holidays, how many of us invite people who have no place to go into our homes to share in the blessings of God? (And I’m not talking about our friends and family members who may live by themselves or whose families are in another area of the country). I’m talking about the people who - if they have a meal - have it at a homeless shelter or church.
No, we don’t want to invite these people into our homes, but God says these are indeed the people we need to be inviting.
Many churches struggle with similar stereotypes and prejudice against street people, the lame, the crippled, special needs children and adults, and quite honestly anyone who is different from what they are used to being around. Many churches in downtown areas are dying because they don’t want to open their doors to ministries that minister to the changing community. Many churches will give food and money to homeless shelters, but won’t open their own doors to feed and house the homeless because they don’t want “those people” in their church. Now, keep in mind, very few will actually come out and say that. There’s always excuses that sound more politically correct, but the truth is we are scared of people who are different from us. We aren’t sure how to communicate with and befriend someone who is mute. We don’t want to sit too closely to someone who hasn’t had the opportunity for a bath in two weeks. And what if they don’t have the same table manners that we have? What if they place their elbows on the table, or scrape their fork across their teeth, or wipe their mouth upon their shirt cuff? Can we really dine with people like that?
Jesus is telling us we better get ready! Because when we enter the great feast in heaven, these are the people who will have the seats of honor. Why? Because in this life on earth, they have had to live in humility. They have had to rely upon the goodness of their brothers and sisters in Christ to feed them, clothe them and take care of them.
Jesus said, But when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind and you will be blessed. Although they cannot repay you, you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.
Many of us don’t want to wait that long to be honored!
We want to be praised here and now. We want the seats of honor both now and in the life to come. We want people to step up and take notice of all the good things we are doing. But remember Christ’s other teaching this week, For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.
Humility and being humble, is more than being modest – humility is also showing respect. Humility is respecting God and doing God’s work in the here and now. And doing it not to be recognized for what you are doing, but doing it to help others in need and remaining constantly focused on God whose work you are doing. It was John Riskin who said, "I believe the first test of a truly great man is his humility. I do not mean by humility, doubt of his own power, or hesitation in speaking his opinion. But really great men have a ... feeling that the greatness is not in them but through them; that they could not do or be anything else than God made them."
Humility is allowing yourself to be a vehicle for God’s greatness. Wow! What an image. Any act that we do is not about us, but about our attitude toward and relationship with God.
Every interaction you have in your daily life – at home, at school, at work, at play, while driving – everything, every moment is your chance to be a vehicle for God’s greatness.
Every moment is your chance to serve God with humility and faith.
Every moment is your opportunity to lift to honor someone who has been beaten down by the world, someone who has been bullied and picked-on all her life, someone who the world has branded as useless and no good.
You, through the power and greatness of God, have the opportunity to change a person’s life by inviting them to them be among the family of God.
Who we dine or don’t dine with,
who we invite or don’t invite to church,
who we walk with and who we walk past
who we affirm and who we criticize
are all marks of our relationship with God.
What do your actions and attitudes in life say about your relationship with Christ? If the day of resurrection of the righteous is tomorrow, would you be an honored guest of God?
It’s time that we stop playing the games of the world by the rules of man and start playing by the rules of God.
