Are We Christian Enough?
Luke 14: 1, 7-14
Dr. Charles J. Tomlin
Flat Rock-Zion Baptist Partnership
August 29th, 2010
Late one night, a burglar broke into a house he thought was empty. He tiptoed through the living room but suddenly froze in his tracks when he heard a voice say: "Jesus is watching you!"
Silence returned to the house, so the burglar crept forward again. "Jesus is watching you," the voice boomed again.
The burglar stopped dead again. He was frightened. Frantically, he looked all around until in a dark corner, he spotted a cage containing a parrot. The burglar breathed a sigh of relief, then he asked the parrot: "What's your name?"
"Moses," said the bird.
"That's a dumb name for a parrot," sneered the burglar. "What idiot named you Moses?"
The parrot said, "The same idiot who named the Rottweiller standing behind you , Jesus."
Today’s Bible text opens with certain religious people watching Jesus “carefully” to see whether he will break their religious traditions to bring healing to a man suffering from dropsy, but as the text unfolds, an even greater truth emerges that Jesus is also watching them.
FINDING “OUR” OWN HAPPINESS DOES NOT BRING JOY
What does Jesus see when he watches? Our text tells us that Jesus watched and “noticed how the guests (at a dinner party) picked the places of honor at the table….” (14:7).
Should this shock us? Isn’t it quite normal in our world also, to see people pushing each other around in order to gain the best place or position? Last week as mid-term election primaries continued in parts of our country, we heard the return to “mud-slinging” among politicians and political candidates. The constant sharp clamor among politicians is that one guy has all the answers while the other guy has none. We’ve gotten use to this, but it does seem to get worse with each political season. This obsession of claiming the “best place in the house” also spills over into the business world, as one company promotes their product only by convincing us how bad the other guy’s product is.
We can even see this unhealthy spirit of competition leaking down into school athletic programs. School sports is supposed to be about the discipline of the body, building character and bringing out the best in our children, but when a child’s parent jumps down the throat of an umpire or referee who makes a bad call, what do you think that teaches a child? It seems as if everyone has to have the perfect play or feels they deserve the best spot or have “first place” in everything these days, and anything less seems intolerable.
What is on our "American minds" that makes us so obsessed with what we want? Could it be our own declaration of Independence that says: “We hold these truths to be self –evident, that all (people) are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are life, liberty, AND THE PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS? These are some of the most revered words in the American experiment. They were necessary words when they were written and are still very inspiring to us, but they can also be very dangerous when misunderstood to meant that we are to pursue our "happiness" at the expense of others. This could end up being more like waking up to an American nightmare, which some say we are experiencing these days, than fulfilling the American dream.
Isn’t this part of the problem Jesus saw as he watched at the dinner party? He saw everyone pursuing ‘the best seat in the house’, so Jesus tells them a parable describing what might happen, when when the host must tell them to take another seat because the “best seat” has been reserved for someone else (14:9). I don’t think I’m stretching the meaning here at all by pointing out that Jesus realizes that in life, things don’t away end up revolving around us and our own agendas for happiness. The best way to miss the contentment you long for is to spend all your energy trying to make your own “happiness” happen.
In the news this week, the mystery concerning the death of rising LPGA golf star, Erika Blasberg started to come out. When her death happened on May 9th, it just didn’t add up. At age 25, she was at the prime of her life in the career she loved. She had the beauty of a model and she had a golf swing that put her in the top ten. She pursued what should have made her happy, but now the truth has come out, as the coroner’s office in Clark County,Nevada, has ruled her life a suicide. How could this young girl, who seemed to be at the top of her game, career, and have everything anyone might want in life, end up so unhappy? 1
Why doesn’t the “happiness” we often seek bring us the joy we desperately need? Our text today seems to suggest that “the pursuit of happiness” can be just as elusive as keeping the “best seat in the house”. Even if you get to sit in that seat, Jesus reminds these folks and us, you probably won’t get to stay in it. Before you know it and sooner than you think, somebody will take that seat from you, and then, where will your “happiness” be found?
