Sermon for 09/02/07

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Sermon for 09/02/07
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A JESUS QUESTION: How Low Are You Willing To Go?

– Pentecost 13 – Luke 14:1, 7-14

Grace to you and peace from God our Father, and our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, AMEN

Main Theme: Good things are rarely associated with the words “low” or “lowly”. We prefer to seek out the “highest” places, people, and positions. Jesus, however, calls us to “…go and sit in the lowest place…” Surprised, we ask, “How low do you want us to go?” And Jesus asks, “How low are you willing to go?” Jesus invites us to humble ourselves and willingly follow him back into the darkest and lowest places in other people’s lives. Ouch! “Why do that?” we wonder? Because God doesn’t think like the rest of the world. He loves those society calls lowly. And those who deny “self”, and humbly bow to follow Jesus – they will be truly blessed! Jesus showed us how low He was willing to go, (experiencing the lowliest death imaginable), in order to save you and me from the powers of sin, Satan, and death. If what Jesus says is true, then the lower we stoop, the more blessings we receive! …and the more we become God’s grace to a broken world.

1) LOW! When my children were younger, they over heard me telling someone in the church that I wish I could sing. I wish I had been born with a voice that could sing in the choir. “But”, I joked, “You can’t be good looking, intelligent, AND have a perfect singing voice.” To which my two lovely children quickly replied in unison, “So what did you get Dad?” “Ooooh,” I said to them. “That was low!” Now I share that little story not to discuss my singing ability or the fact my children take after their mother, …but rather to bring attention to my last reply, “Ooooh, that was low!” The word LOW was used to express something negative. If a person is feeling good, they’re “up”, but if they’re depressed, they’re down or “Feeling low”. When a good spouse, parent, or business person fails to deal with life’s stress in a positive way, and instead finds themselves driven to abuse, alcoholism, divorce, or life on the streets… someone may watch their decline and say, “Gee, how low can a person get!” Getting low appears to be a bad thing!

2) HIGHEST! So let me ask you: Do you think the average person wants to find themselves on the “lowest” or “highest” end of the economic ladder? Do you think the average person wants to be on the “lowest” or “highest” end of position and power? See, in a world who insists that our VALUE is defined by our status, we are always comparing ourselves to others and judging one another by those terms, “highest” or “lowest”. There is no doubt that the desired movement is from the lowest to the highest! The average person would love one day to look down from the top of the hill, having achieved the highest not the lowest positions or value.

3) WHY? HAVE TO? Take the corporate world; does society salute those who are starting in the lowly mail room at minimum wage, or those who have climbed up the ladder to the highest positions? We occasionally hear of some rich executive giving up their penthouse and Wall Street career to go live and work in the slums, and we shake our heads. Why would a person want to deal with street derelicts, drug addicts, or the homeless, if they didn’t have to? Why would a sane person want to sacrificially volunteer to enter the world of the diseased, the outcasts, or the poverty stricken lower classes if they didn’t have to? Clearly, it’s not the LOW places and the BROKEN people found there, that bring us warm fuzzies! FEAR maybe. But not warm fuzzies! The American dream is a comfortable suburban home, prestigious job, healthy and educated children, surrounded by modern conveniences! Why be concerned with the lowliest in the world if we don’t have to?

4) SIT IN THE LOWEST PLACE! And yet, Jesus sat in the house of a prominent official - watching the “suburbanites” of His day maneuver for the best seats in the house! Imagine their shock when He tells them “…take the lowest place”! Then Picture the frown on the host’s face when Jesus reveals WHO he ought to be inviting to his house? Was it friends, relatives, or rich neighbors? Not even close! Jesus told him to “…invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind.” Jesus has the nerve to call upon the guests to humble themselves, and hang out with the lowliest of the low! Sit in the lowest place? They were speechless!

