This is a special musical performance of Jubilate Deo by the Chancel Choir at Faith Lutheran Church in Okemos, Michigan

Last week we received one of Jesus’ most bizarre and perplexing stories.  Today, we receive one of his harshest stories.  And, I find it interesting that we are given this reading just days after leaders of the world gathered in New York City where they spent a great deal of time focusing on climate justice.  Climate change is THE greatest threat the world currently faces, and I, along with the majority of faith leaders in this denomination, in mainline protestant churches and in catholic church leadership, believe scripture and the teachings of Jesus call us to act in response to this crisis.  As we look to scripture and respond to Jesus’ message, some may say his teachings are just for our private lives, not for our public behavior, or he is irrelevant to our times.  But, as the Rev. Jim Wallis writes in his new book, Christ in Crisis: Why We Need to Reclaim Jesus, he says, “That is hard to do for those who call themselves Christians, if God so loved the world.”  You see, if the gospel has no meaning for our current, present context and does not inform the way we respond to injustice, the gospel really has NO meaning. 

So, in today’s reading which is all about justice and the faithful stewardship of goods, we discover a message that is very relevant to this present moment in time.  In this reading from Luke’s gospel, justice is presented as an eschatological (meaning end of time) balancing of the scales:  those who suffered in need are made full, and those who have reveled in excess are left empty.  This story is all about a call to live a certain way in the here and now of everyday life.

Jesus has been having a conversation with the Pharisees about the love of money and the search for riches and, today, we find him continuing that conversation.  He does this by telling the Pharisees yet another story, another parable that is rather difficult to hear.  Borrowing from what scholars believe was an Egyptian tale, Jesus tells the story of two worlds:  the world of the haves and that of the have-nots, the world of the rich and that of the poor, the world of the comforted and that of the afflicted.  And, the boundaries between the two are very clearly defined. 

The writer of Luke’s gospel was extremely concerned about the proper use of wealth, something that is not only the focus of all three of our readings today, but also something that is threaded through the entirety of Luke’s telling of the Jesus story.  As we dig into this story, we need to understand that, in this parable, Luke is not trying to settle issues about the afterlife or eternal punishment.   Luke is addressing the way we live our lives, here and now in this present moment.  As Jesus tells this story, he uses a good deal of hyperbole to address those who love their money more than people, their possessions more than the poor, their clothes more than compassion, and their extravagant feasts more than sharing food with the hungry.  And, it is very clear that Jesus has no pity for those who should know better.  The rich man in this story has no way of pretending that he did not know the plight of Lazarus in this life, since the poor man was brought directly to his door, presumably by friends, or fellow beggars.  And, the tale of the afterlife tableau is one of merciless pain suffered by the rich man, pain which cannot be alleviated.  Even when the rich man asks for his family to be warned and spared, he is told that all they need to know is already available, and even if Jesus would be raised from the dead, they would not mend their ways. 

The themes presented in Jesus’ parable stand as powerful indictments of our present context.  The ever-widening chasm between the rich and the poor is one of the most important issues of our day, and this gap becomes ever greater as climate change impacts this world.  The great divide between Lazarus and the rich man didn't spring up upon their deaths or after the last judgment; it was created by the rich man while both of them were living. There is no escaping this indictment in Jesus’ story.  This is a parable urging “the haves” to do justice now, for there will be no opportunity later. 

The message that is implicit in this story is that those who help create the economic divide by greed and selfishness will not be able to right it for themselves in any other life than this one.  And, as we look at the present and necessary focus on issues like climate change and the call to care for the creation we have been given, the rich control resources like land and money, and the rich control systems of taxation that perpetuate the “great divide,” this chasm.  As we look at climate change and its increasing effects upon people, the poor of this world are the ones who already face the greatest risk.  They are and will continue to be the ones who suffer the most.  Warnings and messages are coming in every form, climate change is already happening, but too often these warnings remain unheeded. 

