A sermon on Luke 14:1, 7-14 

Before I became an Ordained Minister I was a High School Science teacher.  As part of my teaching training I learnt about Spiral Learning Theory.  It is a theory of learning and teaching that says that we learn through repetition and building upon what we already know.

As a collective humanity been building on our knowledge over decades and centuries so now we know much more than we did hundreds of years ago. If you think back to your schooling in the early years you learnt the most basic pieces of information.  Then over the years the basic were built upon.  Sometime rules that were taught early on are gone back to and you learn exceptions to the rule.  Over the years our knowledge grows and we may understand why things are the work the way they do.  

Jesus, was among other things, a brilliant teacher.  He often taught by way of parables, or stories.  Jesus did not tell people concrete answers answers but encouraged people to interpret and think.  One of the strengths of Jesus’ parables is that we can keep coming back to them and can learn more.  We can turn them around look at them differently, through different lenses, and with all the other knowledge and experience that we have and we can get more and more meaning out of the teaching.

At first glance the thing that we might learn from Jesus’ teaching in today’s reading, the
moral of the story as it were, is to be humble:

“For all who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted."

At face value, he appears to give them a bit of advice about how being humble and modest will be rewarded with honour and exaltation. No doubt you have heard that sort of sermon before.  It seems like something Jesus might say since he repeatedly talked about the first being last and the last being first.

But is this what Jesus was really on about?  I often wonder what Jesus facial expression was when he spoke.  I wonder did Jesus say this with a straight face or a glint of witty sarcasm? Maybe with a roll of the eyes thrown in for good measure?  Could he be criticizing the exploitation of false righteousness? 

Luke, the gospel writer, introduces the words of Jesus by saying, “When he noticed how the guests chose the places of honour, he told them a parable.” 

It doesn’t say “when Jesus noticed how the guests chose the places of honour, he gave them some tips for successful social climbing.” 

Jesus told a parable.  In the last blog post I referred to a another parable Jesus.  A parable about a seed, a mustard seed, a weed plant, that grow into a mighty tree.  Jesus’ parables are filled with barbed irony, surprising twists and comical exaggerated details that were never meant to be taken literally. 

Amy Jill Levine, an Orthodox Jew and Professor of New Testament Studies, says Jesus’ parables “challenge our stereotypes about people and society.” They “provoke, convict and amuse."

    

So maybe Jesus is not handing out strategic social advice here but rather is subverting the behaviour, exposing their social climbing over everybody else in an attempt to coming out on top. Maybe Jesus is making fun at the social antics to illustrate a truth about the emerging culture of God. And while humility is part of that culture we need to keep listening to Jesus’ teaching if we are to get a more complete picture of the culture of God.

Jesus goes on to say to the one who had invited him, the host;

"When you give a luncheon or a dinner, do not invite your friends or your brothers or your relatives or rich neighbours 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.“

Jesus says that when celebrating a meal, do not think in terms of the typical guest list, that is, friends, family, and rich neighbours.  The guest list should not be limited to those within and above your social class.  Those who will be able to respond in “quid pro quo” style, a reciprocal “I’ll scratch your back if you scratch mine” approach. 

Jesus calls into question this hierarchy system.  An oppressive system that says some people are more valuable than others. Today, in the West, a person’s value or lack thereof also has a moral judgement, someone living in poverty or dependent on public assistance might be stigmatized as immoral, lazy, or incompetent. But, Jesus says to invite these marginalized, the dis-eased and physically challenged, people. To invite those who are socially and economically undervalued and overlooked. Those people who are unable to return the favour should be invited.

Sure, there will be no honour in return. But Jesus says, “you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous."

Is the moral of the story delayed gratification?  You will get a reward but not until later.  It’s an investment in the future.  A common understanding is that there will be a heavenly reward that you get to cash in on when you die.  A better mansion in heaven, a bigger one, or one with a pool, or one with water views.  

Again, I think this misses the point and implies that God operates in a "quid pro quo" way.  That God works within the world’s insistence on agreements and bargains; transferences and contingencies.  The give to get reward system. 

