First Presbyterian Church
Moving Up
Sermon for September 2, 2007
by Pastor Susan Barnes

Last week, our gospel lesson was one of the stories of Jesus in a synagogue, the one where he healed the woman who had been unable to stand up straight for 18 years. Some of the synagogue leaders argued that he should not have healed her on the Sabbath. I quoted from the Mishnah, a book full of rabbis' interpretations of the Torah. One rabbi said “If there is doubt that life is in danger, ‘this overrides the Sabbath'” 1. That's the Jewish tradition Jesus was using when he healed the woman.

The same topic comes up in our scripture reading today. Jesus argues from within the tradition of the Pharisees; he quotes scripture to defend his actions. Christians often think of all the Pharisees being against Jesus, but they weren't. The gospels and Acts tell us of Pharisees who supported Jesus and agreed with his interpretations of the law. After his death, one Pharisee even defended Christians 2. Most of the time, in conversations with Pharisees, Jesus participated in debates on contemporary topics the Pharisees had been debating already. When we look at other Jewish texts from the first century, we see that not every Pharisees or Jewish leader had the same interpretation of the Torah. They had plenty of disagreements among themselves. In our lesson today, a Pharisee invited Jesus to his home. Listen for the word of God as it is found in Luke 14:1-14.

1 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. 2 Just then, in front of him, there was a man who had dropsy.

3 And Jesus asked the lawyers and Pharisees, "Is it lawful to cure people on the sabbath, or not?"

4 But they were silent. So Jesus took him and healed him, and sent him away.

5 Then he said to them, "If one of you has a child or an ox that has fallen into a well, will you not immediately pull it out on a sabbath day?"

6 And they could not reply to this.

7 When he noticed how the guests chose the places of honor, he told them a parable. 8 "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; 9 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.

10 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. 11 For all who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted."

12 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. 13 But when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind. 14 And you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you, for you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous."

This ends our reading of God's word. Jesus is on his way to a dinner at a Pharisee's house; he was probably an honored guest there. The other guests are with him, watching him. He passes by a man who was very ill. He heals him and no one accuses him of anything – he just reminds them that they would help a person out of a well even on the Sabbath. 3 If you see someone in trouble, and you have the means to help, you ought to help.

But that sort of helping is not about the exalted helping the lowly; it is about the exalted recognizing that they have to learn they are lowly themselves. Proverbs 25:6-7a says “Do not put yourself forward in the king's presence or stand in the place of the great; for it is better to be told, “Come up here,” than to be put lower in the presence of a noble.” Jesus spoke out of that Jewish tradition. Don't put on airs is another way of putting it. When I was little, my friends and I would chastise each other by saying, “Don't act big.”

Jesus was speaking to some Pharisees and other people of honor and wealth.

In our epistle reading this morning, the author of Hebrews is speaking to a group on the margins. The congregation has experienced public shame and abuse. This part of Hebrews was written to advise and encourage them, so they can endure to the end. The author of Hebrews advises them not to let the abuse and shame they've experienced define who they are, but to find their identity in Christ instead.

When you are poor, it is natural to long for money, to buy a little bit of creature comforts and security. The congregation in Hebrews was probably somewhat marginalized, and needed to be cautioned about the love of money.

Listen for the word of God as it is found in Hebrews 13:1-16.

1 Let mutual love continue. 2 Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for by doing that some have entertained angels without knowing it.

3 Remember 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 Let marriage be held in honor by all, and let the marriage bed be kept undefiled; for God will judge fornicators and adulterers. 5 Keep your lives free from the love of money, and be content with what you have; for he has said, "I will never leave you or forsake you."

6 So we can say with confidence, "The Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid. What can anyone do to me?"

7 Remember your leaders, those who spoke the word of God to you; consider the outcome of their way of life, and imitate their faith. 8 Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever. 9 Do not be carried away by all kinds of strange teachings; for it is well for the heart to be strengthened by grace, not by regulations about food, which have not benefited those who observe them.

10 We have an altar from which those who officiate in the tent have no right to eat. 11 For the bodies of those animals whose blood is brought into the sanctuary by the high priest as a sacrifice for sin are burned outside the camp. 12 Therefore Jesus also suffered outside the city gate in order to sanctify the people by his own blood. 13 Let us then go to him outside the camp and bear the abuse he endured.

14 For here we have no lasting city, but we are looking for the city that is to come. 15 Through him, then, let us continually offer a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that confess his name.

16 Do not neglect to do good and to share what you have, for such sacrifices are pleasing to God.

This ends our reading from God's word. This last line reminds the Hebrews, lowly as they are, that they have things to share and are capable of doing good.

But the verses before, about the altar, are a little hard to understand, as are the verses about food and those who officiate in the tent.

I can shed a little light on some of it. In the Hebrew Bible, the old testament, when animals were brought to the temple to be sacrificed by the priests, the priests kept some of the meat, and sold some of it for upkeep of the temple and distribution to the poor. But on the day of atonement, the priest had to burn the animals' bodies outside the camp so no one could eat them; these sacrifices were for the Lord, and as the smoke went up to heaven, the sacrifices atoned for all the sins of the people of Israel. Jesus was crucified outside the city. The altar is in the heavenly sanctuary where Christ is, and so the sacrifices we offer are praising God, sharing what we have, and doing good.

