Proper 17C (OT22)

 
 
 

501: August 28, 2022

GUEST CO-HOST: MELISSA MEYERS

Melissa Meyers is an ordained Elder in the United Methodist Church and has grown up in the Northern Illinois area and attended school in the Midwest.  Freeport She has served appointments in the Northern IL Conference (which most have been Faith United Methodist Churches!)  Melissa is passionate about ministry in the 21st century, connecting generations together, creativity, spending time with her nieces & nephew, and pop culture. It is her not-so-secret desire to have her own reality show someday. You can find her on most social media platforms @pastormelissa.

339: September 1, 2019

182: August 28, 2016

Voice in the Wilderness: Nicole Cox

Psalmist: Richard Bruxvoort Colligan

Guest Co-Host: Casey Fitzgerald

Featured Musician - Amy Cox

Psalmist: Richard Bruxvoort Colligan

Luke 14:1, 7-14

Initial Thoughts

  • For reference: Luke 14: 2-6 - questions about healing or acts of grace on the Sabbath

Bible Study

  • “Table Talk” includes four messages.  Jesus is at the house of a “leader of the Pharisees,” who were “watching him closely.” 

    • Lectionary this week includes middle two:  

      • Healing on the Sabbath

      • Lesson for Guests - sit at the lowest place

      • Lesson for Hosts - invite people that cannot repay you

      • Parable of the great dinner - People make excuses to not come, so the poor, crippled, blind, and lame are invited

  • This is not about manners or etiquette.  The Table Talk is a metaphor for the Kingdom of God. 

  • Lesson for Guests

    • Sit at the lowest place of honor, so that you may be invited to come to a greater position.

      • “For all who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.” Proverbs 25:6-7

      • Is there anything more frustrating than false humility, or the “humble brag?”

    • Instructions are not about a way to manipulate yourself to a better seat.

      • Jesus is calling for sincere humility, not strategizing.

      • “Jesus does not offer a divinely approved way for a person to get what he or she wants.  Taking the low seat because one is humble is one thing; taking the low seat as a way to move up is another.  This message becomes a cartoon if there is a mad, competitive rush for the lowest place, with ears cocked toward the host, waiting for the call to ascend.” (Fred Craddock, Interpretation:Luke).

      • Humility is not about devaluing self.  It is about denying man-made status, and embrace equality of the other.

    • Humility was a counter-cultural concept.  “His exhortation is to pursue humility, a concept with significant status connotations. Humility was very rarely considered a virtue in Greco-Roman moral discourse. Yet, humility is to mark the followers of Jesus”  (Jeannine Brown, The Working Preacher)

      • Today, humility is often a lip-service virtue.  People talk about humility as a virtue, but those who are exalted are usually not truly humble.

    • Humility is about an awareness of others (beyond yourself)

      • It is not denying your own power or ability or prestige, but acknowledging that others have equal power, ability and prestige and not assuming yours is more than others.

      • The assumption of position lies at the heart of patriarchy, white supremacy and heternormity

  • Lesson for Hosts

    • This is a much more blatantly counter-cultural message, disrupting the very social order, not just patterns of behavior.

      • Quid pro quo - the exchange of one good or service for another - is an inherently Roman idea, and is the basis of patronage system.  Inviting people who “could give nothing in return” is in direct opposition to the system of patronage where the only reason anyone did anything was for something in return.

      • Jesus is calling for “Kingdom behavior,” where love is given with nothing is returned.

    • Lesson is emphasized with next parable, where the master invites the poor, crippled, and lame.

    • Vast implications for Church in its mission to participate in radical hospitality.  Do we need to rethink Soup kitchens, food pantries, and other “hunger missions.”  

      • “Hospitality, then, is not having each other over on Friday evenings but welcoming those who are in no position to host us in return.  Nor does the text speak of sending food to anyone; rather, the host and the guest sit at table together. The clear sign of acceptance, of recognizing others as one’s equals, of cementing fellowship, is breaking bread together.”  (Fred Craddock, Interpretation:Luke)

Thoughts and Questions

  • How much does your church practice table sharing? Not always around  program, but simply sharing a meal together? What might that look like?

  • Does your community offer open meals? If not- why not? How might it change your community to offer an open meal?

  • How might we invite others into a life of bold humility which acknowledges our gifts, abilities and power, yet doesn’t assume those gifts, abilities and power place us higher than others. Can we own who we are without placing ourselves above others?

Second Reading: Jeremiah 2:4-13 Why have you forsaken me?

Initial Thoughts

  • Not sure why we should skip v. 1-3. This is the beginning of Jeremiah’s prophecy describing the “honeymoon” era of God and Israel that is marked by hesed.

