Sermon manuscript for Green Lake Church of Seventh-day Adventists for Sabbath, July 18, 2015.
Texts: Psalm 113, Luke 14:7-14.
Late Tuesday
afternoon I was navigating the streets of Renton, moving very slowly
because of the traffic. I wasn't paying much attention to the radio
playing in the background. 94.9 was serving the usual buffet of bad
news: Greece. Iran. American political bickering. Yemen. Problems in
health care. Yada, yada, blah, blah, blah.
Then a name
penetrated the fog. Scott Jurak. Suddenly, the radio had my full
attention. Among long distance runners, Scott Jurak is legendary. He
won the Western States 100 mile race a record seven consecutive
times. The announcer was interviewing Scott Jurak about his recent
completion of the Appalachian Trail. Scott had just run 2,189 miles
from Georgia to Maine. It takes most people five or six months to
hike the full length of the Appalachian Trail. Scott Jurak did it in
47 days.
One of the nice
things about sports is that frequently arguments about greatness can
be settled directly. We can argue all day long about whether my team
or your team is the greatest. Then game day comes and someone wins.
If it is the womens
US Soccer Team, they won decisively! They are the greatest.
It's natural for us
to rank ourselves. We pay attention to who gets honored, who has the
highest status. This human attention to status and rank shows up in
the story we heard today in our New Testament reading.
When Jesus noticed that all who had come to the dinner were trying to
sit in the seats of honor near the head of the table, he gave them
this advice: "When you are invited to a wedding feast, don't sit
in the seat of honor. What if someone who is more distinguished than
you has also been invited? The host will come and say, 'Give this
person your seat.' Then you will be embarrassed, and you will have to
take whatever seat is left at the foot of the table! "Instead,
take the lowest place at the foot of the table. Then when your host
sees you, he will come and say, 'Friend, we have a better place for
you!' Then you will be honored in front of all the other guests. Luke
14:7-10 NLT. (Accessed through Blue Letter Bible.com)
At first glance this
is simply common sense advice. Don't set yourself up for
embarrassment. But as you would expect, Jesus was doing more than
giving mere common sense etiquette advice. He highlighted one of the
most profound principles of the kingdom of heaven: status is earned,
not demanded. In the kingdom of heaven there is no ring to kiss,
there is no insignia which requires a salute, there is no title which
confers absolute authority.
In this teaching,
Jesus echoes passages in the Old Testament which portray even the
authority of God as contingent on congruence with moral law. God is
to be praised BECAUSE he acts righteously. And the supreme
demonstration of righteousness is concern for the poor and oppressed.
As we read in our
Old Testament scripture (Psalm 113) God lifts the poor from the dung
hill. He gives women who have been regarded as cursed by God, the
highest honor in their society. We praise God because God does these
kinds of things.
In the kingdom of
heaven, greatness—high rank, high honor—is the fruit of righteous
action. And the most exalted righteous action is lifting others.
11 For those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who
humble themselves will be exalted." 12 Then he turned to his
host. "When you put on a luncheon or a banquet," he said,
"don't invite your friends, brothers, relatives, and rich
neighbors. For they will invite you back, and that will be your only
reward. 13 Instead, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the
blind. 14 Then at the resurrection of the righteous, God will reward
you for inviting those who could not repay you."
Sometimes in
religion, theologians have pictured God as primarily concerned with
authority. In this approach to religion, the highest virtue is
subservience to God. The highest religious practice is making signs
of obeisance to God—bowing, crawling on one's knees, kissing the
ring of a clergy person, obeying without question every demand
uttered by a preacher.
This view of God has
been most dramatically and grotesquely displayed in our day by the
Taliban and ISIS. However, even within Christianity, there are
movements that attempt to portray the religion of Jesus as a
structure of authority. In our own church, people like Doug Bachelor
and Steve Bohr have turned Christianity upside down. They have
pictured God as a benevolent tyrant demanding unquestioning
subservience. They have preached that the religion of Jesus is a
power structure that requires a show of obeisance from lay people
generally and women specifically. They picture Jesus as an ally of
their self-importance. They are wrong.
We are called to
something better. We are called to the vision Jesus voiced: to
welcome among us those who cannot repay our welcome. To lift those
who have no resources.
There is a ranking
in the kingdom of heaven. There is greatness and honor among us. The
highest rank belongs to those who serve. Especially to those who
serve by raising others. When we do that, we have indeed become like
God.
At school you will
find yourself naturally, easily drawn into circles of students who
share your academic focus, your political views, cultural background
and economic status. There is nothing wrong with these natural
affinities. Still, Jesus calls us to deliberately look beyond them.
Let us be deliberate in seeking to include in our circle of privilege
others who cannot be there without our welcome.
At the level of
society, we are all challenged by this vision of Jesus. We live in
the most privileged country in history. We who call ourselves
Christian are invited by our Master to ask: how can we include others
in our circle of privilege?
The mark of
authentic Christianity is how far we reach, how richly we welcome
those with no natural claim on us. The evidence that we have taken
note of the goodness of Jesus is our own generosity, our own welcome,
our own kindness to the least, the lowliest, the farthest from any
natural claim on privileges like ours.
If Scott Jurak walks
into a room of runners, people will naturally gravitate toward him.
They naturally admire someone who embodies our highest ambitions.
Aspiring runners will hope that association with Jurak will somehow
rub off on them and improve their own performance.
If the Womens Soccer
team visited us today, we would rightly honor their achievement. They
are champions.
When we mimic the
work of Jesus, when we lift the lowly, we, too, will rightly be
called champions. God himself will invite us to place of honor at the
heavenly table. And there will be great joy.
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