The author cautioned them to “Keep your lives free from the love of money, and be content with what you have.” Sometimes the longing for more money interferes with our longing for God. It makes us forget our identity as Christians, and can prevent us from being generous and sharing what we have.

Mike told me about his trip to Nashville. He sat near Melva Costen on the plane over. Melva is something of a Presbyterian celebrity – she chaired the committee that compiled the hymnal. Mike helped her haul her luggage, and so she shared her limo to the hotel. Not that Melva is the kind of person who requires a limo. The hotel provided the conference with five free limos to pick up the conference speakers. Who would turn down a free limo? Not Melva, and not Mike. He enjoyed every minute.

Melva and her late husband Jim, a former GA moderator spent years raising money to open a university and theological seminary in Kenya. Too many Kenyans, she told Mike, come to this country to study, then like it so much they don't go home. When she and her son were in Kenya just before Jim's death in 2004, they experienced hostility, not hospitality from the Kenyan community. In an early heart-to-heart conversation with community representatives, Melva and her son learned that a Kenyan had told the community that African-Americans didn't regard Africans as their equals. But the Costens' actions opening the school spoke louder than any words could, and the community believed them.

Kenyans were so honored with the Costen's plan to open the university and seminary that they danced for a long time, with the Costens in the center of the dance. Their hospitality demonstrated by their dance, helped convince Melva she and Jim were doing the right thing.

Some of us know the phrase “entertained angels without knowing it” as “entertained angels unawares.” That line probably refers to the story of Abram and Sarah showing hospitality to the three strangers, who end up being messengers of the Lord, and later, the Lord himself. We see the importance of showing hospitality to strangers in the law in Leviticus 19:34. “The alien who resides with you shall be to you as the citizen among you; you shall love the alien as yourself, for you were aliens in the land of Egypt: I am the LORD your God.”

Here's a story about how some strangers were welcomed, but were certainly not angels, although they tried.

Barbara Brown Taylor took some rich kids from Atlanta on a mission trip to rural Kentucky about twenty years ago. She wrote, “many of them did not know they were rich. Because they had only each other to compare themselves to, they thought all teenagers received cars for their 16 th birthdays and went on cruises to the Bahamas for their senior class parties. Without exception, they were well fed, well educated, and well supplied with everything their hearts desired. The only thing they were missing was an experience of poverty so we drove to Appalachia to get them one.

Our destination was Barnes Mountain, where a rural mission had been set up in an abandoned farmhouse in the woods. Our job was to finish chinking in the log cabin that would serve as a home for the new minister in the fall. We slept in an old chicken house across the clearing.

Although I did not realize it at first, part of the reason for our being there was to draw local people out of the woodwork. Come see city slickers trying to mix 50 pound bags of mortar in a rusted out wheelbarrow! Watch rich kids climbing rickety ladders with a loaded trowel in their hands! The ploy worked. Within 24 hours we had attracted three helpers from the pool of local teenagers, including one particularly sweet boy named Dwayne.

Dwayne was as fascinated by our stories as we were by his. We told him about the dining room at the top of the Marriott Hotel that goes around once every hour. He told us about his uncle who had fallen into an abandoned coal mine and broken his hip. We told him about the Braves. He told us about the pet barn owl he had raised from a baby.

About halfway through our time on Barnes Mountain, Dwayne made the ultimate sacrifice; he let the Atlanta girl who had been teasing him all week give him a city haircut…. One minute he was a farm boy with shaggy bangs and the next he was one of us, with a layered look that made him grin in the mirror and duck his head.

He worked with us, played with us, ate with us—and at the end of the week he prayed with us, as we gathered for a communion service before we got into our van to go home. There was lots of crying that Saturday morning. We had discovered a kind of community with one another that many of us had not known before and no one wanted to let go. When we got to the prayers of the people, they lasted along time. Everyone had a chance to say something, and quite a few of the prayers had to do with what a privilege it had been to serve the poor people of this area, upon whom we asked God's special blessing.

Under the circumstances I guess that sort of thing was predictable, but later I learned that it was also tragic, at least for Dwayne. When I asked him afterward what was wrong, he said, ‘Y'all called me poor! I swear, I never thought of myself that way until you said it. I have all these woods to run around in. I have a grandmama and a granddaddy who love me. I got a whole shed full of rabbits I can play with anytime I want. Does that sound poor to you? It don't sound poor to me. You all should save your prayers for someone who needs them.'

No one meant to hurt him, but our language gave us away. We thought of the poor as people other than ourselves. We separated ourselves from Dwayne in our prayers, and our partiality stung him to the quick. By setting him apart like that, we withheld the one thing he really wanted from us, which was simply to belong—not one up or one down but just one of us—a member of the community, not a mission project.” 4

Sometimes to move up, we need to move down or all around. Sometimes we have to let go of moving up, and move out to another continent or move over to let someone else have a place, not so someone will be indebted to us, but to let mutual love continue.

1Mishnah, ed. Danby, p. 172, Yoma 8:6.

2 Gamaliel in Acts 5:34.

3In the Dead Sea scrolls, the Damascus document says if a beast fell in a pit on the Sabbath, it can't be lifted out. If a person fell in, he or she could be pulled out as long as no implements were used.

4 Taylor, Barbara Brown, “For richer, for poorer,” Christian Century Dec. 1, 1998, p. 1,188. www.christiancentury.org