We live in an economy of exchange. People do things for us in the expectation that we will do something for them in return. Life is a series of transactions – you play, you pay. We rarely find ourselves receiving gratuitous expressions of love. Instead we receive down payments in anticipation of a return. Life is measured and calculated and weighed up.

It is only a few months before Christmas.  Have you started your Christmas present list?  Do you have a list of people that you need to buy a present for?  People who you think will get you something so you need to make sure you have something to give in return.  Then there is the re-gifted gift.  The gift that keeps doing the rounds and might end up back with the original gifter.    Present exchange can just be a give and get circle. 

Jesus, is basically saying, “yeah, that whole quid pro quo thing? That’s not going to fly in the Kingdom of God.”  Instead of a closed circle the way of God is an open ever widening spiral.

Jesus, dares not only to stand outside the social order of his day; he dares not only to call that social order — and all social orders — into question; but he also says these things are not of God. Jesus proclaims here and throughout the gospel that in the kingdom of God there are no pecking orders. None. Zero. Zilch.

What if the resurrection of the righteous is not when we die and go to heaven but the dying or breaking free of our economy of exchange?  Of being reborn now into the culture of God which includes the dismantling, the flattening of worldly hierarchies of social status and economic power.

We are invited to embrace God’s non-hierarchical culture.  A culture where the poor and differently abled are no less valuable, no less worthy and loved.

Jesus invites hearers to imagine a transformative web of relations woven in mercy and strengthened not through patronage or obligation but through joyous connection across lines of difference.

Lilla Watson, an indigenous Australian, activist, academic and artist says:

“If you have come here to help me, you are wasting your time. But if you have come because your liberation is bound up with mine, then let us work together.”

God’s realm is built not on displays of wealth, prestige, or political influence, but on love of the neighbour.

In freeing others, in seeing the value in others, we are being freed.  We are free to see our value not in what we do, what we produce but simply because we are one of God’s children.

It is the way God wants us to treat each other. Indeed, it’s the way God treats us — creating us, giving us what we need to flourish, caring for us, forgiving us, redeeming us — even though we can do nothing meaningful for God in return. In fact, about the only thing we can do in return, when you think about it, is to share what we’ve been given with others. This is the kingdom life.

I think we can take our spiral out a little further, go a little wider an incorporate a little more.  We humans like to view the spiral as narrowing as it reaches up and think that getting to the top - to the point - is the aim but God’s spiral turns the focus upside down.  God's aim is to spread out,  to include all.  So what if we extend this call to dismantle, to flatten worldly hierarchies beyond the care of our fellow human beings and extended it to all of creation?  What if we did not think we were above creation? 

What if we were to see humanity as a part of the whole, no more important, no less important than any other part of creation?  What  if we recognised we are part of a web of interconnection and our well-being is dependent on the well-being of the whole? 

What is we were willing to see ourselves on the bottom?

It is true that if you truly embrace the culture of God and begin to live out its values of mercy for the undeserving, love for enemies, and non-competitive hospitality, you will likely find yourself judged by others, looked down upon by others, looked at with suspicion and contempt by those who are still caught in the economy of exchange, of "quid pro quo", caught in the hierarchical system, concerned about their value and where they sit in the pecking order.

But it is at the bottom, in the place the world has rejected, that you are closest to God, and that you are able to be set free, to find there is no first or last, no honour or shame, only each other, all made in the image of God, all beloved by God, all bound to one other in God’s abundant love and grace.  This is freedom and his is Good News.

In closing I want to share the words of Anja Rožen, a 13-year old school student from Slovenia and creator of this art piece which is the winner of an international peace poster contest. 

She was chosen among 600,000 children from all over the world. She says:

"My poster represents the earth that connects and unites us. People stick to each other. If one person let go, the rest will fall. We are all connected to our planet and to each other, but unfortunately we are little aware of it."

May we grow in our awareness of our interconnect and may be honour and care for all of God's creation.  Amen.