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spent1504
On Hospitality
Text:
Luke 14:1, 7-14
Date: Pentecost XV
9/12/04 serialz cuteftp 7.1
If
we hear these words today from Proverbs, Luke and Hebrews mainly
as rules of proper social etiquette and no more, wisdom aimed at
the goal merely of how to win friends and influence people, then
we will have missed both the deeper spiritual issue as well as the
real motivation for such actions and attitudes. “Do not put yourself
forward.” “Sit in the lowest place.” “Invite the poor, the crippled,
the lame, the blind.” “Let brotherly love continue.” “Show hospitality
to strangers…remember those in prison…let marriage be held in honor…keep
your life free from love of money.” The issue has to do with either
honor or being humbled, perverting our relationships or religion
for merely private advantage or seeing it all in terms of our relationship
with God who alone is the source of blessing and praise as well
as salvation.
As
with all of scripture we need a spiritual hearing aid or reading
glasses to hear, see and understand aright. That hearing aid is
what you hear us refer to constantly as Law and Gospel. Yet some
do not understand what is meant by Law and Gospel and so stumble
when hearing or speaking the Word of God. For some, while they rightly
think that the Law tells us what we are not to do, they then wrongly
think that the Gospel tells us what we should do! (pause) Can you
hear the error in that definition? “Do not put yourself forward
in the king's presence or stand in the place of the great.” “Do
not sit down in a place of honor, lest someone more distinguished
than you be invited by him.” These words telling us what not to
do certainly are in the category of Law. But then the admonitions
“let brotherly love continue,” “go and sit in the lowest place,”
“invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind,” these, telling
us what we should be doing, are also firmly in the realm of the
Law! How? Well, the Law accuses. What's the first thing that comes
into your mind when you hear Hebrews say “let brotherly love continue”
but the realization and guilt over the fact that we need to be told
that precisely because we are not very good at brotherly love. When
Jesus says, “do not sit down in a place of honor,” “do not invite
your friends, brothers, relatives or rich neighbors,” these words
of Law crimp our style and reveal our underlying desire for honor
or putting ourselves forward in the position for pay backs. When
otherwise positive and wise words telling us what we should do have
the same effect of revealing our faults and condemning our actions,
that is firmly in the realm of the Law of God also. So the aspect
of the Law/Gospel key to understanding this text before us today
(as with the entire scripture!) is that the Law tells us both what
we should not and what we should do. The Gospel, on the other hand,
always speaks about what God has done…is doing…and will do for us
and for our salvation. The Law always talks about YOU. The Gospel
always talks and brags about GOD. The Law condemns. Only the Gospel
liberates, releases, empowers and frees. So the real question we
need to ask of this text, if we're going to hear real gospel, is,
what is it saying about God?
This
is the most fundamental understanding we need to stress especially
on this Rally Day as we come together and dedicate ourselves to
the task of Christian Education and especially the Christian education
of our children. We believe firmly that the Holy Spirit works repentance
and faith when and where it pleases God in those who hear the Gospel.
So Sunday school teachers, parents and pastor alike need to be sharp
in their handling of the scriptures in the ears of our children
and of one another.
With
our Law/Gospel hearing aids charged and bifocals adjusted, then,
we need to see how these words (even as the words of the entire
scripture!) are speaking about Jesus, and only then as about ourselves
in relationship to him.
Nobody
likes people who put themselves forward, whose motivation in everything
is self-advancement and “what's in it for me?” Or, maybe we do….
Especially when it means there may be something in it for us. Coattails
are valuable if you can just hang on to them. Coattails quite often
work in politics, in business, in education and in our little social
circles as well. “It's not what you know, it's who you know” is
the modus operandi among the successful, rich and famous. But be
careful and hold on tight! The maxim, “the bigger they are, the
harder they fall,” repeats its truth over and over again. Only the
names change.
Jesus'
self-described enemies “were watching him carefully,” not only at
this Sabbath dinner party, but on many Sabbaths and at many meals:
as when he had table fellowship with Matthew the tax collector and
his friends (5:27-39), his healing of a man with a withered hand
in the synagogue (6:7, 11), when he forgave the sinful woman in
the Pharisee's house (7:36-50) and more. On this occasion Jesus
noted, “how they chose the places of honor” and who was on the invited
guest list. Jesus always finds a way not just to judge or shame
his enemies, but to use situations to reach out to them, to wake
them up to the spiritual realities of which they were so blind.
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