The Rev. Sally Bingham, eco-minister, founder and President of Interfaith Power & Light, says that abuse of natural resources and pollution of your neighbor’s air is a sin against creation.  If we love our neighbors, we don’t pollute our neighbor’s air.  She fervently says, “The environmental crisis is a theological problem, a problem that stems from our view of God and how we relate to God and each other.  And, that makes it important for the church to wrestle with this issue.  You see, our view of God can be one that encourages and/or permits destructive, unjust behavior or one that encourages right relationship and harmony with all of the created order.”

Bingham considers scientists some of our modern-day prophets.  Scientists told us over thirty years ago that carbon dioxide was a heat trapping gas and too much of it would trap heat close to the earth, causing our planet and our oceans to get increasingly warm.  We didn’t listen and became overly dependent on fossil fuels for energy.  We are now paying the price for not listening.  And, our children and grandchildren are going to pay a much greater price!  But, it isn’t too late.  Scientists say we have a window of about eleven years if we intentionally work hard to prevent the worst scenario before us.  So, hopefully, we still CAN work to turn the trend around. 

Many of you may remember when the Rev. Dr. Lisa Dahill was here with us in April.  She has been working to address care of creation for years.  She will tell you that, as theologians and scientists discuss environmental issues, they continually remind us that this is a moral issue, one that requires a change in people’s hearts and minds.  Sally Bingham writes:

What institution changes hearts and minds?  Churches and that is why the religious voice is so important in this dialogue as we look for solutions to climate change.  As religious people we must do our part – and we have a big role in this.  If we don’t protect creation, how can we possibly expect others to?  Moral leadership sits right here with us…Our job then is to become informed, do our part and work so that people understand we will not be the healthy children that God intended and we will not live on a healthy planet unless we can get beyond partisanship and do what is right for the entire communion of life.  The creation that God called good, the creation where God put us and instructed us to till and keep this garden, is the creation that sustains us and will sustain us if we do our part…  We have a responsibility to each other, to the future and to God.  [And, if we do our part,] we will be the people that God placed in the garden to till it and to keep it.  We will be obeying the first and great commandment to love God and each other and to love our neighbors as ourselves.

Christians cannot look at the current state of the world, including related issues of climate challenge and claim ignorance.  These are hard days, to be sure.  In today’s reading, Jesus lays before us the importance of relational social issues as we live our lives right here and right now.  This harsh story Jesus shares with us today, leaves us with a call to act, based on the visibility of the suffering face that is present to us in this very time and this very moment.  The suffering face of humanity and this very earth become for us, the face of Christ himself.  

Friends, we are called to live into God’s dream of justice for this entire world, for the sake of the world.  God created us to live in relationship with all others, and with the gift of this amazing creation we have been given.  The abundant, eternal life Jesus calls us into comes through the community of creation, and that abundant life starts now, as we live into God’s call and seek abundant life for our neighbors and for the all of creation.

This is a special musical presentation of I will Awaken the Dawn by the Faith Lutheran Chancel Choir at Faith Lutheran Church in Okemos, Michigan.

I have to say that, today, Jesus shares with us one whopper of a story.  This is one of the most bizarre, most perplexing and challenging parables in scripture. The root of the problem in trying to understand this story lies in the fact that the “hero” in this tale is so sleazy and crooked.  Theologian, Rudolf Bultmann, even said this particular parable has nothing edifying in it!  I tend to agree with him.  Yet, I find it interesting that, even though I am deeply puzzled by this tale, I am drawn into the world of this sleazy manager whose world has just crumbled.  

 As theologian, Robert Capon suggests, there are basically just two ways of interpreting this parable: you can make the steward out to be a hero or you can make him out to be a villain, and my initial reaction is to choose the latter.  But, let’s dig deeper as we attempt to understand this weird story.  The manager in this peculiar tale is experiencing a crisis-situation as he faces great loss.  This slimy, disgusting fellow has been taking advantage of his position by running up huge personal expenses and he knows his time is short.  His boss is on to his sleazy financial dealings and has become aware of his scheming.  The world in which this slimy fellow has been operating, the world he has known, is essentially coming to an end.  This corrupt manager is shocked into attention as his boss wants a complete audit of his books.  This crooked guy knows he is about to lose his job.  And, as he faces his impending loss, he wants to make sure he has some friends because he knows he will need them in the future.  So, he goes rogue.  He goes one by one to the people who owe a debt to his master.  He asks each of them how much they owe and then considerably slashes their debts.  He fixes the books so that 100 jugs of oil are counted as 50 and 100 containers of wheat are written off as 80.  In essence, he ends up squandering the master’s goods all over again.  This scoundrel of a manager now builds his future by doing what he was accused of doing in the first place.  And, what happens as a result of such action?  The master praises and commends this crooked manager!

