Fourteenth Sunday after Pentecost – Proper 17 (RCL) Year C 2010
Jeremiah 2: 4 – 13; Psalm 81: 1, 10 – 16; Hebrews 13: 1 – 8; 15 – 16; Luke 14: 1, 7 – 14
St. Stephen’s Episcopal Parish, Portland OR
Sunday, August 29, 2010
Jeremiah 2: 4 – 13; Psalm 81: 1, 10 – 16; Hebrews 13: 1 – 8; 15 – 16; Luke 14: 1, 7 – 14
St. Stephen’s Episcopal Parish, Portland OR
Sunday, August 29, 2010
GUESS WHO’S (NOT) COMING TO DINNER?
Let us pray: Help us gracious God to live out your call to be followers of your Christ and not merely admirers. When the lessons are harsh, when the message is hard, help us to dare and take the risks you took in your time among us as The Anointed One, the Messiah of God. When we envision your Kindom come on earth – may we glory in the reversals of pride and poverty; of position and powerlessness and especially in the Angels who come among us disguised as strangers that they might teach us all that you have given in the ultimate act of salvation through Jesus, you’re Holy One and our savior. Amen.
(SUNG) NOW WITH GOD AT TABLE WE SIT DOWN,
NOW WITH GOD AT TABLE WE SIT DOWN.
The long green season of time after the feast of Pentecost is designed to allow us through the scriptures commended in the Revised Common Lectionary to hear from the authors of our Hebrew, Christian and Gospel texts lessons and examples of the truth of God and God’s plan for humankind and its ultimate salvation. Often those stories and examples handed down to us by our ancestors in the Faith (both Hebrew and Christian) are difficult for us in our twenty first century sensibilities to comprehend; and indeed probably were as difficult for those in the centuries before us. Jesus’ life and ministry as revealed to us by the authors of our Gospel texts was a prophet and preacher who was a threat to the religious and political authorities of his time and preached a message of reversal of fortunes for those who held the power and authority of humankind. I honestly believe that Jesus was not the kind of dinner guest that any of us would have been interested in hosting for a light evening of casual frolic and bon vivant! No, this “Irritant Preacher” as some author’s have referred to him – was all about turning the tables upside down and humbling the proud in the middle of their folly. Each and every Sunday that we gather around the Altar Table we pray, as a joined community of believer’s that Jesus will come among us and be our guest at God’s table; are we really and truly sure that we want that prayer to be answered? If we get the Jesus who is revealed to us in the author of Luke’s account this morning – I think I might hesitate at that invitation.
If we are to believe the events narrated from the Gospel story this morning, Jesus was not always the most pleasant of dinner guests. Here Jesus has been invited to the “house of a Pharisee”. As soon as we hear the mention of Pharisee’s in the author of Luke’s account, we can expect the conflict and drama of the story to intensify. Perhaps this Pharisee invites Jesus so that more ammunition can be gathered for the eventual payback that this group of religious leaders looked to exact. Perhaps this Pharisee invites Jesus into his home to try and negotiate some sort of peace between the established temple leadership and this rebel preacher who had been doing so much to rile up the crowds; the unkempt and unclean crowds; the irreverent and unapologetic crowds, the crowds that would eventually turn against him and echo the cries of the religious authorities to crucify him. “Maybe if we can just get Jesus to sit down at the table in the midst of us and offer the hospitality of our spacious home, we can negotiate some sort of peaceful resolution between him and those who look to stop him by any means possible.” I guess they can forget that pretty quickly. No sooner has Jesus arrived when he begins to stir up controversy and turns his indignation toward the gathered guests. Jesus calls them on their behavior by noting how they all scrambled as quickly as they could for the best places at the table. Think if you will about our own cultural norms when we are attending or organizing a dinner or banquet. Table cards are marked and set out in a seating arrangement that places the honored guest at the front or center of the gathering hall and seats are assigned to the “head table” or those tables closest according to the protocol of the most honored guests up front and the less notable or desirable further and further back. In today’s Gospel message, Jesus condemns this practice telling those who look for positions of influence that “those who exalt themselves will be humbled and those who humble themselves will be exalted.”
(SUNG) NOW WITH GOD AT TABLE WE SIT DOWN
NOW WITH GOD AT TABLE WE SIT DOWN.
Next this gentle dinner guest turns on the host. “The next time you give a dinner party, don’t invite those like you have invited here; your friends, your relatives and those who have power and influence in your circle and will be able to repay the favor by inviting you to their next soiree; rather invite the lame, the blind the poor and the destitute – those who would never in a million years have the ability to reciprocate your hospitality.” Does anyone here have that understanding of how a dinner party should be organized? Then again this is Jesus, this is the one who takes on the powerful and privileged of his society and turns them all on their heads with shocking regularity. This is the Jesus who speaks of the greatest banquet of all – the feast in the Kindom of God. Who is seated at this table? Those who have nothing are given everything – for nothing. The outsiders of our societies become the insiders of God’s Kindom. Do we remember the song that Luke’s author puts in the mouth of Mary at the announcement of Jesus’ birth? “He has brought down the powerful from their thrones, and lifted up the lowly; he has filled the hungry with good things, and sent the rich away empty.” As God has promised, so will God deliver. I wonder if I am blessed enough to be seated at God’s great banquet how surprised I will be at who is sitting next to me, and who is sitting next to them – and who is seated closest to the head table?
Would any of us fare any better if Jesus were the invited guest at one of our dinner parties? Are we humble enough to let our neighbor’s be that highly exalted, especially our neighbors that we would never think of inviting into our banquet tables? Are we prepared to sit with sinners and saints? Are we ready to extend our generosity to the prostitutes and drug addicts, to the dirty and bedraggled beggars? I want to share with you a story that I came across as I was searching for sermon ideas this week. It’s a story called Thank you, Mike.
