“It’s Hard to Be Humble”

“It’s Hard to Be Humble”

Luke 14:1, 7-14

August 29, 2004

St. Paul United Methodist Church

Rev. John Fleming

I heard about the dinner party that happened one hot and sweltering July evening. The host and hostess and their family had worked hard all week to get ready for the event. The house was clean and everything was ready. But when the evening came, if something could go wrong, it did. The usually reliable air conditioner that had been cooling their house would not work. The hostess called for a repair, but since it was so hot, they could not get on the company’s schedule until the following day. The family had offered to double the service call fee if they would just show up. The operator laughed and said that they could not do that. So the family did their best to cope. They prayed for a cool breeze and they turned on all of their ceiling fans. Their guests fanned and wiped sweat from their brows. If that was not bad enough, the appetizers and the wine, was beginning to run out and dinner was not anywhere close to being ready. Outside on the grill, the steaks were cooking, but the flame was high and so the result was the outside of the steaks were well done and the inside of them were rare. Like I said, if something could go wrong with this party, it did.

Finally dinner was ready. It did not look pretty, but the steaks and potatoes and vegetables were on the table. It looked like things were going to work out after all. The hostess asked everyone to take their seat. Then she looked at her six-year old, sitting across from her. She said to her, “Honey, I would like for you to say the prayer for our meal.” She did not want to do that. She did not mind praying for her family when it was just them. But, sitting around the table were people that she did not know. So she was suddenly shy. Everyone was listening when the daughter said this to her mother, “But Mom, I do not know what to say.” Her mother was compassionate and she encouraged her with these words, “Annie, you can do it. Just use the words from the last prayer that I prayed.” Like I said, everyone was watching and listening and witnessing the conversation between daughter and mother. Finally, Annie asked everyone to bow their heads. Then she prayed the last prayer that her mother had prayed. This was the prayer, “Oh, Lord, why in the world did I invite all of these people over here on such a hot evening. Amen.” When the eyes of everyone sitting at the table opened, they could not help but to smile at their hostess.

We find ourselves at another dinner party as we read the words of our scripture lesson for this morning. Luke does not give us the details of the party. He does not tell us if things went wrong or right, but I get the idea that after Jesus said what he said, the prayer of the host might have been, “Lord, why did I invite this man to dinner?”

Well, let’s look at the details of this story. Jesus is the guest at what must have been a fancy dinner in the homes of who Luke calls a leader of the Pharisees. The host was the kind of man whose picture and story might have been featured in the High Profile section of the paper. Most likely, people looked up to this man. For sure they paid attention to him. He was a leader of the Pharisees which means that he moved in the right circles. His party, most likely, would have been covered by a reporter whose assignment was the society page. It had that kind of a guest list. The people that he wanted to be there were there on this particular evening, to meet the man that everyone in Israel was talking about, this powerful preacher and healer, whose name was Jesus. Luke gives us these details: first, it was the Sabbath day and second, everyone was watching him closely. As it turns out, Jesus, too, was watching things closely. Perhaps the Pharisees were trying to catch him doing what he had done before, healing and working on a Sabbath day. Those who gathered around the guest’s table had heard about Jesus, this man from Nazareth. But my guess is that few of them had taken the time to go out and hear him preach.

I can imagine being there. It must have been a nice affair. I can imagine that it all took place in the leader’s back yard. Most likely it was catered. My guess is that there were servants milling around, making sure everyone had enough to eat and that their wine glasses were full. Perhaps the hosts’ back yard sloped down to the water’s edge. I don’t know. This is just how I picture it. When the meal was over, when everyone had plenty to eat, I think that the leader, this host, must have stood up, and gotten everyone’s attention. When he had it, I am sure that he thanked everyone for coming and then gave Jesus a wonderful introduction, giving the details of his life and his life’s work. Then he must have turned to Jesus and asked, “Would you like to say a few words?” A smile must have appeared on Jesus’ face as he rose from the table. When he finished saying what he wanted to say (eight short verses in our Bibles) the host must have prayed, “Lord, why did I invite this guy to dinner?” I would have liked to have seen the look in Jesus’ eyes and the looks on the important peoples’ faces when he said two things really. First, he counseled, be careful where you sit. And second, he said, be careful who you invite to dinner parties like this one.

