WEBVTT 00:00:06.160 --> 00:00:07.759 A reading from Jeremiah. 00:00:09.519 --> 00:00:15.839 Hear the word of the Lord, O house of Jacob, and all the families of the house of Israel. 00:00:16.399 --> 00:00:17.839 Thus says the Lord. 00:00:18.960 --> 00:00:29.760 What wrong did your ancestors find in me that they went far from me and went after worthless things and became worthless themselves? 00:00:30.879 --> 00:00:36.479 They did not say, Where is the Lord who brought us up from the land of Egypt? 00:00:36.880 --> 00:00:50.320 Who led us in the wilderness, in a land of deserts and pits, in a land of drought and deep darkness, in a land that no one passes through, where no one lives. 00:00:51.759 --> 00:00:57.359 I brought you into a plentiful land to eat its fruits and its good things. 00:00:58.320 --> 00:01:05.040 But when you entered, you defiled my land and made my heritage an abomination. 00:01:05.920 --> 00:01:09.680 The priests did not say, Where is the Lord? 00:01:10.799 --> 00:01:13.920 Those who handle the Lord did not know me. 00:01:14.480 --> 00:01:17.599 The rulers transgressed against me. 00:01:18.159 --> 00:01:24.560 The prophets prophesied by Baal and went after things that do not profit. 00:01:25.760 --> 00:01:33.120 Therefore, once more I accuse you, says the Lord, and I accuse your children's children. 00:01:34.079 --> 00:01:40.719 Cross to the coasts of Cyprus and look, send to Zadar and examine with care. 00:01:42.000 --> 00:01:45.120 See if there has ever been such a thing. 00:01:45.840 --> 00:01:50.879 Has a nation changed its gods even though there are no gods? 00:01:51.599 --> 00:01:56.879 But my people have changed their glory for something that does not profit. 00:01:57.760 --> 00:01:58.959 Be appalled. 00:01:59.760 --> 00:02:02.079 O heavens at this, be shocked. 00:02:02.640 --> 00:02:05.280 Be utterly desolate, says the Lord. 00:02:05.920 --> 00:02:08.879 For my people have committed two evils. 00:02:10.000 --> 00:02:16.879 They have forsaken me the fountain of living water, and dug out systems for themselves. 00:02:17.520 --> 00:02:21.680 Craft resistance that can hold no water. 00:02:22.960 --> 00:02:24.719 The word of the Lord. 00:02:33.120 --> 00:02:35.199 A reading from Hebrews. 00:02:36.080 --> 00:02:38.639 Let mutual love continue. 00:02:39.439 --> 00:02:49.039 Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for by doing that some have entertained angels without knowing it. 00:02:49.759 --> 00:02:54.960 Remember those who are in prison as though you were in prison with them. 00:02:56.000 --> 00:03:01.919 Those who are being tortured as though you yourselves were being tortured. 00:03:02.400 --> 00:03:09.919 Let marriage be held in honor by all, and let the marriage bed be kept undefiled. 00:03:10.560 --> 00:03:14.560 For God will judge fornicators and adulterers. 00:03:15.360 --> 00:03:21.199 Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have. 00:03:21.759 --> 00:03:27.199 For he has said, I will never leave you or forsake you. 00:03:27.680 --> 00:03:34.719 So we can say with confidence, The Lord is my helper, I will not be afraid. 00:03:35.360 --> 00:03:37.919 What can anyone do to me? 00:03:38.879 --> 00:03:43.439 Remember your leaders, those who spoke the word of God to you. 00:03:43.840 --> 00:03:49.199 Consider the outcome of their way of life and imitate their faith. 00:03:49.759 --> 00:03:55.840 Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever. 00:03:56.319 --> 00:04:08.479 Through him, then let us continually offer a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that confess His name. 00:04:08.879 --> 00:04:17.439 Do not neglect to do good and share what you have, for such pleased sacrifices are pleasing to God. 00:04:18.399 --> 00:04:20.399 The word of the Lord. 00:04:30.240 --> 00:04:38.560 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. 00:04:38.800 --> 00:04:43.360 When Jesus noticed how the guests chose the places of honor, he told them a parable. 00:04:43.680 --> 00:04:52.639 When you're 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. 00:04:52.879 --> 00:04:57.759 And the host who invited both of you may come and say to you, Give this person your place. 00:04:58.160 --> 00:05:02.079 And then in disgrace you would start to take the lowest place. 00:05:02.319 --> 00:05:09.519 But when you were invited, go and sit down at the lowest place, so that when your host comes, he may say to you, Friend, move up higher. 