The  Gospel of Our Lord Jesus Christ According to Luke.

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.

When he noticed how the guests chose the places of honor, he told them a parable. “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; 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. 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. For all who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.”

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. But when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind. And you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you, for you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.”  (Luke 14:1, 7-14)

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Jesus tells his listeners not to exalt themselves, or they may be embarrassed, and he gives as an example a guest at a dinner who takes a seat reserved for someone higher in rank that he is, and then is asked to move to a lower seat to the amusement of the other guests.

He also warns against sending out self-serving invites to dinner – to friends and family, and to richer persons, rather than providing food for these who have none.

The reward in heaven will be much greater for the person who helps those without ,  than the paltry reward that comes from entertaining only those who can benefit you.

Basically he is saying in that first segment that pride goes before a fall.

And the Old Testament has many examples of that truism.

The people of Israel were delivered out of slavery by Moses, led by God.

They had leadership, a God who guided them, and who gave them the law. Most nations had kings who decided the law themselves. Their law was given by God.

During their sojourn in the desert, they conquered armies mightier than they were, because of their cohesion, their faith, their determination as a nation and being led  into battle by the Arc of the Covenant.

Later when they crossed the Jordan into the land promised to them by God, the tribes each were allotted land of their own.

They  fought off invaders, prospered  as farmers and herders, and artisans and worked hard to make a country and  a nation for themselves.

For  themselves.

Unfortunately, as time went by they began to feel they had done it by themselves, and some indulged in practices that were frankly wrong.

Their kings introduced idol worship, and any idea that what they had accomplished, had been with the aid of their God, was forgotten.

So when the Assyrians attacked, they couldn’t stand against them.

They had lost the defining force that had helped them do amazing things in the past – faith in their God!

If you read the warnings of the early prophets, you will see that  they say that God stirred up those who would attack them. That God chose their attackers to punish them.

I think it was their false pride, resulting in a lack  of national cohesion  –  the tribes in the northern and southern kingdom which had once been unified under David and Solomon warred against each other – the false pride, the idea that they had achieved everything alone, that denied Gods’ presence in their lives, that was their downfall.

So is pride necessarily a bad thing? 

Aren’t we allowed some quiet pride in what we have a achieved in our lives?

You may be rightfully proud of how you built your own home, or how you went back to school while managing a home and two children.

Some people are born to parents who encourage them, help them along, can afford to send them to the best schools enroll them in sport or hobbies, and they do well. The start they get helps them do better than they otherwise would do, but they still had to work hard for what they achieved, and could be proud of that.

On the other hand, some people are born into families that aren’t so supportive, or where one parent leaves, and they have to struggle daily; families that aren’t supportive, families that are abusive, and still that child grows up and is successful nevertheless.

But you know, even those who grew out of struggling families, may have been spotted by a school teacher, or Sunday School teacher and been encouraged,  by them.

Some of those who didn’t have family resources, were gifted with brains, or a spirit of enterprise, or gained strength through their struggle.

Some people would tell you they were just lucky, were in the right place at the right time,.

And so on.

Many of us have been gifted with assistance from others – brothers, sister, cousins, aunts uncles, grandparents.

Is the pride that such people have in their achievements wrong?

If you were born in this great and beautiful country, or were fortunate to be able to settle here, then you were gifted.

Just the fact that your mother happened to be in a developed and settled country when you were born was a fabulous gift in itself.

Even Mr. Trump who took great pride in his achievement in becoming a billionaire, acknowledges that he did it with a small loan of a million dollars from his father.

So what’s wrong with a little pride?

Nothing.

What’s wrong, I believe is false pride. In  believing that you did it all by yourself.

That you don’t acknowledge all the help you may have received.

That  you don’t acknowledge the friends who gave you a hand up when you were struggling.

That you don’t acknowledge the gifts that God sent you here with.

And still gifts you with.

Count them.

You  will  be surprised with how well you were equipped to come into this world.

And  when you do that, then humility replaces pride.

The greatest gift of all, of course, was given at our baptism. The  chance to start anew.

If we have messed up our life, by ourselves, or have been helped by others into messing it up, there is a place that we can take that. 

If we have regrets, past mistakes, sins, things we are ashamed of when we even think about them, there is a place we can take them. 

