Sermon August 29 2010 Jeremiah 2:4-13 Psalm 81:1, 10-16 Hebrews 13:1-8, 15-16 Luke 14:1, 7-14

“A Friendly Invitation”

The story of faith is punctuated and saturated with God’s invitation to a relationship with God. Humanity’s experience with God comes to us through scripture. God invited Abraham and Sarah in their homeland and the descendents of their descendents the twelve sons of Israel or Jacob who ended up in slavery. These are the stories that continuously remind us of God’s relationship with human beings. Yet in the midst of our remembering, because we are who we are, human beings, there are always differences among people about how to be most faithful and true to what God values and desires for human beings.

We debate the best ways to be faithful; we seek to do our very best because we want to remain in relationship to our God. We do this by taking several things into consideration: we look to humanity’s previous experiences to God in scripture, we work from the experiences of other Christians and people of faith since the time of scripture and we decide from our own experiences how we have related to God.

We often have differences when we begin to emphasize the ways we decide. Using scripture, tradition (or the experiences of those who have preceded us) and our own experience can sometimes mean deciding which one is most important. These three are often the source of argument among people of faith—including those arguments within scripture. And as the letter to the Hebrews advises, whatever our disagreement, we are called to find the common ground of mutual love.

Scripture itself tells stories of difference in faith, Jeremiah’s prophecy concerns how Israel ignore its past, tradition AND scripture, and were relying on their own wisdom. Jeremiah’s prophecy, the Word of God, calls them to remember by focusing on what they were missing.

“⁶They did not say, ‘Where is the Lord
who brought us up from the land of Egypt,
who led us in the wilderness,
in a land of deserts and pits,
in a land of drought and deep darkness,
in a land that no one passes through,
where no one lives?’
⁷ I brought you into a plentiful land
to eat its fruits and its good things.
But when you entered you defiled my land,
and made my heritage an abomination.”[1]

Jeremiah’s prophecy reminds them that ignoring their relationship with God means ignoring all God has done with and for them and means that God will let them try and be their own salvation which it means that they will fail. Their failure might make some rich, but will assure that there will be lost time and depth in their relationship with God.

They were focusing on the word of the priests and rulers and not realizing what God had taught them before—to know that reliance on God would be the only thing that saved them. They needed to remember that they needed to connect to God’s purpose and direction for their nation and their lives.

Yet this kind of debate continued into the New Testament, what is necessary to be faithful. Does God’s word mean this or that? But at the base of it all was still the necessity to nurture a connection to God, and what God’s purpose had been over time.

In the gospel story today, Jesus was invited to a dinner at the house of a leader within the Pharisees. The Pharisees were a group within the Jewish faith that focused on righteous action and faithfulness represented by worship at the temple in Jerusalem. The Pharisees were the ones that cared deeply about their religion, the ones who took responsibility for it flourishing. They were the elders, church council members, Sunday School superintendants and the like of that day.[2] In the gospels it often sounds like Jesus was in opposition to them and that may be true, but they were really the status quo folks in their culture—get along to get along. They were happy to listen to Jesus teach—and to argue as was the tradition within the faith about the details and nuances of following the law.

Jesus’ invitation to the Pharisee’s home may have been and underhanded attempt to get at Jesus, but my inclination is that it was simply a friendly gesture of welcome to wherever it was Jesus’ was at the time. Traveling teachers and preachers were traditionally “wined and dined” by leaders of the community and provided an evening’s diversion, entertaining the guests in the leader’s home with news, stories and whatever particular teaching they offered. Perhaps that was what this evening was meant to be.

And Jesus obliged, he even got into the role of traveling prophet and storyteller immediately—as soon as the guests began to seat themselves around the dining room. When he saw the jockeying for positions of importance—perhaps closer to him a guest of some fame or close to another important guest, or to the host’s table—I can see a smile begin to light his eyes. He understood their inner concern for importance and began to shine the light of truth on their hidden insecurities and anxiety over who ate with whom and who saw them do it.

This kind of understanding of how people work, what people desire that is unhealthy and how we categorize and value ourselves and others is what one writer say is another factor that led to Jesus’ crucifixion. One author “suggested that the reason Jesus gets killed is because he forgives sins, and by forgiving them implies that we need forgiveness. But [the author] also thinks in this week's reading we stumble upon another reason Jesus gets killed: he 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.”[3]

In the household of God, there is no meritocracy—earning your daily bread doesn’t mean more credit. In God’s kingdom, the household that God runs, we are all of us reliant on grace—gifts freely given, not earned, not even specially ordered for us.

Jesus told the jockeying guests that, basically, to be a part of the kingdom, all of our anxiety about deserving, earning and working hard for a reward is worthless. Jesus told the important, maybe self-important, host that to be a part of the kingdom, he should invite the unimportant, the humbled and the poor to his meals rather than people who would impress, entertain or just be a diversion for the upper echelon of the religious circles they ran in.

