Failed Business, Evolving Faith

Luke 14:25-33

Now large crowds were traveling with him; and he turned and said to them, "Whoever comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and even life itself, cannot be my disciple. Whoever does not carry the cross and follow me cannot be my disciple.

“For which of you, intending to build a tower, does not first sit down and estimate the cost, to see whether he has enough to complete it? Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who see it will begin to ridicule him, saying, 'This fellow began to build and was not able to finish.'

“Or what king, going out to wage war against another king, will not sit down first and consider whether he is able with ten thousand to oppose the one who comes against him with twenty thousand? If he cannot, then, while the other is still far away, he sends a delegation and asks for the terms of peace.

“So therefore, none of you can become my disciple if you do not give up all your possessions.”

---

This bit about building a tower you can’t finish had me Googling “failed business ventures” this week to find a contemporary comparison for Jesus’ example. It may not be completely fair, but I found a list of well-known, previously successful businesses that bit the dust in the last 15-20 years. I wondered if maybe their owners/CEOs/Boards of Directors, or whatever, failed to sit down to see whether they could finish or build on what they had started.

Blockbuster Video, of course, got creamed by the digital streaming industry. Places like Toy’s R Us and Border’s Books couldn’t possibly keep up with the convenience and efficiency of Amazon. Ringling Brothers and Barnum and Bailey’s Circus succumbed to pressure from animal rights organizations. I don’t know what happened to Dress Barn exactly – do you remember Dress Barn? – but I remember my sister-in-law joking once about refusing to buy her clothes in a barn, which does seem like pretty bad marketing when you think about it.

And more seriously, I thought about Vladimir Putin and his war on Ukraine when I read that other example Jesus uses about a king who wages war against another king without sitting down and considering just exactly what he might be getting himself into. Putin may have done the math enough to believe he had the numbers to win the war. But he couldn’t have accounted for the immeasurable, intangible will and spirit and resilience of the Ukrainian people – or the support of the rest of the world they inspired – to resist his attacks and defend themselves for as long as they have.

But what do my examples – or the examples of Jesus – have to do with the rest of what he’s trying to preach and teach to the crowds this morning? I suspect many of them were asking the same thing.

For me, this is a “be careful what you ask for” moment between Jesus and whoever’s paying attention to him. These are “fair warning” words from Jesus. All of this sounds like a “don’t say I never warned you,” “cover your behind” sort of proclamation, to me. And Jesus doesn’t seem happy about it.

Because just in the last couple of weeks, we’ve heard about him in the synagogue arguing with the powers that be who were trying to keep him from healing sick people.

Last week he was at the dinner banquet where people were pride-fully, selfishly Boss-Hogging the best seats at the party.

Right before what we just heard, he tells a parable about a bunch of knuckleheads who get invited to another important banquet but who make all sorts of excuses about what they would/could/should be doing instead. And now he’s out and about in the world again, being followed around by God-knows-who … crowds of hangers-on, it seems … looking to get a piece of whatever they believe he has to offer them.

And you get the impression that he’s over it. That he’s had enough. That he’s less than impressed with the willingness or ability or intentions of those who follow him to really follow him; to fully grasp what this discipleship means; to truly wrap their heads and their hearts and their lives around what the new life of God’s grace might do for them – and do to them – if they were to really, truly, fully receive it – and let it have its way with them.

And I think there’s a message for the 21st Century church in all of this, too. And a message for each of us as wannabe disciples of Jesus – faithful followers – just the same. And yes, it’s about money. After all Jesus says we can’t be his disciples if we don’t give up our possessions. Sacrificing our things and our stuff and our money is part and parcel of what it means to follow Jesus. But it’s not all or only about our money and our things and our stuff.

When I was reading about those companies that failed … those big businesses who couldn’t survive … those institutions that are no more…. The thing their respective downfalls all have in common was their failure to innovate; their inability to adapt to the needs of the world around them; their neglect of the desires and longings of the people they hoped would avail themselves of their services.

Netflix was more like Blockbuster in the beginning – renting DVDs through the mail, remember. But Netflix upped their game with the whole streaming thing while Blockbuster kept doing what they always did … and died trying.

Stores like Toys ‘R’ Us and Borders were just unable to offer the same affordable convenience that Amazon could.

I guess Ringling Brothers and Barnham and Bailey’s Circus just hoped people would never find out or care enough about the treatment of the animals it requires to make a circus a circus.

And Dress Barn? Who knows what a simple name change or a more flattering marketing plan might have done for their success and longevity.

So, I think Jesus might be inviting us to think differently, more practically, more shrewdly and simply, even, about what we’re up to as his disciples and as part of God’s Church in the world.

Yes, and again, it is about money. We can’t do what we want and need to do as God’s church in the world without the financial means to do it. But more importantly, the faithful practice of giving our money and our things and our stuff away is about the faithful practice of doing with less; of sacrificing for the sake of something bigger than ourselves; of doing without so that others might have what they need; of practicing generosity for the sake of generosity; of giving back with gratitude what has first been given to us; and of acknowledging our excess and standing in solidarity with the poor.

