Sermon – Twenty Second Sunday in Ordinary Time
Key Texts – Luke 14:1, 7-14
Hebrews 13:1-8, 15-16
Proverbs 25:6-7
Have you ever done something knowing it was wrong? Years ago, when I was living overseas, I was doing a short car trip to the supermarket and home. However, it turned into an expensive exercise. The train crossing barrier arm was broken and so there was a huge queue backing up. We all started to turn off down a small side street. I could have turned onto the main road and taken 3 minutes longer but in an attempt to save three minutes, I thought that road rule doesn’t apply to me here, and I followed several others nipping the wrong way down a one-way street. As I headed down, I saw the flashing lights. Oh no. When the police officer stopped me and I rolled down my window, she only had to say – do you know why I stopped you??? Of course I did. And now I was about to pay the price. I sat there shamefully humbled of my wrong.
Not too long ago, someone who was coming to church for a community event parked in a car park set aside for those attending the regular church service. This person saw the sign and for whatever reason, decided to park there anyway. She certainly didn’t appreciate our gracious attempt to ask her to move her vehicle. Occasionally, in our interactions with the public who use our buildings, you get a slight sense of “do you know who I am” or “I pay to be a part of this group, so I am entitled to guaranteed parking.”
In our reading today, Jesus is having dinner at the home of a leader of the Pharisees. It would be easy for us to pigeonhole the Pharisees. There were certainly times when Jesus’ interactions with them were challenging and confronting. But there are other times when the interactions were curious, hospitable or even supportive – in the previous chapter, we see Pharisees warning Jesus about Herod’s plot to kill him (Luke 13:31). So here is Jesus eating dinner in the home of a Pharisee. And Luke makes clear the Pharisees were watching him closely!
Luke also points out that this meal is happening on the Sabbath. Why is this so important? The Sabbath in Jewish culture represented two key things
• One it points back to Genesis and reminds the Jewish people that after six days of creating the world, on the seventh day God rested from his work.
• Two it pointed back to God’s work of liberation when we brought the Israelites out of Egypt and freed them from slavery.
Rabbi Abraham Heschel states the Sabbath pointed to God’s eschatological promise and this is reflected in his statement that for the Jewish people “The Seventh day is the sign of the resurrection and the world to come.” Or perhaps as Jesus might have said, the Sabbath points to the breaking into our world of the Kingdom of God.
Given it is the Sabbath, the Pharisees are watching to see if Jesus is breaking any of the laws regarding appropriate practices.
The Pharisees are not the only ones watching the social setting. Jesus is also paying attention. He is watching as the guests arrive and taking note of where they sit. As they arrived, they chose the best spots and places of honour. (Clearly not Anglican, we would have all been at the back!)
Jesus starts to tell a parable. He says – when you are invited to a wedding don’t sit at the place of honour in case someone more distinguished than you arrives and the host has to ask you to move. Rather sit at the lowest place and give the host the opportunity to move you higher.
The Greco-Roman world was all about power and status and social ranking. The Jewish community would have easily fallen into that way of conducting themselves too. It was very much a society of patronage and the quest for honour and social status.
Jesus may have been thinking back to the reading from Proverbs when he encourages the guests to avoid the social embarrassment of being moved. Rather be called up than moved down!
I wonder what Jesus’ motives were for telling this parable? Was he aligning with the cultural ways of doing things and setting up his audience for success? Perhaps he is appealing to the listener’s self-interest when he says – If you want to climb the social ladder, this is how you do it – start at the bottom and allow those with privilege to call you up.
Or was he reminding his listeners that the Kingdom of God works differently from the ways of the world? The Kingdom message Jesus preached consistently was one of turning things on their heads. The first shall be last, and the least shall be the greatest. It is not surprising that those who exalt themselves will be humbled and those who humble themselves will be exalted. That is the way of the Kingdom.
Then Jesus turns his attention from the guests to the hosts and begins to shine a light on their motives. Are they only inviting people to dinner who can repay them in the future? A case of you scratch my back and I’ll scratch yours? The same social conventions are at play for the hosts. The invitation to dinner does not come without strings! And therefore, those who can offer nothing in return would never be invited.
In this parable and consistently in his actions, Jesus taught and lived a different model. He ate with his disciples, with Pharisees, but he also ate with sinners and tax collectors. Jesus wasn’t dining with people to get something from them.
Jesus challenges his listeners that when they extend hospitality to people it shouldn’t be based on what they can get back. Their hospitality should be extended to those who have nothing by which to repay the hospitality. In that time, it was the blind, lame and poor. In fact, “those people” might just be the ones God is sending us – as Hebrews says we could be entertaining angles without knowing it.
It is the reminder that the social conventions of the world which suggest that our education, our job, our house or our status in society are what will give us dignity and honour are not true.
Our dignity and honour are first and foremost found in God.
Genesis reminds us that from the beginning, all humanity was made in the image of God.
- So whether you are rich or poor,
- in peak physical condition or feeling the realities of a body that doesn’t always work how you wish it did,
- whether your mental health is a challenge
- or you’re wondering how your will pay your rent or if your retirement funds will last you til the end,
- whether you are married or single,
- Christian or not
None of it impacts the dignity you have simply by being an image bearer of God.
In fact, it is a reminder that even those of us who tick all the right boxes still need to refocus where we are looking for value, approval and love.
It is also an invitation to crack open our hospitality and extend it to those who need it most. Those who can’t repay or open doors for us. We are generous simply because God is generous.
Finally, looking back to my moment of pride in thinking the rules don’t apply to me and our carpark guest who felt entitled to a park, we remember that those who exalt themselves will be humbled and those who humble themselves will be exalted.
Amen