This story appeared in a local newspaper years ago about a “regular” street beggar and a woman named Ellen Friedman and her son:
The man in question stands at the same street intersection every day, rain or shine, with a cardboard sign in hand, asking for money. On occasion, the Friedman’s have been known to give him a dollar, or even a sandwich. One rainy day Mrs. Friedman was ferrying her son from lunch at home to his music lesson and they saw that the beggar on their corner was barely able to walk. In fact, the man appeared to be staggering. The light turned green and off they went.
Later, Mrs. Friedman wrote: "Thinking out loud, I said to myself, 'he might have been drunk.' But being in the presence of the relentless honesty of youth, I had to add, 'but he looked like he was in pain.' We drove for several blocks in silence. At length my son said, 'Mom, I just don't feel right. We just ate pizza for lunch, and you let me have drum lessons, and pitching lessons, and camp, and that all costs lots of money, and he's sitting there in the rain.' I began looking for a place to U-turn. This was not the first time my children have urged me to turn around in the name of charity....At Krieger Schechter, the Jewish day school my children attend, they have learned that tzedakah (the Hebrew counterpart for 'charity,' but which literally means 'justice') is a way of life. Discovering she only has a 20 dollar bill with her; Mrs. Friedman pulls into a fast food chain and buys a meal, and returns to the corner on Roland Avenue to deliver the lunch. "...he turned toward the car, and (for the first time, I'm ashamed to admit) I looked into his face. He wasn't as old as I had expected. Maybe not much older than I. He was also visibly upset. Amid his thanks I caught another story. '...just drove by and threw somethin' at me. What makes people be so hateful? Don't they think I got feelings too?' The light changed, and we drove on with tears in our eyes. I was humbled when I thought how close we had been to just driving home. We could debate all day whether it's appropriate, safe, or good public policy to give to individual beggars, or whether all giving should be done through institutions. But when faced with the decision of whether or not to give to an individual, the Talmud, the ancient commentary on the Hebrew bible, instructs us that...if a beggar says, 'I'm hungry, please give me some food,' we should do so with a kind word, certainly without insults. Sometimes, as this experience has us, the words of encouragement may be the most important part."
The man in question stands at the same street intersection every day, rain or shine, with a cardboard sign in hand, asking for money. On occasion, the Friedman’s have been known to give him a dollar, or even a sandwich. One rainy day Mrs. Friedman was ferrying her son from lunch at home to his music lesson and they saw that the beggar on their corner was barely able to walk. In fact, the man appeared to be staggering. The light turned green and off they went.
Later, Mrs. Friedman wrote: "Thinking out loud, I said to myself, 'he might have been drunk.' But being in the presence of the relentless honesty of youth, I had to add, 'but he looked like he was in pain.' We drove for several blocks in silence. At length my son said, 'Mom, I just don't feel right. We just ate pizza for lunch, and you let me have drum lessons, and pitching lessons, and camp, and that all costs lots of money, and he's sitting there in the rain.' I began looking for a place to U-turn. This was not the first time my children have urged me to turn around in the name of charity....At Krieger Schechter, the Jewish day school my children attend, they have learned that tzedakah (the Hebrew counterpart for 'charity,' but which literally means 'justice') is a way of life. Discovering she only has a 20 dollar bill with her; Mrs. Friedman pulls into a fast food chain and buys a meal, and returns to the corner on Roland Avenue to deliver the lunch. "...he turned toward the car, and (for the first time, I'm ashamed to admit) I looked into his face. He wasn't as old as I had expected. Maybe not much older than I. He was also visibly upset. Amid his thanks I caught another story. '...just drove by and threw somethin' at me. What makes people be so hateful? Don't they think I got feelings too?' The light changed, and we drove on with tears in our eyes. I was humbled when I thought how close we had been to just driving home. We could debate all day whether it's appropriate, safe, or good public policy to give to individual beggars, or whether all giving should be done through institutions. But when faced with the decision of whether or not to give to an individual, the Talmud, the ancient commentary on the Hebrew bible, instructs us that...if a beggar says, 'I'm hungry, please give me some food,' we should do so with a kind word, certainly without insults. Sometimes, as this experience has us, the words of encouragement may be the most important part."
The next week Mrs. Friedman and her son drove back toward the intersection with lunch in hand and asked the man on the corner how he was feeling. As the man explained to them, he had been to the emergency room for the pain he had been suffering. Mrs. Friedman noticed something for the first time. Scribbled at the bottom of his cardboard sign were the words, "Thank you, Mike."
"Now I knew his name.’Mike, we won't be coming this way for a few weeks. Take care of yourself.' Mike wished my son a good time at camp, and then the light changed. We'd like to think that the hot food and the kind words we gave Mike had a value beyond the dollars and the time it cost to give them, but we do know that what we learned from the encounter with Mike had a far greater value. Thank you, Mike."
"Now I knew his name.’Mike, we won't be coming this way for a few weeks. Take care of yourself.' Mike wished my son a good time at camp, and then the light changed. We'd like to think that the hot food and the kind words we gave Mike had a value beyond the dollars and the time it cost to give them, but we do know that what we learned from the encounter with Mike had a far greater value. Thank you, Mike."
“Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers” says the author of the Letter to the Hebrews, “for by doing that some have entertained Angles without knowing it.” I know I don’t have the insight to discern the bums from the Angels. I pray that God might lead us, in community to a closer understanding of how we might be better followers of this one we claim as our savior, this Jesus who calls us to open our banquet tables to a different seating arrangement than we have ever known before.
Amen.
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