|
For
previous sermons see our archived files below to the right.
To
search by biblical reference please scroll to the end of this page.
29th
August 2010
(for
a Microsoftword version click here)
More Important? Unimportant? EQUAL!
Note – there are some film clips which are integral to this
sermon. To view them place your cursor over the link and left click
while pressing Ctrl.
Reading:
Luke
14:1, 7-14
Jesus at a Pharisee's House
1One Sabbath, when
Jesus went to eat in the house of a prominent Pharisee, he was being
carefully watched.
7When he noticed how
the guests picked the places of honor at the table, he told them
this parable: 8"When someone invites you to a
wedding feast, do not take the place of honor, for a person more
distinguished than you may have been invited. 9If so, the
host who invited both of you will come and say to you, 'Give this
man your seat.' Then, humiliated, you will have to take the least
important place. 10But when you are invited, take the
lowest place, so that when your host comes, he will say to you,
'Friend, move up to a better place.' Then you will be honored in the
presence of all your fellow guests. 11For everyone who
exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be
exalted."
12Then Jesus said to
his host, "When you give a luncheon or dinner, do not invite
your friends, your brothers or relatives, or your rich neighbors; if
you do, they may invite you back and so you will be repaid. 13But
when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame,
the blind, 14and you will be blessed. Although they
cannot repay you, you will be repaid at the resurrection of the
righteous."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w0DUsGSMwZY
That
clip gives us a flavour of our theme this morning, a theme which
starts from a couple of verse in Proverbs:
Do
not exalt yourself in the king's presence, and do not claim a place
among great men; it is better for him to say to you, "Come up
here," than for him to humiliate you before a nobleman.
(Proverbs 25:6-7a)
Bit
of a warning there for anyone who thinks they’ve nabbed the best
places in the pews.
But
it’s mainly a guide for us this morning as we think about how we
can sometimes act as if we are more important than other people.
Let
me show you a film clip about a young boy called
Flint
.
Flint
is
actually very clever, but as you are about to see, he’s not very
clever with people.
Clip
from Cloudy with a chance of
meatballs.
http://www.wingclips.com/movie-clips/cloudy-with-a-chance-of-meatballs/a-little-different
There are a couple of examples of people not treating others as
equals there.
The
class loudmouth was hardly being thoughtful toward
Flint
.
But
Flint
, like most of us now and then, had got it wrong too, thinking
himself to be cleverer than others.
We
can all imagine that we are somehow more special than others.
But
we usually get caught out if we behave that way.
And
then, when we wish we hadn’t, it’s like
Flint
said: we can’t run away from our own feet.
What
we can do, though, is say sorry to God for those times when we do
get it wrong.
And
that’s what we’re going to do now.
Let’s
spend a moment in quiet as each of us thinks of the things of this
week that we need to say sorry for.
Time
of confession and absolution……………..
We’ve
just told God about the things we’ve done wrong this week and
we’ve received his forgiveness.
That
meant that we had to stop being proud about ourselves, and I think
that makes God proud of us.
This
next clip shows something that can happen when we make the mistake
of putting our own interests ahead of other peoples.
Watch
out for the girl who starts to walk behind the teacher.
Clip
from The Ron Clark Story,
http://www.wingclips.com/movie-clips/the-ron-clark-story/cutting-in-line
Shameika
pushing to the front of the queue, acting as if she was more
important than the others in her class.
Not
a good thing.
Even
worse because she lied about it.
But
when she did admit it and went to the back of the queue, was her
teacher angry with her?
No,
he said ….he was proud of her.
Just
like God when we admit our faults to him.
We’re
going to listen to something from the bible that tells us a bit more
about not acting as if we are more important than others.
It
tells us what happened one Sabbath, when Jesus went to eat in the
house of a well known leader of one of the religious groups.
When
he noticed how the guests picked the places of honour at the table,
he told them this parable: "When someone invites you to a
wedding feast, do not take the place of honour, for a person more
distinguished than you may have been invited.
If
so, the host who invited both of you will come and say to you, 'Give
this man your seat.'
Then,
humiliated, you will have to take the least important place.
But
when you are invited, take the lowest place, so that when your host
comes, he will say to you, 'Friend, move up to a better place.'
Then
you will be honoured in the presence of all your fellow guests.
For
everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles
himself will be exalted."
Then
Jesus said to his host, "When you give a luncheon or dinner, do
not invite your friends, your brothers or relatives, or your rich
neighbours; if you do, they may invite you back and so you will be
repaid.
But
when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame,
the blind, and you will be blessed. Although they cannot repay you,
you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous."
Let’s
have another look at part of that story.
Picture
it.
We’ve
got people getting themselves as close as they can to their host.
He’s
the well dressed man at the far end.
It
looks like he’s a successful man, the sort of person people like
to be seen around.
It’s
a bit like when people get their picture taken next to someone well
known.
It
makes them feel more important.
Closest
to us we’ve got a man who is holding back, his clothing is modest,
he’s quite happy to let others pretend to be important.
Now
we see someone who had got
close to their host,
but
the host has walked round behind him and is explaining that he wants
someone else to come up to that place,
so
this man is going to have to move down.
And
he doesn’t look very happy to be told that!
Next……
the host invites the man who had stayed back and brings him right up
beside him.
The
host could see that this person wasn’t the sort to put on airs and
graces.
He
could see that this was the sort of genuine and honest person he
would like to welcome.
And
finally, we have Jesus explaining to the host how if,
rather
than inviting those who have a lot and might invite him back to
their homes,
he
will be blessed if he invites instead those who can never repay his
hospitality,
people
like the blind beggar Jesus is describing.
