June 1, 2008
By Pastor Laura Gentry
Matthew 7:21-29
"Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven. On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many deeds of power in your name?’ Then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; go away from me, you evildoers.’ Everyone then who hears these words of mine and acts on them will be like a wise man who built his house on rock. The rain fell, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on rock. And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not act on them will be like a foolish man who built his house on sand. The rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell—and great was its fall!" Now when Jesus had finished saying these things, the crowds were astounded at his teaching, for he taught them as one having authority, and not as their scribes.
Grace and peace to you from God our Father and our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.
My husband and I enjoyed our recent vacation, part of which was in California. We drove the very popular portion of the famous Sunset strip a number of times as we would head down the hill to meet up with my uncle who lives just off the famous street where the trendy set goes to be seen. This street is well known for its billboards where the world-renowned Marlboro Man once towered over the passing motorist. There are even awards given out for the larger-than-life ads.
On our final day there, I felt exhausted by the barrage of overly thin models trying to sell me all sorts of products from fashion to TV shows. I said to William, “It seems like all these billboards do is celebrate the shallow life.” We laughed at how accurate that statement was. The shallow life. It’s not just on Sunset, it’s pretty much everywhere. People are all clamoring to buy the latest fashions or use the trendy gadgets and watch the most popular movies, but are these things really making them happy?
Jesus has some seriously hard words for us today. He declares: "Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven.” Even those who call upon the Lord, Jesus will say to them: “I never knew you; go away from me, you evildoers.” I never knew you? Even those who call upon him? Then how can we avoid this terrible fate?
It seems Jesus is dead set on making his point here. He wants us to realize that just knowing about God is not enough. We cannot simply pay him lip service and think our duty to God is paid in full. He says we must not only hear God’s word—we must obey it.
Lutheran pastor Dietrich Bonhoeffer, who was martyred by the Nazis, wrote in his book The Cost of Discipleship: "Humanly speaking, it is possible to understand the Sermon on the Mount in a thousand different ways. But Jesus knows only one possibility: simple surrender and obedience—not interpreting or applying it, but doing and obeying it. That is the only way to hear his words. He does not mean for us to discuss it as an ideal. He really means for us to get on with it."
We must hear the word and obey it. Jesus puts it this way: “Everyone then who hears these words of mine and acts on them will be like a wise man who built his house on rock. The rain fell, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on rock.”
When we are connected to God because we live in God’s promises each and every day, our foundation will be solid and nothing that we encounter will throw off our faith. We’ll be like a house on a rock that can stand throughout the storms.
But if we do not act on God’s word, we are in great danger. Jesus explains, “And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not act on them will be like a foolish man who built his house on sand. The rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell—and great was its fall!" Jesus makes it clear that the shallow life cannot help us in the end. We might have the exciting things of this world but without hearing and acting on God’s word, we have only emptiness and when the storms come, we will fall.
It is not that Jesus is asking for perfection—that is well beyond us. But he is inviting us into a radical surrender to God. He is warning us that we cannot make it on our own, we cannot fill our lives with things. Our only hope is God. This is the only rock upon which we can depend.
The word of the psalmist in this morning’s psalm is profound. “Incline your ear to me; rescue me speedily,” he calls out. “Be a rock of refuge for me, a strong fortress to save me. You are indeed my rock and my fortress; for your name's sake lead me and guide me, take me out of the net that is hidden for me, for you are my refuge.”
Is God your rock? Your fortress? Your refuge? If all the other props of our life were taken out from beneath you, would you still be able to stand? Do you feel safe and secure from the storms that you are encountering?
You see, this is what Jesus offers us. He wants us to cling to God as our refuge. He doesn’t want us following the materialistic way of the world into the empty shallow life—thinking that things can save us. No, he wants to be our rock so that we can have a rich, full, meaningful life overflowing with joyful service to others. God wants us to have the solid life of faith! We are called to lean wholly on God so that can become a reality.
Today, as we continue to grow in the Spirit, may we take Jesus serious warning to heart. May we cast aside all the sand foundations, the shallowness of this world, and embrace instead, the rock of our salvation who shall never fail us and will always provide us with the solid life. Amen.
© 2008 Laura Gentry
Showing posts with label teachings of Jesus. Show all posts
Showing posts with label teachings of Jesus. Show all posts
Sunday, June 1, 2008
THE SOLID LIFE
June 1, 2008
By Pastor Laura Gentry
Matthew 7:21-29
"Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven. On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many deeds of power in your name?’ Then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; go away from me, you evildoers.’ Everyone then who hears these words of mine and acts on them will be like a wise man who built his house on rock. The rain fell, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on rock. And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not act on them will be like a foolish man who built his house on sand. The rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell—and great was its fall!" Now when Jesus had finished saying these things, the crowds were astounded at his teaching, for he taught them as one having authority, and not as their scribes.
Grace and peace to you from God our Father and our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.
My husband and I enjoyed our recent vacation, part of which was in California. We drove the very popular portion of the famous Sunset strip a number of times as we would head down the hill to meet up with my uncle who lives just off the famous street where the trendy set goes to be seen. This street is well known for its billboards where the world-renowned Marlboro Man once towered over the passing motorist. There are even awards given out for the larger-than-life ads.
On our final day there, I felt exhausted by the barrage of overly thin models trying to sell me all sorts of products from fashion to TV shows. I said to William, “It seems like all these billboards do is celebrate the shallow life.” We laughed at how accurate that statement was. The shallow life. It’s not just on Sunset, it’s pretty much everywhere. People are all clamoring to buy the latest fashions or use the trendy gadgets and watch the most popular movies, but are these things really making them happy?