I am astounded, mystified and perplexed, and I have to ask, “Jesus, what in God’s name is your point?  This is one of the most outrageous stories you have told us, and I am very uncomfortable with what you are saying!”

Well, Jesus’ stories were not meant to make us feel comfortable. 
They were meant to confront, to challenge conventional wisdom and to shock, and this is one of the most shocking.  Today, we are stopped in our tracks and do not know what to make of this bewildering tale.  Jesus seems to turn our thinking on end with this weird story as he gives us a parable of reversal.  It is as though Jesus says to us, “You have been seeing the world one way.  Let me turn your world upside down.  The moral of my story is not what you think.  My ways are not the world’s ways.” 

Jesus’ parables, his teaching and his very presence announced a different world, a reversal of the status quo.  Remember, Jesus told the people that God was not far off, but available to them: the “kingdom is at hand,” he said, right in our midst, not hidden away behind a veil in the temple.  This was radical stuff!  Jesus worked on the Sabbath; he sat down at table with the prostitutes and tax collectors, all the wrong people.  He was continually breaking the rules, and he was an affront to the morality and respectability of the status quo in the religious community.  That is why they had him killed.

So, what does this story mean?  Well, maybe, just maybe, this is a parable for us in this complex moment in time, a time when many look to the future and feel a real sense of uncertainty.  As we think about the future, many are experiencing anxiety.  And, during times of uncertainty, we always fear a certain kind of loss, a loss of the world as we have known it.  Yes, just maybe this crazy story is helpful for us right now. 

Robert Capon, in his book The Parables of Grace, writes this about today’s passage:

The unique contribution of this parable to our understanding of Jesus is its insistence that grace cannot come to the world through respectability.  Respectability regards only life, success, winning; it will have no truck with the grace that works by death and losing – which is the only kind of grace there is.  (The Parables of Grace, p. 150)

That is quite profound and truthfully, quite odd.  Grace works by losing - by death and losing?  Talk about reversal, talk about something that shatters our thinking.  However, that is the message of the gospel.  In the cross of Christ, a place of death and enormous loss, we discover grace.  We discover grace, love and forgiveness beyond measure.  And, we discover a world of grace where the God who loves us suffers with us in the depth of our pain, in the depth of the uncertainties we face, and even in the depth of the loss we experience.

If we look again at what this rogue manager does, we might discover that, as he faces his loss, he does something he does not have the authority to do - he forgives debts!  Yes, he forgives debts!  In that sense, Jesus is like the rogue manager.  Many, including the religious leaders, felt Jesus did not have the authority to forgive sin, but he did it anyway and it cost him his life.  He lived by embracing the lost, and he was nailed to a cross.  Such grace, such forgiveness, is not cheap.  Such grace is costly.  But, such grace is the one thing that changes us, the one thing that heals us and the one thing that makes us new.

As I think about the life of this congregation, I cannot help but reflect upon the way God has graciously and lovingly been present to us through all that has happened over the past several years.  God has not only been drawing us into God’s love, but also drawing us ever more deeply into discipleship.   As we look to the future, we are called to live into God’s reign where grace, forgiveness and love outperform everything else.  As we look to the future, we are called to live into God’s reign where all are welcomed and loved, oblivious to gender, sexual orientation, ethnicity, race, wealth, social rank and place.  As we look to the future, we are called to live into a grace that shatters the prejudice that blinds us, a grace that gathers together people of every ethnicity and background and makes us one.  As we look to the future, we are called to live into God’s vision of peace for this world and announce the gospel good news of a God who is like that crazy manager and forgives sin.  And, like that crazy, shrewd manager in today’s story, we are called to use our gifts, our resources, and our skills in service to the master, our gracious God.  We are called to invest those gifts in returns that are priceless, not only for us, but for the sake of this very broken world.  As we do this, God can and will use us, use our creativity and even our shrewdness to benefit others and accomplish God’s mission and purpose in this world that God so deeply loves. 

