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David Orendorff        Luke 14:1, 7-14        August 29, 2010

As usual, Jesus is counter intuitive.  Common wisdom says that if you want to get ahead then try your best to move up to the head table where you will be noticed by the right people.  But Jesus says go to a lower table, someplace humble, and serve him (Jesus) from there.  Jesus makes no sense on how we are taught to advance ourselves.

In Jesus day much of social behavior was regulated by a set of honor codes.  The codes around dining were particularly clear. Where one sat determined ones status and future.  Those who sat near the host at the head of the table were the most honored.  Those at the foot of the table were the least honored.  The most honored dined first and ate best; the least honored dined last and had leftovers.  Even the conversation was ordered by the honor code.  The most honored guests chose the topic and their opinion was the most important.

For Jesus to be invited to dinner with a leader of the Pharisees and his esteemed guests of lawyers meant Jesus was being honored.  And that Jesus was seated with the host and in the course of the meal led the discussion with his story/parable was even a greater honor.   That he challenged their choosing the privileged seating was rude and highly offensive.

We have strong remnants of this honor code in our own culture.  For great, formal dinners, dinners with distinguished guests, great care is given to who will sit where and with whom.  It is a privilege to be seated at the head table with the keynote speaker.  Those who are seated to the edges, to the back of the room and by the kitchen door have been clearly told their place in the pecking order.

Even in our casual dinner parties some care is given to who is invited and who will sit where.  By the seat assigned we know our place.  When we find ourselves at the low end of the table it is human to want to move up.  And so thoughts of how we might find our way near to the head table naturally occur.  The advice we are most often given, if we desire to be upwardly mobile, is to network with others, particularly others who might help us move up.  These connections are meant to advance our careers and our contacts.  It is advice I have given to those seeking jobs.  It is not Jesus’ advice.

Not only have I given advice contrary to Jesus’ way, I have lived contrary to Jesus’ way.  Fortunately, and sometimes harshly, God has a way of returning me to the path.  When I started ministry I was in three very small congregations.  By making contacts and pleasing the right people I moved up to a larger single congregation and then a quite large congregation.  By hard work and pleasing the right people I moved from committee membership to committee chair.  I was feeling pretty important because now I sometimes sat at the head table with Bishops.

Then through a series of events it came crashing down.  A self inflated ego led me down a way that departed from Jesus and instead of being humble to accept the help offered (and needed), I, with pride, said I could handle it myself.  I couldn’t and ended up at odds with a co-pastor, two of three District Superintendents and the Bishop.  Not only was my appointment in jeopardy, but those above me wanted me gone.  I was being booted from the head table.

As is my custom when confronted by something, and this felt very big, I went on a silence retreat under spiritual direction; and I prayed, studied and consulted my closest soul friends.  In my prayers I was confronted by the last line of today’s scripture, “For every one who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.”  And instead of thinking it was about those with whom I had crossed, I understood it was about me.  God also gave me Psalm 131 to guide me:

Yahweh, my heart has no lofty ambitions,

my eyes do not look too high.

I am not concerned with great affairs,

or marvels beyond my scope.

Enough for me to keep my soul tranquil and quiet,

like a child in its mothers arms,

as content as a child that has been weaned.

People of God, rely on Yahweh, now and for always.

I prayed this Psalm.  Trust God became my daily mantra.  And I waited.  The result was that I left a congregation I loved and left the conference where I had been in ministry for 26 years. But God was not banishing me.  God was gifting me more than I could have then understood.

I moved to this wonderful area to be near the critical medical care my mother and Vickie needed; to live near my children, grandchildren, my sister and her family; and most importantly to rise to new levels of sailing skills. And the gifts kept coming.  I fell in love with Anacortes and her people.  And now here I am feeling like my whole career and life have been refined that I might be the pastor at Bear Creek; an appointment where all the spiritual gifts I have are of use.  I feel like by moving to a lower table my life has risen to a higher and more joyful place.

