Covenant
United Methodist Church
Sunday School 9:45 Worship 8:30 & 10:45 am
Pentecost 10 Luke 14-7-14 Where the Best Seats Are
Luke 14:1, 7-14
14:1 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.
14:7 When he noticed how the guests chose the places of honor, he told them a parable.
14:8 "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;
14:9 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.
14:10 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.
14:11 For all who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted."
14:12 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.
14:13 But when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind.
14:14 And you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you, for you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous."
Sandy and I went out of town this past week. We did one of our treks to Dallas. The truth is things didn’t start out the way we planned. The traffic was awful. I-20 was closed down going into Dallas due to a wreck. We got off on highway 360, but it was so backed up that we decided to go the back roads all the way to Dallas. When we finally got to our hotel we were told that our hotel wouldn’t be ready until 3 hours later. So Sandy bought a Dallas Morning News and we went out to eat. As we traveled down the road Sandy looked in the paper and said, “ The Smothers brothers are performing at the Morten Meyerson Arts Center! She called up and got the least expensive tickets we could get… Tickets ranged from $200 which got you down with the rich people, the pretty people, or you could sit in the nose bleed section for $20. Well, after checking into our hotel we got dressed appropriately and went to the Morten Meyerson. We were waiting in line at the Will Call window when a young woman came up to me and said, “My company purchased some tickets on the ground floor near the front aisle. Would you like the tickets?” Of course Sandy and I took them and sat right down front at the concert. What a great show! We sat right in the midst of a lot of rich folk who paid $200 for their tickets and were decked out in the finest duds money could buy. I was wearing blue Jeans and a T shirt and had my chocolate covered peanuts in my pocket… Remember I thought I was going to be in the nose bleed section where no one could see me, not in the midst of the rich and famous. That guy who won America’s Got Talent was seated right across from us… When I asked the woman why she gave the tickets to us she said, “We wanted to give tickets to some people who looked unpretentious and you were the most unpretentious we could find!” In other words we were the most humble looking folks she saw in line, me in my blue jeans and T-Shirt…
If the setting for our scripture lesson were the Morten Meyerson then all the folk in this scripture lesson would all want the $200 tickets, because those are the seats of the wealthy. The $200 seats would show off their importance. Jesus uses the term “seats of honor”, but the idea is the same. The people at the Pharisees house were showing off how important they were by trying to get the best seats. Jesus tells his disciples to take the least important seats. “For those who exalt themselves will be humbled and those who humble themselves will be exalted…”
Our scripture lesson today is about humility and pride. Our scripture lesson wants us to know that the truly blessed of our world are the humble… the humble of heart… This scripture talks about the difference between pride and humility. As you have heard me say, if you aren’t humble already then this world we live in will humble you.” And secondly, humility isn’t just one of those west Texas attitudes of “Awe Shucks mam twern’t nothin’” it means looking at the mass of humanity around us and saying to yourself concerning those less fortunate, “There but for the grace of God go I.”
Let me give you a simple test on humility… When you go down the road and you see someone who’s had a wreck do you say to yourself, “ That idiot he shouldn’t have been going so fast, or do you say a prayer for them?” When you see a man on the side of the road with the sign that says, “Will work for food.” Do you say to yourself, “That guy ought to go out and get a job!” Or do you say a prayer for them?
Humility is knowing that part of what we do has to do with hard work and part of what we do in life simply comes from the grace of God… We could be one of those people stricken with a stroke or born disabled or one of those with a limited IQ… God blesses us and that blessing and hard work make for our success in life… and we have all tasted how life can humble us.
As most of you know my wife has a brand new car. Oh what a car… I don’t think I could have more pride in anything. It is wonderful. It is a Toyota matrix and it is beautiful. I think I have driven the car as much as my wife has. I was out in the parking lot at Target the other day and walked out to open up Sandy’s car and I got it confused with a Lexus! That is how cool this car is… I like it so much I decided that it was the car I wanted to take on our mini time off for Labor day. I had taken Sandy to work and was loading her car for the big trip. I had the hatchback up and was surprised how much room I had to put stuff in… I realized that Sandy had a few things too big for me to simply put in the back of the hatchback without raising the garage door. I hot the garage door opener and watched and the garage door went up attached somehow to the hatchback and literally picked the Matrix up off the ground. The extension shocks attached to the hatchback then broke and the lid of the hatchback feel to the ground with a big thud… I broke my wife’s new car. I called her up knowing she would be nice to me but afraid she would be devastated. I said, “Honey I broke your car.” And do you know what my sweet wife said… First she said, Honey are you OK.” I said yes… then she said, “You knowing honey I am most worried about how guilty you must feel. It’s OK I would have eventually done something myself and this is actually better. I don’t have to feel guilty I didn’t mess anything up.” Can you imagine a sweeter response. Can you imagine a more humble response… I was humbled, and then blessed…
I think that is the way God works too…When we are humble or humbled we are blessed… in a moment we come together to share in Holy Communion. Communion is meant to remind us of Jesus death, by all accounts a very humbling death. We humble ourselves too as we come forward, we remind ourselves that we will die too, and there is nothing about death that isn’t humbling… so lets come before our Lord today humble, because we are human and frail and weak, and like Christ…