postID: 6863; title: The Fifteenth Sunday After Pentecost
groupKey: secondary
groupKey: other
The Fifteenth Sunday After Pentecost
Lord of all power and might, who art the author and giver of all good things: Graft in our hearts the love of thy Name; increase in us true religion; nourish us with all goodness; and bring forth in us the fruit of good works; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen. (Proper 17)
Array
(
[date] => 2016-08-28 11:00:00
[scope] =>
[year] =>
[month] =>
[post_id] => 1277
[series_id] =>
[day_titles_only] =>
[exclusive] => 1
[return] => formatted
[formatted] =>
[show_date] =>
[show_meta] =>
[show_content] => 1
[admin] =>
[debug] => 1
[filter_types] => Array
(
[0] => primary
[1] => secondary
)
[type_labels] => Array
(
[primary] => Primary
[secondary] => Secondary
[other] => Other
)
[the_date] => 2016-08-28 11:00:00
)
2 post(s) found for dateStr : 2016-08-28postID: 6707 (Augustine of Hippo)
--- getDisplayDates ---
litdate post_id: 6707; date_type: fixed; year: 2016
fixed_date_str: August 28
fixed_date_str (mod): August 28 2016
formattedFixedDateStr: 2016-08-28
=> check date_assignments.
=> NO date_assignments found for postID: 6707
displayDates for postID: 6707/year: 2016
Array
(
[0] => 2016-08-28
)
postPriority: 98postID: 6863 (The Fifteenth Sunday After Pentecost)
--- getDisplayDates ---
litdate post_id: 6863; date_type: variable; year: 2016
Variable date => check date_calculations.
=> check date_assignments.
=> NO date_assignments found for postID: 6863
displayDates for postID: 6863/year: 2016
Array
(
[0] => 2016-08-28
)
postPriority: 3primaryPost found for date: 2016-08-28 with ID: 6863 (The Fifteenth Sunday After Pentecost)
The Fifteenth Sunday After Pentecost
Array
(
[date] => 2016-08-28 11:00:00
[scope] =>
[year] =>
[month] =>
[post_id] => 1277
[series_id] =>
[day_titles_only] =>
[exclusive] => 1
[return] => simple
[formatted] =>
[show_date] =>
[show_meta] =>
[show_content] => 1
[admin] =>
[debug] => 1
[filter_types] => Array
(
[0] => primary
[1] => secondary
)
[type_labels] => Array
(
[primary] => Primary
[secondary] => Secondary
[other] => Other
)
[the_date] => 2016-08-28 11:00:00
)
2 post(s) found for dateStr : 2016-08-28postID: 6707 (Augustine of Hippo)
--- getDisplayDates ---
litdate post_id: 6707; date_type: fixed; year: 2016
fixed_date_str: August 28
fixed_date_str (mod): August 28 2016
formattedFixedDateStr: 2016-08-28
=> check date_assignments.
=> NO date_assignments found for postID: 6707
displayDates for postID: 6707/year: 2016
Array
(
[0] => 2016-08-28
)
postPriority: 98postID: 6863 (The Fifteenth Sunday After Pentecost)
--- getDisplayDates ---
litdate post_id: 6863; date_type: variable; year: 2016
Variable date => check date_calculations.
=> check date_assignments.
=> NO date_assignments found for postID: 6863
displayDates for postID: 6863/year: 2016
Array
(
[0] => 2016-08-28
)
postPriority: 3primaryPost found for date: 2016-08-28 with ID: 6863 (The Fifteenth Sunday After Pentecost)
The reading_id [142437] is already in the array.
reading found matching title 'Hebrews 13:1-8, 15-16' with ID: 142443
The reading_id [142443] is already in the array.
reading found matching title 'Luke 14:1, 7-14' with ID: 73479
The reading_id [73479] is already in the array.
No update needed.
Scripture citation(s): Luke 14:1, 7-14; Ecclesiasticus 10:12-18; Hebrews 13:1-8, 15-16
A Sermon by
Fr. Spurlock
on
Luke 14:1, 7-14; Ecclesiasticus 10:12-18; Hebrews 13:1-8, 15-16
✛
What Kind of Example Do You Set?
Array
(
[0] => 60757
)
book: [Array
(
[0] => 60757
)
] (reading_id: 73479)bbook_id: 60757
The bbook_id [60757] is already in the array.
book: [] (reading_id: 142437)
bbook_id:
The bbook_id [] is already in the array.
book: [] (reading_id: 142443)
bbook_id:
The bbook_id [] is already in the array.
No update needed for sermon_bbooks.
Scripture, from the consumption of a piece of fruit in the Garden of Eden to Revelation’s image of a heavenly banquet in the new Jerusalem, is full of meals and dinner parties. One notable dinner party, recorded in the book of Daniel, contains elements that are instructive to today’s gospel.
It begins with the King of Babylon, Nebuchadnezzar, conquering Jerusalem, looting the temple of its sacred vessels, and having them placed in his own treasury. Many years later, Nebuchadnezzar’s grandson, King Belshazzar, during a great dinner party, commanded that the vessels that had been taken out of the house of God in Jerusalem be brought to the banquet so that the king and his lords, and his wives and his concubines might drink from them. So, they brought in the golden vessels, and while they drank they praised the gods of gold and silver, bronze, wood, and stone.