Now, when folks ask me how they can get to the head table, I tell them what I tell myself.  Start by going to a lower table and serve compassion well from there.  If God wants to move you up, you will be moved. If you end up staying at the lower table then that is where God wants you to serve.  The point is not which table we are assigned, the point is how well we serve Jesus and each other from whatever table we are given.  The joy of life will not come from being either up or down, but from a life well lived in love.

The more I understand about my own life and God’s purpose in it, the more I know I sit precisely at the table God has chosen for me.  And to know that is to be content with my life as it is.  When I am my best self, I am satisfied to sit where I am assigned and let God use me.  When in my anxiety and need to feel important I sometimes fail in this humility and exalt myself, God is good about humbling me and putting me in my proper place.

Dan Terry understood serving Jesus from a humble table much more fully than I do.  Dan was a medical missionary and a friend of the Barr family.  The Barr’s came to know the Terry family when Dan and his family came to Sequim to visit his parents and take some rest.  The Terry’s had daughters near the ages of the Barr’s.  But Dan’s heart and soul were in Afghanistan.  As a child Dan visited Afghanistan with his family.  Later, in the 1970s he returned to there to answer the call from God to serve the Afghan people with acts of compassion.

For more than 30 years Dan climbed down the ladder of success in order to climb the ladder of Abba’s love.  He survived coups, the Russian occupation, Al Qaeda and two trips to prison.  It is said he actually looked forward to prison because, like Paul, it gave him a new opportunity to serve the least.  And it is said that on his second trip into prison both the prisoners and the staff cheered to see him coming.

For those 30 years you have been in Afghanistan with Dan as he was very quietly supported by The United Methodist Church through Global Ministries to work with international organizations providing health and relief services to the poorest and the most marginalized people in Afghanistan

On August 6, 2010 Dan and 9 other aid workers were massacred as they were returning to Kabul after conducting an eye-camp in a remote area of the northeastern region of the country. The camp was organized by International Assistance Mission, a Christian humanitarian organization recognized and registered by the government in the predominantly Muslim country. A Taliban spokesman claimed credit for the attack, charging that the 10 were trying to convert Muslims to Christianity.  Whether the Taliban actually committed this act is uncertain.  However, it is certainly not true that Dan was seeking the conversion of Muslims.  He came not to convert but to serve with love.  And for this he was loved and honored by the people Afghanistan, by the Barr family and I pray, by us.

In the flipped logic of success, where serving Jesus from the lower table is the height of a successful life, Dan Terry was a huge success.  He had friends in high places but he did not live or serve in a high place. He loved Jesus by meeting the most basic needs of the poorest of the poor in a very broken and poor nation.  Dan Terry and his family are, in my mind, to be exalted.  Dan Terry shows me Jesus’ way to be “get ahead.”  I learn from Jesus and I learn from Dan the truth of Psalm 131 that it is

Enough for me to keep my soul tranquil and quiet,

like a child in its mothers arms,

as content as a child that has been weaned.

People of God, rely on Yahweh, now and for always.

I am content and glad to trust God and to serve Jesus from whatever table is assigned. May it also be so for you.

Shalom and Amen.

 

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David Orendorff   Luke 12:32-34     August 15, 2010

Today’s scripture is obviously about divine pleasure, human fear and our possessions (or what we assume is ours). I think the most striking content of the first verse is that it is Abba’s pleasure to give us the kingdom. Abba does not give the kingdom to us begrudgingly. Nor does Abba give the kingdom to us because we have earned it. Abba gives the kingdom to us because to do so gives Abba good pleasure.

This should alleviate our fears before God and life. But sadly, even the best of us sometimes fears, and in our fear we turn from Abba to stuff, forgetting that it is Abba who gives and sustains our lives and not us, and certainly not our stuff.