This is a special musical performance of Bless His Holy Name by the Chancel Choir and Faith Bells of Faith Lutheran Church in Okemos, Michigan.

I don’t know about you, but I am increasingly appalled by some of the public rhetoric we hear these days.  I find it disconcerting the way name calling has become a mainstream component of public discourse.  In fact, every day brings a new barrage of verbal bullets that dominate the headlines and take this vocal warfare to a new, unprecedented level.  And, quite frankly, I don’t see it getting better over the next year.  Such a war of words does nothing but categorize and diminish others, and at the same time create increased brokenness in our culture and society.  This brokenness spreads like a virulent virus into other facets of life, into our communities, organizations, our schools, our local governments and even our families.  Such name calling and verbal assault only breed violence, hatred, fear and contempt.  

One word that has been used all too frequently is the word “loser.”  In a culture which places high value on winning and succeeding, a culture in which being on top and gaining first place are what we teach our children to strive for, the concepts of losing and lostness are not only looked down upon, they are truly despised. 

Well, today, Jesus has something to tell us about losing and being lost.  Jesus is on his way to Jerusalem and he has been teaching about discipleship.  He has much to say about the manner in which we treat the least of those among us and about what it means to be a disciple.  All along the way he has been saying things like, “If anyone would be first, he must be last of all and servant of all.” Or, “He who is the least among you is the one who is great.”  And, just last week we shockingly heard him say, “Anyone who does not carry his cross like a common criminal and follow me cannot be my disciple.”  None of these words describe winning as perceived within our current cultural context.

Today, we find Jesus associating with those who were considered losers.  The despised tax collectors and sinners were coming near to him, gathering around him and listening to him.  And, the Scribes and Pharisees, the most religious of people, did not take kindly to this.  After all, the Scribes and Pharisees would never do something as questionable as hang out with losers.  No.  They attended church every Friday night, or at the very least once a month.  They tithed and were big supporters of the synagogue.  They did not use four letter words, they didn’t eat pork, and they were always there for Rally Sunday and other important events.  They were a very committed bunch of so called “good” people.  They considered themselves winners.  And here Jesus was, attracted to the so-called outsiders, the losers, the sinners. Furthermore, he seemed to be enjoying the company of the tax collectors, the camel and donkey drivers, the tanners, the prostitutes and all those that elite society labeled as losers.  What’s more – he not only welcomed them, he seemed to value them.  Well, the Scribes and Pharisees began to grumble extensively about Jesus consorting with such losers saying, “This guy welcomes outcasts and even eats with them.” 

So, Jesus, knowing their attitude toward the outsiders and toward those considered losers, told them this story:  There once was a shepherd who had one hundred sheep, but one got lost, and so the shepherd left the 99 to find the one.  The Pharisees smiled pleasantly to themselves because they agreed with the story; God always goes out to find the lost; that is, those people outside their church.  Jesus continued; the shepherd found the lost sheep and returned, carried it home on his shoulders and was so full of joy he called for celebration.  Jesus said there is more joy in heaven over one sinner who truly repents than over 99 good people, who don’t think they are lost, who don’t think that they have any need of repentance.  Hmmmm.  The Pharisees sensed that this parable was directed at them; but they weren’t sure. So, Jesus told them a second parable.  There was an old woman who lost a precious coin, not just any coin, but the most precious coin that she had. She swept and swept her house ever so carefully, looking for that lost precious coin.  She found the coin and was so happy, she called all her friends and threw a big party.  Jesus continued by saying, “And so it is with God.  There is great joy in heaven over one sinner who truly repents.” 

Well, the turn of the phrase at the end of these stories with words about repentance were challenging.  The Pharisees sensed that Jesus was somehow talking about them and they didn’t like what he was implying because it was so clear to the Pharisees that they were part of the found.  They were the insiders and the “good” religious folk.

