Pentecost 13, Proper 17, 2004:

It had happened every Sunday for a solid month. A gentleman in the front row (so you know it wasn’t an Episcopal Church), got up in the middle of the preacher’s sermon and walked out. Finally, after about the fifth time, the man’s wife, who had usually gone out the back door in order to avoid the preacher, thought she should offer some explanation. She met the reverend at the front door and said, "I hope you don’t think my husband has been disagreeing with your sermons. It’s just that he has a tendency to walk in his sleep."

It might be helpful, now that another football season has started, to remind us all again of the close association of certain football terms with what happens in church. Everyone knows that the "quarterback sneak" applies to those who quietly exit following the Eucharist, before the thanksgiving and recessional hymn. The "draft choice" is the seat closest to the door. A "draw play" of course refers to what many children and adults do with the newcomers’ cards and bulletins. The "benchwarmers" are those whose only participation is their attendance on Sunday morning. A "fumble" is dropping a hymnal, singing the wrong verse, or blurting out "And with thy spirit" during a Rite II service. "Illegal procedure" is making more than one trip in and out of worship. "Staying in the pocket" is what happens to a lot of money, other than the one-dollar bills. "The blitz" is the stampede to get to coffee hour first.

We have all had our moments when our behavior or perhaps a comment has caused embarrassment for us personally or to those close to us. Maybe it was in some social gathering where we committed a faux pas, an unintended transgression against established social norms or rules of etiquette. That has happened to me when too many pieces of silverware surrounded my plate. My grandmother loved to tell the story about the young man who was helping with the harvest one day on the farm. He used his knife to slice open a steaming hot biscuit and then reached over with the same knife to slice off a chunk of homemade butter. The butter fell off on the table. He attempted to scoop up the butter from the table, but to no avail. Finally, under his breath, Granny heard him say, "If I had you to home, I’d get ye!"

There is nothing inherently wrong with our social norms or rules of etiquette. The problem arises when those norms and rules are used in order to rank people in some kind of hierarchical structure. When those inventions intended to help govern human relationships spill over into our relationship with God, into the development of our spiritual lives, we begin to have problems. Pride and exclusiveness tend to lead to feelings of spiritual superiority. Nothing stunts spiritual growth like pride, pedigree, or pocketbook.

At first glance the Gospel from Luke, appointed as the Gospel reading for this Sunday in thousands of churches, seems to have Jesus playing the role of "Miss Manners," handing out good social advice and decorum. Digging beneath the surface, however, reveals a parable that doesn’t have much to do with good social graces as with people’s relationship with God. I would suggest that there are at least three things Jesus hopes his hearers might learn from the parable.

First, the feast at which Almighty God will serve as host is coming. Anytime and in any place we celebrate the Holy Eucharist it is but a foreshadowing of the Messianic Banquet that occurs in God’s Kingdom. The invitations have been distributed. Social ranking has absolutely nothing to do with the order in which the invitations are issued. The only way to respond properly to God’s invitation is by the total renunciation of any claim of merit or proper reward on our part. Entrance into the Kingdom and the salvation of our souls in God’s unmerited gift to us and cannot be a matter of human pride. When we come forward to this rail we are all the same. We are the ransomed sons and daughters of a loving, merciful God. If we miss the banquet, Jesus says, it will be our false pride and our claim of exclusiveness that will do us in.

I heard The Rt. Rev. Frank Allen, retired Bishop of Atlanta, say that he used to have a hard time understanding the concept of purgatory. Now he said he sees purgatory as that place to which we may have to go if we are estranged from others because of social, political, cultural, economic, racial, or personal reasons. There we work out the reconciliation needed before entrance into heaven is allowed. Either we are reconciled or we go to hell.

Secondly, the best attitude to take in life is to remain teachable. The best definition of genuine humility is that we are teachable. That invites us to be open not only to being taught by God in Christ, but also by every other human being that God places in our path. That is particularly true, Jesus says, about being open to the teaching that can come our way from the least, the last, and the lost. It is in that atmosphere that genuine giving and receiving can best be understood. That leads to a humility that does not come through grudging tolerance of those outside our social circle or station. That means we are to listen and learn from the least, the last, and the lost. In our sometimes paternalistic way of thinking we seldom listen and learn from the ones we are trying to help. If we see them as God in Christ invites us to see them, with dignity and love, we understand our opportunity to serve them as a blessing from God to us. That takes judgement out of the equation and elevates service to the place God intends. The simple fact seems to be, Jesus says, that our entrance into the Messianic Banquet depends upon our acceptance of others in the here and now.

Jesus said that it is the poor, the maimed, the lame, the blind, any of those who cannot repay us that we are to love, be with, listen to, and from whom we are to learn. This is not to be a passive virtue, but it needs to be an active commitment and must find expression in the lifestyle of every Christian person.

Finally, I believe Jesus would have us see in this parable that in God’s sight we are equals. Genuine humility is not sackcloth and ashes and a gloomy face. It is the recognition that our salvation depends upon God’s gracious gift and the Giver sees each one of us as a precious child. I believe God hopes we will acknowledge that gift of salvation and share it with others; not by berating them, belittling them or the culture from which they come, but in genuine love.

From this parable we are reminded to put away false pride based on who we think we are or the things we have. The writer of Ecclesiasticus says it best in today’s first reading: "How can dust and ashes be proud. Even in life the human body decays." We cannot stake anything on our accomplishments that we so often use to separate ourselves from others. It remains profoundly true that we depend upon each other’s labor far more than we care to admit. Instead of looking down on those who may labor in areas we would not dream of, we need to offer a prayer of gratitude that people are willing to do what we would not do.

We may well find ourselves in a less embarrassing position in life if we would but remember that a feast is coming, that we can learn most by remaining teachable, and that in God’s sight we are all equals. It’s either that or we might have to spend some time in purgatory. Amen.