5) HOW LOW? When they finally did find their voice, they used them to protest. “Now Jesus, we’ve heard tell that you often choose to eat with the outcasts of society – with tax collector’s, prostitutes, lepers, and sinners! And we scratch our heads and wonder why you would want to do that – but why in heaven’s name would you want us to do the same? How low do you want us to go?” Interesting enough, we in the church today still ask the same question, “How low do you want us to go?” And Jesus answers back, “How low are you willing to go?” Woe! How low are you willing to go?…the question sticks in our throat and is hard to swallow! Some of us were raised in broken homes, or in poverty, and have worked all of our lives to climb out of that hole. And now Jesus wants us to humble ourselves and be willing to follow Him back into the darkest and lowest places in other people’s lives? A little extreme isn’t it Jesus? Why would we want to do that? But our Lord’s question still lies there awaiting an answer - “How low are you willing to go?” And quickly we get out our mental calculators and start estimating the cost of dealing with the messy, smelly, dirty brokenness of the world.

6) HUMBLED/EXALTED? Those dining with Jesus were doing the same thing, so He verbally reprimands them for calculating the “personal advantages” of this action. Knowing they were wondering, “So what’s in it for me?” …He urges them instead to give indiscriminately with no strings attached! Jesus declared, “For all who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.” Doesn’t Jesus understand? The movement of the world is from the lowest to the highest! The crowds envy those who fight successfully to be “King of the Hill”, not those who turn and go down the hill and back into pain and suffering of others! But Jesus insists, “For all who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.”

7) GOD DOESN’T THINK LIKE US! If what Jesus says is true – if His shocking revelation is indeed revealing God’s divine will – then apparently God doesn’t THINK like us - His broken children! It appears that the poor, the diseased, the lonely, the outcasts, the dirty, the forgotten, …well, they hold a special place in God’s heart! The lowly appear to be children He loves dearly! Not only does He love those at the bottom of the hill, He asks us to turn around and do the same. Because if we will reach out to the needy, even though it may mean entering into the lowest places to do so - “…you will be blessed…” says Jesus. (verse 14) AND “…because they cannot repay you, (because you have given freely with no strings attached), you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.” Well, it’s true then, God DOESN’T THINK like us or the culture we’ve been raised in.

8) BELOW OUR DIGNITY? Contrary to what the world says, Jesus is saying that THE MOST BEAUTIFUL PEOPLE IN THE WORLD ARE THOSE WHO STEP BACK AND PUT OTHERS AHEAD OF THEMSELVES! THE MOST BEAUTIFUL PEOPLE IN THE WORLD ARE THOSE WHO CARE FOR THE LEAST AND THE LOWLY! Still, the disciples then, and we today, struggle with this idea. Is it any wonder some of us rebel at this revelation that turns our world upside down? “Jesus, we know you asked how low are we willing to go, but would you really ask us to do something that we feel is below our dignity?” Samuel L. Brengle, once rebeled in a similar fashion. He was a brilliant and highly successful pastor, who was so burdened by the plight of the inner city poor that he resigned his church and joined the Salvation Army. His first assigned task: clean a pile of muddy boots. He was flabbergasted! This was below his dignity! Inwardly he rebelled! But then he thought about how Jesus humbled Himself and washed the feet of the disciples. He asked the Lord for a servant spirit, cleaned the boots, and went on to a very fruitful ministry among the disadvantaged. Friends, what service is below your dignity?

9) FOLLOW JESUS? Friends, “How low are you and I willing to go?” Jesus tells us that the needs of others should always take precedence in our lives – are we ready to humble ourselves and follow Jesus against the grain of our self-centered culture? Are we ready to follow the one who was born in a stable with cattle and sheep? Will we follow in the footsteps of the One who poured Himself out for the sick, poor, and the outcast? Just think… think about how low Jesus was willing to go… to save broken sinners like you and me! The pure and sinless One went to the cross, dying one of the lowliest deaths imaginable! …usually reserved for only the lowliest of thieves and outcasts! And He went this low – for you and me! …that we might be freed from the powers of sin, Satan, and death! In the shadow of the cross, we see just how low Jesus would go! Now, let’s ask ourselves, does our daily lifestyle demonstrate that that same Jesus is living in our hearts? How low are we willing to go? Will we follow Jesus, loving and serving all we meet in need?