Jesus has some seriously hard words for us today. He declares: "Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven.” Even those who call upon the Lord, Jesus will say to them: “I never knew you; go away from me, you evildoers.” I never knew you? Even those who call upon him? Then how can we avoid this terrible fate?
It seems Jesus is dead set on making his point here. He wants us to realize that just knowing about God is not enough. We cannot simply pay him lip service and think our duty to God is paid in full. He says we must not only hear God’s word—we must obey it.
Lutheran pastor Dietrich Bonhoeffer, who was martyred by the Nazis, wrote in his book The Cost of Discipleship: "Humanly speaking, it is possible to understand the Sermon on the Mount in a thousand different ways. But Jesus knows only one possibility: simple surrender and obedience—not interpreting or applying it, but doing and obeying it. That is the only way to hear his words. He does not mean for us to discuss it as an ideal. He really means for us to get on with it."
We must hear the word and obey it. Jesus puts it this way: “Everyone then who hears these words of mine and acts on them will be like a wise man who built his house on rock. The rain fell, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on rock.”
When we are connected to God because we live in God’s promises each and every day, our foundation will be solid and nothing that we encounter will throw off our faith. We’ll be like a house on a rock that can stand throughout the storms.
But if we do not act on God’s word, we are in great danger. Jesus explains, “And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not act on them will be like a foolish man who built his house on sand. The rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell—and great was its fall!" Jesus makes it clear that the shallow life cannot help us in the end. We might have the exciting things of this world but without hearing and acting on God’s word, we have only emptiness and when the storms come, we will fall.
It is not that Jesus is asking for perfection—that is well beyond us. But he is inviting us into a radical surrender to God. He is warning us that we cannot make it on our own, we cannot fill our lives with things. Our only hope is God. This is the only rock upon which we can depend.
The word of the psalmist in this morning’s psalm is profound. “Incline your ear to me; rescue me speedily,” he calls out. “Be a rock of refuge for me, a strong fortress to save me. You are indeed my rock and my fortress; for your name's sake lead me and guide me, take me out of the net that is hidden for me, for you are my refuge.”
Is God your rock? Your fortress? Your refuge? If all the other props of our life were taken out from beneath you, would you still be able to stand? Do you feel safe and secure from the storms that you are encountering?
You see, this is what Jesus offers us. He wants us to cling to God as our refuge. He doesn’t want us following the materialistic way of the world into the empty shallow life—thinking that things can save us. No, he wants to be our rock so that we can have a rich, full, meaningful life overflowing with joyful service to others. God wants us to have the solid life of faith! We are called to lean wholly on God so that can become a reality.
Today, as we continue to grow in the Spirit, may we take Jesus serious warning to heart. May we cast aside all the sand foundations, the shallowness of this world, and embrace instead, the rock of our salvation who shall never fail us and will always provide us with the solid life. Amen.
© 2008 Laura Gentry
By Pastor Laura Gentry
Matthew 7:21-29
"Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven. On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many deeds of power in your name?’ Then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; go away from me, you evildoers.’ Everyone then who hears these words of mine and acts on them will be like a wise man who built his house on rock. The rain fell, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on rock. And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not act on them will be like a foolish man who built his house on sand. The rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell—and great was its fall!" Now when Jesus had finished saying these things, the crowds were astounded at his teaching, for he taught them as one having authority, and not as their scribes.
Grace and peace to you from God our Father and our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.
My husband and I enjoyed our recent vacation, part of which was in California. We drove the very popular portion of the famous Sunset strip a number of times as we would head down the hill to meet up with my uncle who lives just off the famous street where the trendy set goes to be seen. This street is well known for its billboards where the world-renowned Marlboro Man once towered over the passing motorist. There are even awards given out for the larger-than-life ads.
On our final day there, I felt exhausted by the barrage of overly thin models trying to sell me all sorts of products from fashion to TV shows. I said to William, “It seems like all these billboards do is celebrate the shallow life.” We laughed at how accurate that statement was. The shallow life. It’s not just on Sunset, it’s pretty much everywhere. People are all clamoring to buy the latest fashions or use the trendy gadgets and watch the most popular movies, but are these things really making them happy?
Jesus has some seriously hard words for us today. He declares: "Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven.” Even those who call upon the Lord, Jesus will say to them: “I never knew you; go away from me, you evildoers.” I never knew you? Even those who call upon him? Then how can we avoid this terrible fate?
It seems Jesus is dead set on making his point here. He wants us to realize that just knowing about God is not enough. We cannot simply pay him lip service and think our duty to God is paid in full. He says we must not only hear God’s word—we must obey it.
Lutheran pastor Dietrich Bonhoeffer, who was martyred by the Nazis, wrote in his book The Cost of Discipleship: "Humanly speaking, it is possible to understand the Sermon on the Mount in a thousand different ways. But Jesus knows only one possibility: simple surrender and obedience—not interpreting or applying it, but doing and obeying it. That is the only way to hear his words. He does not mean for us to discuss it as an ideal. He really means for us to get on with it."
We must hear the word and obey it. Jesus puts it this way: “Everyone then who hears these words of mine and acts on them will be like a wise man who built his house on rock. The rain fell, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on rock.”
When we are connected to God because we live in God’s promises each and every day, our foundation will be solid and nothing that we encounter will throw off our faith. We’ll be like a house on a rock that can stand throughout the storms.
But if we do not act on God’s word, we are in great danger. Jesus explains, “And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not act on them will be like a foolish man who built his house on sand. The rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell—and great was its fall!" Jesus makes it clear that the shallow life cannot help us in the end. We might have the exciting things of this world but without hearing and acting on God’s word, we have only emptiness and when the storms come, we will fall.
It is not that Jesus is asking for perfection—that is well beyond us. But he is inviting us into a radical surrender to God. He is warning us that we cannot make it on our own, we cannot fill our lives with things. Our only hope is God. This is the only rock upon which we can depend.
