Sermon for September 1, 2013: Luke 14:1-14

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.  Amen.

The text for this morning's message is from Luke’s Gospel, the 14^th chapter:

One Sabbath, when he went to dine at the house of a ruler of the Pharisees, [Jesus said to them], “…Everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.”He said also to the man who had invited him, “When you give a dinner or a banquet, …invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, and you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you. For you will be repaid at the resurrection of the just.”

Thus far the text.

My dear friends in Christ,

     Sometimes it is quite difficult to start a sermon, especially when the text is on something that feels so opposite to everything your pastor has ever been taught.  I have learned, over my many years of study, that the Bible is not, I repeat, is not, a collection of sayings and principles that we should apply to our lives.  Rather, the whole thing, each and every word and phrase, should point us to Jesus first, and most often, point us to Him only.  Anything less than that is a gross misuse of the Scriptures.  We shouldn’t expect to mine the Bible for secret passages that make us powerful.  That’s a misuse of the idea of Biblical principles.  That’s just the way it is.  And most of the time this is true.

     We can’t just take Jeremiah 29:11 and apply it to our lives.  The prophetic word that says, “I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope,” isn’t meant for us, but is rather, in the greater context of this prophecy, given specifically to the Israelites who are in Exile in Babylon.  God is promising to bring them back to Jerusalem, where they shall live in peace, where God will be their peace, which is ultimately a prophecy of Christ's redeeming love.  So, unless you are 2,600 years old, this passage isn’t about you.  It just isn’t.  It's about Jesus.

     Or what of the passage in Philippians 4:13?  “ I can do all things through him who strengthens me.”  I gotta tell you, this verse is not about you being able to run a race because Jesus strengthens you, or bench press 200 pounds because Jesus strengthens you, or keep running on nothing but a cup of coffee because Jesus strengthens you.  It’s about being satisfied in Christ alone as your only hope, your only Savior, the only thing that actually preserves you in actual times of hardship, like when you’re shipwrecked, or beaten with a whip, or imprisoned wrongly, or facing the executioner because of your faith.

     See, I have been trained to look at those verses, and others, and just shake my head at the preachers who want to use them to, somehow, magically tap into different blessings God apparently wants to give to you.  Oh, God wants to make you happy, and healthy, and wealthy, and give you everything your heart desires, because after all God has plans to prosper you not to harm you, and you know, where two or more are gathered in Jesus’s name, there He is, and all things work together for good, because you love God, right? NO!  These verses are out of context and they don’t apply to your life like that.  Rather, you should see and hear them as God intended: to give you great hope in your great Savior, Jesus Christ, who has ordered all things and chosen you out of all people to be saved into eternal life.

     So, when I get to a passage like we have in today’s Gospel, one where it clearly seems that there is something more at work than just a basic doctrinal treatise, it always takes me a while to get my head wrapped around it.  I struggle, because, after all, it’s really is rather clear from the context isn’t it?  I mean, we have read 14 verses from Luke.  We should have a good understanding of what is going on in the text, because we read a big chunk.  Jesus is, clearly, telling us how to live our lives.  He is clearly saying, don’t be a jerk, don’t take the chief seat, be humble, because when you’re humble, then you are exalted.  Seriously!  Jesus is saying, “Be humble, because then people will respect you and they will bring you up even higher.”  Look friends, it’s a Biblical principle!  And it’s actually coming to us rightly!  It’s in context!

     But, it still feels odd, right?  I mean, why should I seek to be higher?  If I’m going to humble myself, shouldn’t it be a true humility and not just something to get to the head of the table?  Shouldn’t my humility be something that’s real and not fake?  If those are the questions you’re asking, I think you’re on the right track.  Jesus doesn’t want you to be fake; Jesus doesn’t want your humility to be false.  Jesus just wants you humble.

     Let’s take a look, too, at what Jesus says next, another Biblical principle, something for us to do.  Don’t invite people to dinner who will invite you back.  Rather, invite those who can’t invite you back, because they have nothing to give you.  Let your reward be the reward you receive in the Resurrection.  That’s not too bad.

     Here’s the thing: these passages are about you.  Do these things.  It won’t earn you salvation, it won’t prop you up higher in the eyes of God, it won’t earn you brownie points in heaven.  It just won’t.  Do these things, be humble, and give freely without expectation of return, because they’re the right thing to do.  It’s serving your neighbor in love.  It’s not exalting yourself above others.  It’s living out your vocation for the sake of your neighbor, forsaking yourself.  Do them, do them all the time, do them without ceasing, do them because they’re the right thing to do.

