Proverbs
25:6-7
Do
not put yourself forward in the king's presence
or
stand in the place of the great;
for
it is better to be told, "Come up here,"
than to be put lower in the presence of a
noble.
Luke
14:1, 7-14
On
one occasion when Jesus was going to the house of a leader of the Pharisees to
eat a meal on the sabbath, they were watching him closely.
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."
On June 20th my wife and I went with 14 other
people on a two-week pilgrimage to Greece and Turkey in the steps of Saint
Paul. We traveled all over Greece. We saw where Paul first landed in Europe at
the ancient port of Neapolis, modern Kevala.
Our group went to Philippi, where Paul established his first
congregation and was imprisoned. We
walked on the ancient Egnatian Way, the main Roman road through northern
Greece, where Paul walked. We strolled through
bustling Thessaloniki, Greece’s second largest city, where Paul established his
second church. The adventurous ones in
our group climbed the slick rock steps of Mar’s Hill where Paul explained the
Christian faith to inquisitive Athenians.
There were few takers! Our
pilgrimage took us to the Bema, a large rectangular stone platform, in Corinth,
where Paul was put on trial. I stood on
the stone foundation of the pier in Cenchreae, Corinth’s port, where Paul
sailed for Ephesus. We walked through
the marble paved streets of ancient Ephesus, one of the largest cities of the
Ancient World, and stood in the amphitheater, where almost 2,000 years ago,
silversmiths, angry that Paul’s converts to Christianity were hurting their business,
rioted shouting, “Great is Artemis of the Ephesians!” We also visited the house of the Virgin
Mary, on Mt. Koressos, outside of ancient Ephesus, where according to
tradition, she and the beloved disciple fled Roman persecution.
In almost all of these sites I felt
moved not only thinking about the apostle Paul, the Virgin Mary, and the first
Christians but also about the millions of pilgrims who have visited and prayed over
the centuries in these places. Pilgrimage
is an ancient Christian practice that has become popular again after years of
neglect. We all remember reading in
school some of the Canterbury Tales told by pilgrims on their way to Thomas a
Becket’s shrine in Canterbury.
The Gospel lesson today reminds
that we are part of a great tradition, part of a great line of believers, part
of a great cloud of witnesses (Hebrews 12:2).
In a world that increasingly isolates and alienates us from one another,
Jesus tells us that we are not alone. He
reminds us that we stand with faithful brothers and sisters across time and
space and that he is always with us through the gift of the Holy Spirit.
In today’s Gospel, Jesus refers
to Proverbs 25:6-7, our first reading for today. He advises the dinner guests to choose a seat
of lower honor. In the Ancient World,
people carefully watched where each person sat and what they ate. Honored guests sat near the host and ate the
best food. Jesus is giving very practical
advice, but he is doing more than advising people how to navigate social
situations. He extolls the Christian theological
virtue of humility. People sometimes
mistakenly think humility means to put yourself down. The Holman Bible Dictionary helpfully defines
it as “dependence upon God and respect for others.”[1]
Greco-Roman society frowned upon humility. They believed it was a degrading
weakness. New Testament professor Lois
Dow writes, “Love of honor was a virtue, leading people to behave in ways that
would bring honor from others, and to proclaim their merits publicly so that
they would receive the honor due them.”[2]
Ancient Jews though believed humility
was a virtue. The prophet Micah says, “What
does the LORD require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to
walk humbly with your God?” (Micah 6:8 NRSV).
Psalm 138 says, “For though the LORD is high, he regards the lowly; but
the haughty he perceives from far away” (Psalm 138:6 NRSV). When
Jesus tells guests at the dinner to take a lower seat, he speaks firmly from
the Jewish biblical tradition. Jesus, of
course, was a Jew. He knew the
scriptures.
While Jesus, the Son of God, uniquely reunites
a humanity separated from God and one another, he culminates a long string of
God’s efforts. God established a
covenant with Abraham to create God’s people; gave the law to Moses to guide
the Hebrew people into righteousness; established the nation of Israel to be a
light to the world; and sent prophets to call the wayward people back to God’s
holy ways. Finally, God the Father sends
the Son of God who willingly gives his body and blood to reunite us to Godself
and to one another. The story, of
course, does not end there. Christ sends
the Holy Spirit to guide, to comfort and to strengthen us until he returns at
the Second Coming.
Each one of us is a part of this great story of
faith. Each of us is a pilgrim traveling
on the faith journey with millions of other believers. Despite a myriad ways to connect with one
another today through cell phones, text messaging, facebook, email, twitter,
pinterest and more, at any given moment, 60 million Americans, 20% of our
population feels alone.[3] Feelings of loneliness and isolation are
epidemic in our society. The General
Social Survey found that the number of people who believed they had no one with
whom they could talk tripled between 1985 and 2004.[4]
Here at this altar we find our connection with
God, one another, the saints who gone before us and the heavenly host. Eucharist Prayer A says that we praise God, “joining
our voices with Angels and Archangels and with all the company of heaven.” The Eucharist is a moment that is in but
beyond time. We are united with God and
with one another at the heavenly banquet table when we receive the bread and
the wine, the body and blood of Jesus Christ.
Charles Hocking, the first rector I served at
St. Paul’s, Cary in the 1990’s, said that he struggled after his parents
died. He was very sad. He found consolation when he received the Eucharist
because he knew that his parents were there at the altar rail with him.
We join the holy angels, the saints in light,
and people of faith throughout the world when we come to this table. In a world of increasing isolation, it is in
the mystery of Christ’s body and blood that we are united with God, with one
another, and with the saints who have gone before us in a great cloud of
witnesses.
(This sermon was preached September 1, 2013 at St. Paul's Episcopal Church, Smithfield NC.)
[1] Gary Hardin, “Humility,” Holman Bible Dictionary, studylight.org,
http://www.studylight.org/dic/hbd/view.cgi?number=T2902
[2] Lois Dow, Review of Humilitas: A Lost Key to Life, Love, and
Leadership by John Dickson, McMaster
Journal of Theology and Ministry, 13 (2011-2012), http://www.mcmaster.ca/mjtm/documents/13MJTMR4Dow_on_Dickson.pdf.
[3] John T. Cacioppo and William
Patrick, Loneliness: Human Nature and the
Need for Social Connection (New York: W.W. Norton, 2009), 5.
[4] Jaqueline Olds, The Lonely American: Drifting Apart in the
Twenty-first Century (Boston: Beacon Press, 2010), 2.
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