The Sermon Text — Luke 14: 7-14

When he noticed how the guests chose the places of honor, he told them a parable. "When you are invited by someone to a wedding banquet, do not sit down at the place of honor, in case someone more distinguished than you has been invited by your host; and the host who invited both of you may come and say to you, ‘Give this person your place,’ and then in disgrace you would start to take the lowest place. But when you are invited, go and sit down at the lowest place, so that when your host comes, he may say to you, ‘Friend, move up higher’; then you will be honored in the presence of all who sit at the table with you. For all who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted." He said also to the one who had invited him, "When you give a luncheon or a dinner, do not invite your friends or your brothers or your relatives or rich neighbors, in case they may invite you in return, and you would be repaid. But when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind. And you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you, for you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.

"The exalted will be humbled and the humble will be exalted." We certainly don’t have to look very far to find examples of the exalted being humbled. Yesterday Senator Larry Craig from Idaho resigned ending a career that spanned over twenty-five years in Congress. Earlier this summer he had been arrested for soliciting sex in a men’s bathroom at an airport – the man he was soliciting happened to be a cop. He showed the Senator his officer’s badge, the Senator responded by showing him his US Senator card. The officer was not impressed. The Senator was arrested, charged, he quietly pled guilty, hoping this whole incident would go away unnoticed. Last week it became public and yesterday he resigned. The exalted will be humbled.

Earlier this month San Francisco Giants slugger Barry Bonds broke Hank Aarons home run record of 755 home runs, boastfully claiming that his record was untainted despite allegations and credible grand jury evidence that his home runs were in fact steroid produced. Unlike Aarons who steadily achieved his record over time, Bonds gained many of his home runs at a time in his career when most players statistically are declining. Now he is the speculation of endless media records and the integrity of his new record is suspect. When asked to explain his almost freakish home run record, he has said, well he might have taken some stuff, but he didn’t really know what it was. The exalted will be humbled. These words that Jesus spoke over 2000 years ago at a dinner party are just as true today.

Jesus had been invited to a meal, a little dinner, after church, on the Sabbath at the home of one of the leaders of the Pharisees. And as so often seemed to be the case for Jesus, the Gospel tells us that they were all watching him closely, observing him. This wasn’t just going to be a free meal for Jesus. The thing about Jesus, is that he is always watching us too. So there isn’t anything that we do or that the Pharisees did that escapes his eye.

Maybe some of you can relate to this, my mom was raised in a Lutheran home, she had a fairly conservative religious upbringing. And her parents taught her that if she did something wrong, if they didn’t catch her, God would. I’m not sure that is a healthy awareness of the reality that God pays attention to how we live our lives, but it’s good for us to recognize that God does know what we’re really like, including the relatively small details of our lives, like who we invite or don’t invite into our homes. Or at high school who we think it’s ok to sit next to or not sit next to in the cafeteria or in class.

So in our Gospel, while Jesus is being watched, he is observing the guests too and he notices how they all seem to be trying to outdo themselves getting the best seat at the meal. One thing we know from Luke’s Gospel, is that having Jesus over for dinner, is a sure way to have an awkward dinner meal. Remember when Mary and Martha have Jesus into their home for a meal and Martha gets a talking to about backing off of her sister so that Mary can have some time to be with Jesus? At this dinner, Jesus takes on the guests first and he says, "You know all this scrambling for the best seat, it’s really not such a good thing, you’re risking making a fool out of yourself and by the way the exalted will be humbled and the humble will be exalted." I have a feeling that probably at that point everybody just took their seat wherever it was. Then, Jesus, not done, turns to the host and says, "When you have a meal or a party, the people you really need to invite are the poor, the crippled, the lame and the blind because they cannot repay you. And you will be blessed at the resurrection of the righteous." That probably put a damper on the dinner conversation because it didn’t appear that any of those people had been invited. So what did that mean for the hosts? That they wouldn’t be remembered at the resurrection of the righteous? Jesus doesn’t elaborate, but the one thing that is quite clear is that this concept of humility is a theme of Jesus’ ministry that he comes back to again and again through out the Gospels.

Last week Pastor White talked about how Jesus lived and breathed compassion in everything that he did. Jesus was also humble in who he was and is, but I think that concept of humility can be a bit harder for us to wrap our minds around. We value confidence and performance in ourselves and in our leaders in all fields, religion, politics, athletes and humility is not necessarily a trait that we even hold out as a value too often in our culture.

