A week long Border Immersion Program is being offered in El Paso Texas to educate participants about boarder issues through shared learning, experience, work and prayer. Shepherd of the Valley Lutheran Church is organizing to give the opportunity for members and other interested people in the community to attend on November 9-16, 2019.
ELCA El Paso Church & Refugees Deadline for commitments is Sunday September 22nd. Please call Vivian & Bob Parrish 208 362-9579 or 208 866-9524 for details.
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![]() Last week we talked about the story from Luke 14 wherein Jesus encountered people vying for favored places at a banquet table and showed them a better way. Here is the story again, in case you’ve forgotten. 7 When he noticed how the guests chose the places of honor, he told them a parable. 8 “When you are invited by someone to a wedding banquet, do not sit down at the place of honor, in case someone more distinguished than you has been invited by your host; 9 and the host who invited both of you may come and say to you, ‘Give this person your place,’ and then in disgrace you would start to take the lowest place. 10 But when you are invited, go and sit down at the lowest place, so that when your host comes, he may say to you, ‘Friend, move up higher’; then you will be honored in the presence of all who sit at the table with you. 11 For all who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.” 12 He said also to the one who had invited him, “When you give a luncheon or a dinner, do not invite your friends or your brothers or your relatives or rich neighbors, in case they may invite you in return, and you would be repaid. 13 But when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind. 14 And you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you, for you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.” Before we leave the tale, we should look at the broader, cosmic implications it carries. The Bible is multi-layered like that. It can have particular meanings in the here and now, while still bridging across years into eternity. This story echoes well beyond a particular banquet table. Jesus’ words alter our conception of community itself, and with it, our purpose for being together. Jesus doesn’t just offer advice here, but two changes in direction. The first change happens in paragraph one, where inward becomes outward. Initially the guests at the table are choosing their own places, trying to take honor. They’re like Hungry, Hungry Hippos, scooping up all the honor marbles before they disappear. Jesus makes clear that honor is not taken, but given, at the invitation of the host. The flow of honor inverts 180 degrees. It’s a reminder that what we give in life is more important than what we grasp at. This is true of individuals, but also of communities. We gather to give honor, to share goodness. The community’s arrow does not point inward to itself, but outward to the world. The second change happens in paragraph two, where Jesus suggests that invitations and honor be extended to people who usually get excluded from the process. In the normal course of things, the circle of honor is closed. Only certain people get invited, those who can extend invitations in return. One gives honor expecting to get honor back. The group is shifting a finite supply of honor back and forth, creating nothing new. Jesus breaks open that closed circle by suggesting that new people be invited, especially if they’ve been shut out of the game. The existing community does not lose honor in the process. They still have everything they came with! Now new people are honored, which creates more honor, spreading farther than before. In this way, a new thing is grown and more honor gets shared.
Churches often view their membership as a closed circle. Their purpose becomes tending to themselves. Jesus’ words break open that circle for us, giving the community a purpose beyond itself. Faith communities do not exist to pass the same faith around among the same people. Jesus un-bends our circle, pushing the outward flow towards people beyond the existing group. Everyone who is touched or blessed by that outward flow becomes part of the process, every bit as much as the diehard members in the circle are. Life is about giving, not taking. It’s about pushing gifts beyond a closed circle out into the world. These lessons define us now and always. They were true of honor in the story, but they can be applied to love, financial gifts, compassion, friendship, leadership, or any hallmark of faith equally well. How does your church give beyond itself? How does your life of faith push you beyond comfortable circles to share honor, dignity, and love with people who aren’t you? Questions to ponder this week. Pastor Dave Worship time returns to 9:00 am and 11:15 am each Sunday, beginning this week! Thank you to everyone who helped with our summer services. For those who miss the fun, don’t worry! We have a few interesting and interactive ideas planned for the year ahead. You won’t have to wait until next summer to experience wonderful new ways to worship. If traditional liturgies and creeds are more your speed, 9:00 service will share more of those. Either way, we look forward to worshiping together with you in the coming year!
