For Ourselves, or for God?

Some other religion might try to extinguish this sense of desire in the human spirit, to deny its power, so that ideally one achieves a state of ….nothingness.

That is not our path in the Christian faith.

Rather than denying our restless desire, our aim is to allow it to be channeled to its proper focus, on God rather than on ourselves.

But don't imagine that it is anything other than a constant battle for our hearts and minds.

Advertizing feeds on this unfocused, relentless desire of ours.

It constantly increases the number and scope of the objects and events which we should desire.

It implies that the act of buying, taking, and using this or that object or product is a creative act.

Our lives will truly be fulfilled if we go on this particular cruise line, or purchase that particular sleep-aid, or scrub the floor with the other finely crafted mop.

And this lasts until the next commercial break when it is a completely different set of objects and experiences that will be the fountain of youth, and the truly meaningful things.

Restless, oh, so restless!

In the exercise of our “freedom of choice” we look like slaves who are jerked around by everything, because we have not the focus to make the needed judgments about Yes and No.

And now we need to see how this plays out in the scene with Jesus visiting in the Pharisee's house in the Gospel lesson today.

On first reading, it sounds like a very calculated way to get ahead by being more humble than the next person.

Sit lower, so that one might be invited to move up higher.

We can picture this carried to its ridiculous extreme: a crowd of folks vying for the last seat in the room, each person trying to be more humble than anyone else.

It is our restlessness playing out in the search for position and honors.

And Jesus will not play the usual kinds of games that we do today, and that the Pharisees did of old.

Neither is Jesus giving a lesson in manners; there must be more than that going on in this lesson.

First, Jesus is visiting the house of a Pharisee, one who works very hard at keeping the law of God.

He is not a slouch or a slacker, but a hard-working, upstanding, model citizen.

There are plenty of ne'er do-wells around; why does Jesus pick on him?

Second, The visit is taking place on the Sabbath, the time when the special meal is supposed to mirror the way things will be when creation is complete.

Everything is to be right and in its proper place.

The expectation of everyone around is that the Pharisee is doing everything correctly and that his place at the Sabbath table is assured; he is in charge and everything is right.

Jesus upsets everything.

Third, we hear nothing about Jesus working at Joseph's old trade of carpentry during the time of his ministry, so he must be depending upon the generosity of strangers wherever he goes.

Fourth, we also know that meals like this when a famous visitor comes to a small town are not quite private affairs.

Everyone knows what is going on, and the poor and the hungry are always around the edges of the scene, waiting to receive the leftovers from a fancy meal, because there is no refrigeration, and no one can afford to have things go to waste.

The scriptures don't give this detail, but I am imagining that rather than sauntering in an claiming the seat of honor next to the Pharisee, like everyone expected him to do, that Jesus instead stood with the poor in the shadows and talked from there.

Imagine the host's consternation!

And on top of the confusion and embarrassment, the host gets this lecture from Jesus, who advises him and anyone else to invite the poor, the crippled, the lame and the blind to the next banquet.

Why those particular categories of persons?

Because they, according to Leviticus, are ones who are unclean and thus forbidden to present offerings in the temple.

They are the very people who are excluded from the worshiping community.

Jesus is telling the Pharisee and everyone else that they have it all wrong.

They are not ready for Sabbath celebration because not all of God's people are there.

For if the lame and the blind are denied admission, it is a serious breakdown in understanding who is my brother and sister.

And it goes beyond that.

Jesus places himself among those who have their hands out to receive the goodness of the banquet not because of deserving but because of need.

And if the places of honor have no meaning, and if all of the formerly excluded people are now included, then the same food is going to be received by everyone, no matter where they sit at the banquet...and this includes the Pharisee too, who now is seen to be just as needy as anyone else present.

Invite them all, especially the ones who cannot repay.

That is the reason for their invitation; they cannot repay.

So now we see it:

Jesus invites us to his Table, and here we find ourselves in the same condition as the poor, blind, lame and crippled...we cannot repay and are still welcomed and fed, without regard for rank, and without deserving the gifts of God.

Would any among us claim perfection in body, mind, or spirit?

Are we not also lame in our walk in the faith?

Are we not poor in our offering of love and sharing of charity?

Who among us claims to be so clear of sight so as not to need the Light of Christ?

Who can stand up and foolishly proclaim that he or she is able to repay the debt of God's gifts to us?

Here we can only receive, not deserve.

All of us have our hands extended to receive what we need, not necessarily what we want.

We live as a bundle of “wants”; that is part of our restlessness.

So that when we are talking about evangelism, we had better be careful that we are not selling the wrong thing.

If our advertizing was just like selling dish soap, we would tell everyone that we have this program and that event in such a way that they would feel that their “wants” were being met.

Folks who come because of that line of advertizing will rather soon drift away, because our “wants” are insatiable but the congregation's resources quite finite.

If it is all about me and my wants, there will never be enough in the congregation to satisfy.

Restless, oh, so very restless.

But our being here together is not about us, but about God.

Our being here together is not about satisfying our wants, but about the praise of God, in midst of which we are also receiving what we need.

After God shakes us out of our complacency and our ideas about self-sufficiency, then we will be readied to receive his gifts with gladness....and to share them with even greater gladness.

A plate full of un-calculating humility would be a good thing.

The bread of forgiveness from Jesus is very much needed,

along with the wine of God's future which brings the possibility of starting again.

We need a whole community, not just a favored exclusive portion of it.

Those are the kinds of things we receive with our outstretched hands, even though we have not deserved such consideration from the Lord.

And our hymn of praise continues.

The attitude that we get from the commercial world that every season has to have new fashions,

that the next new program will be the one that straightens everything out,

that the latest motivational speaker has all the answers,

that the budget can be fixed with a little more manipulation,

are all parts of our human restlessness that focuses on ourselves instead of on God.

Here we are at the beginning of a new season.

May Jesus' challenge to the Pharisee shake us from our complacency and drive us back to the sources, to see and hear for ourselves all that the scriptures have to say about the focus of our life upon God.

There are two Sunday morning study groups for adults, and others for all ages.

There are also Wednesday noon, and Thursday at 6:31 AM.

If there need to be additional times and settings, we'll organize them.

When they are working well, all of them will be molding our focus from ourselves to God.

St Augustine began his most famous book with this observation:

You move us to delight in praising You, O Lord; for You have formed us for Yourself, and our hearts are restless till they find rest in You.

Our restlessness is finally to be focused in the right place. 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.