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Taking the Low Road: Sermon · Beyond the Sermon

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You're listening to Beyond the Sermon, the podcast the First
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Methodist Church in Collingswood, NJ.
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On our podcast, the goal is not just to share the sermons we've
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preached, but to go beyond the sermon and talk about what we're
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learning and what God is doing in US and in our community.
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You can find more information about our church at
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fumccollingswood.org. Thanks for listening this
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morning Scripture. Comes from the.
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Gospel Luke chapter 14 starting verse. 1.
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One Sabbath, when Jesus went to eat in the House of a prominent
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Pharisee, he was being carefully watched.
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There in front of him was a man suffering from abnormal swelling
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of his body. Jesus asked the Pharisees and
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experts in the law, Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath or not?
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But they remained silent. So taking hold of the man, he
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healed him and sent him on his way.
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Then he asked them, if one of you has a child or an ox that
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falls into a well on the Sabbath day, will you not immediately
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pull it out? And they had nothing to say.
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When he noticed how the guests picked the places of honour at
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the table, He told them this parable.
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When someone invites you to a wedding feast, do not take the
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place of honor for a person more distinguished than you may have
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been invited. If so, the host in who invited
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both of you will come and say to you, give this person your seat.
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Then humiliated, you will have to take the least important
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place. But when you are invited, take
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the lowest place, so that when your host comes, he will say to
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you, Friend, move up to a better place.
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Then you will be honored in the presence of all the other
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guests. For all those who exalt
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themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will
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be exalted. Then Jesus said to his host,
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when you give a luncheon or dinner, do not invite your
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friends, your brothers or sisters, your relatives, or your
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rich neighbors. If you do, they may invite you
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back, and so you will be repaid. But when you give a banquet,
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invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, and you
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will be blessed. Although they cannot repay you,
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you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.
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This is the word of God for the people of God.
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Thanks be to God. Amen.
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All right. Kids who are headed to
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children's church are invited to head in that direction.
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Miss Meg. And I want to invite the rest of
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you this morning to engage your holy imagination with me for a
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few moments. OK, you may want to close your
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eyes. You may not.
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That's OK. But I want you to begin to paint
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a picture in your mind's eye as I describe a scene.
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Imagine it's the first day of the week, the day after the
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Sabbath. You can think of it as a Monday
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morning, right? Maybe a Monday during a week
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with a holiday, right? Like when there's a Monday
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before Christmas and Christmas is on Thursday or Friday.
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Things are busy, right? There's a buzz about town,
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there's a buzz in the air. You have a lot to do to prepare
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for the holiday. Maybe family has already started
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coming in from out of town and you have to try to get your
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usual work done as well, right? And as as you've been going
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about your business, you begin to notice that the buzz of the
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people in the street has begun to grow and the movement of the
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people has switched from the normal back and forth of a busy
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Monday morning. And all the people now seem to
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be streaming in One Direction toward the edge of town.
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As you step out of the shop that you are in you you begin to
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catch bits and pieces of people's conversations.
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You hear words like Nazareth, Jesus, teacher, miracles, and
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you realize that this teacher, this teacher who has had this
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prophet like aura around him for the past few years, he's coming
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to town. You've heard him teach before
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and you notice that there was something distinctly different,
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not just about the way he taught, but about his presence,
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the way he carried himself. And you've heard the stories
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about some of the other things he's done.
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He's healed people. He's commanded demons to leave
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people, and they have. He's multiplied food to feed
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whole crowds of people. He even raised some people from
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the dead, one who had been in the tomb for three days.
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And something in you begins to wonder, might this be the one
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the prophets have spoken about? Might he be the one who was
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finally going to overthrow the Romans and make God's people
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free again? Might this be and you hesitate
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even to think the thought the Messiah.
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And so you join the flow of people to the point where where
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you can't even press any further into the crowd.
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And everyone is is craning their necks and squinting their eyes
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trying to catch the first glimpse of of Jesus as he enters
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into Jerusalem. And and you hear a chant begin
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to ripple through the crowd. Blessed is the King who comes in
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the name of the Lord, praise in heaven and glory in the highest.
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And hope swells in your heart. You begin to think that this
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must be it. And you join your voice with the
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cry of the crowd. You're you're looking to see
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what this entrance into Jerusalem will look like.
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Is he leading an army into Jerusalem?
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Does he look like Judas the Hammer from the old stories?
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Is he riding on a White Horse? And then people begin to spread
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their cloaks on the street. They're they're cutting down
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palm branches and, and they're laying those in the street too.
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And they're waving them in the air like a banner.
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And you finally see someone coming at the front of the
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procession, but he's not riding on a White Horse.
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He he's not riding on a War Horse at all.
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But it doesn't look like he's quite walking either.
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He is that a donkey. It's not even fully grown yet.
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And Jesus, riding on the donkey, passes in front of you.
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And part of you is caught up in the excitement of that cheering
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crowd. But another part of you wonders,
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what does this mean? This isn't what I expected from
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the Messiah. And at some point, friends,
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that's a reality each of us has to wrestle with.
