God's Last Words

Choosing Your Place

Luke 14: 1, 7-14 (NRSV) 

A joke to start: A friend of mine named Butch once told me, when Bryce Harper was in Hagerstown that, "You know, Bryce Harper and I are buddies."

I said, "Sure you are." He said, "No, really! Just turn on your TV tonight to the Nats game. You'll see me." Sure enough, I turned on the TV and there was Butch, sitting and talking to Bryce Harper in the Nationals Dugout during the game.

Not long after, I was talking to Butch about how much I admired Arnold Palmer as a golfer. Butch said, "Oh, he's a good friend." I said, "Noooo!" Butch said, "Let's hop in my car." He drove me to the golf course Arnold owns, and as we sipped a Lemonade/Iced Tea mixture, Arnold happened to walk by, immediately exclaimed "Butch!" and gave Butch a hug.

This was getting spooky. Butch seemed to know everyone! I tested Butch with a few more people. We were in Tennessee. Butch was telling me he was buddy-buddy with Charlie Daniels. We went to Charlie’s concert, and as Charlie rosined up his bow he said, "I see my friend Butch out there."

Same kind of thing happened when we went to Donald Trump’s house and rang the bell. Donald answered the door, said "Butch!" gave my friend a big hug, and invited us in for drinks.

 
I was becoming a believer, but then one day we were having another conversation and Butch said something about "my friend Pope Francis." I said, "You can't know him, too!" Butch said, "Wanna bet?"

Butch happens to be very well off, so he flew the both of us to Rome on his private plane. We took a cab to St. Peters Square. We were standing in the big crowd below the balcony of the Pope's apartment. Butch said, "Excuse me for a little while" and disappeared into the crowd.

A little while after that, Francis appeared on the balcony and started blessing people. And who should be up there beside him but...you guessed it! I was utterly amazed! I nudged a fellow standing next to me, pointed to the balcony, and said, "Look!"

The guy shaded his eyes with his palm, peered up at the balcony, turned back to me, and said, "Who's that guy up there with Butch?"

Arthur Miller once said, “The famous are balloons far up in the sky, to be envied for their quiet freedom or shot down as enemies.” Andy Warhol wrote, “In the future everyone will be world famous for 15 minutes.”

Some people say celebrity is only good if you can use it. Rich and famous people have no lines to wait in, their phone calls are instantly answered and so forth. They also get respect and admiration and seem to get away with things.

A beautiful Woman was in the VIP lounge going to Seattle. She was waiting to meet a very important client, who would fly to Seattle with her. She noticed Bill Gates sitting in the lounge enjoying a drink.

She approached Mr. Gates and introduced herself. She explained, "I am conducting some very important business and would appreciate if you could say 'Hello, Sharon' when I am with my client." Bill Gates was inspired by her look, so he agreed.

Ten minutes later while she was talking with her client, she felt a tap on her shoulder. Turning she saw that it was Bill Gates right on cue. Acting pleasantly surprised, Bill smiled at her and said, "Hello, Sharon, how are you?" To which the woman replied "Get lost Bill Gates. I'm in a meeting."

Listen to Jesus’ take on fame from Luke’s gospel, verses 1, 7-14:

On one occasion when Jesus was going to the home 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 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 might 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.”

Our reality TV show parallels continue. Jesus addresses the question of fame and social etiquette in an unexpected manner that makes perfect sense.

Jesus’ ministry was all about service and care. If people thought he was too famous to be treated like everyone else His mission would never be accomplished and His teachings, healings, and interactions with others wouldn’t work.

Besides, Jesus doesn’t really care for human rules and the “we’ve always done it that way” codes of conduct. Jesus came to shake up and change the world. He came to call us from sin.

We tend to forget that this is the Jesus who has already set the expectation of a positive relationship with neighbors, co-workers, friends, relatives. Respect, courtesy, and humility are the watchwords.

A state trooper being presented with an “Outstanding Trooper” award was questioned about what the governor said when presenting the award. “He said you haven’t once roughed up a drunk or used excessive force on anyone. How can you be a state trooper for fifteen years, dealing with the kind of stuff you deal with, and not have that happen?”

“Two things,” the trooper said. “First, if I am called to break up a fight at a tavern, I never say to myself, ‘There’s a drunk’; I always say to myself, ‘There’s a man — someone’s husband, someone’s son, someone’s neighbor — who got drunk.’ I try to think of him as a man, not a crime.

“Secondly, the Bible says that a soft answer turns away wrath. So whenever I walk up to the window of an automobile, I always speak a little softer than the person I’m speaking to.”

President Theodore Roosevelt was known for, “Speak softly and carry a big stick.”

But most people don’t know that in 1901, Roosevelt changed the saying to “If a man continually blusters, a big stick will not save him from trouble; and neither will speaking softly avail, if back of the softness there does not lie strength.”

 

When Jesus said, “Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth,” he was not speaking of armies and foreign policy, but the principles are the same.

The meek Christian does not need to bluster, as if self-confidence could win the day.

Whether we’re contesting a point, responding to criticism, or speaking of the hope within, we can do so in meekness, with quiet confidence. For in “back of the softness” within us lie the strength and power of God.

God desires a personal relationship with us and it’s not based on any honors, awards, or tasks we’ve received. It’s based solely on His love for His creation, His love for each of us, created in His image.

It’s why we need to hold “Luke 14” banquets. We do so at the mission each month, and we could do more here at the church. We are called to invite those who are hungry, alone, or needy, and feed them. We can do it.

Imagine our reaching out to those needing to stretch their resources in our community and getting help directly from us even one day a month. We could do it. I have seen the joy on your faces as you have done this in the past.

Listen to our last verses for today: “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.” 

Each of us will have our moment with God to walk in the garden, side-by-side. We need not hurry, be impatient, or demand our fair share. It is already allotted not because of who we are, but because of who God is. 

I suggested to Glenda last week that we put a new saying up on the “blue board in the yard near Route 40:” 

“If your destination is heaven don’t wear your earth shoes.” 

That’s what Jesus tells us every day. 

Let’s figure out how to celebrate God’s Love and Jesus’ Grace on that journey.

Amen.