Humility and Hospitality
Pat Edmonds Reflection of September 1, 2019
Based on
Luke 14: 1, 7-14
Hebrews 13: 1-8, 15-16
Humility and hospitality are the themes of both the lesson from Hebrews and Jesus’ parable in the Gospel of Luke. Our opening hymn this morning speaks of how we are all part of the family of God. We are all welcomed by the Lord in this sanctuary. Here in God’s place there is life to be shared. Did you know? – that when this hymn was first published in Songs for a Gospel People – that little bright green book – it was titled “Part of the Family”? There was also another verse not included in Voices United. It went like this: Children and elders, middlers and teens,
Singles and doubles and in betweens,
Strong eighty-fivers and streetwise sixteens
Greeters and shoppers, long-time and new
Nobody here has a claim on a pew,
And whether we’re many, or whether we’re few
We are a part of the family.
Nobody here has a claim on a pew is the theme of today’s gospel reading from Luke. We see Jesus eating at the home of a prominent Pharisee and he is watching how the guests behave. Each seeks out the best place – the places of honor at the table where they can be noticed by the other guests and, by their proximity to the host, be served first and receive the best portions that the table offers.
This reminds me a bit of the dilemma our UCW faces at their Annual Christmas Luncheon to which we invite guests from other women’s groups. How do I decide which table goes to the buffet table first, second, last etc? I usually use some silly criteria such as – drawing table numbers from a hat, the table with someone wearing red shoes because it’s Christmas or someone who is visiting from a long distance or the group with the oldest member (although some don’t want to admit to this!). I don’t know why. I am beginning to regard being a senior as a badge of honor! Anyway I usually end up letting those who were the last table for the main course be the first ones to go to the dessert table. There is always more food than necessary so no one goes hungry.
What does Jesus say about seating at a banquet? “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 and the host may ask you to give up the prime seat you have chosen. How embarrassing! But when you arrive, take the lowest place so your host may come and ask you to move to better place. Then rather than be humiliated you will be honored by all your fellow guests. For everyone who exalts himself shall be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted. I am reminded of the passage from Mark chapter 10 where Jesus says the greatest at the banquet is the slave who does the serving, not the host sitting at the head of the table getting all the attention and telling others what to do. According to Jesus greatness is found in humility and service. The only real greatness lies in service. Greatness in God’s kingdom is achieved by serving others; just the opposite of what society considers tobe great. We think the way to be number 1 is with hard work and long hours, stepping on others who get in the way, being tough and stern and making lots of sacrifices. Like so many lessons in the Bible, we learn that God treats us the opposite from how the world does. So often in the world, he who humbles himself is left in the dust. He’s passed over for promotions, ignored, forgotten, discarded. In the world, he who exalts himself is noticed by others. He’s praised, remembered, elected to office. But God is different. God exalts the humble and humbles the proud. God raises up those the world has forgotten and gives them a place of honor.
Humility is also a theme of today’s reading. What is humility? I found that Alcoholics Anonymous defines humility this way – “Humility is not thinking less of yourself. It is thinking of yourself less.” Let’s think about that for a minute. “Humility is not thinking less of yourself. It is thinking of yourself less.” I also discovered that this definition of humility was originally a quote from the author C.S. Lewis. So as Christians we are asked to think of ourselves less and about others more.
There is an old country and western song recorded by Willie Nelson that goes like this:
Oh Lord it’s hard to be humble
When you’re perfect in every way.
I can’t wait to look in the mirror
Cuz I get better looking every day.
To know me is to love me
I must be one really great man.
Oh Lord it’s hard to be humble
But I’m doing the best I can.
I wonder if Willie Nelson ever read today’s scripture!
We are justified not by our actions or our looks and boasting of them. We are justified by God’s mercy. As disciples we are to ground our lives in God’s love – admitting mistakes and learning from them, being thankful instead of boastful and serving God and God’s people with dignity. God gives us the strength required. We need only believe in his mercy and come before God humbly in prayer, trusting in his forgiveness and guidance.
