Proper 17
Preaching
Preaching Luke's Gospel
A Narrative Approach
Chapter 14 in Luke's Gospel consists of a series of discourses in the setting of a banquet. David Tiede suggests that this banquet context may be assumed through 17:10.
Jesus is beginning a discourse on the protocol of the kingdom of God, and the guest list of those "beloved of God" is remarkable ... The Messiah is challenging accepted views of who is "elect" of God, now, in the on-going struggle of the dominion that is emerging, and in the resurrection of the just which is to come.1
We have noted elsewhere that mealtimes are special times of revelation in Luke's telling of the story. There are many mealtime events in the third Gospel: 7:36-50; 9:13-17; 10:38-42; 11:37-54; 22:14-38; 24:28-35. These are some of the most important stories in Luke's Gospel. What is revealed most clearly in today's story „ and the stories that bracket it „ is the graciousness of God's invitation to God's banquet of life.
Luke 14:2-6 is omitted from the lectionary. It is a story with many parallels to Luke 13:10-17. We made the connections between these stories in Chapter 28. A woman and a man are healed on the Sabbath, causing great consternation to the Pharisees. Such people certainly ought not be healed on the Sabbath. We have rules. We have laws. Rules and laws also appear in the text assigned for today and the parable that follows it (14:15-24). God doesn't seem to pay any attention to such laws when it comes to the deeply felt needs of real human beings. The God of Jesus is a God of the Gospel and not a God of the Law in relation to human need. That's part of the reality of the story in 14:2-6, 7-14 and 15-24.
Tiede discusses the text given for today under the helpful title: "Seating Charts and Guest Lists in the Kingdom." Commentaries agree that the matter of proper seating at an important meal was very important in Jesus' day. Seating assignments had both social and religious connotations. Jesus gives his own seating advice.
It would be a total misunderstanding to take Jesus' words as a demand for a Christian "humility" that says "I am nothing" ... A person who attaches no value to him- or herself cannot truly value others ... It is nearer to the mark to say that Jesus would like to free his listeners from the need always to advance their own cause and come out on top or to count the profit ... only the concluding words render these admonitions transparent. They say that it is God alone who gives us identity, honor, and position.2
The precedent-shattering nature of the Inviting One comes to the fore most clearly in verses 12-14. When we humans invite people to a banquet we are not to invite only those who can repay us. Grace is always free. It comes without strings attached. God's invitation is graceful. It invites those who cannot repay.
In Deuteronomy 14:29 such an appeal to generous sharing of food with the "Levite and the sojourner, the fatherless, and the widow" had already been linked with God's bless-ing. But when the list goes beyond the poor to include the maimed, the lame and the blind, a new level of kingdom protocol is revealed.3
Kingdom protocol indeed! This is a great reversal. The exalted are humbled. The humble are exalted. The first are last. The last are first. The symbolism of the list is that it is those who need help who are invited to the banquet. Tax collectors and sinners are welcome as well. Surely, "God has brought down the powerful from their thrones, and lifted up the lowly ..." (Luke 1:52). We identifed this theme and the Lukan passages that carry it through in Chapter 1. The second great reversal theme of the Magnificat is also present in these stories in Luke 14: "God has filled the hungry with good things, and sent the rich away empty" (1:53).
This same theme is pounded home in verses 15-24. A great banquet was prepared and the invitations sent out to those worthy to attend. But the worthy ones shunned the invitations. The house-holder was angry. "Go out at once into the streets and lanes of the town and bring in the poor, the crippled, the blind, and the lame." This is the same list as that given in 14:13! When Jesus stood up in his hometown synagogue and read from Isaiah he identified precisely this cast of characters as those whom he had come to serve (Luke 4:18-19). The story in 7:18-23 presents the same cast! We are at the very heart of Luke's Gospel here! Jesus Christ has come from God with an invitation to the sinful and needy folk on earth. This is what God is about in Jesus!
Homiletical Directions
The stories in 14:1-24 can be stitched together in one sermon. They can be stitched together under a number of themes. These stories can be told to show how God brings down the powerful and lifts the lowly (1:52). They can be told to show how God fills the hungry with good things and sends the rich away empty (1:53). They can be told to underline the great reversal theme in Luke. They can be told in order to lead to a proclamatory invitation to our hearers.