But, again, while our relationship with our wealth is paramount to Jesus, it’s not all or only about money.

It’s also about innovating and expanding our reach – we’ve done that in the last few years, thanks to the COVID crisis, by going online with our worship, giving, and other ministry options around here.

It’s about paying attention to, being vocal about, and addressing the needs of the world around us. Who’s hungry? Who’s hurting? Who’s being left out of circles of faith? How do we as individuals and as a congregation find them, listen to them, and bring them into our fold?

It’s also about not doing what we’ve always done, just because that’s the way we’ve always done it. Tradition for the sake of tradition is the most dangerous elephant in every church sanctuary this morning and something we should avoid at all costs, if you ask me.

And none of this is about surviving as an institution, just for the sake of surviving as an institution. It’s about following Jesus. It’s about seeking, receiving and celebrating God’s love for us to the extent that it’s not about us any longer. That’s the innovation Jesus calls us to. That’s the cost he warns us about and invites us to count on, to consider, and to plan for – if we want to get serious about this discipleship thing.

The evolution and innovation of our faith as followers of Jesus is about allowing all of this to cease being about us – to stop following Jesus around to see what we can get out of it, but to follow Jesus until our faith is about humbly and generously loving and serving the other.

It’s about being the body of Christ. It’s about changing the world with the kind of grace and mercy, love and hope he came to share. It’s about letting the fullness of the grace we claim for ourselves change us … utterly … to such a degree that the world around us is different and better and blessed and more like the Kingdom of God, because we are a part of it and because we share it – without shame, without reservation, without limits – in his name.

Amen

More Freedom from More Rules

Luke 14:1-14

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. Just then, in front of him, there was a man who had dropsy. And Jesus asked the lawyers and Pharisees, “Is it lawful to cure people on the sabbath, or not?” But they were silent. So Jesus took him and healed him, and sent him away. Then he said to them, “If one of you has a child or an ox that has fallen into a well, will you not immediately pull it out on a sabbath day?” And they could not reply to this.

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.”

---

Pastor Mark began his sermon last week with this idea of “telling a better story”, one of a wider mystery and grace than we may be used to. In the reading from last Sunday, Jesus healed a woman bent over for 18 years; and he broke the Sabbath laws to do it. Jesus breaks the Sabbath laws, Pastor Mark noted, in order to give witness to love beyond measure or reason; grace in excess to every expectation. I believe the exact phrasing used was: “To hell with the rules”.

Today’s reading is parallel to last week’s reading and also says “to hell with the rules”, particularly the rules governing ideas of status and honor.

In Luke 14 it is again the Sabbath day and here we find Jesus in the home of a Pharisee for a meal.

Now, this context of a meal is central to the deep meaning of the story, as we will see. Eating is about who is in and who was out.

Table etiquette and seating placement were very important in the ancient world in a way that likely does not fully resonate with us today. Who one ate with, whether one washed before eating, and where one sat at the meal were all social status markers. Hosting and Hospitality, then, was a way a person may gain prestige, and a meal may be expected to involve excessive eating and drinking, which is of course requires financial resources.

To be a guest, was to be acknowledged as a social equal, and we might be able to imagine the mutually reinforcing patterns of honoring between hosting a distinguished guest and being invited to dine by a distinguished host.

Though not as central to our culture, we do still have this link between seating and status.

Maybe some of you have been honored at a dinner, perhaps at your work, where they have invited all the important people in your company and seated you among them. Being seen in the presence of these important people gives you a certain degree of bragging rights among your collogues.

Or in contrast, perhaps some of you have been to a wedding and were assigned to a random table far from the Bride and Groom and thought, “Huh, so I mean so little to them?”, all the while noticing your other friends who are seated very close to the couple.

Or we have all seen one of those high school movies where the new kid accidentally sits at the “cool kids table” and gets mocked mercilessly. How dare this unknown kid presume to sit with us!]

Here, Jesus has been invited to sit with the “cool kids”, with the presidential VP’s, and share a meal at home of a leader of the Pharisees, the [third?] such meal recorded in Luke’s Gospel. This would have been quite a distinguished invitation, though it will be the last invitation as far as the gospel is concerned and we can understand why.

Jesus, for his part, is a pretty ill-mannered guest. He almost immediate breaks the Sabbath laws, in the very home of a teacher and strict keeper of the law!

The timing here on the Sabbath day should again set off little “warning bells” as we hear it – Pastor Mark mentioned last week that if Jesus had healed the woman bent over on a Tuesday, it would have been no less meaningful for her. No less a miracle.

But, by choosing to set her free from her bondage on the Sabbath, a day not only associated with a day of rest but with the Sabbath year of Jubilee, that joyous fiftieth year when all debts are expunged, land lost through debt or hardship returned to their ancestorial families, and Hebrew slaves freed.

The Jubilee legislation in Leviticus is explicitly economic, not merely spiritual. It was intended to ensure that there was no permanent underclass in Israel’s society.