![]() A couple days ago, we talked about how God speaks to us where we are, then brings us to something more. We used the story of the dinner guests from Luke 14 as an example. Attendees of a banquet were trying to claim the highest spots at the table. Jesus told them, “If you want honor, that’s not the way to achieve it. And by the way, there are more important things than just your own honor at stake in your actions. The honor you give is more precious than the honor you get.” Jesus’ habit of talking to each audience in their own language about their own situation influences how we read his words. They certainly apply to us! Human beings have enough in common that phrases spoken 2000 years ago in a different part of the world can touch us meaningfully today. But the words may not apply in the same way if we have different assumptions about life than the original audience did. If the point of trading dinner chairs was, “Here’s how to give and receive honor,” the question arises, “What if that’s NOT the point of our lives?” We don’t live in an honor-intensive society the way the people around Jesus did. We mark prestige and purpose by different signs: money, power, might, effect on the world. Honor exists, but the word doesn’t mean the same thing to us that it did to them. This is not a problem if we understand that Jesus was speaking to people in a certain context, then try to find the parallels between that context and our own lives. We could easily find the exhortation, “It’s not the money you get, but the money you give that brings fulfillment.” We could do the same with power shared or might exerted for the sake of people in need. All of these would be permissible interpretations of the basic lesson, translated into our lives. The problem arises when we try to lift Jesus’ words out of their context, making each utterance into a universal law for all people to follow at all times. This doesn’t uplift God’s word, it breaks it. If we try to make universal law out of all the passages in Luke 14, we go from this: “If honor is the point, here’s how to get it. But giving it is more important.” To this: “Honor IS the point. Be humble so you get more of it! Also share it.” Those are two different readings. The first acknowledges the viewpoint of the audience, but doesn’t make it the center of the universe. The second claims that the viewpoint of the audience and the good thing that God is trying to teach us are equally important, equally central. The first interpretation says, “Your experience is valid, but you need to learn more about what it means.” The second says, “Your experience is everything, and it is coequal with God.” ![]() Attempting to enshrine God’s word as universal, we actually put ourselves at the center of the universe. That is not our place. We dare not assume that God has always spoken to his followers the way God speaks to us. We dare not assume that we understand completely what God said to the people around him in the words of scripture. Instead we’re called to ask questions about both, respecting the commonality between ourselves and the people of the Bible, also acknowledging the differences. In the space between us, we find God’s words resonating and shaping us, just like they shaped the people we read about. Beware whenever anybody tells you they know the universal, unchanging truth about God or his word. At that moment they are claiming that God and every human being who has ever lived is just like them. This is not wisdom, but idolatry. Remember that God speaks to us where we are, when we are, and how we are. God does not leave us unchanged, but the ways in which God changes us might not be the same way God changes other people. We don’t control this process. We stand in awe and wonder, marveling at God’s many works among us, sharing the goodness God shows with each other. Pastor Dave
Ep. 36 - Places at the table and the economy of honor. Do we live by human scarcity or by God's infinite love? Living out the words of Luke 14.
The Geek and Greek podcast is a show where two reverends talk honestly and clearly about faith, Christianity, scripture, and life. Follow us at GeekAndGreek.com! Listen to more Geek and Greek podcasts here: geekandgreek.com/
Ep. 35 - Who gets to determine whether we're faithful? Jesus offers a radical possibility in Luke 13. Justin and Dave talk Biblical origins, fire pits, and the power of healing.
The Geek and Greek podcast is a show where two reverends talk honestly and clearly about faith, Christianity, scripture, and life. Follow us at GeekAndGreek.com! Listen to more Geek and Greek podcasts here: geekandgreek.com/ ![]() The Bible is a tricky thing. We tell our Confirmation students that it’s more like a library than a single, unified book. It consists of dozens of books, each from a different perspective, written to different audiences at different points in time. Even the four Gospels—the eyewitness accounts of the life of Jesus Christ—take unique and challenging approaches. They don’t agree with each other completely on wording, emphasis, or order of events! This is neither a weakness, nor a mistake. God is in a real relationship with us. God speaks with us where we are, taking into consideration who we are. Each of us needs something different. Each of us understands differently. That’s how it was when the books of the Bible were written, each to a different community. That’s how it remains today. This claim influences how we understand God’s word. Seldom did Jesus say to the people around him, “You are totally wrong and your viewpoint has no basis in reality!” Instead, Jesus tended to adopt the language and framework of the people around him, then expand it into something more than it was. God meets people where they are, then makes that “where” bigger and more meaningful than they realized it could be. This Sunday’s reading from Luke, Chapter 14 is a great example. Jesus was invited to dine with important members of the community. He noticed guests jockeying for favored position, near the host, vying for importance and credibility. ![]() 7 When he noticed how the guests chose the places of honor, he told them a parable. 8 “When you are invited by someone to a wedding banquet, do not sit down at the place of honor, in case someone more distinguished than you has been invited by your host; 9 and the host who invited both of you may come and say to you, ‘Give this person your place,’ and then in disgrace you would start to take the lowest place. 10 But when you are invited, go and sit down at the lowest place, so that when your host comes, he may say to you, ‘Friend, move up higher’; then you will be honored in the presence of all who sit at the table with you. 11 For all who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.” 12 He said also to the one who had invited him, “When you give a luncheon or a dinner, do not invite your friends or your brothers or your relatives or rich neighbors, in case they may invite you in return, and you would be repaid. 13 But when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind. 14 And you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you, for you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.” At no point does Jesus tell the guests to knock it off. Instead he says, “If honor really is the game, here’s how you win: don’t grab it, but give it. But hey, there may be something more important, which is honoring those who always get overlooked. That’s the real purpose of honor.” It’s simple, direct, and compassionate not just to the privileged, but to everyone in the community. What a gracious approach God takes to an inherently-ungracious situation! May we all be so blessed to listen, translate, and inspire when we speak with the people around us. Pastor Dave |
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