One of the magazines we get in my house is Baseball Digest and I was reading an article in the August issue about the rising influence of Japanese players in the major leagues. Former Brewers pitcher Jim Colburn was interviewed for the article, he is now a pitching coach for the Pirates, and he was talking about recruiting players from Japan, and how really talented high school players don’t always want to come to the United States right away. He said "they’re a far more humble people than we are. They encourage teamwork, to the point where they wouldn’t allow a star, if different from everyone else, to be on the team. That’s how important that ethic, that value, is taught in high school.

That is very different than what we’ve been seeing with the fall from grace of so many politicians and celebrities and athletes recently. The other day, CNN, in looking at this phenomenon of public figures in disgrace, interviewed a couple of psychologists who talked about the concept of "acquired narcissism." That as people rise in status and influence, they no longer have to wait in lines or search for parking spaces and they start believing that they are not like everyone else, that they don’t have to play by the same rules as everyone else. One of the psychologists interviewed talked about how our whole society reinforces this. For example, we learn not to challenge our bosses, even when we think they’re doing something wrong because we fear being punished or cut out of the rewards. This idea of acquired narcissism is not really that different than what Jesus was talking about at the dinner party; the thought that we deserve the best seat at the party more than somebody else. In urging us to be humble, Jesus is bringing us back to a level playing field where we are all equally deserving in the eyes of God, the poor and the rich, the stars of the team and the people who do the work that no one ever sees. The CEO is as important as the person driving the delivery truck.

In scripture the concept of being humble is not abstract, it has very specific meaning. Humility shows itself through obedience to God. Moses reminded his people that the Lord led them forty years in the wilderness to humble them, to know what was in their hearts, whether they would keep God’s commandments. (Deut. 8.2) Moses told them that God humbled them in their hunger and then gave them manna which they had never heard of and their ancestors had never seen so that they would understand that it was God who sustained them. (Deut. 8.3) Biblically, part of humility is knowing that it is God who keeps us going, not just our own smarts, or work ethic, or ability to get along well with people, or take good care of our bodies, instead God keeps us going.

Perhaps though, Jesus gives the best example of what being humble looks like. He tells the story of two men who go into the temple, a Pharisee and a tax collector. The Pharisee says, "Lord thank goodness I’m not like all the other people here, the adulterers, the tax collectors, the thieves, I give a tenth of all my income." But the tax collector stood off beating his chest, saying, "God be merciful to me a sinner." Jesus said the tax collector is humble, today he went home justified before God, whereas the Pharisee did not.

We all know how hard it can be to say we are genuinely sorry, particularly to the very people we love the most and we know we hurt them. Our husband or wife, our children or someone else we care deeply about, it can be even harder to come before God and confess our wrongdoing. It raises issues of shame, fear, and embarrassment. Although, when we confess, we are making ourselves humble before God, and Jesus assures us of God’s blessing and forgiveness. Bethel pastors have been praying for all of our members. Many people have written or called us with prayer requests, and a lot of those requests are what you might expect – prayer requests for children or grandchildren, requests that God’s healing hand may be upon loved ones that are ill, but some of the requests are more tender. They have to do with chapters in a family’s history that are painful and difficult to share. Those prayers to God reveal a humble heart.

In urging us to be humble at something as relatively minor as an afternoon meal, Jesus is showing us that in God’s kingdom, God doesn’t care about a US Senator card or even a home run record. We are all equally deserving of a place at God’s table and we need to remember that when the person next to us is trying to sit down at the table. Part of humility is living a life that reflects that kingdom and God looks to see if we are practicing generosity and inclusiveness in our daily social relationships. When we pray the Lord’s Prayer before we go to bed or at worship "thy kingdom come," the word kingdom has real meaning. We don’t have to look any further than the words from Hebrews which we heard today to know what God’s kingdom is like, "Let mutual love continue. Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers and to share what you have."

God does not judge us by the glitter of our guest list or our status in relationship to one another and thanks be to God for that. Instead he invites to live in a kingdom where we all matter equally, and where we are all loved equally.

And who is this God who bids us to be humble and to live this life of humility? This is who he is. "Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls." (Matt. 11:28-29)   Amen.