The Proper Place

Fourteenth Sunday after Pentecost - September 2, 2007

Our lessons today seem to be presenting two different themes.

One is given in the First Lesson and Gospel, and the other stems from the Second Lesson.

We'll look a bit at each of them,

and then see if there might be some common ground between them.

Over the past number of weeks we have heard from the book of Hebrews as our Second Lesson. We have passed over that reading with very little comment, focusing instead on other readings.

The book of Hebrews carries on a carefully reasoned argument about “who is this Jesus, and what is his relationship with Old Testament traditions?”

Frankly, it is rather difficult to follow and understand sometimes.

Now in this final chapter, suddenly the content of the book changes, and we have a list of advice.

What is the connection between the parts of the book? It is a vital one!

There is a continuing tendency for us to think of the faith as just a Sunday-morning thing.

Some folks may want to keep the faith as an intellectual exercise: claiming that

one may think about this Jesus-stuff for awhile, and then we'll get on to other things.

This chapter of Hebrews is a reminder to us that neither of those tactics can be sustained.

We can't just thinkabout the faith;

neither can we keep Jesus on a Sunday-morning shelf.

For this Lord Jesus claims all of our life, every corner, with no time or space left out, and so our actions day to day are to be a reflection of the love that he has already shown us.

And it gets right down to specifics:

“Let fraternal love continue” is the topic sentence, and the writer gives four examples so that we can understand the meaning.

1) Show hospitality to strangers, for your do not know where God's messages and messengers will pop up.

There are a number of different applications of this admonition around us these days:

--when we notice a person we don't know here in worship, we are to be hospitable.

Maybe it is a college student away from home for the first time and not daring to admit that he or she is missing old routines just a bit.

Maybe it is someone who knows that he or she is at a point in life where things are changing: a new address, a marriage, a crisis, and that the church at worship is the right place to be.

Whatever the situation, we need to show hospitality to one another, so that we may come to know what it is that Jesus wants to teach us through this person who is visiting.

Another application pops up when there is yet another disaster somewhere around the world.

The long reach of our hospitality extends to people there by means of the work of our Quilting group that resumes its work this week (and needs additional workers).

Something as simple as one of those quilts can become the most precious thing to a person in great need.

The application extends through our response to all kinds of needs. During the months of September and October we hear of so many of them: the Muscular dystrophy walk, Harvest home, the CROP walk, our collection of school kits, health kits, the ongoing needs of the Shepherd of the Streets, the Pregnancy Care center, etc. etc.

Hospitality in the name of Christ is needed in so many situations.

There is an application in our project called Family Promise, in which we hope to provide temporary housing for families and assist them in returning to active participation in the community.

We're a little closer to getting a dozen other congregations to join us in starting this work.

What is God telling us through these persons and problems?

How shall we reflect God's love in all of these situations?

2) The second admonition from the book of Hebrews is “Remember the imprisoned and ill-treated, since you too are in the body.”

The application is right at hand:

someone in jail becomes less than human in our thought.

But Christ has died for sinners, those in jail and those of us walking around in general society.

Talk with Lou and Kathy Kolb or Ken and Beth Shafranko about the work that volunteers can do in these situations.

Another application seems to be hinted here also.

Whenever we get to feeling so smart,

so in-charge of our own life,

without the need for God,

try this simple exercise:

-climb out onto your porch roof, flap your arms, and fly gently to the ground.

What! Smart persons such as we are who can't do what a simple-minded bird can manage without thinking!

We are limited, and need to remember each day who it is that is in charge of this creation.

3) The third admonition from Hebrews: Let marriage be held in honor.”

In spite of what we read in the tabloid press or see on TV, love and marriage is more than a matter of raging hormones that one controls or doesn't control according to eprsonal whim.

We can think that only if we have a backwards understanding of marriage.

It is not that first there is marriage and whatever we make of it

to which we add a little but of religion to dress it up by having the service in this building, etc.

It is the other way around.

First there is the relationship of Christ to the Church, which the Bible describes as marriage:

the Church is the bride of Christ, the Bible says, and the love shown by Christ is the basis, foundation, and model for our loving relationships and especially marriage.

God cares about our marriages since they are to be reflections of his love and care for the church.

4) The fourth of the admonitions from Hebrews is “Do not live for money, for God has said that he will never leave or abandon you.”

As we discover when we study the 9^th and 10^th commandments, covetousness is the same as idolatry.

The drive to acquire, and control far beyond our needs is really putting ourselves in place as a new god.

The Lord God Almighty will not stand for that.

We deal with application of this admonition all the time; whenever we say “It's mine, all mine.!”

We'll work on this point some more in the coming weeks.

Hebrews has given us four very true to life admonitions that spring from the presence of the Good News among us.

Now as we think back to the First Lesson and hear something similar in the Gospel today, we might again be tempted to think that we're reading a Dear Abby column: how does one behave at court so as to get the best advantage?

We might then begin to think of our relationship with God in that same manipulative manner.

“How do I get what I want out of God.?”

But the admonition to modesty is not meant for us to use that way;

it is only a proper recognition of our true status before God.

We have no claim against God.

We can only receive his good gifts.

If then, Christ comes among us as a servant and asks us to treat each other that same way, what right would we have to do otherwise?

--to put each other down,

--to demand special treatment or privilege

--etc. None at all!

We should take our place at the servants table without question.

It is with some shock that those who have pushed and shoved and schemed to get to the head table discover that there is only one table, the table for the servants of Christ, where Christ the host serves the servants and we the servants serve each other.

This is the proper place, the final place, the heavenly place, where all the behavior advised by Hebrews and Proverbs is done perfectly, naturally, and modestly.

With that future assured for us, the only question is when shall we start acting like it is true? AMEN.

Please note: The preceding sermon is provided as a resource for the thought, prayer, and meditation of the members and friends of St. Mark's. It is the residue of a verbal event, and thus it does not have academic footnotes and other details that would be expected in a written document. The writer gladly acknowledges the prior thought and work of many Christians before him.