Last week I talked about God, us and our possessions as well. And no, we are not in the midst of a stewardship campaign, though we are in need of a fusion of funds through the long, financially dry summer. I am preaching on our stuff again for three reasons:

• I am a lectionary preacher and this scripture is the one assigned for today by the international and interdenominational committee;
• More importantly, because Jesus preached about how the love of stuff is the most serious impediment to a healthy trust of God and is a serious threat to the quality of our relationships, and is the thief of true joy.
• And I am preaching about God and stuff because I am committed to preaching even from the words I wish Jesus hadn’t said. What good is it to seek meaning in God’s word only when it’s comfortable?

Jesus obviously thought confronting the false god named stuff was important. Misuse of wealth is one of the few things for which Jesus has no tolerance and which even makes him angry. Good stewardship, the right attitude and the right use of God’s creation, is at the very center of Jesus’ teachings.

When I first began to work on this sermon I had nothing to say. I prayed my usual prayer and waited for a day or two before optimistically writing, “Dear God, give me words to comfort the weary.” Usually, after having studied and meditated on the scripture for a week, an outline flows. But by the Wednesday when I should have been done with a draft and on to polishing, there was no outline, no idea, nothing but silence. So after sitting in the silence and fearing I would have no sermon, I prayed again.

God, for 30 years you have told me what to say and helped me say it. What would you have me tell your children? What would you say to me?

I held my pencil over my writing tablet, waiting. Then I simply wrote the words that came. Here they are, unedited:

Tell them this: I am everything they need. I am the fruit of the earth. I am breathing in and breathing out. I am love itself. All other things are false gods that will destroy. Only my love can save.

And in my love I give myself freely. You can have it all. All means all. What you truly need is yours, all of it. You need bread for your table? I give it to you. You need love for your heart? I give it to you. You need health? I give it to you, even in and beyond death. I am your greatest treasure.

Though everything is Abba’s, Abba chooses to freely give us the kingdom. We don’t have to be afraid. We can be generous. We can make the treasure of our hearts the love of God and not the stuff from God. In the fear of life we have been trained to think our salvation and the kingdom lie in the stuff of life, the things and status that make us rich and respected. But this treasure is false and leads us to hell.

Oddly, Jesus has the sociologists on his side. In 1956 a survey was done which measured two things; how much stuff we had and how happy we were. Forty years later, in 1996, the same survey was repeated. And though we had twice as much stuff, we were half as happy-twice as much stuff and half as happy.

Other research by the Pew Memorial Trust reveals these startling statistics. Ninety percent of divorcees say there were battles over money and that money played a major role in divorce. In 1996 there were one million filings for bankruptcy. In 2009 there were nearly 1,400,000 filings for bankruptcy, almost a 40% increase in just six years. And the number of those who are losing it all continues to rise.

From childhood we are inundated with messages that teach that salvation is in having stuff. By the time our children are 20 they will have seen more than one million commercials. Our children are learning from us to seek spiritual needs in material ends. So, when they are blue and bored, they go to the mall, the temple of stuff. Self esteem, worth and value are defined by the right label on your shoes.

This false salvation is not only deadly to our joy, it is killing our children. Though our kids have more stuff than any other generation, the suicide rate for teens continues to rise.

The lust can kill in other ways. My niece Shayna is one and a half years old. At one year old she had a liver transplant. She will be on anti-rejection drugs the rest of her life. On their recent visit my niece and her husband told us that one of the major risks for Shayna, should she reach adolescence, is that she will stop taking her anti-rejection drugs because they puff up her face and she will think they make her unattractive. Turns out this is a too-common problem among girls like Shayna, and they trade their lives for looking good by stopping their medication or becoming bulimic or anorexic, all for stuff.

More stuff, less joy. More stuff, more hell. Still, in spite of the facts, most of the people who live around us and among us believe their security and joy lies in having stuff. But in spite of Jesus’ warnings and sociologist’s and researcher’s confirmations, we shiver, get frightened, and find ways to avoid or soft petal the conflict Jesus’ words are sure to bring when he says:

Fear not, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom. Sell your possessions, and give alms; provide yourselves with purses that do not grow old, with a treasure in the heavens that does not fail, where no thief approaches and no moth destroys. For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.