If we have problems that seem insurmountable, there is a place we can take them. 

That place is the foot of the  cross.

Pile them up there.

Stack them up, and leave them there.

The hardest part, of course, is leaving  them there.

Being  free of them.

But what happened on that cross  was precisely for that reason.

We all need to be able  to start again. To be free.

When it happens, some call it ” being  saved. “

In a way it is, isn’t it?  We are saved from all the worry and self denigration, and false pride, and destructive thoughts.

Yes, “being saved,” fits, doesn’t it?

Just as we should remember where the good in our lives came from, it’s important to remember to where we can ship the bad.

Come to the foot of the cross. Bring your pain and your guilt and your sorrow, and leave it with Christ.

That’s why he died there.

That’s why he suffered there.

So we don’t have to.

Believe it: We don’t have to!!

So why do we persist in hanging  onto  all that stuff – tormenting ourselves with it?

I don’t know.

I am not good with that either.  

But you can always go back to that cross.

You can always start again.

And accept his love and forgiveness, and thank him for what he has done for you.

It’s easy in the hustle and bustle of life to forget what God did for us in Jesus Christ. It’s easy to blame ourselves when life goes wrong. It’s easy to boast how great we are when things go right.

But He put you in this world for a purpose.

He brought you here to live a life of love and forgiveness – forgiveness of others and of yourself,. A  life that blossoms with promise.

A  life of fulfillment.

I was visiting a man who was dying. I asked him if he wished to have me pray with him – if there were anything he wished to ask forgiveness for.

He said, ” Oh there’s lots, but it’s too late to change now. I will take my chances.”

I prayed with him anyway, but he wouldn’t change his mind.

I guess he thought that he had missed the boat.

Left it too late!

But!

It is never too late!

It is never too late.

To start again.

Amen

            The Gospel of Our Lord Jesus Christ According to Luke.

Now Jesus was teaching in one of the synagogues on the Sabbath. And just then there appeared a woman with a spirit that had crippled her for eighteen years. She was bent over and was quite unable to stand up straight. When Jesus saw her, he called her over and said, “Woman, you are set free from your ailment.” When he laid his hands on her, immediately she stood up straight and began praising God. But the leader of the synagogue, indignant because Jesus had cured on the Sabbath, kept saying to the crowd, “There are six days on which work ought to be done; come on those days and be cured, and not on the Sabbath day.” But the Lord answered him and said, “You hypocrites! Does not each of you on the Sabbath untie his ox or his donkey from the manger, and lead it away to give it water? And ought not this woman, a daughter of Abraham whom Satan bound for eighteen long years, be set free from this bondage on the Sabbath day?” When he said this, all his opponents were put to shame; and the entire crowd was rejoicing at all the wonderful things that he was doing.(Luke 13:10-17)

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I read about a bishop who opened his door to find a man there, obviously an indigent, ill clothed for the weather, and asking for food.

He brought the man in, fed him and offered him a bed for the night.

The man left the next morning, with many thanks for the bishop’s kindness.

Some hours later, the police called to say that they had apprehended a man, who had with him a bag with a good amount of silverware in it.

“He said he spent the night at your house, said the police, and that you gave him the silver.”The bishop pondered the situation for a moment, then said, ” That’s  right, I did, and actually, I have a couple of other silver dishes I wanted him to have .Please send him back to collect them. “

The police released the man.

Sometimes, compassion has to come before rules, before legalities, and before what some might say is common sense. 

In today’s Gospel, Jesus is in the synagogue and sees a woman bent over, crippled as it turns out for eighteen years, and in his compassion he heals her.

The president of the synagogue was incensed that Jesus had healed her on the Sabbath when “no one was supposed to work.”

Healing was considered ‘work’.

You notice that the president didn’t have the courage to speak directly to Jesus. Instead he addressed the crowd in attendance, and that was a mistake since we read that Jesus’ opponents were put to shame as the crowd seeing the sense of what Jesus had done, rejoiced with him, rejecting the retort of the president.

In another instance, the Pharisees when they saw his disciples plucking grain and eating it as they walked through a grain field, said to Jesus, “Behold, your disciples do that which is not lawful to do upon the Sabbath.”

