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Gospel Reading: Luke 14:1,7-14

Not for a place of honor did your Son come among us, O god of the lowly, but to invite to the wedding feast the poor, the crippled, the blind and the lame. Let such humility grace our table and lead us to renounce the quest for power and privilege. … Amen.

(From Prayers for Sunday and Seasons, Year C, Peter J. Scagnelli, LTP, 1992.)

It seems there is a common theme lately in sermons to this community. A lot of them seem to be focusing on breaking attachments to money and power and other things that serve as pseudo-security in place of God.

Here is the same topic again today – in Jeremiah, the prophet talks about the people forgetting and turning their back on all God did for them, his continual provision and faithfulness: rescuing them from Egypt, leading them through the wilderness – through a land no one survives in – and bringing them into a land where there is plenty. Instead of remembering that they owe all their current prosperity to God, they start attributing it to themselves and to other gods. Through Jeremiah, God laments, “My people have changed their glory for something that does not profit… they have forsaken me, the fountain of living water, and dug out cisterns for themselves, cracked cisterns that can hold no water.”

In the Psalm, we hear again God’s promise to take care of his people’s needs, as he has continually done in the past, and his wish that they would accept what he wants to give them.

I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt and said,
"Open your mouth wide, and I will fill it." … O that my people would listen to me.

Hebrews is very straightforward in its advice.

Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have. Do not neglect to do good and to share what you have.

I’m not sure why this keeps being the theme of sermons here. Maybe it’s something this community particularly needs to hear – or maybe it’s just a topic everybody needs to have reiterated. Probably both. Are you aware if it’s sinking in for you?

Money is not security; God is security.
Money is not ultimately of any value; God is of ultimate value.
Money may or may not even get you daily bread; God provides for your every need.

Money is only useful if you can trade it for what you need or want, but if what you need isn’t available, money won’t get it for you, and if the person who has what you need doesn’t want money for it, there again, money is not use. We’ve seen also that money can very easily and very quickly lose value and even become completely worthless. And it’s of no use at all in obtaining things of really great value.

“Will you be my friend? I’ll give you a hundred dollars…”
“Will you drop the charges against me? I’ll give you a hundred dollars…”
“Will you marry me? I’ll give you a hundred dollars…”
“I want to be a senator. I’ll give you a hundred dollars…”
“Can I have an indulgence to erase my sins? I’ll give you a hundred dollars…”

When people try to trade money for these things, it becomes a scandal – money, in these situations, actually reduces the value of what it’s traded for. Inappropriate use of money in these areas fosters disillusionment: with the political system, with the church, with relationships… it cheapens them, it makes them seem untrustworthy. Why? Because these things are based on a higher value than money.

For some things that have really ultimate value, money is not even a scandal, it’s just a joke.

“God, will you let me in? I’ll give you a hundred dollars…”

What does God have to do with money? Does God buy things? He owns the cattle on a thousand hills – he doesn’t need anything from us. It’s the other way around, he gives us everything. What do we have that we have not been given?

But still, it’s habit to hang onto our things, our abilities, our relationships, even our lives, as though they are ours and not God’s. And we try to get more by taking from each other. An outward representation of that is what Jesus saw at a party: people schmoosing and trying to network and make connections to power and wealth to get up the ladder, trying to sit closest to the host of the party, to be seen as more important. Parties are often still like this – you’ve got some folks trying to sit with or talk to certain other folks – the kids who are more popular, the bosses who are more powerful, the stars who are bigger celebrities. At the same time, people are trying to avoid and get away from those they feel are lower than themselves or might somehow pull them down.

But Jesus says we’re not to be like that – from either side. Neither the brown-nosers nor the snobs.

As one commentator, David Lose, noted, Jesus is not just being Miss Manners when he talks to people about how to act at parties – and who to invite. This business about who sits closest to the host is about pecking order, but Jesus says forget the pecking order – it’s the other way around. Don’t try to sit in the highest seat; sit in the lowest. Don’t try to be the king; be everyone’s servant.

And if you’re the one who’s throwing the party, don’t invite people you want to impress, people you think can help you advance your career, your station in life. You scratch their back and they’ll scratch yours. No, don’t do that – that doesn’t earn you any favor with God, because there’s nothing hospitable or generous about it; it’s a calculated investment, but whatever you get back is all the benefit there is to that kind of transaction. It doesn’t win you any points in heaven.

No, if you want to invest in something truly valuable, try to do something to win God’s favor – as Jesus advises. Do something good for someone who can’t do anything for you. Invite people to your party who can’t even bring the bean dip.

Since this money and economy and giving topic seems to keep coming up, possibly it’s something we need to learn better. In school, when a concept is difficult to grasp with just a lecture, the teacher gives you some homework to practice…

I think that’s a good idea to implement in church. Lots of times, people just come to church and listen to the lecture, and I don’t know how much application of the learning takes place afterwards. I guess that’s fine if you’re just auditing, but really, why even audit a course unless you actually want to learn the material?

So, I’m giving a homework assignment. Now, I’m not the teacher; you won’t turn it in to me. Jesus is the teacher; I’m just subbing today. But this is some of the material he left for us to work on.

God, the loving father

10th Sunday after Pentecost
Readings: Hosea 11:1-11,  Psalm 107:1-9,43,  Colossians 3:1-11,  Luke 12:13-21

First of all, regarding today’s Gospel, the point is - our security rests in God – nothing else: not jobs, not retirement accounts, not, as in this passage, barns. Somebody else will get all your stuff when you die anyway, so it’s a waste to spend your whole life collecting it. God is our security, so invest your energy and resources how God directs.