We live in a world in which we, like the Pharisees, too often use our differences as a means of delineating ourselves from others, and as a means of underlining our supposed superiority.  We are blind to the fact that we are incomplete without the very people of whom we disapprove. We are only 99.  The truth is, we are incomplete without the lost.  And, true repentance happens when our minds are changed to such a degree that we cannot see a community as whole until all are included, and none are “lost.”

Like the Scribes and Pharisees, we say God is a God of love, but we tend to make that love so conditional.  We tend to make it conditional on our keeping the rules, rules which are too often somewhat arbitrary habits that support our local prejudices and personal perspectives. We use these rules to bolster our own status and position.  This sense of conditional love leads us toward, or allows us to live in, a mindset of disapproval. For some reason, fundamentally at our core we seem to think that God disapproves of us and loves us only when we fit in with what we imagine to be God’s expectations; expectations that have an alarming correlation with our own social expectations of what is acceptable.  Consequently, our imagining of God determines the way we treat others.

But, today, all of our readings give witness to a God who loves unconditionally, a God who has a heart for losers, a heart for all who are lost.  In our reading from Exodus, God reconciles with the idol-worshiping people of Israel.  In our reading from 1 Timothy, Paul bears witness to the risen Lord who calls even the violent, blasphemous persecutor that Paul once was to become a disciple and spread the good news of God’s unconditional love.  And, in our gospel reading, we discover a God who will never abandon the lost.  In fact, the entire cause of the rescue and recovery operation is the shepherd’s or the woman’s determination to find the lost, God’s determination to find the lost.  The reality is neither the lost sheep nor the lost coin does a blessed thing except hang around in its lostness.  And, we learn from these stories the startling reality that it is precisely our sin, and not our goodness, that most commend us to the grace of God. 

Wow!  The fact of the matter is we are all losers!  We are all lost and all broken.  But, God’s heart is so full of love for all that God sent us Jesus.  And, in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus, we see the overwhelming, unconditional love and overflowing grace of God written large for the world to see.  The cross and resurrection testify to God’s faithfulness in loving and rescuing all that are lost.  In the person of Jesus, we meet a God of abundant grace.  And, words like “losers” are gone because all are welcomed at the party God is throwing – the party Jesus hosts where he welcomes sinners and eats with them.  This is the party where we all are called “guest,” “graced,” “gifted,” “loved,” “cherished,” and “empowered.”  Come to the party, celebrate and join the feast.

The Cost of Discipleship is the title of a book by German theologian, Dietrich Bonhoeffer.  In it, Bonhoeffer spells out what he believes it means to follow Christ, what discipleship really is all about.    Bonhoeffer understood that following Jesus is not always easy.  He wanted to honestly communicate the message that, if you live into a life of discipleship, there will be costs to living such a life.  And, ultimately, toward the end of World War II, Bonhoeffer was killed because of his commitment to following Jesus.

In our gospel reading for today, we find Jesus bluntly teaching about the costs involved if we are to live a life of discipleship and faithfully follow him.  And, I have to say, his words about discipleship are daunting and uncomfortable to hear.  Today, we find Jesus speaking to a large crowd of people.  Among the throng, there were some who were contemplating the possibility of becoming disciples.  Jesus’ response to them communicates the seriousness of discipleship and his words make it clear that faithful discipleship is not for the faint of heart. 

The stakes have been rising throughout this chapter in Luke, and it is becoming clearer just what is at stake when one says he or she wants to follow Jesus.  Jesus bluntly spells out the high cost of discipleship.  For example, can you imagine inviting someone to come and be part of our community of faith and saying to them, “Come and check us out this Sunday and we’ll tell you how hard it is to join our church.  First, you’ve got to hate your family.  Then, you must carry a cross like a condemned criminal.  Along with that, we expect you to give up everything you have worked hard to have.  Do these things and you can call yourself a member of our community of Faith.”  Now, that sounds like a sure and certain way to grow a church!  Right?

