Sunday, September 01, 2019 - 9 AM

Invitation – Luke 14:1, 7-14 Bascomb UMC / September 1, 2019 / 9AM Focus: The difficult teaching of Jesus for us to be humble servants. Function: To bring believers again, to accept the impossible task of discipleship and call upon God’s Holy Spirit help to BE humble and BE Christ in the world. 5 Purpose Outcomes of the Church: Worship, Fellowship, Discipleship, Evangelism, Service Luke 14:1, 7–14 (CEB) 1 One Sabbath, when Jesus went to share a meal in the home of one of the leaders of the Pharisees, they were watching him closely. 7 When Jesus noticed how the guests sought out the best seats at the table, he told them a parable. 8 “When someone invites you to a wedding celebration, don’t take your seat in the place of honor. Someone more highly regarded than you could have been invited by your host. 9 The host who invited both of you will come and say to you, ‘Give your seat to this other person.’ Embarrassed, you will take your seat in the least important place. 10 Instead, when you receive an invitation, go and sit in the least important place. When your host approaches you, he will say, ‘Friend, move up here to a better seat.’ Then you will be honored in the presence of all your fellow guests. 11 All who lift themselves up will be brought low, and those who make themselves low will be lifted up.” 12 Then Jesus said to the person who had invited him, “When you host a lunch or dinner, don’t invite your friends, your brothers and sisters, your relatives, or rich neighbors. If you do, they will invite you in return and that will be your reward. 13 Instead, when you give a banquet, invite the poor, crippled, lame, and blind. 14 And you will be blessed because they can’t repay you. Instead, you will be repaid when the just are resurrected.” I asked this question in the newsletter – “What is the most exciting invitation you’ve ever received?” One church I served enjoyed a very resourced family that scheduled a major wedding of their daughter. The event involved the news and a few religious and political celebrities, so you imagine my surprise when I got seated at a front table. The family was always generous to the church staff, and we were honored by being placed so close to the head table. Weddings are social events, but being invited to box seats at sports events, joining other couples for fund-raisers, theatre or concert events, any invitation can reveal your social standing in the community. Who are YOUR people? Where do YOU live? Even what CHURCH do you attend. One commentator I follow said, in his neck of the woods, the principal of the high school attended “this particular” church, the teachers attended a different “lower class designation” church, and the maintenance and kitchen staff attended an even “lower class designation” church. For me to even mention the names of these denominations would reveal MY prejudice, my internal stereotypes. So we can each fill in the blanks about what churches are “high class” churches and what churches are “working class” churches. And does any church want to be thought of as “lower class?” Griffin 1st UMC had a Sunday breakfast for the homeless that were brought in on the church van. It was fascinating observing WHO sat together. We might serve, but are we really expected to socialize with the poor? Do we care? Back at one former church, I had a conversation with someone who uses shoes to peg people! I thought “shoes?” Apparently, shoes reveal a lot about a person, but I NEVER even notice shoes unless they light up or turn into skates. Then I thought “what does he think of my shoes?” Not much – he didn’t visit MY office again. And school can be the worst for social status – remember this scene? Video clip “Cafeteria – where to sit” from Mean Girls OK, lots of choices to make. In Luke’s gospel, Jesus apparently got an invitation to have dinner with some of the leading Pharisees in the area, but the purpose was to trap him. Jesus was used to that, so he took the opportunity to make a little social commentary; giving advice to the guests of the dinner AND to anyone hosting a dinner. Does this advice even relate to us? After all, few of us are receiving invitations to dine among the rich and powerful. What is this to us? This lesson can easily be wasted. Our egos may convert this text about humility into a cool strategy for self-exaltation. Taking the low seat out of humility is one thing; taking the low seat expecting to move up is another. This entire message becomes a cartoon if there is a mad, competitive rush for the lowest place, our superior egos assured that the host will call us to ascend. We could also act out of REAL feelings of inferiority (i.e.