Grace also means that—because there is no pecking order in God’s kingdom—none of us deserves God’s love more than anyone else does. It means that when we are offered an invitation from God, we don’t have to deserve it. It means that each one of us is called to offer an invitation to others, too. We can’t expect in God’s kingdom to hang out with those just like us. And if the church reflects God’s kingdom, we can’t expect the church to be filled with folks we understand or even like. The gospel’s good news is that we are all, all of humanity, invited to be in the realm of God—even if we don’t necessarily like everyone else who is invited.

Jesus’ words were made clear to the early church as congregations began to form around the preaching of the goods news of the kingdom and the acceptance of that good news all over the known world. As the writer ended the letter we call Hebrews, he or she offered these final snippets of wisdom or advice for their lives together as Christians. “²Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for by doing that some have entertained angels without knowing it. ³Remember those who are in prison, as though you were in prison with them; those who are being tortured, as though you yourselves were being tortured.*”[4] The letter continues in today’s text to encourage reaching out beyond those we know well to receive all that God has given us to receive.

God has given humanity an invitation to be in relationship with God from the time our eyes and hearts were opened in awareness of someone other. An existence beyond ourselves who invited our communication and our love drew us as we were aware of things and beings we could not see and touch. Each of us has been invited by that being to be in relationship. Yet each of us also has been invited to share in that kind of relationship by others, too.

Let’s not refuse God’s gift of hospitality by making it exclusive to ourselves. Let us focus the lives we live inside and outside these four walls by relying on God to guide and lead our actions as individuals and as a church. Jesus’ call of hospitality and his guidance to leave behind self-importance and self-promotion means that the values we hold in church are contained in the open hearts of hospitality in God’s kingdom. We can be open to those who come to us in need and offer what we have, not because we are afraid, but because we can trust in God’s friendly invitation to ourselves.

The message today concerns life with God, now and in eternity. If we understand grace, we will see that all the divisions that we currently use to categorize ourselves are meaningless to God. We have been invited in spite of the nasty thoughts, hateful feelings and less than Christ-like attitudes each one of us has harbored from time to time. I know, we know that we are none of us completely worthy of the love of an eternal and powerful God and yet we are loved of God, each one of us without thought to what we look like, how we behave or who we hurt. And, as I read this week, each one of us is responsible to our relationship to God . . . God has no grandchildren. Our relationship to God is our particular response to God’s presence in our lives. There is not one of us who can do it for anyone else and no one can do it for any one of us.

While we are called in community to work together in God’s realm—we are also called to live in faith within the relationships each one of us has. We are in relationship to family and friends, certainly. We are also in relationship to varying degrees of depth to everyone we meet and everyone who is influenced for good or for evil by what we do. Holding onto the stories of God’s relationship with us through time helps us to understand how we make decisions. Yet for all the stories and all the experiences and all the traditions we can come down to a few values—faith that we, each one of us is a child of God and God will treat us that way and the knowledge that God has always treated people with compassion when possible.

In times of questions and concerns, we can debate and search for answers—and we should—we also can rely on the sure and certain knowledge of God’s good will as long as we remember that God is the one who brought us this far and God will lead us home.

To the glory of our God, guide, savior and friend. Amen.

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[1] Jeremiah 2:6-7

[2] “Why Jesus Died...And Why We'd Probably Kill Him Again,” David Lose

http://www.workingpreacher.org/dear_wp.aspx?article_id=354

[3]More Than Good Advice [or] Why Jesus Gets Killed, Pt. 2, David Lose http://www.workingpreacher.org/dear_wp.aspx?article_id=392

[4] Hebrews 13:2-3

“The Family Tree of Faith” Sermon, August 8 2010

Isaiah 1:1, 10-20
Psalm 50:1-8, 22-23
Hebrews 11:1-3, 8-16
Luke 12:32-40

As I stand here this morning, I can imagine many people who have preceded me in my faith—people who are connected to me by faith in Jesus Christ. Family of origin, home church, friends who share my faith, etc. But I also have a family that stretches deep and wide over the face of the earth and beyond—people who are related to me in the simple confession of faith that we share in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. Some of them know me and love me. Some of them know me and don’t know whether they love me or not. Most of them don’t know me; many of them would say they don’t love me because of the differences ways we practice the one faith in Jesus Christ we share.

Faith seems to exist for some as an unwavering set of tenets and beliefs that are inflexible and unmoving no matter what other say, do or even prove. Others describe faith as a continuum of life, dynamic and growing ideas that form and reform and transform as time and history move forward. Another author, Frederick Buechner wrote, "Faith is different from theology because theology is reasoned, systematic, and orderly, whereas faith is disorderly, intermittent, and full of surprises….Faith is homesickness. Faith is a lump in the throat. Faith is less a position on than a movement toward, less a sure thing than a hunch. Faith is waiting" (Secrets in the Dark: A Life in Sermons). [1]

In the letter to the Hebrews, the author begins describing the history of faith in God from the time of Abraham—the beginnings of the faith that became Judaism out of which came Christianity. The faith as described here began with one man from the Mesopotamian region of what is now Iraq—and that family of faith traveled around that region of the word as nations formed and reformed, growing, shrinking and disappearing and reappearing in different forms.