For what is left of our sermon time this morning, I would like to look at these two things that Jesus says. Jesus’ words for the first one must have sounded like this, “Thanks for inviting me. I have been watching and noticing how all of you have been maneuvering for the places at this table. Maybe you can get away with that here.” Then he said words that must have grabbed their attention, “But when you are invited to a marriage feast...” Their ears would have perked up when they heard that because in Jesus’ day everyone knew what a reference to a marriage feast really meant. The marriage feast was a metaphor, a way of talking about what would happen when the end came, when the Kingdom of God broke in. Jesus told other stories, and used this image in different ways. Perhaps you will remember the story about the time that the bridesmaids were waiting for the bridegroom to arrive. He was delayed, but he was coming. That is this kind of story. Then there were all those stories about banquets and meals and dinners, all of which were really concerned about who is invited and who is not, who comes and who does not come, who gets in and who is left out. So the party goers’ ears would have perked up when Jesus mentioned the wedding feast. Jesus said, “When you are invited to a marriage feast, do not sit at the place of honor. Someone more important than you might come in and how embarrassing it would be if the host had to come over, and in front of everyone, tell you that you are sitting in the wrong seat.

Has that happened to you? I still remember being horrified the night I went to a game. The seats are so close together in stadiums; the rows are many. It is easy, without the help of an usher to sit in the wrong seat. So it happened to me one night. I thought that I was in the right seat, but I wasn’t. It turns out, I wasn’t even in the right section. The guy whose seat I was in went to the usher, a guy with a badge and a flashlight, who promptly, in front of everyone else, escorted me out of my seat and into another one. It was embarrassing. It would have been fine with me if instead of escorting me to my seat, if he had escorted me out of the stadium. Now when I go to places like that, I ask to be seated. So it is embarrassing. No one wants that to happen to them. But I want you to hear this, this morning. I do not think that Jesus is trying to give us a lesson here on how not to be embarrassed when it comes to seating arrangements. He is after something much more important than that.

The world, our world, seems to line itself up with hierarchies, levels, and ranks. Sometimes the ranking is informal. Other times it is very formal. There are titles and privileges. There are perks like company cars, corner offices, and parking spaces. When I became the Associate Pastor at First Methodist Church in 1998, I thought that I had arrived. They gave me a church owned car to drive and on the parking lot there, was a sign with my name on it. The sign read: Reserved Parking - Rev. John Fleming. When I left there to come here I wanted the sign, but I never got it. In Atlanta, I understand, at the stadium that is named for him, Ted Turner, the media giant, has a parking space with a sign that has these words on it: “Don’t Even Think About It!” Churches are not exempt to this kind of structure. In churches where there is more than one pastor, a title is bestowed, Senior Pastor. When pastors are appointed to churches, they climb a not so invisible ladder to get where they are. So this structure is everywhere and Jesus condemned it. Jesus is not trying to free us from embarrassment here with proper etiquette for seating at dinner parties. He is saying that in God’s kingdom it will be different. He is saying that what you count on now, you should not count on in the kingdom. The trust you put in certain things now, won’t matter later. I like the way that The Message translates our verse. Eugene Peterson puts our lesson this way: “What I’m saying is this, if you walk around with your nose in the air, you’re going to end up flat on your face. But if you’re content to simply be yourself, you will become more than yourself.” Jesus says that when it is time for the Kingdom, there will be surprises. People that you never thought would be in heaven will be there. People who are poor, and crippled and lame and blind will be there. You have to remember this, in Jesus’ day, if you were poor, it was thought, it was because you were lazy. If you were lame or blind, it was because you had done something, committed some great sin, and offended God. We know better than that these days. But in Jesus’ day that was the way of thinking. Yes, there will be some surprises, Jesus says, and the only real way to make sure that you are included in heaven is to humble yourself.

But what does that really mean? What does it mean to humble yourself? Did you know that the instruction to humble yourself happens ten times in the Bible? That counsel is in there as many times as this advice, “Love your neighbor.” But what does it mean to humble yourself? Here is what I think that it means. I think that it means giving credit where credit is due. I think that it means that you make service a way of life. I think that it means putting the needs of others above your own.

The best example of this that I can think of is the example of Jesus. There is a great passage in Paul’s letter to the Philippian Church. Evidently there was a dispute there, what the dispute was, I don’t know. It could have been a church fight of some sort. It could have been that there was a marital problem between two Christians and it had turned ugly. Because it had, everyone in the church was now involved. I am not sure what was happening, but I know something was because Paul begins with these words: “Do nothing out of selfish conceit, but in humility count others better than yourselves.” With that, he talks of Jesus, who did not account equality with God as something to be grasped, but instead emptied himself, taking on the form of