00:05:09.680 --> 00:05:13.439 Then you will be honored in the presence of all who sit at the table with you. 00:05:13.759 --> 00:05:20.000 For all who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted. 00:05:20.480 --> 00:05:32.639 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. 00:05:33.040 --> 00:05:44.720 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. 00:05:45.600 --> 00:05:47.360 The Gospel of the Lord. 00:05:59.439 --> 00:06:15.199 There was a book that was written about 30 years ago, The Joy Luck Club, by Amy Tan, and she writes about this experience of first-generation Chinese coming to America and a little bit of the cultural melee that can ensue. 00:06:15.360 --> 00:06:24.720 And in one of the stories, there's an American-born boyfriend that comes with his Chinese girlfriend to a Chinese dinner at home. 00:06:24.879 --> 00:06:31.519 And the mother has worked for days to find and properly cook some soft shell crab. 00:06:31.920 --> 00:06:44.240 And in Chinese culture, apparently, according to Amy Tan, the way you do this as a host is you purposefully put yourself down so that others can then raise you up. 00:06:44.480 --> 00:06:48.560 So the mother says, This crab is really not that good. 00:06:49.120 --> 00:06:53.199 And the American boyfriend does not know the practice. 00:06:53.279 --> 00:06:57.839 And he says, Well, it's okay, just put some butter on it. 00:06:58.079 --> 00:07:05.600 And this is a disaster in the home that results in, well, anyway, disaster. 00:07:06.560 --> 00:07:17.839 What's funny is that it's not just this thing that happens in a novel about first-generation Chinese having lived in the South most of my life. 00:07:18.160 --> 00:07:23.839 This is a time-honored Southern practice called self-deprecation. 00:07:24.160 --> 00:07:31.920 And it is, I want to tell you, extremely calculated, and it goes awry when not everybody knows about it. 00:07:32.079 --> 00:07:43.040 So when you say, Oh, you know, I just threw this dinner together, what we mean is, lavish praise upon me. 00:07:43.199 --> 00:07:46.000 I have spent days on this banquet. 00:07:46.639 --> 00:07:52.959 And if somebody said, hey, it's alright for just a few minutes, then it's a disaster, right? 00:07:53.040 --> 00:07:54.800 I mean, this is this is sort of the deal. 00:07:55.120 --> 00:08:19.120 We could, I suggest to you, read Jesus' parable as sort of civic advice as a good southerner, which is look, purposefully take a seat that is lower than you deserve so that your host will see your self-deprecation and pull you up to a nicer spot. 00:08:19.600 --> 00:08:25.040 If you think about it, um I guess that's a conservative way to operate. 00:08:25.199 --> 00:08:27.920 Um, it could go awry in a couple of ways. 00:08:28.079 --> 00:08:32.480 Number one, the host may not see you at all, and maybe you would sit. 00:08:32.639 --> 00:08:49.440 But you know, um I do some weddings often, and if the bride uh if the maid of honor or uh the best man chose to not sit at the head table, it actually would really put the bride and groom out to have to go look for them, right? 00:08:49.600 --> 00:08:52.240 It kind of would be a disaster in the other way. 00:08:52.320 --> 00:08:57.840 Now you know, when you're the fourth cousin twice removed, that you are not going to be sitting at the head table, right? 00:08:58.000 --> 00:09:00.799 So if you were to sit there, that would be a disaster too. 00:09:00.879 --> 00:09:03.440 But I want to suggest it can go the other way. 00:09:03.600 --> 00:09:11.360 And so we get this interesting advice from Jesus: whoever humbles themselves will be exalted, and whoever exalts themselves will be humbled. 00:09:11.519 --> 00:09:20.080 And so the church that I grew up in and nourished me spiritually sort of said, everything we do before God, we're supposed to sandbag ourselves. 00:09:20.399 --> 00:09:25.519 So, okay, I did this and that to the church, but I could have done more. 00:09:26.080 --> 00:09:29.360 Or I'm not that good at this particular thing. 00:09:29.440 --> 00:09:37.279 It was the way we avoided having too much pride, because after all, if our pride offended God, then God would get even with us. 00:09:38.320 --> 00:09:49.440 I was delivered from this presumption by a professor in college who was very, very averse with uh sorry, he was very well uh acquainted with the writings of the desert fathers. 00:09:49.600 --> 00:09:51.840 These are the people who literally live out in the desert. 