14th Sunday after Pentecost

Sermon

Sunday and Date: August 29, 2010 14th Sunday after Pentecost

Location: Immanuel Lutheran Church

Text: Luke 14:1, 7-14

In an episode of the TV show the Simpsons there is a conflict between Bart and Milhouse. Bart is the eldest child in the Simpson’s family, and fits the idea of the impossible to control boy. His best friend is Milhouse, a nerdy, socially awkward boy in Bart’s class. Bart and Milhouse do about everything together, Bart leading, Milhouse following close behind. Often Bart will get them both in trouble, and Milhouse’s parents, being a little stricter will ground him, while Bart will get a “Bart just being Bart” look from his mother and go on.

In one particular episode, Bart gets on the school bus at the stop with Milhouse as usual. They go and sit down at the normal seat and the bus starts up again. Bart is excited because Milhouse’s birthday is coming up and he is looking forward to the party. But as they sit there, lots of other kids start to tell Milhouse what a great party he had. Bart, after 4 or 5 kids, finally figures it out. Milhouse had already had his party the Saturday before without inviting Bart. Milhouse’s mother had decided that Bart is a bad influence on Milhouse and did not let Milhouse invite him. Bart, now sad and lonely without his only true friend, ends up playing with Maggie, the baby of the Simpsons.

Finally, Bart’s mother, Marge, decides to act and stand up for her son. She talks to Milhouse’s mother, telling her that yes, Bart is a bit of a handful and can cause trouble. But, Bart and Milhouse are best friends and only have each other, and asks her to allow them to play. Milhouse’s mother relents after seeing how Milhouse reacts to being able to play with Bart again. The story-line ends with Bart thanking his mother for standing up for him.

The situation we find in our Gospel portrays a very similar situation. In Jesus’ time, honor and shame are what society is built around. When you invite many powerful people to your banquets you gain a lot of honor, and where you sit is based on your power and honor. The most honorable person at the party is the one who gets the seat of honor. We speak of the head spot in this regards to this day.

The people attending this dinner Jesus is going to at the Pharisee leader’s house would be the top of society. And so, there would be jostling and arguing on who should get the seat of honor. For whoever sits there not only has the most power, but gains the most honor.

Jesus sees this and answers them with a parable based on the proverb we read earlier. When at a wedding banquet, don’t jostle for the top seat, but go sit in the cheap seats and have the host call to you, “Friend, Come up Higher” and lead you to the front. For you could end up finding that someone else is greater than you, and you will have to move and end up in the cheap seats for good.

As usual this is a cryptic parable, there are many different ways to understand it. Be humble, don’t think you are more powerful than you are, don’t forget to look around the room first…

The theologian N. T. Wright gives the idea that this parable is Jesus referring to “the way in which people of his day were jostling for position in the eyes of God,” the way they would "push themselves forward, to show how well they were keeping the law, to maintain their own purity." They are exalting themselves, showing how close they have made themselves to God, when Jesus is saying that only God can truly exalt.

Jesus then follows up this parable with another one, this time directed straight to the Pharisee leader. Jesus tells him, don’t invite all the rich people, all the higher ups that you know, but instead invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind. In “The Message,” a paraphrase of the Bible by Eugene Peterson, he uses the language, “the misfits from the wrong side of the track.” Which is a good idea, but I feel misses a little bit, these are the outcasts from the wrong side of the track. They have been forced into their position as outsiders because of who they are. They are unclean people, impure people, who need to not only be not seen, but pushed aside. They are certainly not the people to invite to your banquet to gain honor. And they certainly would not be given the seat of honor.

Yet this is exactly what Jesus is suggesting.

That is hard. Almost impossibly hard. It goes against what not only Jesus’ culture said to do, but also what most of our culture says as well. When we are working to get ahead in life we hear that we should go through that program, follow these 10 steps, have those 7 habits. How many of those programs, steps, and habits call for working in a soup kitchen, hosting a monthly dinner for the community, donating to the food bank. But Jesus is calling for even more than that. Jesus is asking us to invite these into our homes and places of worship, to sit right next to them, as equals, not as betters.

It makes us uncomfortable to think about doing this. It is one thing to go work in a kitchen, to hand out food to our community, to donate to the food bank, but to see ourselves not as their betters, but as their equals. That is hard.

There is the story of a church where a homeless, stinking, dirty man comes in and sits down in the front pew. All the people in the congregation are held back, what should we do? They ask themselves. Finally Alfred, the longtime usher stands up from the back and goes forward to the man. There he simply sits down next to him.

Are we capable of doing that?

Another story. A man dressed in dirty, dirty rags comes to a service one day, the congregation, and the pastor, welcomes him in. After the service, the pastor comes up to him and tells him. “It looks like you have gone through a lot. When you go home, I ask you to pray about how Jesus would like you to dress in worship.” The next week, again the man is there, and again he is wearing his dirty rags. The pastor comes up to him and asks, didn’t I tell you to pray about what you should wear? The man answers, yes, you did, and Jesus didn’t seem to have a problem with it.

Could we welcome people in exactly how they are? I know I would have a hard time.

Why is it so hard? I think that most of the time, it reminds us that we ourselves are not perfect, seeing the flaws and hurt nature of others forces us to see it in ourselves. When we see the poor, we think of how we ourselves are poor, when we see the blind, crippled, and the lame, we think of what it is that we are blind to, what cripples and holds us back, and what completely knocks us down.

We see that in many cases we are just as poor, crippled, lame, and blind as these. And if we cannot see that, we are truly blind.

But, what we are also often blind to is how we need to read and consider this parable. Jesus asks us to invite these outcasts from the other side of the track to be amongst us, and we should do so. Not so that we can then get some great honor, but because God has already invited us to the great banquet. We do not have communion this week, but the feasting that we partake in is part of the meal we were invited to in our baptism.

Jesus has taken us and placed us in the seat of honor. He has gone and sat in our seat of pain, suffering, sin, and death. We, the crippled, the poor, the lame, and the blind are brought forward, and invited, by Jesus saying, “Friend, move up higher.” In this feast, it is Christ who feeds and serves us. There is no dress code here, all are welcomed as we are.

And because of that, we should not expect to be repaid for our work in this world, but should know that we repay because of what God has done for us. We need not be afraid, for it is true what Hebrews says. “The Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid. What can anyone do to me?” For it is through God’s power that we are able to help those in need. We invite in the misfits from the other side of the track, and the little boy who is such a handful, because we ourselves have been invited and fed.

Let us pray,

God for the misfits,

remember us all in our hurt states, especially this day as we

remember all those affected by Hurricane Katrina, and the Gulf Oil Spill.

Your word of peace stills the storms/ecological disasters that damage our world.

Bring hope to places that know devastation in the calm after the storm.

Bring comfort to those who grieve the loss of loved ones and property.

Let your love be known through those who work to bring order in the chaos.

Help us to shoulder the burden of suffering

and make us bearers of the hope that can be found in you

Through Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord. Amen.