Sermon for 13th
Sunday after Pentecost
(Proper 17)
Text: Luke 14:11-14
Those who make themselves great will be humbled, and those who humble
themselves will be made great." Then Jesus said to his host,
"When you give a lunch or a dinner, do not invite your friends or
your brothers or your relatives or your rich neighbours—for they will
invite you back, and in this way you will be paid for what you did. When
you give a feast, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind;
and you will be blessed, because they are not able to pay you back. God
will repay you on the day the good people rise from death." |
 |
Back to front
As children, some of you may have read the fascinating book Alice
in Wonderland. Alice falls asleep and has this amazing dream where
everything seems to be upside down and back to front. She encounters White
Rabbit with a pocket watch who is always running late, a Caterpillar who gives
advice, a grinning and talking Cheshire Cat that keeps vanishing, the King and
Queen of Hearts who are always saying "Off with their heads!" Then
there is the rude Mad Hatter who is always rebuking Alice for her rudeness, and
Tweedle-dum and Tweedle-dee who like to recite poetry. Alice notices that
everything is quite back to front in this strange world. She discovers surprise
after surprise as she meets back to front people and creatures.
Reading the Gospels is never as confusing as the adventures of
Alice in Wonderland, but sometimes you wonder if Jesus does get things back to
front and upside down. Today’s reading is an example of this. He says that
those who are great will be and least in the Kingdom of God and those who are
humble will be the greatest. That’s so back to front. It should be those who
get ahead, the winners in this world, those who use their worldly wealth to make
more wealth, the successful people; they are the ones whom you would expect
Jesus to say will the great people in God’s Kingdom.
Then he adds that when inviting people to a dinner party don’t
invite your friends, or relatives, neighbours as you would normally do, invite
the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind. How ridiculous is that!
Inviting every drunk, street kid, drug addict, cheat you can find is sheer
madness. Jesus is redefining what "hospitality" is. He doesn’t say
to send food to the down and outs, but that the host is to sit down at a meal
table with them. This is so back to front. Who in their right mind would do
something like this? When you think about it, it’s not so different to the
world Alice found herself in. So back to front.
And these aren’t the only instances of Jesus back to front
ideas. He said, "Those who want to save their life will lose, but
whoever loses his life for me and the gospel will save it" (Matt 8:35).
And on several occasions, he commends the most unlikely people for their faith
or good deeds, like the Samaritan leper, the Syro-Phoenician woman, tax
collectors and prostitutes. Why doesn’t he say nice things about the people
whom you’d expect him to speak favourably – God’s people – the Jews.
Jesus is back to front and upside down. He does this to
highlight that the ways of the Kingdom of God are not the same as that of the
rest of the world. What is considered right and good in the world may not be the
case in God’s Kingdom. He gives us these back to front ideas to help us
re-examine what it is that we have accepted as right, whereas in actual fact
they are not God’s ways.
It is so easy for a Christian to be so taken up with a certain
attitude or way of life that is so opposite what God wants. The argument always
goes, "Everyone else is doing it." But just because everyone else is
doing it, doesn’t mean it is right and God-pleasing.
Just because it is the trend to move in with a partner and live together before
the commitment of marriage, that doesn’t make it right.
Just because every one else at school is cheating or plagiarising, doesn’t
mean that this is right thing to do.
Just because your friends ridicule aboriginals, gay people or migrants that
doesn’t mean that this is what God wants.
You see, it’s so easy for us as God’s people to quite
unwittingly and unintentionally say things that are right when they are wrong.
This is what Jesus is saying today in our text. God’s ways can be so against
what is the accepted standard in the rest of the world.
Why do we find following God’s ways so hard and following the
crowd so easy?
There are several reasons.
Firstly, there is the problem of standing out. If you adopt an attitude that is
different to everyone else then all and sundry will notice that you are
different. If you express what are God’s ways in a discussion, you are afraid
that you might be called a "goody-goody" or "a religious
fanatic". And so to avoid that, it’s better to go along with everyone
else.