-the school bully, the short guy with a Napoleon complex. Pretending superior ways because of a deeper sense of (real or imagined) inadequacy or inferiority. It’s a mixed bag between self-loathing or a deeply felt (sometimes unconscious) sense of superiority. There’s a lot of discussion these days about narcissism – a Greek story of the handsome youth, love by all who saw him, who never found anyone that could pull HIS heartstrings. Then, one day, he saw his own reflection in a pool of water and fell in love with himself. Sadly, one-way relationships go nowhere. So, are we inferior or superior to others? We have a bit of both inside us. Conscious or unconscious, it operates behind the scenes and affects our motivations. We become “unreal” if we deny the reality of our broken selves. I’m fond of saying that discipleship is not just hard, it’s impossible! When Jesus makes these outrageous statements, I do not believe he is trying to get us to TRY harder, that leads religious people to whip themselves bloody or lock themselves away in caves or deserts to force humility. “Look at me God, I’m more humble that anybody else!” However, the secular human believes we can BE moral out of our own resources. IF humility is when the (false) ego (either inferior or superior) is rejected, then true humility won’t seek happiness in the recognition of others. Just DO that and there will be no one to make you feel inferior. How’s that working out for you? I found this T-shirt and it makes logical sense. Let’s just stop believing that (and stop killing each other and stop burning the planet down around us). How’s THAT working out for us? I do believe that there are those with exceptional (notice I didn’t say superior) willpower to reach amazing goals, but there are always unbalanced places in lives SO tilted toward ONE thing, like Olympic or professional sports. Holy lives mean WHOLE lives – mental, physical, and spiritual balance in persons who feel God’s pleasure and live an abundant life no matter their external circumstances. Jesus has set the moral bar SO HIGH in hopes that each human can understand the futility of our efforts in hope that we would look to the source of our hope and salvation and embrace the gift of God’s spirit. Were the whole realm of nature mine. That were an offering far too small Love so amazing, so divine demands my soul, my life, my all Oh, the wonderful Cross, bids me come and die and find that I may truly live. In the kingdom of God, the invitation comes from Jesus and the host IS God. Now who can repay God? Jesus is therefore inviting us into kingdom behavior. Since God is host of us all, we are all on equal footing. That should take the pressure off! Imagine if each of us release our grip on self (or some of us actually grip something other than our egos) so we can than seek to enjoy God and God’s will rather than our own will. I believe that God’s will is THE path to true contentment. Now, we are each expected to continue to develop, grow and learn. As long as we live on the old earth, we are still humans living with old kingdoms as we work for and invite others into the “already” but “not-yet” hope of God’s kingdom. We are all still in need of repair and improvement – let us give God more and more of our best selves! Just don’t believe the lie that humans can even be enough in, and of ourselves. That’s NOT gospel. Anything we have finds its origin in God and we can choose to share it - making no claims, setting no conditions, expecting no return. That’s God’s great invitation to us! Let us pray……… This morning, God, we are grateful to hear your call. Every morning there are other voices urging us to care only about ourselves and our own gods: our work, our bank accounts, our egos, our peer groups, our ideologies. By the end of the week, we can feel trapped in our anxiety, our work, our spending, our need for control, and our excuses. Then we come and hear your voice again, calling us to your healing care and joyous freedom, offering us your authentic humility. As we come to be fed, call us again to your great love. A love that motivated Jesus, on the night he was betrayed, to take bread, give you thanks and break it -- as his body would be broken in humble service. Each time we eat this bread, we remember. Likewise, after supper Jesus took the cup and declared his blood would be shed as an act of humility because only HIS blood can redeem us from our sin. Every time we drink this cup, we remember. Now let this bread and this cup BE for us, in us, the body of Christ that we may enjoy genuine humility and see all good things as your gifts to be shared. Feed us now, God of our strength and we will share ourselves with the world. Amen. SENDING FORTH/BENEDICTION: Who are kingdom people? Luke lists the poor, the maimed, the lame, and the blind. Mary sang about this when the angel told her Jesus would be her baby and Jesus declared his mission was to these people when gave his first sermon in his hometown of Nazareth.