The narrative approach you take will depend somewhat upon your use of the Magnificat, Luke 4:18-19, and Luke 7:18-23 in earlier sermons during the year of Luke. These theme passages from Luke 1, 4, and 7 certainly set up these wonderfully grace-filled stories in Chapter 14. If you can use them again let Story One be an abbreviated version of the Magnificat underscoring the "great reversal" theme. God is to come in Jesus Christ and turn everything upside down with respect to the world's values.
Story Two would make use of either Luke 4:16-21 or 7:18-23. Either one of these stories makes it very clear who Jesus came for. This week's text is not an exception to the main themes of Luke. This text clearly demonstrates that Jesus' ministry is geared to those in deepest human need.
Story Three would be the stories in 14:1-24. The story in verses 2-6 tells us that Jesus invites people to share his power even when it breaks long-standing religious laws. The story in verses 7-12 reveals the "great reversal" that takes place when Jesus invites those in the lowest places to be in the highest places. (Taking the lowest places is something like repentance.) In verses 12-14 the emphasis is on the kind of people Jesus would invite to a banquet „ to his banquet! This theme is underscored in verses 15-24.
These are stories of the nature of the Inviting God. This sermon ought to close with the Inviting God speaking to people of today. God's Son Jesus is speaking to us today through these stories. He is saying something like this: "I see you today in the midst of your deep human need. I see you in your sinfulness. I see you and I invite you to share my eternal banquet. I have come to turn every-thing upside down when it comes to human thoughts about God's kingdom. I have come to reverse the normal order of things. I have come to invite the poor, the maimed, the lame, and the blind to my banquet. I have come to call sinners to my banquet. I have come to call you to my banquet."
_____________
1.aDavid L. Tiede, Luke: Augsburg Commentary on the New Testament (Minne-apolis: Augsburg, 1988), p. 261.
2.aEduard Schweitzer, The Good News According to Luke (Atlanta: John Knox Press, 1984), p. 236.
3.aTiede, op. cit., p. 265.
Jesus is beginning a discourse on the protocol of the kingdom of God, and the guest list of those "beloved of God" is remarkable ... The Messiah is challenging accepted views of who is "elect" of God, now, in the on-going struggle of the dominion that is emerging, and in the resurrection of the just which is to come.1
We have noted elsewhere that mealtimes are special times of revelation in Luke's telling of the story. There are many mealtime events in the third Gospel: 7:36-50; 9:13-17; 10:38-42; 11:37-54; 22:14-38; 24:28-35. These are some of the most important stories in Luke's Gospel. What is revealed most clearly in today's story „ and the stories that bracket it „ is the graciousness of God's invitation to God's banquet of life.
Luke 14:2-6 is omitted from the lectionary. It is a story with many parallels to Luke 13:10-17. We made the connections between these stories in Chapter 28. A woman and a man are healed on the Sabbath, causing great consternation to the Pharisees. Such people certainly ought not be healed on the Sabbath. We have rules. We have laws. Rules and laws also appear in the text assigned for today and the parable that follows it (14:15-24). God doesn't seem to pay any attention to such laws when it comes to the deeply felt needs of real human beings. The God of Jesus is a God of the Gospel and not a God of the Law in relation to human need. That's part of the reality of the story in 14:2-6, 7-14 and 15-24.
Tiede discusses the text given for today under the helpful title: "Seating Charts and Guest Lists in the Kingdom." Commentaries agree that the matter of proper seating at an important meal was very important in Jesus' day. Seating assignments had both social and religious connotations. Jesus gives his own seating advice.
It would be a total misunderstanding to take Jesus' words as a demand for a Christian "humility" that says "I am nothing" ... A person who attaches no value to him- or herself cannot truly value others ... It is nearer to the mark to say that Jesus would like to free his listeners from the need always to advance their own cause and come out on top or to count the profit ... only the concluding words render these admonitions transparent. They say that it is God alone who gives us identity, honor, and position.2
The precedent-shattering nature of the Inviting One comes to the fore most clearly in verses 12-14. When we humans invite people to a banquet we are not to invite only those who can repay us. Grace is always free. It comes without strings attached. God's invitation is graceful. It invites those who cannot repay.