Bible Study

  • V. 4 Not addressed only to Israel. CEB makes that clear by using “Judah” instead of “House of Jacob”

    • “It is by no means necessary to conclude, as some scholars have, that these words are addressed to the remnants of the northern kingdom of ISrael, destroyed a century earlier. (Robert Alter, The Hebrew Bible: Prophets, W.W. Norton and Company, p. 856)

  • Foreign gods are empty/worthless

    • CEB = “worthless” “no value”

    • Alter = “mere breath” (as it is used in Ecclesiastes) or “no avail”

    • Alter uses the term “ungods” in verse 11

    • The people turned away from a God that saved them from Egypt, provided for them in the wilderness, and gave them a fruitful land, to worship gods that are impotent, worthless, and do nothing.

  • Whose Land?

    • The people “ruined My Land and disgraced my heritage”

    • The Land belongs to God, and the people are entrusted with the bounty. 

    • Stewardship includes 

  • Whose error?

    • The prophets - prophesied for Baal

    • Those skilled in the Teaching - Did not know me

      • Alter says this refers to skilled laborers

    • The priests - Failed to ask “Where is the Lord”

    • The shepherds - rebelled against me

      • “Shepherds” is always a metaphor for the political leaders and kings.

  • V. 13 Two evils: 1, Turned away from living water. 2, made their own cisterns

    • cisterns (NRSV) is a better translation than wells (CEB).

    • “A cistern hewn in rock is a receptacle for the storage of water (perhaps rainwater) and not a water source or spring that continually flows. It sides might be plastered but would be subject to cracks and breaks through which the water could leak out.” (Robert Alter, The Hebrew Bible: Prophets, W.W. Norton and Company, p. 858)

Sermon Thoughts and Questions

  • God is shocked by the treatment God gets from the people. What does it mean for God to be shocked and appalled? Can we surprise God? 

  • God is appalled at the people who were given so much promise. They took what was given to them and discarded it. God gave them freedom, land, plenty, and the people’s response was to wander and forget God. There are strong parallels to who we are as a people today. What are the gifts that we have squandered? Will our nation take the promise of life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness and discard it for fascism? Will we live up to ideals or degenerate and squander the heritage?

Hebrews 13:1-8, 15-16

Initial Thoughts

  • Last Sunday of Hebrews :(

    • Philemon for a week before we head into 1 Timothy!

Bible Study 

  • Mutual love as the framework of the passage

    • what is mutual love?

      • hospitality to strangers

        • “The admonition ‘not to neglect hospitality to strangers’ sounds a bit grudging to modern ears, in which a more positive formulation would be welcome. Rhetorically however, the saying function to emphasize the importance of hospitality. In other words, not to neglect hospitality is to make certain that it is carried out.” (Beverly Gaventa, Texts for Preaching, Year C, p. 492)

      • compassion to prisoners

        • “Prisoners had tmo depend on those outside for food beyond basic prison rations, for clothing and other items; guards sometimes required bribes even to grant this much access. Prisons detained people until trial or execution, but prisoners could remain in custody for long periods of time until trial.” (NRSV, Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible, notes p. 2180)

      • faithful relationships

      • extravagant stewardship

      • sacrificial worship

    • Expansive view of love that begins with family but must extend beyond into community

    • For love to be mutual- it must happen in community

      • Church is the community of mutual love

      • Mutual love is the foundation of “doing good and sharing what you have”

      • Mutual love is the foundation of being in relationship with God that we can confidently confess: The Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid. What can anyone do to me?"

  • Worship as a sacrifice of praise to God

    • Worship needs to be transformative- we need to be willing to be transformed by the spirit

    • we become like what we worship

    • transformative worship melts us down - it is up to us what mold we will be poured into: the world? or the kingdom of God?

  • Fellowship - let mutual love continue

    • Ministry stems from worship and fellowship

    • “Worship that does not melt the soul and lead to deepened relationships with fellow servants of our Lord becomes a fussy curatorship of moribund customs. It becomes a cause of strife and contentiousness rather than a fresh way of addressing our love to God. Fellowship that does not grow out of spirited worship and point into courageous ministry becomes boozy, gossipy, and, as this passage warns, potentially adulterous. Cliques in a congregation are fine, provided they are nexuses of positive energy, but disconnected from worship or ministry, they are a circle of wagons on the congregation's prairie. Ministry that does not grow out of worship-forged friendships becomes proprietary and sour, something to fight others about, rather than something to offer to them. If the payoff for ministry is not the love of God and your fellow ministers, it will decay into prestige maintenance.” Gray Temple, Feasting on the Word – Year C, Volume 4: Season After Pentecost 2 (Propers 17-Reign of Christ).

Thoughts and Questions

  • What does mutual love look like in the face of the general divisiveness of current culture? How do we promote and practice mutual love with those whom we greatly disagree?

Thanks to our Psalms correspondent, Richard Bruxvoort Colligan (psalmimmersion.com,@pomopsalmist). Thank you to Scott Fletcher for our voice bumpers, Dick Dale and the Del Tones for our Theme music (“Miserlou”), Nicolai Heidlas (“Sunday Morning”,"Real Ride"and“Summertime”) and Bryan Odeen for our closing music.

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