00:09:52.000 --> 00:10:00.799 And the definition he gave me for humility was like sort of shocking because I'd grown up that humility means putting yourself down. 00:10:02.879 --> 00:10:13.120 Instead, he said, according to these monastics, that humility means being exactly who God made you to be. 00:10:13.840 --> 00:10:17.120 No more and no less. 00:10:19.519 --> 00:10:26.639 I was really good at the no more part, to the expense at the no less. 00:10:26.720 --> 00:10:40.080 And I want to suggest one invitation, I think, from our scripture today, quite honestly, is to claim to claim the gifts that God has given us. 00:10:40.320 --> 00:10:55.440 And how this works, I think, since we're talking about banquets, is that if nobody will essentially claim the gifts God has given to us and bring them to the banquet, there won't be much to eat. 00:10:56.480 --> 00:11:13.759 On the other hand, if we will live into the gifts and the graces God has given to us and bring them, then there will be quite a bit to be nourished by at the table. 00:11:17.759 --> 00:11:23.840 You know, two or three weeks ago we got to hear Jesus say, love your neighbor as yourself. 00:11:24.080 --> 00:11:32.399 And something we often fail to realize is that if we don't love ourselves, we cannot love our neighbor. 00:11:33.120 --> 00:11:45.679 That is to say, if we cannot see and appreciate what God has given us, then when we see a gift in another person, I don't think we'll be grateful, I think we'll be jealous. 00:11:47.440 --> 00:11:59.759 I will tell you, there are gifts that Christine Alexander has that I don't have, and there are gifts that James Blaine has that I don't have, and isn't that what makes a potluck fun? 00:12:01.360 --> 00:12:05.440 There's different things on the table. 00:12:06.960 --> 00:12:18.000 If, however, I said, gosh, I wish I was just like James, so what I have is no good, what will I bring? 00:12:18.960 --> 00:12:19.519 Nothing. 00:12:22.399 --> 00:12:27.440 Something poorly contrived, but I want to be like what James has to offer. 00:12:27.600 --> 00:12:37.440 No, I think Jesus is inviting us today to consider what real humility is instead of what we settle for. 00:12:37.679 --> 00:12:43.600 And frankly, how we often pervert humility into put myself down, I'm no good. 00:12:44.399 --> 00:13:02.960 And the extension of that, in case that sounds like I'm making too much of it, has to do with what Jesus tells the host, uh, which is to put it succinctly, not everything we do has to be an investment. 00:13:03.759 --> 00:13:07.279 We can actually just give stuff sometimes. 00:13:09.039 --> 00:13:11.279 The difference between the two things. 00:13:11.759 --> 00:13:14.960 When I invest something, I expect a result. 00:13:15.200 --> 00:13:20.960 Now, it doesn't have to come back directly to me, but quite honestly, I'm the one keeping the register. 00:13:21.600 --> 00:13:32.720 And if I give resources or time or money and I don't get the results that I was expecting one way or another, well, you're a bad investment and I will no longer invest. 00:13:34.639 --> 00:13:40.879 Listen, that's fine, and there are many areas of our life where that is exactly appropriate. 00:13:41.120 --> 00:13:48.159 I want to tell you that unfortunately, what I internalized in my youth was that God was an investor in us. 00:13:48.639 --> 00:13:56.080 So we heard about grace, and God was investing grace in us. 00:13:58.960 --> 00:14:02.639 I was pretty sure I was a bad investment most of the time. 00:14:03.120 --> 00:14:06.559 Because I always could have done more. 00:14:07.279 --> 00:14:09.840 I could have been more grateful to God. 00:14:10.080 --> 00:14:13.039 I could have gone to more Bible studies. 00:14:13.279 --> 00:14:15.679 I could have been a missionary to Botswana. 00:14:15.759 --> 00:14:16.799 I mean, you fill in the thing. 00:14:16.960 --> 00:14:23.519 I could have done more and rewarded my investor with outcomes. 00:14:27.519 --> 00:14:34.080 Try investment parenting is the most miserable way to live your life. 00:14:34.399 --> 00:14:37.840 I will tell you, horseback riding lessons are darn expensive. 00:14:38.000 --> 00:14:48.559 And so are skating lessons, and so are toys that you know your child is going to break within five minutes of getting them, and they ask for them anyway, and you think that is a bad investment. 00:14:49.600 --> 00:15:00.000 And when we operate that way with human beings and relationships, I want to suggest to you what we do is not give anything at all. 00:15:00.159 --> 00:15:03.279 In fact, what we offer to somebody is an obligation. 