I really don’t know all that was going on with the rising golf star, but I know what often goes in all our minds. But if “being first” or "having what you want" is your chosen path to happiness in life, you’re bound end with disappointment and discontent. Happiness in not only practically impossible to define, it is even harder to maintain and even the attempt to stay on top can drive you into despair.
WE CAN FIND GREAT JOY EVEN IN LIFE’S HURTS AND PAIN
Since finding your own “happiness” can end up being the one of the best ways to lose joy, what is the alternative? How does Jesus suggest these “position takers” and “happiness seekers” find their rightful place? Do you see what strange advises he gives when he says: “When you are invited, take the lowest place, so that when your host comes, he will say to you, ‘Friend, move up to a better place.’ Then you will be honored in the presence of all your fellow guests.” (14: 10)?
Who really wants to take this advice these days? Meek is weak! This is what we often say. Which politician is willing to admit that the other party might have a good idea? Which company is willing to say that the other company has a good product too? Which parent is willing to let their child learn about life through the things that don’t always go their way? Who is willing to learn about the meaning, purpose or joy of life, not just going after the good times, but also doing hard things or enduring through difficult days? Who would be willing to discover that the secret to finding joy in life might come by “humbling” ourselves now, rather than putting our happiness first and waiting for life to one day humiliate us?
One of the most misunderstood realities is this very difference between finding “joy” and seeking “happiness”. Always seeking instant gratification or finding "our" happiness will not result in finding the lasting joy we all need. If we want to sit at God’s table, or if we want experience the greatest “honors” and joys of life, we must discover or recover this great difference: Happiness does not result in finding joy.
Once the apostle Paul said that he had learned in whatever state he was in, to be content (Phil 4:11). That’s not an easy lesson. But perhaps one of the greatest truths the Christian life has to offer us is that joy comes more through what we have to endure than getting what we want in life. This unexpected “truth” is one of the reasons in Paul’s word to the Galatians 5:22ff; is that the Fruit of Joy flows directly out of the Fruit of love. The spiritual fruit of “joy” only comes when you consider and contemplate what it means to love.
Think for a moment on one of the most powerful passages about the “joy” Jesus went after, when he endured the cross. Few of us would ever think of Jesus’ crucifixion as the pathway to his own joy, but listen to what the writer of Hebrews wrote, when he said, “2 Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, WHO FOR THE JOY SET BEFORE HIM ENDURED THE CROSS, SCORNING ITS SHAME, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. 3 Consider him who endured such opposition from sinful men, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart. (Heb 12:2-3 NIV).
It may really be hard for some of us, especially those of us who are used to ‘doing our own thing’ in life, living according to our own wants and wishes" to have any idea what kind of joy can come from ‘denying yourself” of what you want, by “humbling yourself”, or by even giving up your own happiness for the happiness of others. In this age of serving me, myself and I, we will struggle to contemplate what kind of joy could come by “enduring pain” for the sake of someone else or with someone else. I often hear people say, I can’t visit a sick person, or go into a nursing home. At first it sounds like they are saying that they can’t bear the pain, but the truth is they haven’t ever faced the pain that must bear and that one day we all will bear.
The table the Christian gospel invites us to, is the table of eternal joy, but it a joy that will not come until you surrender your own wants and desires to God, even accepting and enduring the cross he has called you to bear. Your joy too, will not come by running from the cross, but it will only come by bearing the cross, as you bear each other’s burdens. This is hard, but it through the pain, not around the pain, that we find the path to the deepest joy in life.
So, now before I conclude, let’s review where Jesus’ parable about taking the humble seat has taken us:
(1) Jesus says that we should take the humble seek, not the best seat. He tell us this because he knows having the best seat, or getting what we want does not bring great joy. We might obtain some temporary happiness, but getting what we want does not bring ultimate, lasting joy.
(2) Also, Jesus wants us to know that the greatest joy in life does not come when we avoid the pain, but it only comes when we walk straight through life’s hurts. If we don’t humble ourselves to learn to accept the second, third or even the worse seat in the house, we will never really find or feel the joy. Joy comes through learning to life with disappointed, not by avoiding it. But there is one more truth in the parable we can’t leave without.
