September 1, 2019

 September 1, 2019     Luke 14:1, 7-14          Proverbs 25:6-7                        Hebrews 13:1-8, 15-16

            A few years ago some of the movie theaters in Portland where I lived up until 7 months ago began making customers choose their seats from a screen when we bought our tickets.  This was advertised as some sort of wonderful new thing, but it upset me.  Why would it be better to choose from a screen in another room, than from the room that has the seats and all the information I need to choose a seat?  I choose my seat based on the size of the screen, where other people are sitting, especially tall people that I can’t see over.  I choose my seat to be away from people who wear heavy perfume or have body odor.  I want to have the flexibility to choose a different seat once I get in the theater if my seat is broken, or the air conditioning is too much at the seat I chose.  Very frustrating!

 I am excited about the flexible seating at Spirit of Life.  It is something I wished I had over the years.  I know that Steve changes the seating configuration around from time to time, but I bet, nonetheless, that you have a basic idea where you like to sit.  Is it one side or the other, near the job you are assigned this morning, where there are enough seats in the row, near a particular friend or with family?  I’m not going to ask you to get up and move, this morning, although I reserve the right to do so in the future and you reserve the right to refuse.  But, imagine if I said that we were all going to change our seats on this day and I made all of you mix up and sit in different places.  It would be uncomfortable.  It would be disorienting. 

            In this Gospel reading for today, Jesus is very rude to his host and the other guests, when he basically says they are doing it all wrong.  He says the guests are doing it wrong because they are feeling self-important and deciding where to sit based on their class and rank and wealth.  He says the host is doing it wrong because he invited the wrong people to his party.  Jesus has, once again, offended everyone in the room.  They stay surprisingly silent in the face of his insults.

            But the truth is we do order ourselves by class and race and income and political party.  The kind of vehicle we drive is a statement about who we are and what our priorities are.  I’ve heard people say they know this congregation has changed over the years because of the decline in the number of pickup trucks in the parking lot.  What we wear is a statement about ourselves.  Where we shop is a statement about what is important to us and where we feel we belong in society, whether it is Winco or Walmart of Fred Meyer or Metropolitan Market. We are always, whether we know it or not, making statements about who we are compared to other people.  And we use the information we take in through our eyes and ears and noses to inform us who is one of us, who to make friends with, who to talk to, who to sit next to, and who we feel more or less important than.  We use the information we take in about people’s cars and clothes and way of speaking and their scents, etc, to decide where we all are in the importance order, and a lot of the things we do go into preserving that order. 

            Then Jesus comes in and criticizes that way of thinking, especially the ones who think they are more important or invite those they think of as important.  He does that because this is not how God does business.  This isn’t a good pattern to get into.  It isolates people.  It keeps people down who are struggling.  And the truth is, if God only hung out with people who were powerful and awesome, none of us would qualify.  God would be pretty lonely.  Loneliness was one of the reasons God created the heavens and the earth and the animals and people.  God wanted to be in relationship, and not just relationship with important people, but with those who are lowly and humble.

            Here is Jesus, Son of the Most High God.  If he had stayed put with those of similar power and greatness, he would have never come to earth to live as one of us.  He crossed this huge gulf between heaven and earth and gave up his important position to be in relationship with us.  We are all precious children of God who have little or nothing to offer God, and yet he not only came to us, but spent time with the lowliest lepers and criminals and men smelling like fish and children with dirty faces and on and on.  Jesus came to bridge that gulf so we would know we are important to God.  Jesus came to show how to bridge that gulf with each other.  Jesus came to show us that these categories we devise are ridiculous.  We create them because we’re insecure, we’re afraid we aren’t good enough, so we wear something or drive something that says we are.  God says we are a child of God and that is good enough.  We don’t have to put anyone down or distance ourselves from someone else to prove our worth.  Jesus came to us.  We’re good enough for that.  And he truly humbled himself, born to an unwed mother, in the manger among the animals, lived in Nazareth, the middle of nowhere, chose fishermen and tax collectors for his followers, ministered to the poor and outsider, non-Jewish, mixed-race, oppressors, had no where to lay his head, our homeless Jesus, our homeless Savior, wandering the countryside, eating leftovers, borrowing donkeys, arrested and convicted, beaten and stripped, and hung to die on the cross in front of everyone. 

            You are a beloved child of God.  None of us has to worry about our worth in God’s eyes, the only one that’ really fit to judge us.  God made each and every one of us very good, a delight.

So now we are free to bridge those gulfs.  We are secure in who we are, so now we can talk to someone at the Food Bank that we might not have before.  We can talk to one of the kids in church even if we’re not sure we have anything in common with them because they are God’s child, too.  We can take a risk and spend time with someone older or younger or who has a different experience.  We can offer to help someone in our neighborhood who lives alone.  We can try something new.  We can bridge that gulf.  This is why the community of believers is called the body of Christ, because although we are individually different, we are united, we need each other, we are part of each other.  And isn’t life so much more interesting when we bridge those gulfs and have a conversation or build a relationship with someone different from ourselves?  We always learn something, we always grow from those relationships. 

This morning we are invited to a banquet that we can never repay.  We come forward to receive a crumb and a sip, a little teaser, a foretaste of the great feast where all come together the way God intends it and everyone has enough to eat.  We eat the simplest of foods, so that this meal will be available anywhere in the world, to all people regardless of wealth or importance.  We receive this meal as a free gift of God’s grace, God’s true presence among us, feeding us, filling us, empowering us to go out and feed each other, bridge those gulfs, and put our energy and focus on seeing the similarities and the gifts in each other.  God requires no payment, but suggests a little sacrifice of praise, an attitude of thanksgiving and actions that reflect that gratefulness.  Let’s humble ourselves and come to receive this simple meal and go out united with all God’s children in the body of Christ.