     But, they’re hard things to do, aren’t they?  Because we need to do them perfectly, and all the time, we really can't do them at all.  It’s easy for me and for you to exalt ourselves over others.  It’s easy for me and for you to expect to be paid back for the gifts we dole out.  It’s easy for me and for you to do the exact opposite of what Jesus is telling us.  It’s really easy.  I do it without thinking.  I do it without caring.  I do it without ever noticing that I’m doing it.  And then, you know what’s worse, I end up gossiping about it.  I end up despising people in my heart.  I end up even worse than the Pharisees who are trying to trip up Jesus with the dropsied man in the beginning of the passage.  My heart is so black with sin, I not only cannot do the things that Jesus says are right, I make them worse and I taint them even more.  It’s like protecting your precious little car from hitting an innocent, scared deer by running over an unsuspecting child on the shoulder of the road because they'll leave less body damage.  We just make everything worse, because we look out for number one.

     But, that’s expected by Jesus.  In fact, I absolutely know Jesus expects this.  This is why He came.  This is why He came to earth for you.  Jesus is the one who humbles Himself.  He takes His divinity and empties Himself of all the ability that comes with it, and takes on human flesh.  He forever joins human flesh into the Trinity.  He humbles Himself to be born in a manger, of all places.  He’s born in a world with cow dung and goat urine.  He allows Himself to be fed at His mother’s breast.  He allows Himself to have his own feces cleaned off of Him.  Yes, Jesus pooped Himself.  He’s a baby.  You think He was born toilet-trained?  

     Jesus humbles Himself and allows Himself to grow up in wisdom and stature, not because He couldn’t supernaturally call it out of heaven, but because it’s what we do as humans, and He humbled Himself to be like us.  Jesus humbles Himself and submits to His parents’ wishes and demands because it’s what’s required of Him out of the 4^th commandment.  Jesus humbles Himself when His mother tells Him that the wedding guests are out of wine; He listens to her, and even though it wasn’t part of His immediate plan, He honors her request and makes wine out of water.  Jesus humbles Himself and allows Himself to fall asleep in a boat because human flesh gets tired, worn out, sad, depressed, sick.  

     Jesus did all the things you do, because He is the God who humbled Himself, even humbling Himself to death on a cross.  Jesus humbled Himself and allowed Himself to be stripped absolutely, and completely naked, and lifted up onto a tree, with His naked flesh for all the world, His mother, His friends, the women who followed Him around, to see.  Jesus humbled Himself and died.  Jesus died because He took on our flesh.  Jesus humbled Himself, because don’t, we can’t.  Jesus was humble, because we’re not.

     And Jesus, Jesus then humbly serves us with glorious gifts.  He invites us to this wonderful feast, we who are poor, and crippled, and lame, and blind, and He expects nothing in return.  Jesus takes His humbled flesh, which in His amazing resurrection from the dead is now glorified and able to more than we could comprehend, and delivers it to us from His very hands so that we may put the bread, which is His body, in our mouths, and drink the wine, which is His blood, in our bellies.  Jesus feeds us hungry and thirsty souls and expects nothing in return.  You don’t have to be good, you don’t have to be perfect, you don’t have to be righteous to come to Him.  He has done all those things for you so all can approach.  

     Are there Biblical principles here to follow?  Yeah, there really are.  They are good things to do.  But they’ll never earn you heaven.  They’ll never earn you eternal life.  They’ll never earn you a right standing in God’s eyes.  They’ll never really even earn you a higher place in the community.  That’s all God; everything you think you’ve earned is just God giving you what He already owns.  After all, God in Christ Jesus has already given you every good gift you could ever imagine.  And God in Christ Jesus demands nothing back from you.  

     Jesus has humbled Himself, and He is now the exalted one.  Jesus invites you, expecting nothing in return.  And Jesus Himself is repaid at the Resurrection of the Just, not because you have anything to give Him, but because He sees the fruits of His labors, that He has brought you safely to His arms and preserved you in body and soul with His good gifts He has given to you, not only through the Church, with the Word and the Sacraments, but in your daily life.  For as we confess in the Small Catechism:

God has given me…: eyes, ears, and all limbs and senses; reason and all mental faculties. In addition, God daily and abundantly provides shoes and clothing, food and drink, house and farm, spouse and children, fields, livestock, and all property—along with all the necessities and nourishment for this body and life. 

     These are the good gifts God has to give you, and though we indeed owe it to God to thank and praise Him, these are not conditional gifts; they are free to us because they cost Jesus everything.  God gives us these things because He loves us, and loves us enough to send His Son, Jesus Christ, to this earth to humble Himself in the flesh, and earn all these things for us, expecting nothing in return, forgiving our heinous sins and earning for us His own glorious righteousness.  So take hold of the Biblical principles, but take hold of your humble, exalted, and giving, Jesus even more, who loves you and forgives you and gives you every good thing.  In Jesus’ name.

     Now may the peace of God which passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus, our Lord!  Amen.