In the midst of their revelry and idolatry and sacrilege and self-exaltation, a finger appeared and wrote four words on the wall: MENE, MENE, TEKEL, PARSIN. The king blanched at the sight, and called for his magicians to tell him what this meant, but they could not read the writing on the wall. Someone remembered an Israelite who had gifts of interpretation, and so they brought in Daniel.
Daniel told Belshazzar that he should have remembered the story of his grandfather, Nebuchadnezzar. O king, the Most High God gave Nebuchadnezzar kingship and greatness and glory. But when his heart was lifted up and his spirit was hardened so that he dealt proudly, he was brought down from his kingly throne, until he acknowledged the sovereignty of the Most High God. Belshazzar, though you knew this story about your grandfather very well, you have not humbled your own heart, but exalted yourself against the Lord of heaven. And you have praised false gods of silver and gold, but you have not honored the living God in whose hands rest your life and your breath.
And this is the writing on the wall: MENE, God has numbered the days of your kingdom and brought it to an end; TEKEL, you have been weighed in the balances and found wanting; PERES, your kingdom is divided and given into the hands of your enemies. That very night Belshazzar was killed, and his kingdom was divided and fell into the hands of the Medes and the Persians. Daniel 5
Now, with similar themes of self-promotion and downfall, our gospel reading from Luke is another account of a dinner party, one of as many as ten meals recorded in the gospel of Luke. This is the fourteenth chapter, and this is the third account of Jesus eating with the Pharisees on the Sabbath. None of these dinners have gone well, so by now Luke is setting a scene that is almost mathematic in its predictability. Dinner + Jesus + Pharisees + Sabbath = Conflict.
Jesus is not at table with drunken and over-preening royalty, he is with some of the most sober and religious people of his day. The Pharisees, to all outward appearances, were the most pious, observant, zealous, and faithful adherents to Judaism. If you wanted to know what righteous living in the face of God and man looked like you should have been able to look at the Pharisees as trustworthy examples.
But Jesus, taking notice that the Pharisees at this dinner party were scuffling with one another to get the best seats at the table, isn’t so sure about the example they are setting. Where the Pharisees sit is an indicator of how humble or self-exalted they are. It seems that anyone so willing to exalt themselves outwardly has already magnified themselves inwardly in their own heart. Jesus says that self-exaltation is fraught with danger— what if they have misjudged themselves?
It almost goes without saying that this is not a matter of the Pharisees misjudging their social status, Jesus’ only concern is with God’s final judgment of them that brings a downfall for the unjust from which they cannot recover, and an exaltation from God for the just that is beyond human imagining. Jesus is not passing a final judgment on the Pharisees at this dinner. Rather he encourages them to repent and do good so as to rise to the eternal life God desires for them. There is danger in this reading to be sure, but there is so much hope there too.
Here is the most important thing in this reading for you and me. God intended Israel to set a good example of living for the world. Isaiah 42.6f Other nations would be enlightened and attracted to God through Israel’s good example of how to live in relationship with one another and God. Other nations would see the blessing that came from such a life, and they would stream in and be saved. This was Israel’s vocation. Jesus’ criticism of the Pharisees’ behavior at dinner is not concerned with their etiquette, or manners, but rather their example of living. You are not living the kind of lives or setting the kind of example that attracts people to God. In the eleventh chapter of Luke Jesus likens the Pharisees to unmarked graves that people walk over and do not notice. Luke 11.44 In other words, a bad example makes you irrelevant to the world around you.
Now, that’s a hard word, but Jesus continues: humble yourselves, and you become more than relevant, you become transformative. When you strive for Godly living, the people you live amongst are attracted, enlightened, and enlivened by your example. They are attracted and drawn into relationship with God who can and wills to save them.
The Christian Church inherits a vocation from its older brother in the faith, Judaism; ours is not a vocation under the law, but in the person of Jesus Christ. Saint Thomas Fifth Avenue is a part of this new nation that is the mystical body of Christ on earth. And this body is made up of people like you and me. We are fortunate here because we have such a large reach. Members of this parish live in every borough of this city, in surrounding counties and states, and we have people listening via the webcast in other states, and in countries around the world. Each of us individually is set as a bit of leaven, a pinch of salt, or a light in the places where we live the other 166 hours a week that we are not in church together.
Are your words and deeds out in the world less than salutary? Do you set a poor example of living? If friends and neighbors discover you claim to be Christian, who can blame them if they find what we profess unattractive. But if you can make a start at humbling yourself, or persevere in doing the same, striving for godly living, if you seek to live your life as a worthy profession of the Christian faith, you have numberless opportunities to draw people close to Christ and they will discover what we know as a living, breathing, daily reality: the presence of Jesus that makes all things new. This may require and cause us to make some changes in how we treat one another here, and in how we treat the people we live with out in the world.
Repent and do good, and we will rise to the life God desires for us. That kind of perseverance or change is absolutely essential to the Christian life and witness. That kind of repentance and change is personally necessary for me, and I know that. When my days are counted, I do not want to be weighed in the balances and found wanting. But the recompense for any one of us striving for godly living, the repayment for humbling ourselves before God and our neighbors is beyond imagining. What would it mean to see God face to face, and to hear his voice call you: Friend, go up… higher?
