Hello Friends,
Welcome back to
Prepared Hearts, our online lectionary based Bible study. This week’s
lectionary texts include: Jeremiah 2:4-13; Psalm 81:1, 10-16; Hebrews 13:1-8,
15-16; and Luke 14:1, 7-14. This week I’ll be preaching from Luke. The text is
below, followed by starter thoughts.
Luke 14:1, 7-14 (NRSV)
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.
7 When he noticed how the guests chose the places of honor, he told
them a parable. 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; 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. 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. 11 For all who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble
themselves will be exalted.” 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. 13 But when you give a banquet, invite the
poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind. 14 And you will be blessed,
because they cannot repay you, for you will be repaid at the resurrection of
the righteous.”
STARTER THOUGHTS:
Jesus is quite the
dinner guest, isn’t he? I try to imagine the responses he must have received as
he was giving his two cents on hospitality and humility! I can envision
everyone gathered at this nice dinner beginning to squirm and grumble. If I
were the host, I think I would have responded with something like, “Really,
Jesus?! Must you ruin a perfectly lovely Sabbath with your teaching!?” Are
there times when God has chosen to share a lesson with you at a really
inopportune time? How did you respond? If you were a guest at this particular
dinner (or the host) what do you think your response would have been?
Jesus begins by
giving some seemingly practical advice, sharing with folks how to choose a seat
so that they won’t be dishonored. Then he goes on to make it clear that he isn’t
just talking about feigning humility as a strategy for getting ahead. He states,
“All who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will
be exalted.” In fact, if he were suggesting using humility as a tactic, he would
have recommended that folks take a seat or two lower than their station, not
the “lowest place.” All of this reveals the fact that in God’s kingdom, honor
is something that is bestowed, not earned.
In what areas of
your life do you struggle with your seating arrangement? Are there particular
situations or times when you try to earn honor or recognition? What would it
mean for you to take not just a lower seat, but the lowest seat?
This teaching of
Jesus is relatively easy to understand but hard to apply in our daily lives. We
learn at an early age how to measure our worth based on recognition from others.
How would your life change if you were to completely stop seeking the approval
of your peers and focus singularly on approval from God?
Jesus looks at those
gathered and then criticizes the host’s guest list. He explains that one should
not invite the four groups of people that one is most likely to invite:
friends, brothers or sisters, relatives, and rich neighbors. Then he gives a
list of who one should actually
invite: the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind. This isn’t a random
list that Jesus pulls out of thin air, it is a list of those folks who were
explicitly forbidden by law to serve as priests and who were barred from entry
into the community. What groups of people would make the “barred list” today?
Who is forbidden to serve in leadership and excluded from our community (implicitly
or explicitly)?
One of my favorite
writings about humility is from Frederick Buechner’s book, Wishful Thinking. He writes:
Humility is often confused with the
gentlemanly self-deprecation of saying you're not much of a bridge player when
you know perfectly well you are. Conscious or otherwise, this kind of humility
is a form of gamesmanship. If you really aren't much of a bridge player, you're
apt to be rather proud of yourself for admitting it so humbly. This kind of
humility is a form of low comedy.
True humility doesn't consist of
thinking ill of yourself but of not thinking of yourself much differently from
the way you'd be apt to think of anybody else. It is the capacity for being no
more and no less pleased when you play your own hand well than when your
opponents do.
What does being
humble mean to you? How does practicing humility affect hospitality, both
individually and as a church?
I look forward to hearing your thoughts and reflections. Feel free to email me or post a comment here.
Peace,
Pastor Amee
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