The Pharisees did not object to the act of taking the grain. Such plucking of the grain was allowed by the law and is still practiced by hungry travelers in Palestine, today, as they pass through unfenced fields. 

The Pharisees objected to the plucking of grain because they considered it a kind of reaping, and therefore working on the Sabbath. 

We would call that kind of criticism nit-picking, wouldn’t we?

But  why is it wrong ,of those who, uphold the law, to call someone out for breaking the law?

Laws are there for good reason, aren’t they?

Sabbath  is a day set aside for rest and worship. According to the Book of Exodus the Sabbath is a day of rest on the seventh day, commanded by God to be kept as a holy day of rest, as God Himself rested from creation.

That was the basis of the Sabbath laws, and made sense – I guess.

It made sure that people did get time off from work.

But for some people, Sunday was a day of rest, and you were going to rest whether you  wanted  to or not.

The crux of all this was as Jesus said, that the Sabbath was made for man not man for the Sabbath.

Laws were there to guide people, not  to enslave them.

We know that, don’t we?

We would never act in a way that hurt someone, just because they might not be behaving according to our way of thinking.

Wycliffe College, where I was a student, celebrates Founder’s Day every year when all the students attend a service at St James Cathedral in Toronto.

The professors attend of course, and take part in the service, and the students are all there. It is quite the event.

 St James is an old church. The pews have little gates, or doors. A friend and I were led into a pew, and settled in for the service,

Behind us another two other students likewise settled in for the service.

Then two ladies came to them and told them they had to leave that pew as it was theirs. The two students were embarrassed, and didn’t know what to say, so they stood up and made to leave.

One was holding a prayer book.

One lady took it from him saying it was hers.

Well, that sort of thing can happen can’t it?

We all have our favourite seat in church. Don’t we?

But should we turn a newcomer out of our seat?

Oh, another thing. I turned to watch what was happening, and saw that both ladies wore badges indicating that they were the Cathedral’s official welcomers!

They were there to welcome people, to make them feel at home, but their routine, sitting where they normally sat, took preference. 

 We all have our routines. Ways of doing, and of being.

.And God help anyone who goes against them.

Jesus said, “What hypocrites you are. Is there a single one of you who does not loose his ox or his donkey, from its stall and take it to water on the Sabbath? And here is a daughter of Abraham, who has been bound by Satan for eighteen years : was it not right for her to be loosed from her bonds on the Sabbath?

Those two welcoming ladies in the special Wycliffe ceremony would, in other circumstances, have been very loving and accommodating of strangers but in these circumstances, they let their mistaken idea of what was right prevail, and instead of making those two students feel welcome, embarrassed them and made them feel uncomfortable.

If we try to live in a Christ-like way, we wouldn’t have to make decisions such as that.  We don’t have think about what is the right thing to do, we just do it.

But we are only human, aren’t we?

 Here is a quote from Hebrews:  Be not forgetful to entertain strangers: for thereby some have entertained angels unawares.

Now, we can condemn the president of the synagogue and the two welcome ladies, for lack of compassion, but no-one is immune.

My daughter and her family, and Susan and I were in Leeds England, and had just sat down to eat, at a very nice outside patio of a restaurant.

A man came by, and gradually made his way through the tables, stopping at each one, and eventually came to our table.

He asked us to buy him a meal. I was in the middle of a conversation and just brushed him off.

It was kind of inconvenient!

I didn’t like being disturbed, when we had just sat down for a quiet meal.

I could easily have said, “Take a seat at that table over there, and order a meal. I will pay for it.

Why I didn’t, I don’t know. I could easily have paid for another meal.

I will always regret that.

You don’t always get the opportunity to help someone.

There is a Latin proverb that says,  He gives twice who gives quickly.

 Don’t think twice about it.

No helpful deed should be postponed until tomorrow.

And no rules, or inconvenience should prevent us from exercising compassion.

It bears repeating : If we try to live in a Christ-like way, we wouldn’t have to make decisions such as that.  We don’t have to think about what is the right thing to do, we just do it.

Amen.

                                               

One day, a little boy set out to find God. He figured it would be a long trip, so he packed up some Twinkies and a couple of cans of Root Beer, and set out on the journey. Soon, he came to a park, and there, on one of the benches, sat a very old woman with all her possessions in two big green trash bags. She was looking at the pigeons. The little boy sat down next to her and began to watch the pigeons too.

