Full service can be viewed HERE. Sermon begins at 24 minutes.
Pentecost 15C
August 28, 2016
Hebrews 13:1-8, 15-16
Luke 14:1, 7-14
INTRODUCTION
Today is one of those times when all four of the readings really complement each other, lifting up very similar themes. Their combined purpose could be summarized by the first line from our reading from Hebrews: “Let mutual love continue.” All four readings will describe some of the specific ways we can live in mutual love as Christians: for example, by practicing humility, selflessness, concern for the other even over yourself, generosity, and hospitality toward strangers –especially, Jesus will tell us, toward strangers who have nothing concrete to offer you in return.
They all seem like nice enough things, and some even joyful… but not a-one of them is easy! And so, as you listen, watch for some of those ideals of Christian love, and consider what they each look like, practically or metaphorically, in your life – your personal life, your church life, your life as a citizen. Think about how some of these ideals are enacted or embodied as a community, a nation, and as a global neighbor. Let’s listen.
[READ]
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
My family just returned from a week at the Chautauqua Institution, where I was serving as the chaplain for the Lutheran House. If you have never been to Chautauqua Institution, I encourage you to go. In addition to the world class speakers and performers and the beautiful setting, the sense of community there is unparalleled. It is almost idyllic, where everyone is there to learn and to welcome, where people help one another, and strike up conversations with strangers, and leave their bikes and their doors unlocked. When we arrived Saturday night, frazzled and exhausted, I asked the first person I saw on the porch of the Lutheran House for help, and he immediately asked others to help and started carrying things in from our car. Later that same person and his family made sure we had a comfy seat and a drink in hand to relax on the porch. All of this was not unique – this kindness and love marked the whole week, both among guests at the Lutheran House and out around the grounds.
It was an embodiment of this opening verse from Hebrews: “Let mutual love continue.” I have been thinking this week about what these words mean and look like in the various facets of my life. I think these four words state the hardest thing about being a Christian. In fact, I think the author of Hebrews is very optimistic to say, “Let mutual love continue” – it implies we already are doing it, and to keep up the good work! Well, I sometimes find loving others to be very easy – and what a joy it is when that happens! – but it is just as often very hard, indeed, especially in these divided times. Though it can be very rewarding, living a life of mutual love is certainly the most challenging aspect of life as a Christian.
What makes it so hard? Well, let’s ask it this way: what is required to “let mutual love continue”? I think a big part of it is one of the major themes in our Gospel reading today, and that is humility. In the Gospel story, Jesus advises not to assume you deserve the highest seat, but rather, sit at the lowest seat and wait to be asked to move up. It’s sort of simplistic advice to our modern ears, and taken literally it isn’t very often applicable to our lives like it would have been to the original audience. But thinking of it more broadly in terms of our relationships with others, especially our Christian, loving relationships with others, it becomes much more poignant and convicting.
Now, it wouldn’t be, if living in Christian community were all rainbows and sunshine all the time. But the thing about living in Christian community is that it is an awful lot like living in a family – and we all know that families, well… don’t always get along. People don’t agree, or get annoyed with one another, or disappoint each other, or don’t meet each other’s expectations. When that happens, when conflict erupts, fighting often follows, and it is in those moments that Jesus’ advice about humility becomes very difficult to hear. Think, if you are gearing up to fight, whether you fight with actions or with words, what is good strategy? Generally, you want to find yourself in the more powerful position, right? You want to do the opposite of Jesus’ suggestion to “take the lowest place,” because that sort of humility is exactly what will cause you to lose the fight! So, when faced with a conflict, we will be inclined to: insist our way is right, disregard others’ opinions and perspectives while we puff up and applaud our own, put others down, whatever we need to do in order to stay in that higher, more powerful position, and be sure that we win the fight.
Humility won’t help that effort at all. No, humility has no place in winning a fight.
But remember, we are not talking about winning a fight. We are talking about living in community, and letting mutual love continue in that community. With that as our goal, we can’t look for a winner, because if there is a winner there is also a loser, and having winners and losers is not the way to remain in community with one another. That is not the way to let mutual love continue.
This is where humility comes in. What if, instead of trying to get to that highest seat at the banquet, we took Jesus’ advice, and sat in a lower seat? What if we listened to the concerns of the other, to what is true for them, and even “tried on” their ideas before disregarding their perspective? What if instead of looking for points about which to say, “You’re wrong!” we looked for ways to say, “I agree with you on that”? What if we made the effort to consider where our own perspectives might not encompass the whole truth? What if we asked for forgiveness when we realize we were wrong?
Suddenly Jesus’ advice isn’t nearly so simplistic. Suddenly it is very challenging. It is not just swallowing our pride and waiting to be invited up to a higher seat, it is actively working at loving someone, at honoring them and their opinions, at viewing them not as a stranger or outsider or enemy, but as an angel whom God placed in your path to show you something about what it means and looks like to live in a mutually loving community.
And that brings me to the second thing that is necessary if we want to “let mutual love continue.” GRACE. Certainly, it is grace for ourselves, because putting ourselves in such a humble position is very vulnerable, very dangerous. You could very well be trampled, especially if both parties don’t agree to be similarly humble with each other. And because we are animals, we often resort to those basic animal “fight or flight” instincts, and we don’t behave like we intended, like God would have liked us to behave. We need to acknowledge that reality, and trust that God will forgive us for those times. We also must have grace for the other, because it is just as hard for them: we are all humans, after all, and we all make mistakes, we all fall short of the glory of God, we all are captive to sin and cannot free ourselves, no matter how hard we try.
But above all, what is required to “let mutual love continue,” is the very grace of God. Today is the 11th anniversary of my ordination. And this has been, for these years of ordained ministry, my most frequent thanksgiving: that in all the ways I fall short of this strange and wondrous calling, all the missteps I take, all the times I didn’t live up to expectations of God, myself, or others – I still walk in the grace of God. Jesus still died for me. Jesus still defeated fear and death for me. Jesus still claimed me in baptism – in fact, 39 years ago today. I still come to worship and get to hear someone say, as they hand me that sacred meal, “The body of Christ, given for you.” For me! For you! God’s grace is given for us!
And with this, God’s amazing grace, I believe that we can let mutual love continue. It still won’t be easy, and it still might be messy at times, and it still requires the hard work of humility and vulnerability and loving honesty with ourselves and with each other. But we can do it, because God’s grace makes it possible. As we continue down this road of living faithfully and loving mutually, that grace of God is all that keeps us afloat. Let us cling to that gift with all that we have and all that we are.
Let us pray… Gracious God, you call us to let mutual love continue, and to be humble in our relationships with others. This is hard work, God! But we give you thanks that you have entrusted this task to us, even as you have given us the grace to work at it. In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
No comments:
Post a Comment