Proper 15C (2 September 2007)

Luke 14:1, 7-14

Pr. George L. Murphy

St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, Akron OH

THE DANCE OF CREATION

It’s not about etiquette. And it’s not about how to get ahead in society. It is about the pattern of creation.

At first glance Jesus seems to be telling his fellow guests at a dinner how they should behave in such situations so that they can avoid embarrassment and instead enhance their reputations. Don’t walk in and sit down at the head table, but take a place near the door from the kitchen. Then there’s no chance that you’ll have to give up your seat, and in fact you may get asked to take a more honored place. Others will be impressed and say, “Hey, she must be an important person.”

Well, there’s nothing new about that. In fact Jesus might almost be quoting from the Book of Proverbs that all the guests at that dinner knew quite well. “Do not put yourself forward in the king’s presence or stand in the place of the great; for it is better to be told, ‘Come up here,’ than to be put lower in the presence of a noble.” There’s lots of good common sense advice in Proverbs.

But Jesus isn’t playing the Miss Manners of first century Galilee and he certainly isn’t in the common sense business. Notice the way his words are introduced. “When he noticed how the guests chose the place of honor, he told them a parable.” Not “He gave them some good advice” but “He told them a parable.” What he says about choosing where to sit when you’re invited to dinner has a deeper meaning - a meaning which is a non-common sense zinger. “All who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.”

Now your reaction to those words, if you’re a regular churchgoer, may be to say, “What’s radical about that? We hear that kind of thing all the time.” And it’s true. We hear language like that so often in church that it doesn’t seem surprising – and may not have much effect on the way we think or act. “Some are last who will be first, and some are first who will be last.” That’s good theology, but don’t try to get in line ahead of me.

Jesus’ words are radical and contrary to common sense because that’s not the way people think and act in the world. It’s common sense that you only get ahead by getting ahead – by asserting yourself, by insisting on top billing and holding on to it once you’ve got it. Humble is just another word for loser.

There can only be one Number One, and the ultimate result of everyone trying to grab that spot is everyone climbing over everyone else - the war of all against all. You can think of plenty of examples, all the way from international politics to bullying in grade school. I don’t need to belabor the point. What we need is a new common sense, a new way of looking at things. That’s what Jesus gives us.

In the words of an early hymn that Paul quotes in Philippians, Jesus is the one “who, though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited, but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, ... [He] humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death, even death on cross. Therefore God also highly exalted him, and gave him the name that is above every name.” Jesus himself is the prime example of the attitude that he’s talking about at that Sabbath day dinner in our Gospel.

This humility, this emptying of self, this willingness of the higher to take the place of the lower, is in fact a basic aspect of reality. The willingness of the one who had the form of God to take the form of a slave was not just a temporary tactic which God adopted but something which reveals the true character of God. It is seen in the very creation of the universe, when God limits his own being to make room for something which is not God. God, who is Being Itself, does not begrudge that we should exist as beings other than God. But we are to recognize that we are indeed God’s creatures, and not the creator. “It is [God] that has made us and not we ourselves.”

The first chapter of the Bible calls us to acknowledge our dependence upon God for everything we are and everything we have. But that doesn’t mean that we are simply God’s slaves. In fact humanity is created to be the bearer of the divine image and likeness, to be God’s representatives, God’s vice-regents in ruling the world. “Have dominion ... over every living thing that moves upon the earth.”

Ah, those can be dangerous words: We’re tempted to latch on to them and start saying “We’re Number One.” “Have dominion” has often been understood as a license to exploit the world. But that’s not what those words in the Bible mean. We are to have dominion as God’s representatives. We should pattern our rule on that of God, on the Lord who at one dinner took the lowest possible place when he washed his disciples feet. The reason and skill which God has given us are to be used for the welfare of all creation, not just for ourselves.

We don’t do a very good job with that, which is one symptom of our sin. And again, the remedy is not for us to try to climb back up to Number One. It is to take the lowest place, to repent, to say “We are not worthy so much as to gather up the crumbs under thy Table. But thou art the same Lord whose property is always to have mercy” – mercy that is shown in God’s own humbling of self. Because of that mercy we are exalted. We are sinners and we are saints.

You see the pattern – a pattern that extends from the Trinitarian life of God through our relationships with one another to the way we regard the natural world. It’s like a dance, a dynamic pattern in which we bow to our partner this time around and are bowed to the next.

How does this all work out in practice? In view of Jesus’ words about humility, there’s something surprising about his behavior at that dinner. He’s an invited guest, perhaps at the home of the senior warden of the local synagogue, and is there in the company of a number of respectable businessmen and learned theologians. And he starts criticizing their behavior and telling them how to act! He suggests the seating arrangements for his fellow guests and tells his host that he should have invited different people! This isn’t our usual picture of humility, acting timid and speaking only when spoken to. Jesus is taking charge and telling people what’s what.

Being humble apparently doesn’t mean curling up in a fetal position and not saying or doing anything. It does mean to see ourselves as we really are, and to know ourselves rightly in our relationships with God and with God’s creation.

You see, when Jesus speaks out he doesn’t say “Put me at the head table.” He’s telling the other guests something for their own good. And he doesn’t say “Make sure to invite me next time” but “Invite the poor and lame and blind.” He’s being pushy on behalf of others, not for himself.

These words of Jesus are addressed to all people – but especially to those who are religiously respectable and economically comfortable. Those who are beset by guilt, those who in one way or another have been oppressed and marginalized, generally don’t have to be told to humble themselves. They’ve already been humbled. What Jesus is calling for is not keeping the downtrodden down but for those who are on top to get down and help to lift them up. That is the pattern that God has given us – the God who identifies with sinners to make them saints and with the poor to make them rich.