September 22, 2007 At Saint Mark Church in Norman, OK
Sirach 3: 17-21, 30,31 + Psalm 68 + Hebrews 12: 18,19,22-24 + Luke 14: 1, 7-15
Often called the “Gospel of Great Reversals”, Luke’s Gospel stays true to form today. The liturgy’s first reading gives us the clue that unfolds the virtue of discipleship we ponder at this stop on the way to Jerusalem. Getting closer to the end, Jesus gets more intense, more pointed, more specific, and perhaps now raises the virtues that are most important.
It’s about humility today; that virtue we love to admire in others and struggle to find in ourselves. Perhaps the problem is that we so continually avoid truth. We love to fool ourselves, and the more we hide the truth from others, the more comfortable and safer often feel. That behavior is obvious from the highest levels of government to the simplest family homes. In fact, it probably would never be tolerated at the level of government if we were not already so skilled at hiding the truth at home.
Privacy is getting to be such a big thing with us that I couldn’t even find you in a hospital if you called for me and I misspelled your name at the information desk. We will not practice this virtue by denying the truth. The gifts we have are all real. Truth demands that we recognize the giver of those gifts. That truth demands that we put those gifts at the service of others not for what we might gain; but rather for the sake of those others
and the glory of the one who has given.
So the first place to look for the perfect example of humility is God. After all, what is “virtue” except the clearest reflection of divine life and divine qualities. The Son of God is the human example of the divine virtue of humility. He refused to cling to his divine status. He set aside every right and every shred of dignity. He humbled himself to the point of washing the feet of an ambitious, not too dependable group who followed him seeking glory, power, and influence. Finally, that action led to the greater act of humility: his death on a cross.
We gather here week after week under that reminder of humility with the expectation that our own minds will be open to the possibility of such humility toward one another. To do so will put us at odds with worldly wisdom which encourages ambition and assertiveness. I am beginning to understand this better and better in the latter half of my life, and I am beginning to see how important it is for younger people to learn this virtue early in life, and thereby saving themselves a lot of humiliation, disappointment, and failure. Humility is always about truth: the truth that what most people seem to be admired for is not really very admirable; the truth that what most people look to for satisfaction is not really very satisfying. What is truly admirable is to be less concerned about being admired. What is truly satisfying is to forego one’s own satisfaction and try to satisfy the needs of others.
Toward the end of this Gospel parable, Jesus suggests where we might go to encounter the presence of God. To the lowest place among the least is where we go. To the poor, the weak, the crippled, the blind and outcast: who according to Luke at the Blessed ones, not you and me. They are the gifted, for they are a gift to us by most closely taking on the image of Christ. These are the ones who will bless and gift us, not the other way around. This kind of thinking takes us deeply into the mystery revealed in the Gospel of Great Reversals. What Luke suggests is that more is required than a check in the mail or a hand-out. Hospitality is the exercise of this virtue and in the ancient language of this Gospel, Hospitality means “love of a stranger.” This is a big challenge to us in an age of boarder security and vicious immigration laws. When we keep the needy, the poor, the helpless away from us, we may be doing more than we think, and we shall be far from the truth and a long way from being humble.