The word of the psalmist in this morning’s psalm is profound. “Incline your ear to me; rescue me speedily,” he calls out. “Be a rock of refuge for me, a strong fortress to save me. You are indeed my rock and my fortress; for your name's sake lead me and guide me, take me out of the net that is hidden for me, for you are my refuge.”
Is God your rock? Your fortress? Your refuge? If all the other props of our life were taken out from beneath you, would you still be able to stand? Do you feel safe and secure from the storms that you are encountering?
You see, this is what Jesus offers us. He wants us to cling to God as our refuge. He doesn’t want us following the materialistic way of the world into the empty shallow life—thinking that things can save us. No, he wants to be our rock so that we can have a rich, full, meaningful life overflowing with joyful service to others. God wants us to have the solid life of faith! We are called to lean wholly on God so that can become a reality.
Today, as we continue to grow in the Spirit, may we take Jesus serious warning to heart. May we cast aside all the sand foundations, the shallowness of this world, and embrace instead, the rock of our salvation who shall never fail us and will always provide us with the solid life. Amen.
© 2008 Laura Gentry
Sunday, October 7, 2007
SERVANTS ENTRANCE
A Sermon for The Nineteenth Sunday after Pentecost
October 7, 2007
by Pastor Laura Gentry
Luke 17:5-10
The apostles said to the Lord, “Increase our faith!” The Lord replied, “If you had faith the size of a mustard seed, you could say to this mulberry tree, ‘Be uprooted and planted in the sea,’ and it would obey you. “Who among you would say to your slave who has just come in from plowing or tending sheep in the field, ‘Come here at once and take your place at the table’? Would you not rather say to him, ‘Prepare supper for me, put on your apron and serve me while I eat and drink; later you may eat and drink’? Do you thank the slave for doing what was commanded? So you also, when you have done all that you were ordered to do, say, ‘We are worthless slaves; we have done only what we ought to have done!’”(NRSV)
Grace and Peace to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
Rabbi Harold Kushner tells a wonderful story about a bright young man, who was a sophomore Stanford pre-med student. To reward him for having done so well in school, his parents gave him a trip to the Far East for the summer vacation before the start of his junior year. While there, he met a guru who said to him, “Don't you see how you are poisoning your soul with this success oriented way of life? Your idea of happiness is to stay up all night studying for an exam so you can get a better grade than your best friend. Your idea of a good marriage is not to find the woman who will make you whole, but to win the girl that everyone else wants. That's not how people are supposed to live. Give it up; come join us in an atmosphere where we all share and love each other.” The young man worked so hard to get into Stanford, but had become so competitive and had lost his integrity in the process. He was ripe for this sort of approach. He called his parents from Tokyo and told them he would not be coming home. He was dropping out of school to live in a monastery, called an ashram.
Six months later, his parents got a letter from him: “Dear Mom and Dad, I know you weren't happy with the decision I made last summer, but I want to tell you how happy it has made me. For the first time in my life, I am at peace. Here there is no competing, no hustling, no trying to get ahead of anyone else. Here we are all equal, and we all share. This way of life is so much in harmony with the inner essence of my soul that in only six months I've become the number two disciple in the entire ashram, and I think I can be number one by June!”
They say that all good humor must have one crucial element: Truth. Indeed, this story rings true. The young man's intentions were noble but he was not able to follow through. Before long he was competing in the monastery to be the star pupil!
This is the same mistake Jesus’ disciples make in today’s Gospel lesson. They say to him, “Increase our Faith!” as if they think a person can have more or less faith. Why didn’t they think they had enough faith? A few verses early, Jesus sent them out with power over demons and diseases. They preached with boldness. They went around without any supplies of their own. They had the faith to trust God for all their necessities. They had the faith to heal the sick and cast out demons. They had the faith to proclaim the coming Kingdom of God. Yet, now, like the young man in the ashram, they think they need more faith.
And yet their plea demonstrates that they recognize that faith is not just a matter of their own strength. They cannot increase their own faith without God’s help. We Lutherans affirm what Saint Paul wrote, that we are saved by grace through faith and that it is not our own doing (Eph 2:8). But even the faith through which we receive God’s gift of grace is a gift. I think that our growth in faith is usually a movement from faith to faith (rather than from unbelief to faith). While the faith you have today is similar to the faith given at baptism, it is also different—as God’s word has watered it, it has grown firm and steadfast.
Still, faith is not a commodity, like wealth, that a person can accumulate. So Jesus sets out to explain more about faith to his disciples. He says, “If you had faith the size of a mustard seed, you could say to this mulberry tree, ‘Be uprooted and planted in the sea,’ and it would obey you.” Scholars interpret the tense used in the original Greek here to mean that they already have the faith of a mustard seed—it is not an “if only you had the faith of a mustard seed,” but more of an affirmation that they presently do have the kind of faith that can move mulberry trees! All they need to do is believe and act on their existing faith and they can do as they’ve been called: to rebuke, repent and forgive within the community, and it will happen. In essence, Jesus seems to be saying that God doesn’t need to give them any more faith—all they must do is make use of the faith that they already have. A mustard seed is all it takes
But I haven’t moved any mulberry trees or mountains lately, have you? Does that mean that we don’t even the faith that’s as tiny as a mustard seed? No, but what this passage makes us recognize, then, is that we need to lean on our faith more, to trust it more. The gift of faith is already ours, the question is, will we use it? I remember a little prayer I read years ago, related to this text. It goes something like: “O God, I don't pray for enough faith to move mountains. I can get enough dynamite and bulldozers to do that. What I need and ask for is enough faith to move me.” Perhaps simply trusting God is more miraculous than supernatural acts like flying trees and moving mountains. “What I need and ask for is enough faith to move me.”