00:15:03.600 --> 00:15:09.120 Here is a present that you are now obligated to me to do what I think you should do with. 00:15:09.360 --> 00:15:17.360 It is, again, about the most miserable way to live because very few people are happy to wear that yoke of my expectations. 00:15:18.559 --> 00:15:21.919 Unless we've been completely socialized to do it. 00:15:22.000 --> 00:15:29.200 So I would tell you: if you were like me, when someone gives you a gift, the sooner you can write the thank you note, the better. 00:15:29.679 --> 00:15:33.840 And if you don't write a thank you note, you have failed. 00:15:34.080 --> 00:15:38.639 And you should feel guilty and miserable. 00:15:39.279 --> 00:15:41.679 And then you will write a thank you note. 00:15:42.080 --> 00:15:45.759 Now, I am still a big believer in handwritten notes. 00:15:45.919 --> 00:15:47.840 I am, I'm a big believer in them. 00:15:48.080 --> 00:15:59.600 I just want to say there are times, and maybe it's just me, where I take this a little bit too much in the area of investment, outcomes, and strengths. 00:15:59.759 --> 00:16:06.879 And what Jesus says to this host is invite people who could never, ever pay you back. 00:16:08.159 --> 00:16:19.759 And then you'll get to enjoy giving them something instead of being disappointed when they don't use what you gave the way you wanted. 00:16:22.080 --> 00:16:25.279 There are times in our life where investments are appropriate. 00:16:25.440 --> 00:16:30.879 Listen, my 401k had better be making some investments and not just giving money away. 00:16:31.120 --> 00:16:37.360 I think what Jesus is inviting us to consider, though, is that not all infrastructure works that way. 00:16:37.440 --> 00:16:40.960 There is something called human infrastructure. 00:16:41.120 --> 00:16:42.799 There are relationships. 00:16:42.960 --> 00:16:55.200 And you know, I kind of remember seven years ago the US president saying, look, we like to sometimes think that we're islands unto ourselves, and when we succeed, we did it. 00:16:55.519 --> 00:17:03.200 But consider infrastructure we use, frankly, not only to do our job, but to have our relationships. 00:17:03.840 --> 00:17:06.079 I didn't build NASA Road one. 00:17:06.640 --> 00:17:09.680 I'm so glad someone did, you know. 00:17:10.240 --> 00:17:13.680 Maybe it was a boondoggle, but I'm grateful for that boondoggle every day. 00:17:13.839 --> 00:17:14.400 I really am. 00:17:14.559 --> 00:17:24.960 I didn't build it, and I expect it to be there for me to go visit people at the medical center, or so I can go to the Costco quickly and not have to deal with the Webster police, right? 00:17:25.039 --> 00:17:27.279 I mean, that was sort of a gift. 00:17:28.480 --> 00:17:30.960 Infrastructure really is a community gift. 00:17:31.039 --> 00:17:37.920 And now this, I know it's an investment too, it has outcomes, but really, roads and bridges and things like that in some ways are gifts. 00:17:38.000 --> 00:17:41.680 They're not things that we do ourselves, and they're things that we rely on. 00:17:42.480 --> 00:17:50.240 And so, you know, I mean, Jesus just as well could have said, look, when you give backpacks, give them the kids at McWurder, because they don't even know who gave them. 00:17:50.480 --> 00:17:53.440 You can't expect every kid at McWurder to be grateful to you. 00:17:53.599 --> 00:18:02.000 No, you give them because I hope it's great to give somebody a gift. 00:18:03.599 --> 00:18:08.640 When I was a teenager, we went around talking about grace, and I think I misunderstood it most of my life. 00:18:08.799 --> 00:18:17.440 So I would go to people in laundry mats and try to get them to believe in the same God that was making my life miserable so that they could go to heaven when they died. 00:18:17.599 --> 00:18:24.160 And what we would say to people is listen, God uh wants to give you salvation, it's like a wrapped-up gift. 00:18:24.400 --> 00:18:27.279 All you have to do is open it. 00:18:28.240 --> 00:18:29.759 And that's completely wrong. 00:18:29.920 --> 00:18:31.279 Gifts don't work that way. 00:18:31.440 --> 00:18:34.720 When someone gives you a gift, you don't have to do anything. 00:18:34.960 --> 00:18:38.319 If you want to keep it wrapped up the rest of your life, it's yours. 00:18:38.480 --> 00:18:39.920 Do whatever you want. 00:18:41.200 --> 00:18:46.400 Hopefully, you'll choose to unwrap it and enjoy it, but it's it's yours. 00:18:46.799 --> 00:18:49.599 I grew up with the God of investments. 00:18:49.920 --> 00:18:58.640 And what Jesus is asking us, I think, to consider is that instead we have a God who gives. 