After a while, the little boy was hungry. He pulled out the pack of Twinkies and was getting ready to eat one when something inside told him to offer a Twinkie to the old lady. So he did. She accepted it with a beautiful smile. He thought it was the most beautiful smile he’d ever seen.

When he finished his Twinkie, the little boy reached into his backpack and felt for the two cans of Root Beer. He took one for himself, but again acting intuitively, he held the other out to the woman. Accepting it, she again smiled that beautiful smile.

For a long time, the two sat on that park bench, eating Twinkies and drinking Root Beer, smiling at each other, and watching the pigeons. Neither said a word. Finally, the boy realized it was getting late. Starting to leave, he took a few steps, but then suddenly turned back to the woman and ran and gave her a big hug. Then he spun around and ran all the way home. Her smile was even brighter than before.

When he arrived home, his mother asked the little boy about his day.

“I found God,” he said.

“You did?” asked his mother. “What did God look like?”

“Mom,” he said, “she has the most beautiful smile I’ve ever seen!”

Meanwhile, the old bag lady left the park and went to check in at the homeless shelter. “Sadie,” said the attendant, “what did you do today?”

Sadie smiled her beautiful smile. “Why, I ate Twinkies and drank Root Beer with God in the park!”

“Oh?” quizzed the shelter worker. “And what did God look like?”

“You know,” answered Sadie, “he’s a lot younger than I ever imagined!”

He was made known to them in the breaking of the bread.

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In one of the most powerful episodes of the hit television series M*A*S*H, the stuffy Major Winchester is going through a dark night of the soul. The horror of the war – the death, the carnage, the maiming – has finally gotten to him, and he cracks. He plummets into a deep depression in which he struggles to find answers to life’s most perplexing questions. Questions about God. Questions about life. Questions about death.

In desperation, Major Winchester flees the base hospital and goes up to the battalion aid station where the wounded are first taken from the battlefield. There a medical corpsman calls him over to help with a wounded soldier.

The soldier gasps, “I can’t see anything. Hold my hand!” Winchester says, “Yes, I’ve got you, son.”

The soldier says, “I’m dying.”

And there, at the crossroads of Major Winchester’s questions and a young soldier’s moment of dying, the Major tries to peek over the horizon into eternity.

“Son, can you see anything? Can you hear anything? Can you feel anything? Tell me! Tell me! I HAVE to know what’s there!”

But the dying man doesn’t answer. Instead, as he slips away, the boy lifts up his eyes and simply whispers, “I… smell…bread…”

“When he was at table with them, he took bread, blessed it, and broke it, and gave it to them. Then their eyes were opened, and they recognized him…in the breaking of the bread”                                        —

        The Gospel of Our Lord Jesus Christ According to Mark

John the baptizer appeared in the wilderness, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins, and people from the whole Judean countryside and all the people of Jerusalem were going out to him, and were baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins.

Now John was clothed with camel’s hair, with a leather belt around his waist, and he ate locusts and wild honey.

He proclaimed, “The one who is more powerful than I is coming after me; I am not worthy to stoop down and untie the thong of his sandals.

I  have baptized you with water; but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.”

In those days Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan.

And just as he was coming up out of the water, he saw the heavens torn apart and the Spirit descending like a dove on him.

And a voice came from heaven, “You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.” ( Mark 1:4-11 )

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Do you lie awake at night, thinking of the things you have done that you shouldn’t, or haven’t done that you should?  Do you struggle with stuff like that?

Well, you are not alone. Lots of people have that same problem.

Martin Luther was one such.  He struggled with his sins. He wrestled with them!!

Before his break with the Catholic church he went to confession every day and was so guilt-ridden that he would have gone every hour if he could.

On most nights, Luther slept well, but he even felt guilty about that, thinking, Here am I, sinful as I am, having a good night’s sleep. So he would hurry to Confession, and confess that.

One day, the older priest who was Luther’s confessor, said to him,

“ Martin, either find a new sin and commit it, or quit coming to see me.”

That’s what happens if you try to master your sins alone – you can’t!

In the Acts of the Apostles, we are told that Paul meets some followers of Jesus who have never heard of the Holy Spirit.