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That's not who I expected Jesus to be.
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Ultimately, that's a good thing, because if the Jesus that we're
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following meets all of our expectations, there's actually a
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good chance that we're following a Jesus that we've constructed
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in our own image, which isn't so different from what the
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Israelites did when they formed the golden calf, right?
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And they said, this is Yahweh, the God who brought us out of
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Egypt. We've been in this series about
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denying ourselves this Lenten season.
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And part of denying ourselves means laying down those
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expectations of who we think Jesus ought to be.
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And that means allowing the stories of the Gospels, the
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stories recorded in Scripture, to, to speak for themselves,
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right? And to let those stories become
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the lens through which we look at the rest of the world,
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instead of reading the Gospels through the lens that we've
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already constructed and assuming that Jesus stands for all the
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things we stand for. We shouldn't be surprised then
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that Jesus didn't come into Jerusalem that day riding on a
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War Horse, but then he chose instead a donkey, a symbol of
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humility for the significant entry into Jerusalem.
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Remember, this is the same Jesus who told the story that Jeremy
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just read for us in our Scripture reading this morning.
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So I want to take a look at that passage this morning because
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that story finds Jesus sharing a Sabbath meal in the home of a
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Pharisee, not a Sinner this time like he was prone to do, but in
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the home of a Pharisee. And in that home at that Sabbath
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meal, Jesus is being watched. Because the Pharisees were
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looking to see if this Jesus would fit into their
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expectations if he was operating within their system or if he was
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going to continue to buck the system.
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There happened to be a man there suffering from swelling of some
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kind. I don't know if the Pharisees
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brought him in hopes of trapping Jesus or if he just happened to
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be there. Maybe he was part of the family.
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It doesn't tell us there was a man there who was suffering from
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abnormal swelling. And, and, and rather than
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waiting for the law experts to ask him a question on this day,
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Jesus takes the conversation to them.
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He asked the leaders about whether it was lawful to heal
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someone on the Sabbath or not. This is a conversation Jesus and
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the Pharisees had had many times.
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There's a question that wasn't just isolated to this one
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interaction between Jesus and these religious leaders.
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But the Pharisees on that day, they won't answer.
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They remained silent because they knew if they said that
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healing was permissible, they couldn't accuse Jesus of
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breaking the Sabbath. And they if they knew, they knew
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that if they said that healing was not allowed on the Sabbath,
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they weren't really honouring the intention of the Sabbath at
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all. And so Jesus heals the man,
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sends him on his way, and he turns to the Pharisees and
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points out just how hypocritical they're being by highlighting
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that any one of them if if their child or their ox or their
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donkey fell into a well, even on the Sabbath, they're going to
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get them out of the well, even though that would properly be
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considered work. But Jesus isn't done, and as
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everyone begins to take their seats at the meal, the guests
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were all jockeying for those prime seats.
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You've seen that happen, right? Everybody wants to sit close to
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the important people. They want to make sure they get
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a good seat. Jesus saw the perfect teaching
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opportunity, perfect opportunity to expose the pride and the
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privilege and the entitlement of the Pharisees, and Jesus told
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them this parable. Let me read it for you, us
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again. This is verse 8.
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When someone invites you to a wedding feast, do not take the
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place of honor for a person more distinguished than you may have
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been invited. If so, the host who invited both
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of you will come and say to you, give this person your seat.
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Then humiliated, you will take have to take the least important
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place. But when you're invited, take
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the lowest place, so that when your host comes, he will say to
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you, friend, move up to a better place.
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Then you will be honored in the presence of all the other
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guests. For all those who exalt
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themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will
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be exalted. Imagine again, that's what these
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stories of scripture do, right? They, they make us imagine.
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Think about what it would be like.
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Imagine walking into a wedding reception and walking right up
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to the head table, the space reserved there for the bride and
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groom, along with their wedding party.
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You've seen what I'm talking about, right?
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And you walk up to that table and you just pull out a seat,
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pull out a chair and have a seat.
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And then you notice the father of the brides walking right
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towards you. He says, hey, sorry, this seat,
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it's not for you. There's someone else who's
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supposed to sit in these seats. But hey, it looks like back
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there in the corner, I think it might be the kids table.
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There's still a seat back there. Humiliating, right?
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But then imagine to the opposite situation.
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You, you walk in and and you find a seat, an out of the way
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table, maybe up against the wall.
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And this time the father of the bride walks in and and he sees
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you, he catches your eye and he walks over to you and says, Oh
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no, friend, come, come sit at the family table.
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This you're too important to sit here.
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Completely different situation, right?
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It's the difference between thinking rather highly of
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yourself and choosing humility. About 10 or 15 years ago, I
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heard a teaching on this story that stuck with me.
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It's become something of a life principle for me, and that
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principle is take the low seat. Take the low seat in any
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situation I find myself in, whether that's a social
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situation or in leadership. In ministry, I constantly ask
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myself, what is the lowest seat that God will allow me to take.