00:18:59.680 --> 00:19:03.599 And I'm going to tell you, there's a way we can hear Jeremiah today. 00:19:04.000 --> 00:19:10.880 The God who gives offers us things like abundance and life. 00:19:11.680 --> 00:19:26.160 We can take that and crack the cistern that holds all of that living water and turn it into a whole bunch of obligations, or we can keep it intact and worship a God who gives. 00:19:27.359 --> 00:19:37.680 We hear today in Hebrews, sometimes we think people made their own beds or let them lie in it, and we forget. 00:19:39.599 --> 00:19:43.759 We forget that there's room for gifts. 00:19:44.160 --> 00:19:46.400 So listen to the people that got named today. 00:19:46.480 --> 00:19:50.240 There's people in prison, there's people being tortured, there's people who are married. 00:19:50.319 --> 00:19:51.920 They all made their choices. 00:19:53.279 --> 00:19:55.920 They made them to let them deal with it. 00:19:56.880 --> 00:19:58.079 Gotta remember those people. 00:19:58.160 --> 00:20:00.400 That's what the author of Hebrew says. 00:20:00.559 --> 00:20:02.640 Remember those people. 00:20:07.039 --> 00:20:14.000 Remember them honestly and think about what it is we can give to them. 00:20:16.240 --> 00:20:27.200 I think part of the deal is that when we go to a banquet, like a birthday party, and let me tell you, uh, as a parent, I am really good at the quid pro quo birthday party. 00:20:27.359 --> 00:20:30.000 If you're unfamiliar with this, let me explain it to you. 00:20:30.319 --> 00:20:35.519 Someone in your child's class is having a birthday party and they have invited your child. 00:20:36.720 --> 00:20:37.839 You attend. 00:20:38.240 --> 00:20:40.720 Now it is your child's birthday. 00:20:41.759 --> 00:20:44.160 You must invite that person to the party. 00:20:44.480 --> 00:20:47.839 Even if your child says, I don't want them to come. 00:20:48.640 --> 00:20:50.880 Well, they invited you. 00:20:51.119 --> 00:20:55.359 Now, listen, I'm not saying we shouldn't be quick quo people at some time. 00:20:55.440 --> 00:20:58.640 I'm just telling you, it has nothing to do with giving whatsoever. 00:21:01.440 --> 00:21:10.400 I kind of wish the authors of the lectionary had put this for next week or two weeks when we actually start talking about stewardship. 00:21:10.559 --> 00:21:12.319 But this just isn't about money. 00:21:12.400 --> 00:21:21.279 I think this is a whole orientation, frankly, we're being invited between ourselves and God, between ourselves and one another. 00:21:21.599 --> 00:21:33.359 And whether or not, frankly, we've taken something that could be about grace and about giving and turned it into mutual obligation and honestly just another yoke on our backs. 00:21:35.759 --> 00:21:38.640 I might just be talking about myself. 00:21:38.880 --> 00:21:39.680 I might. 00:21:41.039 --> 00:21:41.519 That's okay. 00:21:41.599 --> 00:21:42.799 Thanks for putting up with me. 00:21:42.960 --> 00:21:58.640 But I do want to suggest that tomorrow is this interesting day, that we kind of had lost the whole uh tradition of Is Labor Day, and maybe a way we could spend it is just thinking really hard about what Desmond Tutu offered. 00:21:59.039 --> 00:22:01.279 This I think is the epitome of grace. 00:22:02.799 --> 00:22:06.240 God's standards are really low. 00:22:07.599 --> 00:22:09.519 Really low. 00:22:11.039 --> 00:22:16.240 There is nothing we can do to make God love us any less. 00:22:17.359 --> 00:22:22.559 There is nothing we can do to make God love us anymore. 00:22:23.519 --> 00:22:41.200 And if we could get just an iota of our being around that a little bit more, I think I think we'd be invited into what it means to give instead of what it means to earn and invest and obligate. 00:22:44.000 --> 00:22:52.160 And the reason that matters, don't you see, is not because we have to earn God's gifts, it's so that we can actually enjoy them. 00:22:53.920 --> 00:23:00.720 So that we can receive that kind of love and grace that God gives to us. 00:23:03.279 --> 00:23:08.640 And then we can do what I have found to be the most enjoyable part of human life. 00:23:08.880 --> 00:23:12.640 And I mean it, the most enjoyable part of life. 00:23:12.880 --> 00:23:14.960 It doesn't happen every day. 00:23:15.200 --> 00:23:19.759 Sometimes it only happens to me every once or twice a year. 00:23:26.720 --> 00:23:30.559 I don't mean give an obligation or an investment. 00:23:31.039 --> 00:23:34.160 I mean give a gift cheerfully.