They had received the baptism of John, not the baptism of Jesus.

You might ask, what’s the difference? 

Well, if you read the preaching of John you will find that his preaching was threatening. People came to him out of fear. They got baptised to rid themselves of their sins  – out of fear. 

Jesus preached the good news. He invited people to a new relationship with the Father.

John’s preaching was a stage along the way.  People heard him, and were convinced of their sinfulness. They wanted to avoid condemnation.

Consequently, their ‘religion’ was a religion of struggle – of  trying to live up to some ideal, but without the help they needed to manage it.  

And really, as Luther himself came to realise, none of us can succeed in living a truly holy and selfless life, on our own.  

We need the gift of love that exceeds all love, to clear our hearts and minds of sin, and we need His Spirit.  

Put another way, we need the grace of God.

A carpenter from Nazareth, Jesus by name. A man chosen – before birth – before all time, in fact – to fulfill God’s plans for His people,  went up to the Jordan River, and was baptised.

And God breathed His Spirit upon him.

As Isaiah has it: Here is my servant. I have made him strong. He is my chosen one. I am pleased with him. I have given him my spirit and he will bring justice to the nations.

And Jesus knew that the time to fulfill his destiny had come.  It was time for him to risk everything!

His very life!

But he was a man uniquely chosen by God to tell us the good news of the ineffable love of the Father.

That love is why we try to live a sin-free life,  isn’t it?   Not because of guilt, or to avoid condemnation.   

The idea of being loved so much, so wonderfully, so unconditionally, makes us want to please, to worship, to work for – the source of that love. 

Guilt goes out the window. The need to confess time and again, and to be forgiven time and again, goes out the window.

We are cleansed, forgiven and God wants us to get on with it.

Get on with living an unfettered life.

And just as the Father breathed his Spirit into Jesus, so He breathes His Spirit into us.

How else could we possibly cope?

How else could we possibly handle all the things that are thrown at us in this life? 

The same way that Jesus did. He handled it with the power that came from the Holy Spirit.

And boy! he had a lot to handle didn’t he?  He was called upon to heal people, to lead them, to feed them, to save them. While he was doing this, his family thought he was mad. The leaders of the day feared him and plotted to kill him.

He was lauded by  the crowds who saw him as the Messiah, then condemned and jeered  by the same crowds when he was brought to trial.

He was shamed, ridiculed, and rejected by his own people, hunted like a fugitive, plotted against by his enemies, betrayed by a disciple, and finally deserted by his friends.

And yet, he was able to turn all this into triumph. 

Jesus accomplished what he did  because he was unbound by sin, and unbound by any earthly agenda, and empowered by the Spirit of God.

And he dared to risk his hope, to risk  his life, on that power.  On his love of, and obedience to God.

And he was glorified! 

And God delivered him!

 And God delivers us.

Through His Spirit God delivers us.

If we are prepared to rest our hope – to risk our hope – and our heart and our soul, and our life, in Him.

And we promise to do that in Baptism. Or it is promised for us.

And we promise to do  that in our Confirmation.

Or at some point when Jesus is revealed to us. 

And we promise to do that in our life as a follower of Jesus. To take the risk of faith.

Don’t we?

And if we don’t, then what are we?

If we can’t risk for the one who risked all for us, then what are we?

Here is a treatise on risk, I don’t know the author, unfortunately, but: 

To laugh is to risk appearing the fool.

To weep is to risk appearing sentimental.

To reach out for another is to risk involvement.

To expose feelings is to risk exposing our true self.

To place your ideas, your dreams, before the crowd is to risk loss.

To love is to risk not being loved in return.

To live is to risk dying.

To hope is to risk despair.

To try at all is to risk failure.

But risk we must, because the greatest hazard in life,  is to risk nothing.

The man, the woman who risks nothing, does nothing, has nothing, is nothing!

As followers of Jesus we want to do something –  spread the Good News of Christ Jesus; have something – a place in His kingdom now, and to come, and be something- energized by His Spirit.

All  involving risk.

But really, we don’t want the supposed safety of a life lived without risk.  Do we? 

We want to reach out,    to sing out,     to stand out,     to risk all for Him.  And not be found wanting in our commitment to Christ the King.

After all he did for us, that’s the least we can do, isn’t it?