Then Jesus goes on to tell his disciples what they ought to do with this gift of mustard seed faith: there is much work to be done. And regardless of how much the disciples do, they cannot do more than what is expected of them. That’s a tall order, but then again, they’ve been given the miracle of faith. So Jesus tells a parable about a slave. It is interesting that this parable presents an opposite picture of the master and slaves given early in Luke (12:37) when the master returns home to find the slaves waiting for him so he has them sit down to eat and he serves them. In today’s parable, he says that the master would not say to the slave “Come here at once and take your place at the table,” but would instead have the slave get to work—for that is his job.
Jesus asks the disciples if they, as masters, would thank a slave for doing his job. The word “thank” here, can also be translated as “credit,” implying that the slave cannot earn special credits for doing only what was required of him. Do we expect to earn credits with God or gain God's favor simply by doing what God has asked us to do? The point is that we cannot. We cannot win God’s favor by doing good things any more than a slave could earn the master’s favor by obeying his orders.
You see, if the apostles get the increased faith they want so that they can do what is expected of them: stand up to temptations and not be the cause of temptations, rebuke and forgive those who have sinned against them, and repent of their own sins—they still haven’t done anything extraordinary, only what is expected of them. Therefore, they should not expect any special favors from God for being such a great Christian.
Have you ever given a nice gift to someone and then not received a thank you note? Perhaps you mailed the gift and without a thank you note, you don’t even know if the person received it or not. It can be very upsetting. In our culture, we kind of expect thank yous. But we cannot treat God the same way. Do we somehow think God owes us a thank you because we go to church and perhaps we even read the bible on our own time and pray and try to behave like a Christian most of the time? Do we think we’ve done something above and beyond the call of duty that deserves special recognition? Well, this parable puts a damper on that kind of thinking.
What this story reminds us, is that doesn’t God owe us anything for living good, Christian, lives. God’s favor and blessing are matters of grace—they are gifts and cannot be earned. God loves us because he chooses to love us, not because we are lovable. Therefore, when we assume that we can deal with God on the basis of what God owes us, we have made a basic mistake. If that’s the case, we have rejected grace as the basis of our relationship to God and based that relationship on our own worth and merit. We must be humble enough to remember that we are saved by grace, not by works.
Nevertheless, there is a lot of work to be done. I remember that in the church where I was youth director in Montana, there were signs over the exits that said in big, bold letters, “Servant’s Entrance.” People would comment from time to time about the signs, asking, “These are the exits, so why does it say ‘servant’s entrance’?” The pastor would explain, “Because when you leave the house of worship, you are entering the world where you are called to be servants.” Passing through those servant’s entrance doors often helped me put things into perspective as I left worship. We are not here to get puffed up and think about how wonderful and religious we are and how much God owes us for that. We are here to have our faith increased, so that we can be more equipped to do the duties to which we have been called, for example: coming to worship regularly, sharing our time and talents with this congregation and with our community, sacrificing our own pleasures for the sake of those in need, proclaiming the gospel of God’s love in all that we do, seeking to follow in Christ’s footsteps. Now these duties may sound like a lot, but truly, it is the least we can do considering how much God has freely given us.
You may be saying that you are not equipped to do such difficult things for God. That’s just what the disciples were saying when they asked Jesus to increase their faith. Author Madeleine L’Engle put it beautifully when she wrote, “I don't have to have some special qualification to do what I have to do. All I have to do is have the courage to go on and do it.” God has already given you the faith to do these amazing things, that’s all the qualification you need. You just have to have the courage to walk through the servant’s entrance when you leave here today, and take up your duty of service. God will do the rest. You’ll be amazed.
Now may the peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep our hearts and our minds in Christ Jesus our Lord. Amen.
© 2007 Laura E. Gentry
October 7, 2007
by Pastor Laura Gentry
Luke 17:5-10
The apostles said to the Lord, “Increase our faith!” The Lord replied, “If you had faith the size of a mustard seed, you could say to this mulberry tree, ‘Be uprooted and planted in the sea,’ and it would obey you. “Who among you would say to your slave who has just come in from plowing or tending sheep in the field, ‘Come here at once and take your place at the table’? Would you not rather say to him, ‘Prepare supper for me, put on your apron and serve me while I eat and drink; later you may eat and drink’? Do you thank the slave for doing what was commanded? So you also, when you have done all that you were ordered to do, say, ‘We are worthless slaves; we have done only what we ought to have done!’”(NRSV)
Grace and Peace to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
Rabbi Harold Kushner tells a wonderful story about a bright young man, who was a sophomore Stanford pre-med student. To reward him for having done so well in school, his parents gave him a trip to the Far East for the summer vacation before the start of his junior year. While there, he met a guru who said to him, “Don't you see how you are poisoning your soul with this success oriented way of life? Your idea of happiness is to stay up all night studying for an exam so you can get a better grade than your best friend. Your idea of a good marriage is not to find the woman who will make you whole, but to win the girl that everyone else wants. That's not how people are supposed to live. Give it up; come join us in an atmosphere where we all share and love each other.” The young man worked so hard to get into Stanford, but had become so competitive and had lost his integrity in the process. He was ripe for this sort of approach. He called his parents from Tokyo and told them he would not be coming home. He was dropping out of school to live in a monastery, called an ashram.
Six months later, his parents got a letter from him: “Dear Mom and Dad, I know you weren't happy with the decision I made last summer, but I want to tell you how happy it has made me. For the first time in my life, I am at peace. Here there is no competing, no hustling, no trying to get ahead of anyone else. Here we are all equal, and we all share. This way of life is so much in harmony with the inner essence of my soul that in only six months I've become the number two disciple in the entire ashram, and I think I can be number one by June!”