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It doesn't mean that I have a low view of myself, that I don't
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think I'm worthy of sitting in one of the other higher seats.
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It's a continual choice, though, that I make to deny myself, to
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deny myself the opportunity to reach and grasp for a higher
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spot. It's choosing to sit in the
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lowest seat I can until God makes it impossible for me to
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stay there. And I think that's what Jesus
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did. I think that's what allowed
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Jesus to live for 30 years in relative obscurity, working as a
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Craftsman, working with his hands, caring for his family
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until God the Father wouldn't let him stay there.
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And he said it's time. And so like it says in
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Philippians 2, Jesus, even though he was God the Son, he
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didn't consider that equality with God something to be clung
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to, something to be grasped or used to his own advantage.
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Instead, he made himself nothing.
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He took on our broken humanity. He made himself like a servant.
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See, Jesus didn't consider his divinity as a privilege to hold
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on to. He was willing to take what was
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rightfully his, his rights, his privilege, his pride.
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He's willing to take it all and lay it down to take the low
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seat, which on Palm Sunday was on the back of a donkey.
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So I want to take a minute here and, and just talk for a moment
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about this idea of privilege. So I think some of us hear that
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word and we kind of bristle a little bit, right?
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Because in our social contexts, it's been used in certain areas
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to where it's taken on a pretty specific meaning.
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Or maybe the only time you hear the word privilege is in the
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phrase white privilege, right? You feel like you and your
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family have worked hard to get where you are and that has
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nothing to do with the colour of your skin.
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And, and I hear that I'm not here this morning to argue that
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or to try to make anyone feel bad or good about the color of
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skin they were born with. But but friends, we all have to
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acknowledge that we have privilege in this world, if only
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because we live here in America in the year 2026, which puts us
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at a standard of living that would be unfathomable to most of
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humanity. Not just people who live in
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different countries, but people who have lived at different
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times down through the years. The the amount of wealth
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represented in our nation in these days is staggering.
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It's worth taking stock of those areas of privilege because they
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can closely be tied to areas of pride, areas of entitlement
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where we think we deserve something.
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Let me just speak for my own context for a moment.
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As a married white male with a master's degree in theology, few
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people would think twice if I was appointed to their church to
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pastor their congregation. The same's not true for some of
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my female friends who've been called into pastoral ministry.
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Nor is it the same for friends of mine who are African American
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or Korean. Maybe you've heard stories from
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friends who have received what what's called a cross racial
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appointment. It's not the same for friends I
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have who have been called to ministry later in life.
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And they've had to pursue their theological education while
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working a full time job and raising a family just to meet
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the minimum bar so they can enter into the ministry they
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feel God calling them to. So when you hear me speaking
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about privilege, about laying down our privilege, rather than
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getting defensive, maybe it's at worth asking Jesus.
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The question Is there anywhere I need to wrestle with the
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privilege I have in order to deny myself and follow Jesus?
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Because Jesus didn't begin denying himself when he picked
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up the cross to carry it to Calvary.
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It was something that was formed in him long before that moment,
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the result of choosing daily to take the low sea, to lay down
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his right to not take what he felt entitled to.
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And so Jesus has called to deny ourselves and take up our
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crosses. It's not a call that comes to us
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at the moment of our death. It's a call that comes to us
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daily, maybe even hourly. It comes in the midst of our
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living. It might be a call to stay in
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the job that pays less than we think we deserve because God
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wants to do something in and threw us there.
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In that context, it might be a call to not lead a committee or
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a ministry, even though we feel like maybe we're the most
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qualified to lead that. It might be a call to not
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upgrade to the bigger house or the newer car.
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Maybe it's a call to advocate for an underprivileged group.
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It might look like intentionally engaging the practice of
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generosity and giving out of the abundance of what God has given
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you. Whatever your call to take the
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low seat might look like, know that you're following in the
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steps of Jesus, whose so-called triumphal entry started on the
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back of a baby donkey and ended on a cross.
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The call to deny ourselves means a lot of things, as we've been
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learning in this series. But the call to deny ourselves
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is never less than laying down our pride, giving up our rights,
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acknowledging our privilege. For as Jesus said at the end of
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that parable, for all those who exalt themselves will be
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humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.
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Would you pray with me this morning, Jesus?
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We come to you this morning. We can only come to you this
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morning because you came to us. You laid down your rights.
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You laid down your privileges so that you could stand in our
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place, bear our sin and shame, and reconcile us to God and
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Jesus. You still call us to do the same
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thing, to lay down our rights and our privileges and our
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pride. To pick up the cross, not just
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when we're ready to die, but each and every day a willingness
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to die to ourselves so that we can live to Christ until we pray
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this moment, this morning, today, this week.
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Would you speak to our hearts about the areas where you're
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calling us to deny ourselves? The areas you're asking us to
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lay down because there's something you want to do?
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Would you give us a willingness and a courage to do it, knowing
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that it's going to cost us something?
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That's what sacrifice is. It costs us something.
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But that's the life you've modeled for us, and we want to
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follow you. So would you help us?
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We pray this Jesus in your name.