The passages today also deal with hospitality. Hospitality is no small matter, scripturally speaking. Think of all the times in his short ministry that Jesus spoke of being a good host and a good guest. So much of what Jesus taught and did took place in the midst of a meal. Whether it was a wedding in Cana of Galilee, or feeding a crowd of people on a hillside, or eating with tax collectors and sinners, or accepting a spur-of-the moment dinner invitation from a short man sitting up in a tree, it was at a meal that Jesus showed people who he was and what their lives were really meant to be. There was always a message in the kind of meal that it was.
And what is the message in the wedding feast passage? Is it perhaps one of universal hospitality? Is it a reminder to apply the Golden Rule, “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you”, to our social invitations and our party arrangements? We are asked by Jesus to be the kind of host we would want if we were the guest and vice-versa. In other words the kind of host Jesus was. The host who sought out the marginalized of society – the tax collector that no one likes, the prostitute, the foreigner, the woman at the well.
I don’t think one of us here today would seek out total strangers from unknown neighborhoods to invite to a family anniversary or birthday celebration. These celebrations with family and close friends are very important in our lives – and so they should be. These kinds of gatherings have meaning in people’s lives. They hold people together and help define who we are.
A few years ago there was a movie entitled “Soul Food”. It was about a family meal that grandmother held every Sunday. The members of the family who lead very separate lives during the week all came together to share a meal and talk about their lives. There was care and concern for each other. There was acceptance of one another. There was respect for each other’s life style. Then, the grandmother became ill, ended up in the hospital and eventually died. The family didn’t gather anymore. They remained apart, everyone in their own world, doing their own thing. There was competition and dissension. Disagreements and quarrels arose when chance meetings did occur. In fact, since grandmother’s death they ceased to behave as a real family at all. Finally one of the younger family members had a scheme to get the family together for a Sunday meal. It was only after they finally got together that they realized the weekly meal was really something they were missing in their lives. It was truly their “soul food”.
Family get-togethers are very important. But surely there still exist opportunities for inclusion that we sometimes unthinkingly pass up. What about the new family down the road, the ones whose skin may be a different hue than ours or whose English doesn’t sound quite as polished as ours? – or the new co-worker who has just moved from a distant city or country? – or the child a few doors away who spends all his time after school sitting alone in the house waiting for a single working parent to return at the end of a long working day? – or the elderly man down the block whose wife passed away last winter and whose children live far away? – or the new couple in your condo building? When inviting some people over for a summer barbeque have we included these children of God or just the same two families we always invite? Have we considered inviting that lonely 11 year-old boy to join our children or grandchildren for a simple after-school snack and perhaps some hoops in the driveway? Or have we considered how lonely meals must be for the widower? There are surely opportunities in all our neighborhoods to extend Christian hospitality.
The Hebrews passage calls upon us to show true empathy and compassion. “Remember those who are in prison, as though you were in prison with them; those who are being tortured as though you yourself were being tortured.” I admit that often it is difficult for me to picture myself in some of the dreadful situations that exist currently in our world. What IS it like to live in a refugee camp? – to eat from garbage cans and sleep on the streets? Or even closer to home – what is it like to sit day after day alone in a house you had shared with someone you loved for 50 or so years? – to eat every meal at the table by yourself? True compassion exists when we try to imagine ourselves in these circumstances and then, most importantly, we DO something about it. Be it so simple as inviting someone to share a meal.
A few years ago there was a letter in The Observer responding to a previous issue which had referred to the UCW as “catering” a church event. The women who wrote it said “When we are making a special lunch or dinner to share, it is part of everything else we do to be together and support the work and joy of our church. There can be no more caregiving gesture than the preparation and service of food to others.” Would anyone of us as we prepare a special dinner for our family members or friends refer to it as “catering”?
Are not the lunches we provide following funerals, the birthday parties we host for members of our community, Camp Awesome, the Men’s Breakfast, the church suppers we use as fund raisers the very kind of Christian hospitality Jesus asks us to engage in? In many cases these events are the only glimpse of us, as Christians, that many people in our community and town see. I’m not naïve enough to believe that any high percentage of people will flock to join our church community just because we served a nice funeral lunch, but the Christian hospitality, our gentle, caring attitude, the respect we showed them as a community of faith in their time of need – all these will become important parts of their family memories for years to come. Jesus, our most gracious host, invites us to show our Christian hospitality to others. Thanks be to God for sending his Son to show us the way!