Sermon prepared
for
by Pastor Gregory
S. Kaurin
Text: Proverbs 25:6-7, Luke 14:1, 7-14
Sermon:
Leap-Frogging to the Front
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The setting of today’s gospel lesson was even more
intense than you might realize. Our
lesson starts off saying that this was on the Holy Day, Sabbath, and that it
happened in the house of a leader of the Pharisees. And the first verse says that “they were
watching him closely.”
But I want to back up a bit because just before
Jesus got into this whole discussion about moving up or down from the seat of
honor, Jesus was surrounded by leaders and lawyers of the faith, and he saw a
man with a disease they called dropsy.
And before doing anything else, he asked them,
“Tell me, is it against the law to cure someone on the Sabbath or not.”
This was their chance, this was their chance to
quote scripture, Biblical laws and all their interpretations of what it means
to work or rest on the Sabbath. This was
their chance to debate Jesus on their ground.
But the Bible tells us, they were silent. So Jesus took the man, which means he grabbed
hold of him, cured him and with no other words that we know of, sent him on his
way.
And at that moment, before this dinner Jesus asked
them,
”Which of you here, if your child fell in a well, or even your ox, would
without hesitation ignore the Sabbath rules in order to pull him out?”
Again the Bible says they were silent. In fact, Luke 14 vs. 6 says they could find
no answer.
Why? Because to affirm Jesus, to say that it was
okay for him to heal on the Sabbath, was to back track on all they had been
teaching about their religion, about worshipping God in every minute detail,
law and ritual.
But to deny Jesus, to say that it was unlawful to
heal on the Sabbath, or to save a child or even a suffering animal, was to
suggest that God cared more about his worship than he did the plight, the needs
and suffering of his children.
That was the intensity and setting of this meal in
the gospel lesson. It had to be the most
uncomfortable, unsociable meal that these Pharisees could ever remember. More than likely, one of them had invited
Jesus as a kind of peace token, or maybe they had hoped to reign
him in.
The politics were flying around the room among the
Pharisees and leaders, handshakes and embraces that said more about networking,
power and money than any real affection.
I’ve seen and been at dinners like this, and many of you have, too.
And in this already tense atmosphere, Jesus looked
around, saw the social climbing, the hidden fears, arrogance, and greed. And he reached back into his scripture and
expanded on the proverb, “Don’t assume a seat of greatness, you will be
embarrassed.
“When you throw a dinner, don’t invite others based
on what they can do for you, or even based on what they have done for you. In fact give your heart, your invitation and
preference to those who cannot.”
They all stood and sat around him, fidgeting and
uncomfortable, and still Jesus went on with another parable and teaching. No wonder they grew to hate Jesus so intensely. All they were working at: their importance in
society, their relative wealth and scholarship, all the blessings and their
place in God’s eyes and God’s kingdom they had been sure this all reflected.
They had been leap frogging
their way to the front of the line. But
Jesus stood back and saw the futility of it all.
Think about the game of leap-frog. In life, we are all caught up in it. There is actually some similarity to Jesus’
teaching.
If the goal of leapfrog is to get to the front of
the line, then it is a completely futile, impossible game. You start from the back, sure. This is great: the last become first, leaping
over the backs of all those in front, to finally plop
down, first in line as we make this journey.
But you don’t even have but a second to bask in the
warm glow before the poor frog you first lept over
and left way in the back of the line, plops down in front of you. The very people you are sure were and should
get left behind, end up getting the same, and even more grace. The leap frog line moves on and people we are
ready to leave behind us as statistics, social casualties, miscreants, and
sinners, keep seeming to pile in front of us.
Suddenly, we feel our little egos way in back, and
we want to call out, “What about us, God?
What about me? All this grace and
forgiveness, placing all these wayword and
undeserving people in front; it isn’t fair!”
But the thing about leapfrog,
and the thing about life as Christians and faith is that the goal of the game
isn’t about going somewhere by getting to the front. The goal of leapfrog is about helping the
whole group get somewhere by allowing and helping those who would otherwise be
left behind get to the front.
This came clear for me several years ago. I watched a game of leapfrog that had some
healthy able kids mixed in with some special needs and differently-abled children. Some
of them lept ahead no problem, then called out encouragement
to those behind. Those who could would
crouch down, or physically reach back, or carry each other if they needed in
order to help each one to make it to the front.
The group wins when the goal isn’t getting to the front. The game, life, is won when our concern is
not ourselves, our pride, our ego, but each other.
This is how God works. This was the lesson that the Bible, read it,
from beginning to end, the Bible, the prophets, Jesus Christ were all saying
about the character of God.
Here’s where God’s heart is. With his people. All his people. It is in his anger, in his grief, his joy and
his love. What makes him angry; what
makes God sad, joyful. More than
anything else, it is love, his love shared out.
In another place of scripture Jesus said, the
Sabbath was made for people, not people for Sabbath. God didn’t put us here just to worship him,
but to take care of one another. More
than his worship, God cares about you, and about the grief, the needs and the
suffering of his children.
In fact, how we treat others is worship. When we gather on Sunday morning, our worship
and rituals are also supposed to be reflections and models for how we live in
our homes, workplaces, schools and neighborhoods. On Sunday morning, we gather, we announce
forgiveness, we exchange peace, we commune, and we are sent with a
blessing. In just the same way, outside
of church, we are called to gather, to announce forgiveness to others, to
exchange peace with our neighbors, feed the hungry and grant blessings.
As one person, you are not called to
single-handedly save the world or even individuals. Jesus has already done that. But you are called, each of us are called, to
be the frog that scrunches down low, or helps others to make it one step
further as we encounter them.
Together and only together, by our unity—not by our
purity, not by our worship alone, or by the Law, or right interpretations, but
only through forgiveness, peace, and a stubborn togetherness—that what makes us
the body of Christ. As a church, as
people, we must embrace our differences, forgive our sinfulness and faults, and
stubbornly come together for each other, and we all need to help reach back to
others and invite them, care for them, visit them, feed them, comfort
them. We need to answer God’s grace for
us with grace for others who—like us—don’t deserve it or earn it.
People say that they want to experience God. If you really want to be held by God, then
hug someone who is hurting a little more than you. That is where he is.
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