We can see in our minds the faces that have preceded us in the faith that we follow—perhaps related to us, but many who drew us into faith and spiritual connections to God. We have been drawn and influenced by those we argued with and those with whom we have agreed deeply. Imagine those first conversations about God and the face with whom you associate those words. What does God look like? Where does God live? Wherever those words began . . .

Now imagine the faces of the current people who are a part of your connection to God—family and friends whose actions and words draw you closer to them and draw your more intimately into your relationship with Jesus Christ. How have you endured the tragedy of untimely death or other loss? What and who have given you strength? Often we are propped up for a time by the strength of others as our own strength is sapped.

We know from our experience and from the witness of scripture that faith is on a continuum, always moving and growing and changing to fit within and draw us closer to God. That is the gift of faith—that even in the darkest moments of sorrow it is still there to be embraced when we have the strength to take it up again.

As we live and move and have our being, we carry with us the most personal experiences of how God has lived with us and cared for us. And within the family tree of faith, we also have the long view of history as told to us through the traditions and stories of the faith of the Jewish people and the faith of the earliest churches and in the faith of the continuing church as it is lived today in so many ways.

The stories of the Jewish people in the First Testament reveal beliefs in blood sacrifice to restore a relationship with God—but as happens many times the ritual became more important than the change in relationship. The scripture from the book of Isaiah this morning condemns burnt offerings, blood sacrifice and other physical ritual. We hear these words:

What to me is the multitude of your sacrifices?
says the Lord;
I have had enough of burnt-offerings of rams
and the fat of fed beasts;
I do not delight in the blood of bulls,
or of lambs, or of goats.

even though you make many prayers,
I will not listen;
your hands are full of blood.
Wash yourselves; make yourselves clean;
remove the evil of your doings
from before my eyes;
cease to do evil,
learn to do good;
seek justice,
rescue the oppressed,
defend the orphan,
plead for the widow.[2]

What these words noted was that the physical sacrifice took the place of spiritual transformation—the action of bringing a gift to the temple took the place of doing action that revealed a real connection to God’s will for justice. The sacrifice was supposed to represent the transformation and repentance and then those sacrifices began to take the place of real faith in action.

God offered a real relationship that will change the way to connect with God and they—like people often do—looked at the surface and not the depths. God told them that they could not pray and be heard when their lives did not match with the love that God had offered.

Those are the legacies and inheritances of faith that we are offered as people share their lives and stories—and as we share our own with others. The story of faith is as old as the human race and we must cultivate the kind of patience that accompanies a history of that length.

Jesus assured those who followed him of their place in God’s household despite the time that might pass, the unawareness of God’s reality that might exist even in those who claim the faith or the pain and suffering that the community would experience. What they valued—community, shared sorrows, caring for those in need and faith in the eternal—would be theirs if it truly was what they desired. What we are ready to receive and what we are given are intimately related.

Though we may seek fast answers to problems and obstacles that surround us, the roots of difficulty may need time to root out and understand, without destroying the living journey we continue to travel. This journey we walk does not end with us—it continues through us into new generations beyond even our awareness.

When we imagine new generations of Christians—new generations of those faithful to the living Jesus Christ—we can offer our prayers of hope and we can offer the support of experience. We can also offer the word of good news that God values those who are in need—and God values those who share what they have with those in need.

The faith in which we journey means that even when our own dreams have not been fulfilled, we can rely on God’s promises for those who come along after us. We can rely on the promise of being God’s own children in the faith that we have received and in the faith that we continue to live and teach and carry forward into the future.

We are connected by faith to that which we value—God spoke through Isaiah about the faith that God wanted, a faith that led to lives of doing good, seeking justice and rescuing the oppressed. God spoke through the author of Hebrews, revealing the long development and revelation of God’s intentions—still being revealed. God spoke through and in the life of Jesus as he taught us of the unknowable and mysterious time in which God works, the hope of knowing the kingdom or household of God is with the faithful and the knowledge that it always has drawn us and continues to draw us forward perhaps for many generations.

A wonderful prayer by Thomas Merton goes well with this reading, and we can almost imagine the letter-writer including it as a closing: "My Lord God, I have no idea where I am going. I do not see the road ahead of me. I cannot know for certain where it will end. Nor do I really know myself, and the fact that I think that I am following your will does not mean that I am actually doing so. But I believe that the desire to please you does in fact please you. And I hope that I have that desire in all that I am doing. I hope that I will never do anything apart from that desire. And I know that if I do this, you will lead me by the right road though I may know nothing about it. Therefore will I trust you always though I may seem to be lost and in the shadow of death. I will not fear, for you are ever with me, and you will never leave me to face my perils alone" (Thoughts in Solitude).[3]

To the glory of God and in the faith that we share. Amen.


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[1] http://www.ucc.org/worship/samuel/august-8-2010.html
[2] Isaiah 1:11b, 15b-17
[3] http://www.ucc.org/worship/samuel/august-8-2010.html