They say that all good humor must have one crucial element: Truth. Indeed, this story rings true. The young man's intentions were noble but he was not able to follow through. Before long he was competing in the monastery to be the star pupil!
This is the same mistake Jesus’ disciples make in today’s Gospel lesson. They say to him, “Increase our Faith!” as if they think a person can have more or less faith. Why didn’t they think they had enough faith? A few verses early, Jesus sent them out with power over demons and diseases. They preached with boldness. They went around without any supplies of their own. They had the faith to trust God for all their necessities. They had the faith to heal the sick and cast out demons. They had the faith to proclaim the coming Kingdom of God. Yet, now, like the young man in the ashram, they think they need more faith.
And yet their plea demonstrates that they recognize that faith is not just a matter of their own strength. They cannot increase their own faith without God’s help. We Lutherans affirm what Saint Paul wrote, that we are saved by grace through faith and that it is not our own doing (Eph 2:8). But even the faith through which we receive God’s gift of grace is a gift. I think that our growth in faith is usually a movement from faith to faith (rather than from unbelief to faith). While the faith you have today is similar to the faith given at baptism, it is also different—as God’s word has watered it, it has grown firm and steadfast.
Still, faith is not a commodity, like wealth, that a person can accumulate. So Jesus sets out to explain more about faith to his disciples. He says, “If you had faith the size of a mustard seed, you could say to this mulberry tree, ‘Be uprooted and planted in the sea,’ and it would obey you.” Scholars interpret the tense used in the original Greek here to mean that they already have the faith of a mustard seed—it is not an “if only you had the faith of a mustard seed,” but more of an affirmation that they presently do have the kind of faith that can move mulberry trees! All they need to do is believe and act on their existing faith and they can do as they’ve been called: to rebuke, repent and forgive within the community, and it will happen. In essence, Jesus seems to be saying that God doesn’t need to give them any more faith—all they must do is make use of the faith that they already have. A mustard seed is all it takes
But I haven’t moved any mulberry trees or mountains lately, have you? Does that mean that we don’t even the faith that’s as tiny as a mustard seed? No, but what this passage makes us recognize, then, is that we need to lean on our faith more, to trust it more. The gift of faith is already ours, the question is, will we use it? I remember a little prayer I read years ago, related to this text. It goes something like: “O God, I don't pray for enough faith to move mountains. I can get enough dynamite and bulldozers to do that. What I need and ask for is enough faith to move me.” Perhaps simply trusting God is more miraculous than supernatural acts like flying trees and moving mountains. “What I need and ask for is enough faith to move me.”
Then Jesus goes on to tell his disciples what they ought to do with this gift of mustard seed faith: there is much work to be done. And regardless of how much the disciples do, they cannot do more than what is expected of them. That’s a tall order, but then again, they’ve been given the miracle of faith. So Jesus tells a parable about a slave. It is interesting that this parable presents an opposite picture of the master and slaves given early in Luke (12:37) when the master returns home to find the slaves waiting for him so he has them sit down to eat and he serves them. In today’s parable, he says that the master would not say to the slave “Come here at once and take your place at the table,” but would instead have the slave get to work—for that is his job.
Jesus asks the disciples if they, as masters, would thank a slave for doing his job. The word “thank” here, can also be translated as “credit,” implying that the slave cannot earn special credits for doing only what was required of him. Do we expect to earn credits with God or gain God's favor simply by doing what God has asked us to do? The point is that we cannot. We cannot win God’s favor by doing good things any more than a slave could earn the master’s favor by obeying his orders.
You see, if the apostles get the increased faith they want so that they can do what is expected of them: stand up to temptations and not be the cause of temptations, rebuke and forgive those who have sinned against them, and repent of their own sins—they still haven’t done anything extraordinary, only what is expected of them. Therefore, they should not expect any special favors from God for being such a great Christian.
Have you ever given a nice gift to someone and then not received a thank you note? Perhaps you mailed the gift and without a thank you note, you don’t even know if the person received it or not. It can be very upsetting. In our culture, we kind of expect thank yous. But we cannot treat God the same way. Do we somehow think God owes us a thank you because we go to church and perhaps we even read the bible on our own time and pray and try to behave like a Christian most of the time? Do we think we’ve done something above and beyond the call of duty that deserves special recognition? Well, this parable puts a damper on that kind of thinking.
What this story reminds us, is that doesn’t God owe us anything for living good, Christian, lives. God’s favor and blessing are matters of grace—they are gifts and cannot be earned. God loves us because he chooses to love us, not because we are lovable. Therefore, when we assume that we can deal with God on the basis of what God owes us, we have made a basic mistake. If that’s the case, we have rejected grace as the basis of our relationship to God and based that relationship on our own worth and merit. We must be humble enough to remember that we are saved by grace, not by works.
Nevertheless, there is a lot of work to be done. I remember that in the church where I was youth director in Montana, there were signs over the exits that said in big, bold letters, “Servant’s Entrance.” People would comment from time to time about the signs, asking, “These are the exits, so why does it say ‘servant’s entrance’?” The pastor would explain, “Because when you leave the house of worship, you are entering the world where you are called to be servants.” Passing through those servant’s entrance doors often helped me put things into perspective as I left worship. We are not here to get puffed up and think about how wonderful and religious we are and how much God owes us for that. We are here to have our faith increased, so that we can be more equipped to do the duties to which we have been called, for example: coming to worship regularly, sharing our time and talents with this congregation and with our community, sacrificing our own pleasures for the sake of those in need, proclaiming the gospel of God’s love in all that we do, seeking to follow in Christ’s footsteps. Now these duties may sound like a lot, but truly, it is the least we can do considering how much God has freely given us.