There
are a couple of lessons in that.
One
is that if we are hosting a party we shouldn’t look down our noses
at the thought of inviting those whom others don’t think
important.
And
the other is, making sure that you get to be right at the front
isn’t always good for you.
And
if you do find yourself in the best seat, you do need to pay
attention to what else is happening around you.
And
for all that, people do sometimes behave as if they are more
important than others.
You
might have seen it in the playground at school, when someone went
running around expecting everyone else to move out of their way.
You
might have seen it when exam results came out and some people
thought they were more important than those who hadn’t got such
good grades.
You
might have seen it out on the roads where a driver was so determined
to overtake that they forced other drivers to brake to make room for
them.
You
might have seen it when you have been sat with others as food
arrived and, straight away, someone else has leaned over and helped
themselves to the best pieces.
There
are all sorts of ways in which people act as if they are more
important than others.
You
can probably think of times when you have seen things like that.
And,
if we are really honest, we can probably think of times when we’ve
done something like it ourselves.
But
Jesus is telling us that this is not the way we should be.
In
fact, he’s saying that we should be the other way.
That
we should put the interests of other people before our own.
And
we see that too.
We
see that in the playground at school, when someone stops whatever
they were doing and goes and sits with someone who is looking sad.
We
see that in exam results when people really show their friendship by
encouraging those who have not done as well.
We
see it out on the roads, when a driver waves someone on ahead of
them at a busy junction.
We
see it at the table when someone passes the food to everyone else
before taking something for themselves.
These
are acts of love for other people.
Examples
of valuing other people as equals, regardless of how the world might
value them.
Now,
I’ve sometimes made the mistake of thinking myself important and I
know how embarrassing it is when we get cut down to size.
Sufficiently
embarrassing that I’m not going to share any of that with you now.
But
there is one experience I will share, about a time when I got it
right.
It
was about 10 years ago, while I was in the RAF and working in a
Headquarters near
Gloucester
.
Sometimes,
I had to travel by train from
Gloucester
to meetings in
London
.
And,
although I’d never have paid for 1st class myself,
this
was in the days when I would be given
a ticket for 1st class travel when travelling on duty.
And
that’s a dangerous thing – it can make you feel just a little
bit superior!
Anyway,
early one morning I arrived at the station, looking forward to a
very comfortable journey.
And,
on the platform, I happened to meet the assistant minister at our
church.
We’d
become friends, his name was Roger and he was the parish evangelist.
It
turned out that Roger was travelling for an interview for his next
appointment.
Now,
Roger was paying for his own travel, so he had a ticket for standard
class,
what
used to be called 2nd class – just as I would have done
had I been paying.
The
train pulled in. First
class at the front. Second class at the back. And I had
a choice.
Either
I could say ‘nice to see you Roger, I’ll not be joining you as
I’ll be up front in the really comfortable bit – good luck with
the interview’.
Or
I could say nothing and simply join him in the normal bit of the
train.
So
I said nothing and when the train arrived I settled in to standard
class for a chat with Roger.
Anyone
want to guess what happened next?
The
conductor came and checked the tickets.
And
rather to my embarrassment, he pointed out, in front of Roger, that
mine was a 1st class ticket.
I
explained that I’d bumped into my friend and that I’d decided to
travel with him.
Anyone
want to guess what happened then?
Well
the conductor said, ‘that’s ok – why don’t you both come on
up to 1st class?’
Why
don’t you both come on up to 1st class? You
could have knocked us down with a feather.
But
off we went. The
conductor leading the way.
And
there we were, Roger and me, seated in the very comfortable 1st
class compartment, drinking complimentary coffee, eating
complimentary biscuits, and happily enjoying our good fortune!
Roger
was delighted and so was I.
Now,
Jesus says - when you
are invited, take the lowest place, so that when your host comes, he
will say to you, 'Friend, move up to a better place.' Then you will
be honoured in the presence of all your fellow guests.
And
roughly speaking that’s what happened on that train.
My
friend and I were moved up to the better place and travelled
together in the posh part of the train.
But,
that’s not normally the way things happen. And
it’s not quite what Jesus is saying either.
The
truth is it’s far more usual for our kinder acts to go seemingly
unnoticed.
But
there is someone who is always watching and noticing.
Someone
who knows that it’s not all about seeking rewards in this life.
Someone
who tells us to build up our treasure not on earth, but in heaven.
Jesus.
And
there will be a day when he is going to remind us of how we lived.
So,
just as we saw with
Flint
and his spray-on shoes, as
we saw with Shameika jumping the queue, whenever we act as if
we’re cleverer or more important than others, we know that we will
be embarrassed – either now or in front of Jesus.
But
we also know that Jesus is really pleased about those times when we
put other people’s interests ahead of our own.
Times
when we don’t think about 1st class or 2nd
class.
Times
when we put others first, building up treasure in heaven.
And
that’s how it is in God’s kingdom.
Because
Jesus came and travelled with us,
we’ve
all been invited to come and sit with him in the best of places.
We
have free entry, because Jesus has already paid.
And
it is for ever.
We
are all equal in God’s eyes.
God
made us.
God
knows us.
God
loves us.
And
God has picked us to be his.
Our
final clip reminds us of what that’s like.
Clip
from A shine of rainbow.
http://www.wingclips.com/movie-clips/a-shine-of-rainbows/why-did-you-pick-me
God
has picked us – he’s
always there, he knows us and he loves us.
He
doesn’t see any of us as more important or less important than
anyone else.
I
think it’s down to each of us to do the same.
Amen
AW
|