Secondly, the ways of the world can be much more appealing and
easier than those of the Kingdom of God. It’s easier to be separated from your
spouse or get a divorce than to go through all the hassles of trying to resolves
the problems in a marriage.
It’s more appealing to have sex with a number of partners than to be faithful
to one.
Thirdly, the shift from God’s ways and the ways of the world
can be ever so subtle. This is one of Satan’s cunning tricks. He makes you
think that you are following the ways of God’s Kingdom whereas in fact you are
following his ways.
I have known people who are regular Sunday worshippers believe that there is
nothing wrong with praying at a Buddhist shrine in their lounge room during the
week. Somehow, along the way they came to believe there was nothing wrong with
it. Their acceptance of this had been so subtle that they hadn’t noticed the
conflict with their Christian faith. This example may not seem so subtle and we
may say, "How could they?" The shift happened so slowly and so
cleverly that they couldn’t believe that they had been so easily led away from
Jesus.
Fourthly, the culture we live in is very good at producing
popular trends. We call it the "in thing". It’s the "in
thing" to wear certain style of clothes.
It’s the "in thing" for men and women to spend loads of money
seeking the perfect looking body.
It’s so easy to follow what is "the in thing" without even checking
whether this is what God wants you to do or not. You follow the crowd along
without realising that what you are doing may not be what God wants.
And since this is Fathers’ Day, a day we focus on the family
and its unique place in God’s plan for the people of this world, it’s a good
idea to re-examine --
the way you are parenting your children,
your role as a grandparent to the younger generations,
the kind of son or daughter you have been.
Is your home one where parents spend time with children – playing together,
working together, learning together, having fun together as well giving
discipline when necessary. This goes against the "in thing" where
parents offer very little discipline, and are so accommodating that their
children get whatever they want. Is your home a place where Jesus is spoken
about and taught frequently and parents model what it means to be a Christian in
today’s world?
Does your home place too much emphasis on material happiness rather than
happiness that comes from knowing Jesus?
Have you as a grandparent taken an interest in your grandchildren, perhaps even
providing spiritual direction where parents fail to do so?
To follow God’s ways may seem like the more difficult path, in
fact the path that seems so back to front compared to the ways of the world.
Jesus never promised that following God’s ways would be the easiest path.
This is the way God’s people stand out from the rest of the world.
We can witness to the world that there is a better way.
We can give evidence to the world that being a member of God’s kingdom is
something very special; that it makes a difference in the way we live our lives.
The question that remains to be answered is – "how do I
find out what is God’s ways for my life and my family? What does it mean to
live as members of God’s Kingdom?
The answer is simple – God’s Word, the Bible. This is God’s
message to all of us and reveals to us God’s Son. The Bible tells us the ways
he wants his children to live. He wants us to read it and study and take in what
it means to be members of the Kingdom of God. He wants us to learn how much he
loves us. He wants us to be the Kingdom of God in the world and to make a
difference.
And the more we read it, the more we become aware that we are
very poor at being members of God’s kingdom. Our sinfulness wants to take the
easy path, to do the "in thing", to follow the crowd and not stand
out. Everyday our best intentions are sidetracked and we fall into sin, we deny
that we are members of God's Kingdom. We can become quite upset and feel really
bad that we have let God down again.
The Bible reminds us that we are members of God's Kingdom simply
and only because of what Jesus did for us on the cross. And everyday he declares
us "forgiven". He makes us clean with his precious blood. And then he
invites us to live as his people in his Kingdom.
Life in the kingdom of God is no walk in the park – it is hard
work. Jesus’ disciples were the first to understand this. God grant us the
wisdom and the ability of discerning what are God’s ways and what or not so
that we may faithfully follow Jesus letting his light shine through us into our
homes, neighbourhood and the world around us.
© Pastor Vince
Gerhardy
2nd September, 2001
E-mail: sermonsonthenet@outlook.com
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Scripture quotations are from the Good News Bible, © American
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