WE WILL NEVER FIND GREAT JOY GOING IT ALONE.
Notice closely the final words of Jesus, when he says, “For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but he who humbles himself will be exalted.” (14:11). Do you catch the implications of this promise? Have you noticed that one thing you can't really do, with any meaning, is to "exalt yourself”. Think of it alsow this way: you can’t find life’s greatest joy by yourself, but somebody else has to “elevate you” or “exalt you” in order for you to find it.
You don’t have to imagine how this might work in real life, but just follow what Jesus says to his listeners at the conclusion of his parable. Jesus tells this host, if he wants to find fulfillment and joy to try something different next time he throws a party. Since he has invited all the wrong people to this party---that is all these people who are self-seeking, unhappy, and discontented, Jesus makes a suggestion. If he wants the people to appreciate what he has offered and to be the kind of guests who bring joy and not discontent, he should go out and invite a whole different crowd altogether. Instead of inviting all his friends, relatives, or rich neighbors who can repay the favor, why doesn’t he invite all those people who’d just be thankful to be anywhere or have anything? By inviting the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind, they would be blessed and he will be blessed by their company too. Because they can't repay him, he will be repaid in a way hardly imaginable.
Do you see what Jesus is saying about the bearing the fruit of joy? Joy doesn’t come when you get what you want, or when you avoid the hard things in life. Most of all, joy doesn’t come when you go it alone. Joy only comes when you share your life with others who need something you can give who can never pay you back. Joy will never come when you only live for yourself, but joy only comes when you serve God, when you serve others, and when you serve heaven.
A couples of weeks ago, at Zion we had our first “Widows Meal”. We invited all the widows in our community to a party and served them a meal. After it was over I’ve heard several people, both those who attended and those who served, say that it was a great experience that brought them some real joy. Do you know why there was such “joy” in this event? It was an event when we loved people who could not pay us back. That’s how God’s pay back comes; when we do something for him that we have no way of benefiting from ourselves. That is the surprising way gospel works and bring us joy. Joy does not come when we go looking for it, but it comes when we endure the cross of living with and for others. This is the kind of joy puts us right at the feet of the Father. This is the surprising and humbling way God has paved the path to joy.
Recently, a pastor friend of mine shared a “burden” he had for someone who ended up going to jail for having an inappropriate relationship. The man ended up in one of the most difficult, dark prisons in the State of Maryland. He was put in a cell with the biggest guy on the cell block; a guy named Moose. At first he had great fear, as would we all, but then the most amazing thing happened. He discovered that Moose was a Christian and wanted to be his friend. What good fortune, because now nobody would mess with him because nobody wanted to mess with “Moose”. But this was not all. Within 7 hours of being in that terrible place, Moose invited him to a Bible Study. The man said, who had even led church Bible studies for most of his life, that this was the most wonderful Bible groups he had ever been involved with his whole life. Who would have ever thought that one the greatest moments of joy could have come in such dark and difficult place? Jesus wants us to know that the fruit of the Spirit of Joy can come anywhere there is true deeds of love. Right in the middle of acts and deeds of love---the kind of love that loves and humbles itself with people who can’t pay you back---right in the middle of selflessly giving and sharing with others who can't pay you back, this is always where greatest joy is found.
Once, the great theologian, Paul Tillich, raised one final question for all of us to consider. In his book, The New Being, Tillich surveyed the American landscape and asked, “Is our lack of joy due to the fact that we are Christians, or to the fact that we are not Christian enough?” He then asks another question: “Is not the decision to be a Christian, a decision for the joy in God instead of for the [happiness] of the world?” 2
Could our lack of joy and contentment, which seems to be reflected in current financial downfall, be because we have gone after our “joy” in the wrong way? Jesus offers us another way, when he says, “ I have said these things to you so that my joy may be in you, and your joy may be complete.” (John 15: 11). Amen.
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