Jesus, by continually linking his healing and teaching ministry to the Sabbath, is signaling that his ministry is liberative, and life giving, in the greatest sense of that term. Like the Jubilee year, Jesus is breaking all of the typical patterns and rules.

So again, as in last week’s reading, Jesus heals a person on the Sabbath, this time a man suffering from dropsy, an ailment related to sever swelling and fluid retention. This act of radical graciousness breaks the accepted rules of behavior, particularly rules governing relations between hosts and guests.

This act of generous rule-breaking should help frame our interpretation of the parables Jesus goes onto tell.

After sending the healed man away, Jesus looks around and sees the other guests maneuvering for the best seat.:

To the guests Jesus says, “At a Wedding banquet, do not take the most honored place. Otherwise, you might be shamed and embarrassed if the host asks you to move—if the cool kids mock you mercilessly—Instead, take the lowest place, so that you will be singled out when the host asks for you to move to a better place. For the exalted will be humbled and the humble exalted.”

Now, Jesus is not merely offering shrewd advice about how to gain more honor at table. He is not saying “I see y’all playing the status game, let me tell you how to play it better.” As in last week’s sermon, there is something deeper going on here.

A clue is in his interpretation of the meaning of the parable: “Those who humble themselves will be exalted”. A similar phrase to this had just been used in Luke 13:30. After healing the woman who has been bent over for 18 years, Jesus goes about teaching how to be saved: he concludes his teaching by saying “Then people will come from east and west, from North and south, and will eat in the Kingdom of God. Indeed, some are last who will be first, and some are first who will be last.”

In both Luke 13 and Luke 14 we have parables about eating and in both of these parables the humble and the last are the ones who are raised up, the ones who are honored.

Jesus is not offering advice on how to play the status game better, how to get to eat with the cool kids. It is a damming critique of all of their maneuvering and status games. Jesus is, instead, offering a lesson in humility.

Contrary to his fellow guests’ expectations, it is not the one who seeks honor who will find it. Instead, it will be those like the widow who was bent over. It will be those like the man suffering from dropsy whom he just healed in their presence. All of their social striving, to paraphrase Ecclesiastes, is vanity, and a striving after wind. Real honor is found in humility, and humility defines the character of God’s gracious, liberating, and rule-breaking Kingdom.

With this parable, Jesus not only rudely broken the law in another’s house – disregarding established patterns of hospitality and Sabbath keeping – but he has also then critiqued all of his fellow guests. But he is not done!

THEN, Jesus goes onto critique his host’s guest list.

To his host – a leader of the Pharisees, one of the elite – Jesus says, “When you hold a meal, do not invite anyone that is able to repay the invitation, such as rich friends or neighbors – basically, all those who are here with us – Instead, invite those who will be unable to repay you, such as the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind. Then you will be blessed”

Remember that I mentioned that to invite someone to a meal was to acknowledge someone as a social equal, though as the musical chairs of the other guests shows, there were greater and lower degrees of “social equality.”

If hosting was one way to gain social status, then the higher the status of your guests, the more social status you earn. And this social status will be enhanced and solidified when they, in return, host you for a meal. We again have this mutually reinforcing pattern.

Jesus’ parable brings this whole socially exclusionary pattern to a halt. Not only should the distinguished host invite those that are significantly below him in social status, he should do it because it does not benefit him. They are people who will not be able to repay him, that cannot help him play the social status game.

If eating is about who is in and who was out, then – turning all typical social rule of behavior upside-down -- “the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind” (14:13) are definitely in.

If this list seems familiar coming from Jesus’ mouth, it should. It echoes Jesus’ first sermon in his hometown of Nazareth, when he reads from the scroll of Isaiah where it says:

“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,

Because he has anointed me

To bring good news to the poor.

He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives

And recovery of sight to the blind,

To let the oppressed go free,

To proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor” (4:18-19).

This, he announcing, rolling up the scroll, has been fulfilled in your hearing.

The year of the Lord’s favor another way of referring to this idea of the Sabbath year of Jubilee: the erasing of debts, returning of land, and freeing of Hebrew slaves.

So we here in our reading have Jesus, on another Sabbath, again breaking and critiquing all the rules. And his rule-breaking is in service of the socially undesirable, the economically oppressed, the religiously suspect, the physically burdened.

His Sabbath rule-breaking, bad-guest behavior gives us a glimpse of this wildly inclusive vision of the Kingdom of God.

Blessedness, the second parable concludes, is to be a blessing to others, especially “others” on the margins, drawing near to those whom society has pushed out. This is one way we participate in the coming of the Kingdom of God, a vision of the year of the Lord’s favor - by physically and monetarily, individually and systemically, inviting in and being changed by those oppressed by racism, sexism, homophobia, nationalism; by freeing those burdened, ground under, forgotten, and rejected by our economy.

True blessedness is being a blessing to others; true honor is found in humility. And true Sabbath, is found in breaking all the rule necessary to allow everyone to eat at the table of the Kingdom of God.

Amen