September 2, 2007 – Fourteenth Sunday after Pentecost
Luke 14: 1-14
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Grace and peace to your from God the Creator, and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.
I was down in St. Louis this week visiting my family. At least while there wasn’t a Cardinals’ game on t.v. In fact, I saw more Cardinals’ baseball this past week than I have seen in the past five years! There is a guy on the team, Rick Ankiel, who plays right field, and whose story is destined to become a “made for television” movie of the week. Late in the 1990’s, Ankiel was a wunderkind pitcher, amazing everyone with his prowess on the mound. But during the 2000 playoffs, Ankiel’s pitching collapsed into wild balls and hitting streaks for the opposing team, and he was relegated to the bull pen. In 2004 he staged an unimpressive comeback, and then retired to Florida.
At the request of one of the managers, Ankiel was convinced to return as a hitter, and was sent down to play Triple A in the Memphis farm club. Then, miraculously, he was called up just a few weeks ago, and since then he has hit five home runs, including a Grand Slam homer in Friday’s game against Cincinnati and the Cards have pulled within 2 games of the Cubs, largely due to his current batting average of .353 (.750 for September!) This is a guy who is now in the right place at the right time!
Today’s gospel story from Luke is full of folks who are in the right or wrong place at the right or wrong time: At the beginning of chapter 14 we see Jesus being invited to the home of one of the leaders of the Pharisees, which, although Jesus has been butting heads with them for the last few chapters, indicates that there is still a small window of opportunity for him to be heard by them. However, Scripture tells us they were “watching him closely,” and, after putting his actions behind his words, Jesus has once again taken the opportunity to heal someone on the Sabbath. Then he reveals his teaching for the night, and spins out his rabbinic advice, both to the guests who have gathered and to his hosts. To the guests, Jesus advises against choosing the places of honor for themselves. Granted, this is a culture of shame and honor, but Jesus warns against exalting oneself (lifting high) and advises that they rather humble themselves (bringing low.) In other words, “Don’t embarrass yourself” by picking your own place, but leave that to the host.
Following that, Jesus advises those who host, saying that rather than fulfilling the expected role of inviting family and friends to dine, they should do the unexpected and invite those out in the highways and byways, the least of these in their society. Now, lest you begin to side against the Pharisees, it was the norm to work off of the idea of reciprocity – this culture’s “place-holder” – for in inviting family, friends, peers and those who could repay, they were identifying with “high society” and avoiding a fall from the social register. “Losing place is losing face,” and to invite the poor and those who could not reciprocate, the host would identify with the “lowly” and forever lose what they had worked so hard to gain. Unfortunately, this means that fear had become the basis for hospitality, rather than the need to help those less fortunate.
Jesus’ words, as always are rooted in Scripture, based on the 2000-3000 year-old advice of Proverbs. And in Luke/Acts there is a sense that no one lives the "blessed" life as long as there are suffering and poor, hungry and sick. In fact, the ideal in Acts 4:34 is that there will be no needy among the people of God – because those of us who have been fortunate to have more than enough will share.
But the “untold” part of the story intensifies the confrontation. In Luke 14.2-6, Jesus heals a man with dropsy. This is the 4th healing on the Sabbath (chapters 4, 6, 13 & 14) and we wonder if the man himself were part of the “set up” by the Pharisees intended to entrap Jesus. Would he live the way he taught? And this particular healing event becomes a symbol, leading up to the teaching. Now how many of you here know what “dropsy” is? No one, right? In Scripture, the Greek word translated as “dropsy” is rooted in the word for water. Thus, this man suffered from being "waterlogged," his body is swollen with fluid, and yet he is saddled with an unquenchable thirst. This disease had become a metaphor for insatiable desire, and therefore, a moral failing. So Jesus cures this man and then turns to the Pharisees, driven by their own insatiable desire for places of honor. They are more focused, more driven to hold on to their status, to keep their “place,” (bestowed because of their righteousness in keeping the Law) than they are moved to help a man desperately in need of healing.
Perhaps this story helps to “convict” us about our insatiable desires. Not necessarily for money, success or fame, but our modern, ordinary excesses. And this is our “warning” from Scripture: where are we obsessed? Is it in our insatiable desire for petroleum products and other energy resources, or our over-consumption of food and clean water, or clothing, housing, jobs, land, or even security. Throw in our excessive work, stress, and self-centeredness, and we ourselves become the Pharisees. So what does this mean for us? I believe that the basic point of Jesus’ teaching here is what Han Solo said to the young Luke Skywalker in the first Star Wars, “Don’t get cocky…” Just because our place of honor is secure as beloved, children of God, does not mean that we are to ignore those less fortunate and gloat that “we’ve got ours.”
And there is something intriguing to me in verse 10, “When you are invited…” The word invited is the same word that Paul uses throughout his letters in the New Testament in terms of being called by God, (kalew “ka-leh-oh) in Romans 8:30, 1 Corinthians 1:9, Galatians 1:6, 15 and Ephesians 4:4. Jesus is doing more than just putting the Pharisees in their place, perhaps he is also issuing God’s call to all those with ears to hear.
And what a notion, that we should wait our turn to be invited to special service! Which begs the question for those of us at God’s table, “what should we be doing while we wait?” Many of us might respond to this idea with the Bible verse, “God helps those who help themselves…” except that this quote is not in the Bible, but a quote from Benjamin Franklin! You see, discipleship is not like commerce – it’s not about moving up the ladder or increasing our production. What it is about is showing the virtues of a follower of Jesus Christ, rather than displaying your skill sets, about being a grateful child of our heavenly Father, waiting and yearning to hear God’s call to us.
So what if we use Jesus’ stories today to help us find our “waiting place?” Today, or sometime this week, ask yourself, “What am I most worried about, stressed-out about? What busies me the most?” I would answer that question, “My family, my church, my job, my money, my next meal, my happiness.” But if you can rest in your status with God already, without “exalting” yourself – and then desire something deeper, something more…then consider waiting on the Lord.
This gospel is not intended as an appeal to abandon self love (or self-concern; self-confidence), but to accept the invitation to participate in God’s being, which is how we best fulfill our own. When we wait on the Lord, and then hear that call to special service, we are fulfilling what God created us to be - fitting into the puzzle of the Kingdom of God with our unique gifts and talents – and we are in the right place at the right time.
Hey, we are the people of ADVENT – we know what to do as we wait: WATCH. LISTEN. LEARN that it is not about us - it’s about the OTHER. And then we can quietly await God’s invitation, which entrusts us with the piece of the puzzle God created us to fill. But be careful! For if you decide for yourself to leave your place before you’re called upon by God, then someone else may lose the gift of encountering you. Amen.
Resources: Brian Stoffregen’s Crossmarks; William Loader’s First Thoughts