In Deuteronomy 14:29 such an appeal to generous sharing of food with the "Levite and the sojourner, the fatherless, and the widow" had already been linked with God's bless-ing. But when the list goes beyond the poor to include the maimed, the lame and the blind, a new level of kingdom protocol is revealed.3
Kingdom protocol indeed! This is a great reversal. The exalted are humbled. The humble are exalted. The first are last. The last are first. The symbolism of the list is that it is those who need help who are invited to the banquet. Tax collectors and sinners are welcome as well. Surely, "God has brought down the powerful from their thrones, and lifted up the lowly ..." (Luke 1:52). We identifed this theme and the Lukan passages that carry it through in Chapter 1. The second great reversal theme of the Magnificat is also present in these stories in Luke 14: "God has filled the hungry with good things, and sent the rich away empty" (1:53).
This same theme is pounded home in verses 15-24. A great banquet was prepared and the invitations sent out to those worthy to attend. But the worthy ones shunned the invitations. The house-holder was angry. "Go out at once into the streets and lanes of the town and bring in the poor, the crippled, the blind, and the lame." This is the same list as that given in 14:13! When Jesus stood up in his hometown synagogue and read from Isaiah he identified precisely this cast of characters as those whom he had come to serve (Luke 4:18-19). The story in 7:18-23 presents the same cast! We are at the very heart of Luke's Gospel here! Jesus Christ has come from God with an invitation to the sinful and needy folk on earth. This is what God is about in Jesus!
Homiletical Directions
The stories in 14:1-24 can be stitched together in one sermon. They can be stitched together under a number of themes. These stories can be told to show how God brings down the powerful and lifts the lowly (1:52). They can be told to show how God fills the hungry with good things and sends the rich away empty (1:53). They can be told to underline the great reversal theme in Luke. They can be told in order to lead to a proclamatory invitation to our hearers.
The narrative approach you take will depend somewhat upon your use of the Magnificat, Luke 4:18-19, and Luke 7:18-23 in earlier sermons during the year of Luke. These theme passages from Luke 1, 4, and 7 certainly set up these wonderfully grace-filled stories in Chapter 14. If you can use them again let Story One be an abbreviated version of the Magnificat underscoring the "great reversal" theme. God is to come in Jesus Christ and turn everything upside down with respect to the world's values.
Story Two would make use of either Luke 4:16-21 or 7:18-23. Either one of these stories makes it very clear who Jesus came for. This week's text is not an exception to the main themes of Luke. This text clearly demonstrates that Jesus' ministry is geared to those in deepest human need.
Story Three would be the stories in 14:1-24. The story in verses 2-6 tells us that Jesus invites people to share his power even when it breaks long-standing religious laws. The story in verses 7-12 reveals the "great reversal" that takes place when Jesus invites those in the lowest places to be in the highest places. (Taking the lowest places is something like repentance.) In verses 12-14 the emphasis is on the kind of people Jesus would invite to a banquet „ to his banquet! This theme is underscored in verses 15-24.
These are stories of the nature of the Inviting God. This sermon ought to close with the Inviting God speaking to people of today. God's Son Jesus is speaking to us today through these stories. He is saying something like this: "I see you today in the midst of your deep human need. I see you in your sinfulness. I see you and I invite you to share my eternal banquet. I have come to turn every-thing upside down when it comes to human thoughts about God's kingdom. I have come to reverse the normal order of things. I have come to invite the poor, the maimed, the lame, and the blind to my banquet. I have come to call sinners to my banquet. I have come to call you to my banquet."
_____________
1.aDavid L. Tiede, Luke: Augsburg Commentary on the New Testament (Minne-apolis: Augsburg, 1988), p. 261.
2.aEduard Schweitzer, The Good News According to Luke (Atlanta: John Knox Press, 1984), p. 236.
3.aTiede, op. cit., p. 265.
