Sermon: Luke 14:12-14; Proper 17C RCL

Sermon for Proper 17C RCL
To be preached at St John’s Lancaster, 1 September, 2013

Luke 14:12-14

Jesus tells three stories about dinners in Luke 14, and today I would like to focus on the second of those stories. The first story talks about how we should be humble. The third points out that many religious people will not find a seat at the heavenly banquet because they do not put God first in their lives. But the second examines our motives for doing good, and alone among the three makes each of us the thrower of the party, and not an invited guest. Jesus points out that often when we throw a party, we are prone to invite those people who are likely to return the favor. He calls us to branch out and invite people who don’t have the resources or the ability to return the favor, and then God will recompense us on their behalf.

I think in all likelihood our Lord is talking about our motives for doing the things we do. In short, why do we help a person of limited means or opportunities, or a person who is economically poor or marginalized, or a person who is pushed aside because of their looks, or their associations, or the choices they have made in life? I would suggest that the reasons people help others are many and complex. Some of them are good and some are not. Jesus calls us all to examine our own motives as we go about doing good, and where those motives need to be made more holy, to give them over to his redeeming grace. Walk with me today through some of the motives we sometimes share for doing good, and examine prayerfully your own motives, even as I examine mine.

Some people do good things because it makes them feel good about themselves. Now, all of us feel good when we help another person. That is in our nature, and there is nothing wrong with that at all. But if that is as far as it goes, it can lead to a very selfish way of living in the end. It could lead one to do only that good which they enjoy or in which they are interested, leaving those people or situations considered unpleasant to fend for themselves. So we might say that while it is perfectly fine to do good because it makes us feel good, questions arise when we do good primarily or exclusively because it makes us feel good.

Some people do good because it provides them with the opportunity to control other people. Such a temptation is particularly present in a democracy, where I can force my own values on others, or confiscate their wealth, or induce people to support my vision through patronage or cronyism merely by obtaining a vote of fifty percent plus one, or even through a minority plurality is some instances. This is not to say that democracy is a bad thing, or that our values should not have an impact on our politics, or that taxes are bad or unjustified, or that political patronage, or even rewarding supporters is always a bad thing. It is to say that pragmatic reasons for doing good are not enough. There must be, as Jesus implies in this passage, some true altruism, some real desire to do good merely because it is the right thing to do!

Perhaps that is why Jesus advises the party giver to invite those people who could never hope to return the favor: the poor, the maimed, the lame, the blind. I am called to do good not because of what it can do for me, but simply because it is the right and good thing to do. Whether anyone else even knows that I have done good is not important. Whether it nets me a return invitation, or a vote, or influence, or access, or feelings of self-actualization or self-esteem, or any other thing real or imagined, is not important. As Christians, we are called to merely do what is right because it is right. We are called to so open our hearts and minds to the transforming redemption of Jesus, in the power of the Holy Ghost, that we start doing things for the same reason that Jesus did things when he walked this earth- for the same reason that he still does things. We are called to do things just because they are the right thing to do- because they are the true expression of our character. We are called to see all people as Jesus sees them, indeed as he sees us. We are called to do for others as Jesus does for them, indeed as he does for us. We are called to seek peace and plenty, and redemption for all people merely because God our Father has decreed them to be right, and we are to follow in the footsteps of Jesus, who lived on this earth to among other things give us an example of how we ought to treat each other.

And this leads us to one of the most disturbing considerations of all. Jesus says that if we do good for those who cannot recompense us, if we do good for its own sake, God himself will recompense us at the resurrection of the just. I would suggest that sometimes, in our religious zeal, we are prone to do good because of our belief that it will bring heavenly reward. Now, good motives which arise from hope of heaven are not all bad, but if they never mature beyond the hope of reward, they scarce exhibit the example of Jesus, and practiced for reward over many years, they tend to become a faith based in legalism or magic. That is, if I do good, then God must bless me. Or more piously put, if I do good, then God will certainly bless me. In the end those are very similar sentiments, and they both put the cart before the horse. I once found myself in the unenviable position of putting the cart before the horse. I was driving Squirt, our pony, and a piece of the harness, a side line, broke quite unexpectedly. She lunged to the side and then began to back up, but without the harness properly in place, the cart buckled and sustained rather severe damage. Fortunately, the horse was uninjured, but the cart was beyond repair. It does not do to get the cart before the horse. The proper order for our motives as Christians is to be redeemed through the Grace of God through the blood of the everlasting covenant. The transformation effected by this redemption purifies our hearts by the agency of the Holy Ghost and leads us to see others as God sees us all. We see in each other the potential of what God would have us to be, and are able to forgive and forget those things that we did of late to each other. In short, our relationships with each other are healed even as is our relationship with God. From such forgiveness and love flows a genuine desire to live and do as Jesus lived and did. The upshot is good deeds because of who we are, and because of our feelings of forgiveness and love to all people. Every day, as we walk with God in prayer and in the fellowship of his church, we grow to be more and more like Jesus. And then, when we die, God receives us as his own, which is the natural outcome of our being one with him.

I hope you will join me in examining your own motives as we approach the altar of God today. Might we honestly look within our hearts, and in this sacrament offer ourselves anew to God in lives of pure motives and good deeds towards all men. In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.