Readings: Hebrews
13:1-8, 15-16, Luke 14:1, 7-14
May our hearts and minds be open to you O
God that we may hear your word, and listen for your message for each one of
us. In Jesus name. Amen.
So how many of us get upset when someone is
sitting in our place when we come into church?
And how we feel unsettled, discombobulated when we have to sit
elsewhere? Well that was nothing in
comparison to the role of seating places around the table in ancient
times. The arrangements were complex and
nothing short of a serious breach of etiquette if you got it wrong as host or
as guest. Every person had their place
in the pecking order – and the worst possible scenario was if you placed
yourself above where the host had determined you should be. Then, in front of everyone, you would be
asked to move down to your proper place.
Shame, very public humiliation, total embarrassment. And so it is that,
again, Jesus uses a very simple tale of everyday practice, familiar cultural
behaviour, to bring a much deeper message to the people of the time and to
us.
For these mealtimes, in the ancient world,
were incredibly important – they identified you, stated to the world who you
were, what place you held. You can see
the same importance being given to the early church to the Eucharistic meal –
gathering around the table primarily identified them as the people of God. But we have to remember that then and for the
people of the time, it wasn’t just a tale of expected social behaviour and the
odd oops moment when you got it wrong– it went much deeper – your placement was
a sign of the value that the community placed on you. Your value was inseparable from what others thought
of you, it was a complete loss of face that we, in our individualistic culture
of today, might find hard to comprehend.
We also don’t relate quite so much to this
story of hierarchy around eating places in the home any more – but there are
plenty of other ways that we do ‘status’ and ‘ranking’ in hospitality is there
not. Corporate boxes and choice seating
– achieved by money or status or both,
invitations to free lavish ‘do’s’ because of connections or money or
perceived potential – and we can take a certain amount of pleasure that we have
been singled out, invited in, arrived!
Then there is the way that the world of
advertising manipulates our sense of self worth. Personal looks, possessions, worthy or
worthless according to some corporations view of what is ‘the top table’ so to
speak. The world still manipulates our sense of self, does it not?
So was Jesus just telling a story on how to
avoid social embarrassment or even was he giving out some cautionary advice for
the spiritual go-getters of the time. Is
it about using humility just so that we will be advanced, giving us a strategy
for gaining a foothold in the kingdom?
For Luke seems to go on to say that it’s actually a bit of a nuisance if
you get the reward for your humility and meekness in the here and now – much
better to be rewarded in heaven. Build
up your spiritual capital now for a much greater return on investment later.
And what a very troubling interpretation of
this parable this is in fact– for from it it, it is only a small step to
believe that we are to use good deed to the the poor and needy for our own
advancement, that we are diminish who we are now in order to enter the kingdom
later, and that we have to work in some way to earn our rewards. This thinking
leaves I would suggest a troubling legacy in our church today – where humility
and works are still needed to be accepted by God. And you know what that says – that the cross
isn’t sufficient! That grace is not
enough!
So where else can we go with this? Maybe here.
Maybe Jesus is poking fun at the very concept that our status, our worth
is something to be manipulated, transacted in any way, shape or form by this
world. Saying that this whole cultural value system around a person’s worth is
shot and deserves nothing less than our total derision. Now that sounds more like the subversive message
we would expect from Jesus for his people – showing us that we are not to use
the world’s ways of getting on, of allowing people or deeds to determine our
worth in God’s eyes.
It challenges any thinking that the only
way to gain the kingdom is by belittling ourselves in some way, being less than
who we can be. And for some among us
that is still a very real understanding of what it means to be a Christ
follower.
Christ tells us: We are valued as we are
and encouraged to be who we can be. Some
lines from a poem by Marianne Williamson:
You are a child of God.
Your playing small does not serve the world.
There is nothing enlightened about shrinking
so that other people won’t feel insecure about you.
We are all meant to shine, as children do.
We were born to make manifest the glory of God within
us.[1]
Jesus teaches us to live in the confidence
of love – of being loved for who we are and of loving others. The lines of love – for God, neighbour and
self - all need to converge into one whole and complete way of life where we
can be the best we can be for God. We
are to neither put our own interests first, spiritually or materially, for that
exploits others, nor are we to diminish ourselves for that is destructive to
self and ends up lessening what we have to give to others.
The letter to the Hebrews makes just this
point. Our reading for today begins:
‘let mutual love continue....’ and ends ‘do
not neglect to do good and to share what you have, for such sacrifices are
pleasing to God.’
Christian community is about being who you
are so that you can be who you need to be to others.
When we come to this table as a community
of Christ we are not some of us more worthy than another, some of higher status that others, some of us less deserving
than other. We are all one in Christ and
all welcome in his presence. We put
aside all anxieties of worth or status knowing that we are loved and accepted
for who we are, valued beyond all measure by God and nourished by a life poured
out for us, so that we can be who God wants us to be.
Margaret Garland
No comments:
Post a Comment