August 28, 2022 ~ Twelfth Sunday after Pentecost ~ Sermon & Zoom Worship Video Link

This is the Worship Video Link:

https://us02web.zoom.us/rec/share/b2xXelb0Vg7_dS1T1ew-T19a5MV31YmJEVbDreVjcs6PeNqvNox6kjIkmq0eT9NZ.5bEAioQgI6ncCpIh

                                                                                                08/28/22—Highland—Meute

“Humble Pie”

Proverbs 25: 6-7; Hebrews 13: 1-8, 15-16; Luke 14: 1, 7-14

Pearl: Humility in the beloved community of Christ followers.

Function: To encourage worshippers to enter into the “secret service” of humility as a way of life as followers of Jesus our Lord.

Our culture can go to excess in exultation of self!

1. Who can forget one of the first and most flamboyant, celebrity self-promoters, Muhammad Ali, the prize fighting heavy weight champion?
   1. He was well-known for proclaiming, with great poetic flair, that he was “the greatest that there ever was.” He was actually humorous and entertaining.
   1. But Ali was put in his place one time by a flight attendant. She asked him to put his seat-belt on in preparation for a flight. He said, “Superman don’t need no seatbelt.” She responded, “Superman don’t need no airplane either.” Ali swallowed his pride and buckled up.
   1. She served up a little humble pie for Ali to eat.
      1. “Humble pie” was actually eaten in the 19^th century. It went back to the 17^th century, “umbel pie,” which was made from “umbels,” edible inner parts of an animal (especially deer), and was considered low-class food, “humble pie.”
2. Our world suffers from the “culture of narcissism” as demonstrated by many of our celebrity athletes, performers, and leaders.

This “self-exalting” tendency is nothing new for faith communities or for the church.

1. On that Sabbath day when Jesus was invited to the Pharisee’s home for a meal, scripture reads that “they were watching him closely” (Luke 14:1) It turns out that Jesus watched them closely in return because they wanted to be watched. They sought the attention.
   1. There is a tendency even within the family of God to put on airs and to compare ourselves to others. We do this to build ourselves up. We try to get a slight edge over someone else, anyone else. We look for someone that we can view ourselves as “better than,” of course, ever so subtly.
   1. In Flannery O’Connor’s story “Revelation,” Mrs. Turpin, a stately, self-righteous Christian woman, has a vision that turns her world, and her prejudiced assumptions, upside down.
      1. A fiery streak in the dusk sky transforms into a bridge from earth to heaven. Climbing the bridge, a ‘vast horde of souls were rumbling to heaven’—souls Mrs. Turpin had earlier judged beneath her.
      1. Poor White folks climb to heaven, clean for the first time in their lives. Black laborers dressed in white robes proceed to salvation and behind them a bunch of ‘freaks’ and ‘lunatics.’
      1. At the end of the heavenly procession Mrs. Turpin recognizes herself and her people, marching with dignity behind the others, ‘accountable as they had always been for good order and common sense and respectable behavior.’ Confused, Mrs. Turpin sees the ‘shocked and altered faces’ of her people as, last in line to heaven, their esteemed virtues burn away in the light of the setting sun.
      1. Teri McDowell Ott concludes from that story that “the kingdom of God has its own social and spiritual order. To presume our place in that order is not only unwise but unfaithful” (Presbyterian Outlook, 8/22/22).
2. Jesus saw this type of “self-exaltation” among the devout. The most “devout” of Jesus’ day, in their own eyes at least, were the Pharisees, chief priests, and other synagogue leaders.
   1. They were probably viewed as so exalted by the larger family of God, but also perhaps with a level of suspicion. Scripture reveals that when Jesus silenced these leaders in regard to his acts of healing on the Sabbath, the community took great delight in “all the wonderful things Jesus was doing.”
3. Jesus saw a “spiritual pride,” an “elitism” which he made it part of his mission to correct. He taught, “…all who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted” (Luke 14: 11).

It was a principle at the heart of the kin-dom of God which Jesus sought to reveal. The word “kind-dom” is fairly new and possibly made-up. It emphasizes equality and equity, a non-hierarchical structure within the family of God.

1. Jesus taught followers to “lower one’s self” or “humble one’s self.” The biblical Greek word which most bibles translate “to humble” means to “make low” as in leveling a mountain or hill.
2. So, Jesus taught a leveling of self to make the self equal to others even to make ones’ self lower than others.
   1. One of Jesus’ most important moments with his disciples was at the Last Supper, when after the meal our Lord washed the feet of his disciples.
      1. He then asked them if they understood what he did to them. He told them, “If I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you ought also to wash one another’s feet. For I have set you an example, that you also should do as I have done to you” (John 13: 14, 15).
   1. Jesus often discussed the “secret service” we are called to as his followers. I say “secret service” because we are called to serve others and we are called to do it humbly without seeking attention for what we do: “secret service.”
      1. “Whoever wants to be first must be last of all and servant of all” (Mark 9: 35).
      1. Jesus had to teach this to his disciples on one particular occasion. Even among them there was the attempt to elevate self above the others. James and John approached Jesus one time and asked that they could sit on his left and on his right one day in his glorious kingdom.     
         1. Of course, the other disciples were incensed. Jesus used the occasion to make a central point of his mission. He said, “The Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life a ransom for many” (Mark 10: 45).

The beloved community welcomes everyone to the party. The kin-dom of Christ wants everyone present at the table. All are invited. There are no superstars. There is no vying for position within the family of faith.

1. At that Great Banquet table at the end of the age we will be surprised at all of the people who will be there with us.
   1. People we placed ourselves above;
   1. People we wouldn’t think to invite into our fellowship;
   1. People we just didn’t like;
   1. People of different faiths;
   1. People we didn’t understand;
   1. People with different politics;
   1. The poor and the rich;
      1. But in that “all-new world” that our Lord will inaugurate someday, there will be harmonious community among the beloved.

Our calling from Jesus himself is to keep “humble pie” in our diet.

From an honest love for others, we remember Jesus words: “All who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted” (Luke 14:11).

We are about to enter, as a church family, into an approximately three-year quest to “Follow Jesus.” We will go “back to the basics” of who we are as those who follow Jesus Christ.

Please join me and your church leadership in the “wonderful life” journey to try to follow Jesus.