You may be saying that you are not equipped to do such difficult things for God. That’s just what the disciples were saying when they asked Jesus to increase their faith. Author Madeleine L’Engle put it beautifully when she wrote, “I don't have to have some special qualification to do what I have to do. All I have to do is have the courage to go on and do it.” God has already given you the faith to do these amazing things, that’s all the qualification you need. You just have to have the courage to walk through the servant’s entrance when you leave here today, and take up your duty of service. God will do the rest. You’ll be amazed.
Now may the peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep our hearts and our minds in Christ Jesus our Lord. Amen.
© 2007 Laura E. Gentry
Sunday, September 2, 2007
COME FRIEND, SIT UP HIGHER
A Sermon for The Fourteenth Sunday after Pentecost
September 2, 2007
by Pastor Laura Gentry
Luke 14:1, 7-14
On one occasion when Jesus was going to the house of a leader of the Pharisees to eat a meal on the sabbath, they were watching him closely.
When he noticed how the guests chose the places of honor, he told them a parable. "When you are invited by someone to a wedding banquet, do not sit down at the place of honor, in case someone more distinguished than you has been invited by your host; and the host who invited both of you may come and say to you, `Give this person your place,' and then in disgrace you would start to take the lowest place. But when you are invited, go and sit down at the lowest place, so that when your host comes, he may say to you, `Friend, move up higher'; then you will be honored in the presence of all who sit at the table with you. For all who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted."
He said also to the one who had invited him, "When you give a luncheon or a dinner, do not invite your friends or your brothers or your relatives or rich neighbors, in case they may invite you in return, and you would be repaid. But when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind. And you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you, for you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous." (NRSV)
Grace and Peace to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
In the scene from today’s Gospel reading, Jesus has been invited to dinner at the home of a very well-known Pharisee. As he enters the house, people are watching him. He has stirred up all kinds of controversy before, what is he going to do next, they wonder. In the verses that our lectionary skips, Jesus poses a question to these watchers. He says, “Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath?” No one says a word. We already know what Jesus thinks about this issue. Last week, we read about how he healed a woman on the Sabbath—choosing people over rules. But Jesus wants them to recognize this also, so he singles out a man with dropsy (a retention of fluid) and heals him on the spot. This is an offense to the host, for he has performed an illegal healing on the Sabbath—in the distinguished Pharisee’s home, no less! People must be gasping in disbelief. The tension is so thick, you can cut it with a knife. But Jesus doesn’t stop here.
For just then, it is dinner-time and the other guests scurry to find their seats. In the Hebrew culture, the seating chart was extremely important—where a person sat, demonstrated his place in the hierarchical societal structure. Pharisees were especially noted for their careful attention to banquet rules, since they were concerned about purity. So the Pharisees gathered here proceed to seek out the best possible places for themselves, to show their great status and ritual purity. Therefore, Jesus-the-rude-houseguest opens up his mouth again and offers two pieces of unsolicited advice.
He begins with criticizing the guests for how they have jockeyed for positions of prominence at the table, instead of humbling themselves. He talks about how they should behave when they are invited to a wedding banquet (and the fact that he uses wedding as an example clues us into the fact that he is talking about the kingdom of heaven, which is often likened to a wedding banquet). He tells them, “Do not sit down at the place of honor, in case someone more distinguished than you has been invited by your host; and the host who invited both of you may come and say to you, `Give this person your place,' and then in disgrace you would start to take the lowest place. But when you are invited, go and sit down at the lowest place, so that when your host comes, he may say to you, `Come, Friend, sit up higher'; then you will be honored in the presence of all who sit at the table with you. For all who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted."
Jesus’ advice is to follow Solomon’s wisdom in the Proverbs: don’t get pushy, don’t recognize yourself, wait for the host to recognize you. So Jesus is saying that the humble will be honored, while the honored will be humbled—this kind of inversion of honor is a constant motif in the Gospels. Recall, if you will, the words that Jesus’ mother used when she learned that she would bear the son of God: “My soul doth magnify the Lord, for he has regarded the low estate of his handmaiden. He has knocked the mighty from their thrones and exalted those of low degree.” Jesus is all about exalting the humble and humbling the exalted—inverting the power structure.
This is a heavy concept in a very hierarchical society. Jesus comment has disgraced all of the guests, because they hadn’t been humble in choosing their places. This kind of humility—of voluntarily choosing the lower place, does not come easy for the Pharisees to whom Jesus is speaking, nor does it come easy for us. How often do we humble ourselves instead of being puffed up and trying to gain status for our own selves? It’s not a natural human response, but it is one that Jesus is trying to teach us.
Then, Jesus goes on to criticize the host himself for his exclusive guest list. In the Pharisees’ perpetual quest for ritual purity, they had formed “eating clubs,” where they could feel at home because only ritually pure people were allowed to attend. This way, they could sit comfortably at table and reflect upon the Scriptures. There was also the tradition in these “clubs,” that they would invite one another back and forth for dinner. If a person were to get invited to the home of a prominent Pharisee, it would boost his social status, so people were careful to invite honorable guests to their gatherings, in hopes that these guests would return the favor. Some religious groups celebrated these meals as an anticipation of the great banquet to come in heaven, but they specifically prohibited “the lame, the blind, and the crippled” from attending, because they were not considered ritually pure.
Jesus crashes down upon this kind of exclusivism and power-seeking. He says: "When you give a luncheon or a dinner, do not invite your friends or your brothers or your relatives or rich neighbors, in case they may invite you in return, and you would be repaid. But when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind. And you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you, for you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous." The poor, crippled, lame and blind have no power or money and they could never repay a dinner invitation, plus they are considered unholy because of their physical conditions. No Pharisee would dream of inviting them to dinner! Yet it is these very people, the excluded ones, that Jesus means to include. In fact, he tells them that if they do so, God will personally repay them in heaven. That’s how strongly God feels about the marginalized of society.
