Father Roberts sermon from the 10.30 Mass last Sunday. Several years ago my niece got married in a wonderful stately home and all my family attended the wedding. It was beautiful with all of the pomp and ceremony you would expect. The reception was also very formal with a seating plan so everyone knew exactly where they were sitting and with whom and there was absolutely no chance of people being in the wrong place. The waiters asked your name and escorted you to your table and ensured you sat in the correct place. Unlike our gospel reading this morning there was no chance for anyone trying to jump into the front tables and displace the people and make the bride and groom’s close family sit at the back of the reception hall. But the desire to have the best seats is a natural thing for us. That why some people at church get a little bit hung up when someone sitting in their seat – for them it is the best place to be able to connect with God – whilst for others the best seat is as near to the door as possible. But also people pay huge amounts to get the right seat behind the goal at any premiership football club or to get a box at the opera or ballet or front row seats at the latest 1 Direction concert. Wanting the best place is one of those things that comes with human nature but the real issue in our gospel reading this morning is humility or the lack of it. So what is humility or rather what is humility not? 1.) Humility is not a devaluing of ourself. Jesus does not want anyone to think less of themself. We are all important to Him. In fact, we are so important that He died for us. Humility is not a removal of our importance but rather changing our attitude towards our importance. Some people worry too much about what people think of them and not nearly enough about what God thinks of them. Humility is thinking of oneself less often. 2.) Humility is not the doubting of our abilities. The gifts and talents that we all have are a gift from God. If he didn’t want us to have them, he wouldn’t have given then to us. The difficult thing is to get the balance right between sing them to promote ourselves rather than using them to allow others to be raised up. 3.) Humility is not a denouncing of who we are. God made us and He wants us to be ourself. Too often today people expect all Christians to be moulded and exactly the same. God made you to be you and me to be me and we are every bit as important and different as each other. We all have a part to play in his plan for the world and redemption. For me humility is the recognition of God’s greatness and our smallness by comparison. In our Gospel reading this morning Jesus was attending a banquet and was watching the guests arrive and take their seats. There was obviously a scramble for the best seats at the table. The best seats were those that were places of honour. Jewish culture had a specific seating arrangement for banquets and festivities. The most important guest sat to the right of the host, the second most important guest sat to the left of the host and so on. As Jesus entered the banquet there were people trying to outdo each other for the choice seats at the head table. After seeing what is going on, Jesus speaks to the issue and gives some practical advice, he says: the proud or ambitious person works to promote themselves and fall on their faces. Jesus describes exactly what happens to ambitious people 1.) They will be asked to move from their seat 2.) They will find all the other seats taken 3.) They will have to take the lowest seat 4.) They will have to live with embarrassment The term exalt is one that is often used for God or Christ. It means to raise or to lift. When the Bible tells us to exalt God, it means to acknowledge that He is greater than we are. The person who exalts themselves will do so at the expense of someone else and more importantly at the expense of God, purposely lowering others to raise themselves. The humble take a lower place than needed and results are astounding. Their presence is acknowledged by the host and they are rewarded and moved up to a higher place and consequently they are recognized by everyone - no matter where their seat is. So how do we live in a humble manner? Unlike Uriah Heep we don’t go round telling people “Oh I’m every so humble” We need to be conscious of our need for God. We have nothing, can do nothing and are nothing without him. I was watching a documentary last week about the fans of a pop group. They knew every single thing about every single member of the groups and they were obsessively in love with every member of the group. However these girl fans stood for hours outside hotels and concerts halls just to get a different view of the band. But the band just sped off is cars with blacked out windows not giving a second thought to the fans who were waiting to catch a glimpse of their heros. – not in the slightest bit humble. But the main reason we have anything or are anything is because God wanted it for our life. So we need to be start thinking just a little differently. We are not the centre of the universe just because we are Christians. We are not the centre of attention in life God is. Real humility begins when we move away from being self-centred and start putting him first. Amen
Posted on: Wed, 04 Sep 2013 13:15:49 +0000
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