Well, I think we need to unpack what Jesus is saying and take a deep dive into exploring the meaning of this passage.  First, Jesus says, “If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, his wife and children, his brothers and sisters – yes, even his own life – he cannot be my disciple.”  Now, most of us, when we think of Jesus, usually connect his message to themes of love and not hate.  “Hate” is such a strong word and it seems contradictory to our understanding of the Christian life.  And, in our nation, a culture that often elevates “family values” by placing them higher than almost anything else, the idea of hating family is offensive.  

When unpacking this word, theologian, John Petty, writes:

The word "hate" is laden with emotion in our cultural context.  It suggests repulsion at a visceral level.  In this case, in the context of first century middle-eastern culture, to "hate" [one's family or] one’s own self means that the person disconnects from everything that has heretofore defined that person.  To put it another way, one's past no longer defines who they are.  One's identity is no longer formed by one's former allegiances, nor one's experiences in life, nor even one's genetics.  These are part of the old world which is giving way to the new world of God.  Followers of Jesus are not defined by the past, but by their work in the present and their future hope.

Jesus uses hyperbole to get across the seriousness of what it means to follow him.  Jesus understands the transformation which occurs in the life of a disciple.  Once a follower commits to Jesus, then life, relationships, time, and possessions are viewed through the lens of Jesus.  Even family relationships pale in comparison to our relationship with God.  Our relationship to God is our first priority and ultimate concern.

          Yes, Jesus’ words are surprising and daunting.  And, he is not yet finished.  He continues on saying, “Anyone who does not carry his cross and follow me cannot be my disciple.”  Well, this demand had to hit some of the people like a ton of bricks and take their breath away.  In all likelihood, some of them had witnessed the public shame and humiliation of a condemned criminal carrying his cross through the city streets to the place of execution, just as Jesus himself would eventually do. 

Quite honestly, we hear so much about the cross and cross bearing that I don’t think we are able to always grasp what Jesus is saying.  In fact, the language of cross bearing has been corrupted by overuse.  Bearing a cross has nothing to do with experiences like living with chronic illness, painful physical conditions, or trying family relationships. It is instead what we do voluntarily, as a consequence of our commitment to Jesus Christ. Cross bearing requires deliberate sacrifice and exposure to risk and ridicule in order to follow Jesus. And, this commitment is not just a way of life, it is a commitment to a person. A disciple follows another person and learns a new way of life. [Luke, New Interpreter’s Bible, p. 293]  

It is interesting to note that the term for “cost” appears only once in the New Testament, and it is in this passage.  When Jesus talks about the cross and the cost of discipleship, he gets down to the meat and potatoes of what following him really is about.  The cost inevitably has to do with what you give up, what you sacrifice, what you deny, and the choices you make.  

Life is always full of choices.  Life is about counting and weighing the cost of the many things, events and opportunities that vie for our attention.  Sporting events, family events, work events, the list is endless.  But, to carry your cross is to carry the choices and burdens and realities of a life that has made a certain commitment to bringing about the Kingdom of God here and now. That’s certainly what it meant for Jesus.  In his weekly blog, theologian, David Lose, writes:

Jesus isn’t inviting meaningless sacrifice. He isn’t inviting door-mat discipleship or a whiney Christianity (“that’s just my cross to bear”). Rather, he’s inviting us to a full-bodied Christian faith that stands over and against all those things that are often presented to us as life by the culture. Jesus invites us, that is, to the kind of abundant life that is discovered only as you give yourself away. The kingdom of God Jesus proclaims is about life and love. And just as love is one thing that only grows when it’s given away, so also is genuine and abundant life….The choices we make, the relationships we decide to pursue, the way we spend this life we’ve been given, may cause not just puzzlement but dissatisfaction, even upset, among those we care about. But the question before us, as put so fiercely by Moses in the first reading, is whether we will choose life or death.

Always the consummate teacher, Jesus then uses two parables to emphasize his point.  First, he describes building a tower and the process used to build it.  Using a form of cost-benefit analysis, he says, “A wise person estimates the cost.  Is it worth it?  Can I complete it?  In the same manner, a wise ruler calculates the cost of the war before going into battle.  Is it worth it?  Can I complete the war?” 

