Perdita Felicien of Pickering, Ontario
on August 28, 2007 her twenty-seventh birthday won the silver medal
in the women’s 100 meter hurdles at the World Track and Field
Championships in Osaka, Japan. When later interviewed she commented,
“I knew in my heart of hearts I had won a medal because I had to on
my birthday. I kept saying, ‘God please. I have been working so
hard and if anyone needs to be rewarded, it is probably me.’ I am
so happy. This medal is as good as gold to me.” She went on
further to say, “I haven’t had a bad year. I have been truly
blessed. If someone had predicted in June the top three, the top
five, I don’t think they would have said Perdita. It’s not about
what other people think. It’s about what you have in you.”
Now please don’t take what I’m
going to say as a judgment on Ms. Felicien’s character. She has
all the right stuff…for an athlete, particularly hurdling. If I
were a motivational speaker I would hold her up as a prime example of
someone who has found what she’s gifted to do and gone after it 100
percent. She’s a winner. But…umm…this is hurdling we are
talking about. I don’t see in the grand scheme of things how this
world is any better because athletes devote their lives to the
pursuit of standing on a podium to have a medal placed around their
necks. The same is true when we devote our whole lives to something
we’re good at for the sake or reaping the rewards. This is simply
idolatry of the self. It gets even worse when we say that God has
blessed us with wealth and success because we worked hard and
deserved it. This delusion of find what you’re gifted at, do your
best, and if you’ve got the right stuff on the inside you will be
rewarded is the predominant value being taught the young people in
our culture since the 1960's yet it is little more than idolatry of
self and utterly at odds with the core value of humility in the
Kingdom of God.
Let me use this passage from Luke to
make the case. Jesus is invited to a Sabbath meal at the home of a
very important Pharisee. The Pharisees believed that the Messiah
would soon be coming and in order not to suffer judgment one had to
be the best Jew one could possibly be. Ethnically speaking, they
believed they had all the right stuff on the inside. They were
children of Abraham, God’s chosen. They had the Law of Moses
straight from the mouth of God. All they had to do was be the best
at observing it. Indeed, they found loopholes that made being
obedient quite profitable. Unfortunately, they began to compete with
one another and look down their noses at those who were not
Pharisees. They had this arrogance, “Look at me God. I spent
1,000 shekels on this fine robe for standing in the temple praying.”
Well, Jesus comes to the man’s house
and all eyes are upon him, watching him closely. The first thing he
does is heal a man with dropsy. Dropsy is edema, a disease where the
body has an excessive build up of fluid and appears extremely
swollen. One could shake the belly of someone with dropsy and hear
the water slosh. We should take note that Jesus’ healing of the
swollen man on the Sabbath serves to address the swollen pride of the
Pharisees. If they really understood Sabbath then their swollen
pride would be healed. Instead they used the Sabbath as an
opportunity to dress nice and look important and let the world know
they were the righteous ones.
Next, Jesus under heavy scrutiny
notices the guests were choosing the places of honour at the table.
So he teaches from the Book of Proverbs, “Do not put yourself
forward in the king's presence or stand in the place of the great;
for it is better to be told, ‘Come up here,’ than to be put lower
in the presence of a noble” (25:6-7). Obviously, if they were
serious about obeying the Law they would know that it is to be obeyed
in humility rather than this show of working hard to put oneself in
the winners circle before others. The king is the most honoured
person and people serve the king wholeheartedly because of who the
king is not for the reward they think they have earned. In
actuality, Jesus the scrutinized was the most honourable person at
that dinner and should have been invited by the host to sit in the
most honoured place. Instead, it was the guests who started
jockeying for seats of honour. That’s kind of ludicrous. So,
Jesus instructs the host that he should rather invite the blind,
poor, and lame; those who could never repay him his kindness for the
Lord will repay those who are kind to the poor (Pr. 19:17). Besides
they would make better guests than these buffoons who think
themselves deserving of honour (Pr. 14:20).
Next, a man stands up and having
picked up on the clue that Jesus was really talking about the Kingdom
of God says, “Blessed is anyone who will eat bread in the Kingdom
of God!” That was probably a catch phrase among the Pharisees who
strove so hard to earn a place at the feast table in the kingdom of
God. They would have been all sitting around there saying, “That’s
me. That’s me. I’m going be sitting at the big table in glory
land.” So, Jesus tells them a parable of a feast where those who
had been invited kept making excuses not to come so the host sent his
servants out onto the highways and byways to find guests and he fills
his feast tables with the underbelly of society; the losers, not the
winners; the people who didn’t have the right stuff on the inside;
the people who weren’t gifted at anything and really didn’t try
hard enough to succeed.
The way one gets into the kingdom is
by invitation. We are not put in this creation to figure out what we
are good at, give it our all and if we’ve got the right stuff,
succeed. We are here to say yes to the invitation to come to the
feast where Jesus Christ is Lord. To party Jesus’ way is to live
under his Lordship, to be his slave. In the previous two chapters in
Luke Jesus has given us some instruction in this area. He says to
beware of hypocrisy. Beware of greed in all its forms. Give all
your possessions to the poor and don’t worry about what you will
wear and eat and drink. The Father in heaven will take care of you.
Lastly, to always be watching for that opportunity to serve and
always expecting Christ to return at any moment.
I don’t know about you, but to me
these teachings of Jesus about the lifestyle of his disciples stand
completely opposed to our winner’s circle way of life. Moreover,
if Jesus were to take notice of things here at our party we would
soon discover that we are those who have been invited to the feast
but are making excuses not to go so that we can justify our
lifestyle. Saying “I believe” and coming to church on Sunday and
working hard to be good and successful people isn’t the Kingdom
party. To get into the Kingdom party we have to come to grips with the
fact that we all are blind with respect to knowing God, lame and
crippled when it comes to obeying, and poor when it comes to giving
of ourselves. Not a one of us deserves a place of honour at the
table. Oddly, these are the kind of people Jesus has decided he
wants at his party not a bunch of showy success stories. He wants to
party with people who actually live according to the faith that he
has freely given us by living a lifestyle that’s modelled after him
and his taking up of the cross. He’s invited us each to the
Kingdom party meaning he's chosen us each to be his disciples not for
us to show how successful we can be at whatever we do. He’s chosen
us because he wants to have a feast. Be wary of the excuses you
make. Telling Jesus, “Sorry I didn't take up the cross, Lord,
because I was too busy being successful” doesn't cut it. Be wary
of the trappings of your lifestyle that makes you bow and bend in
service to the idol of your self. How goes it with each of you and
the Lord? Truly, how high is his invitation to the Kingdom party on
your list? What needs to change? Amen.