You see, Jesus is emphasizing that true honor and power come from God alone, and will not be given in this life. And the only way to get it is to not seek it for yourself—but instead to seek the honor and power for those who have none. He makes it clear that humbling yourself means thinking about other people—serving them, that's what it means. The counsel that you should humble yourself occurs ten times in the Gospels, as much as loving your neighbor. If you want to insure your salvation, stop thinking about your salvation, and start thinking about somebody else, it is only then that God will tell you, “Come, Friend, sit up higher!”
Let me give you an example of this power of this kind of humility. Harvard Professor Robert Coles, wrote a book about Dorothy Day. In it, there is this anecdote. Dorothy Day, as you know, is that famous Catholic social worker, the founder of the Catholic Worker. When Coles was a medical student at Harvard, he volunteered to work at the Catholic Worker. He was a Harvard graduate. He was in medical school. He was going to be a psychiatrist. In this society, that is about as high a status as you can get. He knew that. He was really proud of it. He was also proud that as this person with all these credentials, he was volunteering to help the poor—he was sure it would cause others to notice him.
He arrived at the premises of the Catholic Worker. He asked to see Dorothy Day. He went right to the top. The person said that she was in the kitchen. So, he went into the kitchen, saw her sitting at a table, talking to someone. He had enough medical training to recognize that the man that she was talking to was addicted to some dangerous substance. He was disheveled. He was obviously a homeless street person. She was sitting at table with him, listening intently to what he had to say.
Here was Dorothy Day, sitting at table with this street person, giving him her full attention. She had not even noticed Coles come in the room. She was doing just as Jesus instructs in this parable—she was exalting the humble man and was humbling Coles, the distinguished man. Embarrassed about not being noticed, Coles stood beside the door and waited for quite a while for her to finish. When she finally finished the conversation and stood up, she noticed Coles. She asked, "Do you want to speak to one of us?"
He was astounded. Dorothy Day was famous! This man with her was a nobody. He was a derelict. "You wanted to speak to one of us?" Coles had never seen anything like this before. Humility that can identify with another person so completely as to remove all distinctions between them. It cut through all of the boundaries, all the categories that society sets up to separate us from one another. There were just two people, brother and sister, the sister concerned about the brother.
This experience changed his life. Coles said he learned more in that one moment than he did in four years at Harvard. He saw in one moment what it means to humble yourself as our Lord did, "who did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but humbled himself, and took on the form of a servant."
Jesus words in today’s Gospel text are hard to take: “For he who exalts himself will be humbled and he who humbles himself will be exalted.” Yet, that is exactly what he has given us. May we take this scripture to heart and focus on the marginalized people of our own community—the poor, the disabled, the addicts, the “different”—anyone that society looks down upon for any reason. Christ calls us to include them, to befriend them, to serve them—even though it might be frowned upon by our friends and neighbors. If we say to these people with our words and actions, “Come, Friend, sit up higher!” then Christ promises we will hear that statement echoed in heaven, when God says to all those of humble heart, “Come, Friend, sit up higher!” Amen.
Now, may the peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus our Lord. Amen.
© 2007 Laura E. Gentry
September 2, 2007
by Pastor Laura Gentry
Luke 14:1, 7-14
On one occasion when Jesus was going to the house of a leader of the Pharisees to eat a meal on the sabbath, they were watching him closely.
When he noticed how the guests chose the places of honor, he told them a parable. "When you are invited by someone to a wedding banquet, do not sit down at the place of honor, in case someone more distinguished than you has been invited by your host; and the host who invited both of you may come and say to you, `Give this person your place,' and then in disgrace you would start to take the lowest place. But when you are invited, go and sit down at the lowest place, so that when your host comes, he may say to you, `Friend, move up higher'; then you will be honored in the presence of all who sit at the table with you. For all who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted."
He said also to the one who had invited him, "When you give a luncheon or a dinner, do not invite your friends or your brothers or your relatives or rich neighbors, in case they may invite you in return, and you would be repaid. But when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind. And you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you, for you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous." (NRSV)
Grace and Peace to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
In the scene from today’s Gospel reading, Jesus has been invited to dinner at the home of a very well-known Pharisee. As he enters the house, people are watching him. He has stirred up all kinds of controversy before, what is he going to do next, they wonder. In the verses that our lectionary skips, Jesus poses a question to these watchers. He says, “Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath?” No one says a word. We already know what Jesus thinks about this issue. Last week, we read about how he healed a woman on the Sabbath—choosing people over rules. But Jesus wants them to recognize this also, so he singles out a man with dropsy (a retention of fluid) and heals him on the spot. This is an offense to the host, for he has performed an illegal healing on the Sabbath—in the distinguished Pharisee’s home, no less! People must be gasping in disbelief. The tension is so thick, you can cut it with a knife. But Jesus doesn’t stop here.
For just then, it is dinner-time and the other guests scurry to find their seats. In the Hebrew culture, the seating chart was extremely important—where a person sat, demonstrated his place in the hierarchical societal structure. Pharisees were especially noted for their careful attention to banquet rules, since they were concerned about purity. So the Pharisees gathered here proceed to seek out the best possible places for themselves, to show their great status and ritual purity. Therefore, Jesus-the-rude-houseguest opens up his mouth again and offers two pieces of unsolicited advice.
He begins with criticizing the guests for how they have jockeyed for positions of prominence at the table, instead of humbling themselves. He talks about how they should behave when they are invited to a wedding banquet (and the fact that he uses wedding as an example clues us into the fact that he is talking about the kingdom of heaven, which is often likened to a wedding banquet). He tells them, “Do not sit down at the place of honor, in case someone more distinguished than you has been invited by your host; and the host who invited both of you may come and say to you, `Give this person your place,' and then in disgrace you would start to take the lowest place. But when you are invited, go and sit down at the lowest place, so that when your host comes, he may say to you, `Come, Friend, sit up higher'; then you will be honored in the presence of all who sit at the table with you. For all who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted."