Our vocation and call as disciples is always played out in our daily lives by the choices we make.  The decision-making process often requires an aspect of cost-benefit analysis, and sometimes choosing life – life that truly matters – is very costly.  As my dear friend Bill Uetricht says, “To follow Jesus, you have to count the cost.  It isn’t going to be easy.  It’s going to take you to some uncomfortable places.  It is going to challenge some basic assumptions you have about life.  It is going to unsettle all your little pet projects.”  However, we weigh our choices in light of the gift of love and grace God has given us.  And, for those who hear a call to discipleship, Jesus himself becomes the sorting principle – Jesus, the embodiment of self-offering love, of mercy and compassion, the one who is our “true north.” 

We follow the one who loved this world so much he went to the cross.  Following Jesus is not easy, but His word is still the best news this world has ever heard for bad times or good, and that is what you and I are called to remember together. Discipleship is demanding. Discipleship is a delightful thing, and discipleship is an intentional, determined thing. If you would follow Him, come with all that you are and with all you have.  The promise of life, abundant life, life that truly matters is always in front of us. And, the promise of God’s unconditional love, forgiveness and grace far outweigh whatever the cost discipleship might bring.  May God’s love free us to choose life and daily center our lives in Christ, beginning right here and right now.

This is a special musical performance of Holy Thy Name by the Chancel Choir at Faith Lutheran Church in Okemos, Michigan

This is a special musical performance of Great Is Thy Faithfulness by handbell duet Addie Thompson and Rich Weingartner at Faith Lutheran Church in Okemos, Michigan.

As some of you already know, hospitality and welcome are at the top of my list when it comes to the way we live together in community.  And, when extending hospitality to others, one of the best ways to show welcome is by sharing a meal together and spending time in meaningful conversation with others.  In fact, I really believe that extending hospitality to others by eating together is a vital aspect of what it means to be human. 

         The writer of Luke’s gospel understood meal-time hospitality and table fellowship.  Luke’s gospel contains more meal-time scenes than any of the other gospels.   In fact, meal-time experiences and parties were one way in which the writer of Luke described and portrayed a vision of the Christian life and Christian community.  In Luke, Jesus is frequently eating, drinking, partying and participating in table fellowship with all kinds of people.  Eating with people from various backgrounds and walks of life was a frequent occurrence for Jesus whether it was on the way to Emmaus, in an upper room, in the fields along the road as the disciples plucked heads of grain, in the home of a despised tax collector, in the homes of respected religious leaders, or as we see today, in the home of an unnamed Pharisee who offers Jesus hospitality for a Sabbath dinner. 

         The respected, social climbing, religious Pharisees are watching Jesus very closely, watching his every move.  And, Jesus has been watching their behavior.  Having observed how they chose banquet seats and noting how they elbowed themselves into the place of honor, Jesus begins to give advice on table fellowship and hospitality Jesus style. He says, “When someone invites you to dinner, don’t take the place of honor.  Somebody more important than you might have been invited by the host.  Then he’ll come and call out in front of everybody, ‘You’re in the wrong place.  The place of honor belongs to this man.’  Red-faced, you’ll have to make your way to the very last table, the only place left.  When you’re invited to dinner, go and sit at the last place.  Then when the host comes, he may very well say, ‘Friend, come up to the front.’  That will give the dinner guests something to talk about!  What I’m saying is, if you walk around with your nose in the air, you’re going to end up flat on your face.  But if you’re content to be simply yourself, you will become more than yourself.”

         Quoting the book of Proverbs Jesus advises the hustling guests to not rush to the head of the dining room, but rather sit in a humbler location on the happy chance they should be invited closer to the attractive host.  Well, Jesus’ words would have been very disconcerting and offensive to these guests.  They lived in, and were the embodiment of, an honor-shame culture in which issues of status and recognition were of utmost importance.  Jesus’ words would have been very humiliating because moving to a lower position would mean a lowering of prestige and social capital.