Moving right along, now we’ll take a look at the passage from Hosea. Last week, Fr. John discussed praying to God as our Father. In Hosea, the prophet shows some of God’s view of that relationship – how he responds to his children when they’re giving him grief. He gets angry at them for acting like idiots, but at the same time, he loves them.
Does this dynamic sound familiar to you? Now listen to what Deuteronomy recommends for parents dealing with unruly kids:

If someone has a stubborn and rebellious son who will not obey his father and mother, who does not heed them when they discipline him….

sound like anything you’ve said about your kids? or your parents or teachers said about you?
Here’s the course of action prescribed:

then his father and his mother shall take hold of him and bring him out to the elders of his town at the gate of that place. They shall say to the elders of his town, ‘This son of ours is stubborn and rebellious. He will not obey us. He is a glutton and a drunkard.’

So what happens?

Then all the men of the town shall stone him to death. (Dt 21:18-21)

Wow.

That seems a little severe. It’s hard to imagine a parent demanding the death penalty for their own child. Folks do demand the death penalty for other people’s children, but somehow that seems different…

Saying, “I’d like to wring his little neck!” is one thing, but we don’t condone actually doing it. We’re horrified at news stories reporting that a parent beat or shook a child to death. Sometimes anger can boil up to the point it’s not wise to punish your kid right then – you have to reason with yourself and talk yourself down to deal with the situation more calmly.

This seems to be part of what’s going on in God’s internal conversation. “How can I give you up, Ephraim? How can I hand you over, O Israel?...My heart recoils within me…” He’s angry, but really, he doesn’t want to destroy his people. He starts mentally re-playing memories – bending over them as they took their first lurching steps, hanging onto his fingers – “…it was I who taught Ephraim to walk...”
He thinks about how he took care of them, though they wouldn’t remember it. “I took them up in my arms; but they did not know that I healed them… I was to them like those who lift infants to their cheeks. I bent down to them and fed them.” You probably don’t remember much about when you were a baby – or even when you were two or three years old, but your parents probably do. If you’re a parent, you probably remember a lot of little details about your children when they were small. They were totally helpless, so you had to do everything for them – which they don’t remember at all. But this bonded you to your children in a very powerful way; when you invest so much in a person, when you love them so completely, it’s hard uproot that love, no matter what happens later.

Sometimes, you really have to rely on the strength of that bond to remind yourself that you DO love your kids, because they can do things that may make you doubt it at times. You also have to remind yourself what you believe is right and not simply react according to how you feel at any given moment.

God is in some sense the same way, as Hosea portrays him – his children can make him so furious at times, he wants to beat the snot out of them, but he reminds himself that that’s not the kind of father he is. He thinks about when they were little - scooping them up in his arms and cuddling them to his cheek, and he reminds himself – that is who I am. I am a loving father. I'm not going to destroy them.

So even though his kids are rebellious and stubborn and don’t listen – even though they are “bent on turning away” he doesn’t take hold of them and drag them off to be executed. His choice in this is not based on the actions or behavior of the kids – but based on who HE is as the parent. It’s a difficult thing, I imagine, to not let your kids’ behavior drive your reaction to them. They can probably push your buttons better than anyone else, and it must take a huge effort at times to keep your cool and be deliberate in how you respond. I’ve heard several parents repeat the principle of trying never to discipline their children while they are angry, and this seems like a very wise rule.

There’s a saying attributed to Macarius the Great, one of the desert fathers of early monasticism

If you reprove someone, you yourself get carried away by anger and you are satisfying your own passion; do not lose yourself, therefore, in order to save another. (The Sayings of the Desert Fathers p. 131)

God does not lose himself in his anger at his children. He won’t allow our behavior to dictate his. Who God is as a father is not dependent on how his children are acting at any given moment – and this is a good thing, because we can be sweet one minute and vicious the next. Regardless of the kind of children we are, God has decided the kind of father he will be.

I will not execute my fierce anger; I will not again destroy Ephraim; for I am God and not mortal, the Holy One in your midst, and I will not come in wrath.

As God’s children, we can rest secure in his decision to love us. This is not to say he won’t get angry and will never punish anyone. He may get mad, but his love is what’s essential, what’s central to any response he makes – that’s who he is, who he chooses to be, and you are not powerful enough to make him forget that, no matter what you do. Keep this in mind when confessing your sins and asking God’s forgiveness. He’s been working to redeem your mistakes even when you were ignoring him – so he’ll certainly be willing to get you back on the right track as soon as you want to go that way.

In the service of Reconciliation, the person seeking forgiveness says, “I have wandered far in a land that is waste.” and then talks about detours and wrong turns they’ve made.

Today’s Psalm talks about people’s similar experience.

Some wandered in desert wastes, finding no way to an inhabited town; hungry and thirsty, their soul fainted within them. Then they cried to the Lord in their trouble, and he delivered them from their distress; he led them by a straight way, until they reached an inhabited town.

And at the end, the Psalmist says,

Let those who are wise give heed to these things, and consider the steadfast love of the Lord.

Steadfast love is love that stands fast, not moved or changed. God’s love for us is steadfast. So, the point is not perfect children; the point is a loving father.

Amen.