Jesus’ advice is to follow Solomon’s wisdom in the Proverbs: don’t get pushy, don’t recognize yourself, wait for the host to recognize you. So Jesus is saying that the humble will be honored, while the honored will be humbled—this kind of inversion of honor is a constant motif in the Gospels. Recall, if you will, the words that Jesus’ mother used when she learned that she would bear the son of God: “My soul doth magnify the Lord, for he has regarded the low estate of his handmaiden. He has knocked the mighty from their thrones and exalted those of low degree.” Jesus is all about exalting the humble and humbling the exalted—inverting the power structure.
This is a heavy concept in a very hierarchical society. Jesus comment has disgraced all of the guests, because they hadn’t been humble in choosing their places. This kind of humility—of voluntarily choosing the lower place, does not come easy for the Pharisees to whom Jesus is speaking, nor does it come easy for us. How often do we humble ourselves instead of being puffed up and trying to gain status for our own selves? It’s not a natural human response, but it is one that Jesus is trying to teach us.
Then, Jesus goes on to criticize the host himself for his exclusive guest list. In the Pharisees’ perpetual quest for ritual purity, they had formed “eating clubs,” where they could feel at home because only ritually pure people were allowed to attend. This way, they could sit comfortably at table and reflect upon the Scriptures. There was also the tradition in these “clubs,” that they would invite one another back and forth for dinner. If a person were to get invited to the home of a prominent Pharisee, it would boost his social status, so people were careful to invite honorable guests to their gatherings, in hopes that these guests would return the favor. Some religious groups celebrated these meals as an anticipation of the great banquet to come in heaven, but they specifically prohibited “the lame, the blind, and the crippled” from attending, because they were not considered ritually pure.
Jesus crashes down upon this kind of exclusivism and power-seeking. He says: "When you give a luncheon or a dinner, do not invite your friends or your brothers or your relatives or rich neighbors, in case they may invite you in return, and you would be repaid. But when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind. And you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you, for you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous." The poor, crippled, lame and blind have no power or money and they could never repay a dinner invitation, plus they are considered unholy because of their physical conditions. No Pharisee would dream of inviting them to dinner! Yet it is these very people, the excluded ones, that Jesus means to include. In fact, he tells them that if they do so, God will personally repay them in heaven. That’s how strongly God feels about the marginalized of society.
You see, Jesus is emphasizing that true honor and power come from God alone, and will not be given in this life. And the only way to get it is to not seek it for yourself—but instead to seek the honor and power for those who have none. He makes it clear that humbling yourself means thinking about other people—serving them, that's what it means. The counsel that you should humble yourself occurs ten times in the Gospels, as much as loving your neighbor. If you want to insure your salvation, stop thinking about your salvation, and start thinking about somebody else, it is only then that God will tell you, “Come, Friend, sit up higher!”
Let me give you an example of this power of this kind of humility. Harvard Professor Robert Coles, wrote a book about Dorothy Day. In it, there is this anecdote. Dorothy Day, as you know, is that famous Catholic social worker, the founder of the Catholic Worker. When Coles was a medical student at Harvard, he volunteered to work at the Catholic Worker. He was a Harvard graduate. He was in medical school. He was going to be a psychiatrist. In this society, that is about as high a status as you can get. He knew that. He was really proud of it. He was also proud that as this person with all these credentials, he was volunteering to help the poor—he was sure it would cause others to notice him.
He arrived at the premises of the Catholic Worker. He asked to see Dorothy Day. He went right to the top. The person said that she was in the kitchen. So, he went into the kitchen, saw her sitting at a table, talking to someone. He had enough medical training to recognize that the man that she was talking to was addicted to some dangerous substance. He was disheveled. He was obviously a homeless street person. She was sitting at table with him, listening intently to what he had to say.
Here was Dorothy Day, sitting at table with this street person, giving him her full attention. She had not even noticed Coles come in the room. She was doing just as Jesus instructs in this parable—she was exalting the humble man and was humbling Coles, the distinguished man. Embarrassed about not being noticed, Coles stood beside the door and waited for quite a while for her to finish. When she finally finished the conversation and stood up, she noticed Coles. She asked, "Do you want to speak to one of us?"
He was astounded. Dorothy Day was famous! This man with her was a nobody. He was a derelict. "You wanted to speak to one of us?" Coles had never seen anything like this before. Humility that can identify with another person so completely as to remove all distinctions between them. It cut through all of the boundaries, all the categories that society sets up to separate us from one another. There were just two people, brother and sister, the sister concerned about the brother.
This experience changed his life. Coles said he learned more in that one moment than he did in four years at Harvard. He saw in one moment what it means to humble yourself as our Lord did, "who did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but humbled himself, and took on the form of a servant."
Jesus words in today’s Gospel text are hard to take: “For he who exalts himself will be humbled and he who humbles himself will be exalted.” Yet, that is exactly what he has given us. May we take this scripture to heart and focus on the marginalized people of our own community—the poor, the disabled, the addicts, the “different”—anyone that society looks down upon for any reason. Christ calls us to include them, to befriend them, to serve them—even though it might be frowned upon by our friends and neighbors. If we say to these people with our words and actions, “Come, Friend, sit up higher!” then Christ promises we will hear that statement echoed in heaven, when God says to all those of humble heart, “Come, Friend, sit up higher!” Amen.
Now, may the peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus our Lord. Amen.
© 2007 Laura E. Gentry
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