Well, to their dismay, this was not all Jesus had to say.  There is more to come because Jesus is not done with his critique.  After criticizing the group regarding guest etiquette, he daringly turns to the host and gives a lesson in hospitality.   Jesus says, “The next time you put on a dinner, don’t just invite your friends and family and rich neighbors, the kind of people who will return the favor.  Invite some people who never get invited out, the misfits from the wrong side of the tracks.  You will not only be a blessing, you yourself will experience a blessing because your guests won’t be able to return the favor.   However, the favor will be returned – oh, how it will be returned! – at the resurrection of God’s people.”

         In this scene, the writer of Luke’s gospel inverts traditional, cultural banquet etiquette and table fellowship.  First, he criticizes the behavior of the prestige seeking guests, then he lectures the host about how he should have invited all those they considered losers in the community.  I have to say Jesus’ words and methods were not going to win friends and influence people.  Jesus was never a candidate for the congeniality award.  But, as theologian Robert Capon suggests:

Jesus is at pains, as he has been all through his final journey to Jerusalem, to set forth death and lostness, not life and success, as the means of salvation.  And at this dinner party he has found himself in the presence of a bunch of certified, solid-brass winners: establishment types who are positive they’ve got all the right tickets, religious and otherwise, and who think a fun evening consists of clawing your way to the top of the social heap.  Therefore, when he addresses them, he is principally concerned to redress the imbalance he feels all around him, to assert once again his conviction that a life lived by winning is a losing proposition.  (The Parables of Grace, p.125.)

My friends, we are a people who specialize in bookkeeping. We like to strive to be first, to be important and be winners.  And, we do this by keeping records and keeping score, by focusing on being on top and being front-runners, by constantly juggling accounts in our heads.  We are enslaved to our bookkeeping, our ladder climbing and our scorekeeping.  And, in the person of Jesus, God has announced that God has once and for all, forever, pensioned off the bookkeeping department!  God has in fact rejected our bookkeeping.  Jesus warns the host and each one of us to not consult the records we keep on people:  not the Friend/Foe ledger, not the Rich/Poor volume, not any of the Nice/Nasty, Winners/Losers, or Good/Bad journals and books we keep on people.  I have to say, letting go of that is hard.  But, as far as God is concerned, that way of doing business is over and done with.  As Robert Capon says, “It may be our sacred conviction that the only way to keep God happy, the stars in their courses, our children safe, our psyches adjusted, and our neighbors reasonable is to be ready, at every moment, to have the books we have kept on ourselves and others audited.  But that is not God’s conviction because God has taken away the handwriting that was against us.  In Jesus’ death and resurrection, God has declared that he isn’t the least interested in examining anybody’s books ever again, not even God’s own:  he’s nailed them all to the cross.” 

Jesus is saying to each one of us, “Listen, you are mired in your scorekeeping lives.  You are so busy trying to hold the world together by getting your accounts straight that you hardly have time to notice that it’s falling apart faster than ever.  Why don’t you just let go?  Why don’t you just let that die?  Thumb your nose at the ledger!  Drop dead to the accounting!  Because it’s not just one more thing that can’t save you; it’s the flypaper that catches everything else that can’t save you and leaves you stuck with it forever.  Look, I’m on my way to Jerusalem to die so you can be saved, free for nothing.  I’m going up there to give you a dramatic demonstration of shutting up once and for all the subject of divine bookkeeping.  What’s the point, then, of your keeping records when I’m not?” (Robert Capon)

Yes, meal-time experiences and parties were one way in which the writer of Luke described and portrayed a vision of the Christian life.  And, the banquet is a symbol of the reign of God.  Table fellowship becomes a metaphor for the kingdom of God, where social boundaries and unjust divisions in human community no longer exist.  Jesus embodies radical hospitality.  Jesus invites us to stop the bookkeeping and let go of all the imposed boundaries and distinctions we try to create.  Jesus invites us to be the community of God’s people we are called to be.   Jesus’ words reach across boundaries of place and time and call us to bear witness to the fellowship that exists between God and all of humanity.  Jesus’ words call us to let go of our score keeping and live into the joy and freedom of fellowship with God and all others.  Such fellowship is all about grace, the grace and love in which God holds not only us, but the entire cosmos.  That is table fellowship, Jesus style!