It is such a simple thing to say. It is so clear and cuts so sharply. God is God. Stuff is not God, but a gift from God. If we give our hearts to stuff we not only miss the kingdom that has been given to us, we find ourselves increasingly in a spiritual hell. But if we are frugal in our personal lives and generous in our public lives, doing acts of compassion as Jesus did, giving our hearts to the love of God and stuff to the healing of the world, then we have the treasure that makes our lives heavenly.

I have used the word “generous” several times. For concrete thinkers among us, “generous” needs to be defined so it is not just a perennially subjective preference. Biblically, “generous” is defined as greater than 10% of our harvest or income. In Methodism we have a more processed definition in quoting John Wesley’s, “Earn all you can, save all you can, give all you can.” For the early Methodists generous meant living simply so others could receive the gift of life. In our consumer society “generous” is denying ourselves something we want for what someone else needs. The bottom line is that only individually do we know what is generous to us. But generous can never mean giving the leftovers.

It is only right that, as we consider generosity, we consider how generous God is with us. Jesus, speaking for Abba the creator and true owner of all stuff, says, “Fear not, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.” God gives us everything. Thomas Merton says it this way:

Life is this simple: We are living in a world that is absolutely transparent and God is shining through it all the time. This is not just a fable or a nice story. It is true. If we abandon ourselves to God and forget ourselves, we see it sometimes, and we see it maybe frequently. God shows Himself everywhere, in everything - in people and in things and in nature and in events. It becomes very obvious that He is everywhere and in everything and we cannot be without Him. It’s impossible. It’s simply impossible. The only thing is that we don’t see it.

Notice that Merton does not say that we can’t see it, but that we don’t see it. Fortunately and graciously we have the opportunity to see it all the time if we will but see that it is our Abba’s good pleasure to give us the kingdom.

Julie Manhan tells of a God being seen by a small boy and an old woman.

There once was a little boy who wanted to meet God. He knew it was a long trip to where God lived, so he packed his suitcase with Twinkies and a six-pack of root beer and he started his journey.

When he had gone about three blocks, he met an old woman. She was sitting in the park just staring at some pigeons. The boy sat down next to her and opened his suitcase. He was about to take a drink from his root beer when he noticed that the old lady looked hungry, so he offered her a Twinkie. She gratefully accepted it and smiled at him. Her smile was so pretty that the boy wanted to see it again, so he offered her a root beer. Once again she smiled at him. The boy was delighted!

They sat there all afternoon eating and smiling, but they never said a word.

As it grew dark, the boy realized how tired he was and he got up to leave, but before he had gone more than a few steps, he turned around, ran back to the old woman and gave her a hug. She gave him her biggest smile ever.

When the boy opened the door to his own house a short time later, his mother was surprised by the look of joy on his face.

She asked him, “What did you do today that made you so happy?”

He replied, “I had lunch with God.” But before his mother could respond, he added, “You know what? She’s got the most beautiful smile I’ve ever seen!”

Meanwhile, the old woman also radiant with joy, returned to her home.

Her son was stunned by the look of peace on her face and he asked, “Mother, what did you do today that made you so happy?”

She replied, “I ate Twinkies in the park with God.” But before her son responded, she added, “You know, he’s much younger than I expected.”[1]

It is not hard to see that our Abba is generous and takes pleasure in giving to us the kingdom. By God’s pleasure we need not fear, but be grateful for our many gifts from God, be generous in sharing our root beer and Twinkies with strangers. We can know that God is love and that when we love generously, no matter who we love, we see, know and reveal God. We are surrounded by the simple wonders of grace and love. Such gifts are from God, who is our treasure, and it is in God that our hearts belong and we find a joyful peace. It is Abba’s good pleasure to give us the kingdom.

Shalom and Amen.