10) YOU! After pastoring here for 12 years, I KNOW that there are people in this room who had a time in their life when they hit rock bottom. For some of you it was a long time ago, for others it seemed just like yesterday. Some of you are there right now. And whether the brokenness that visited you drew you into alcoholism, drugs, overeating, depression, or a host of other behaviors that sucked the life right out of you – you stood alone in the pit of despair! And the world and your own conscience labeled you among the losers – the lowest of the low! But today you sit here embraced in His arms, gifted with salvation, because of Jesus’ willingness to enter into your darkness! Chances are He touched your life through someone else – someone who trusted God to provide the power, courage, strength, and wisdom to care for and lift you up! That servant of God was not a super hero – they were merely the humble bearers of the Good News concerning the loving compassion and healing powers of Jesus Christ! That person or group of people who touched your life when you hit bottom – give thanks to God they took the time to reflect on and act upon Jesus’ question “How low are you willing to go?”

11) SHELVES! F.B. Meyer once wrote:

I used to think God’s gifts were on shelves

one

above

another

and the taller we grow,

the easier we can reach them.

Now I find that God’s gifts are on shelves

one beneath

another

and the lower we stoop,

the more we get.

12) STOOP? Are we willing to stoop? Did we stoop this week? How low did we go? Or did we play it safe and bask in the comfort of our material and secure suburban world? God calls us to be different from the world… to be willing to stoop lower and lower… to help someone else find what God helped us to find. Think about it; you may have attended church 40, 50, 60, or 70 years – and yet when you walked into this Holy Space today, God found us all covered once more in the sliminess and dirt of our own sin. And yet He graciously and eagerly stooped down to wash us clean! And here He fills all open hearts with the power of the Holy Spirit, and calls you and I to walk back out into the world – NOT to hide from our neighbor’s brokenness, but to be willing to enter into the lowliest of places, that some might have equal access to God’s table! You and I are cleansed through grace, in order to become vehicles of grace to those God places in our daily routines! Stooping – it’s a visible sign of God’s grace and love living in our hearts!

13) EASY? This week I stumbled upon an old sermon, …the 3rd sermon I ever preached at this church back in 1995. Most of the members were brand new, fairly young in the faith walk, idealistic and perhaps a little naïve. I said in my sermon: “It will not be easy to build stronger ministries and programs of excellence that will win people to Christ, build disciples, and send them back into the world to serve others. It will require sacrifice of time, talent, and treasure, and a willingness to follow Christ to the lowest of places. The individual question, and the congregational question, are the same: How low are you willing to go? How willing are you and I to stoop over to help someone in need?” Even I was unaware of how prophetic those words were: “it will not be easy”.

14) THE QUESTION! No sooner had the first sacrificial changes begun, did we awaken to the fact that “low” was a relative term that meant a lot of different things to different folks. As we approached hot topics – like starting a contemporary service, or opening our church building to outside groups in the neighborhood, or reaching out to a changing multi-cultural neighborhood – we discovered that there many different ideas of what stooping was all about. The question “How low are we willing to go?” stirred up controversy and unrest. Some felt uneasy about there being “waves or ripples in the pond” and moved on to find another pond. But the truth is: the question is a healthy spiritual question from God intended to stir up unrest. It is a daily question that will persistently challenge us to debate internally in our individual hearts, and among ourselves as the family of God – hopefully drawing us back to the Gospel and God’s truth every day! Until our dying day, God will ask us to live in the tension of the question; How low are you willing to go?

15) STOOP LOWER? I know this: the needy families and individuals who come to the Monday night feeding program have been blessed that many members of this church struggled with “the question” and opened their hearts to stoop lower. They could be home watching TV, going to a movie, or enjoying the comforts of home – but the Holy Spirit empowered them this week to stoop lower to serve food, wash dishes, and share a time of fellowship with those the world often forgets. The reason our members are there, is because that’s were Jesus is! You cannot stoop low enough to find a place that Jesus is not already there! And each feeding program volunteer learns through experience what it means to be blessed as a servant! There is joy in their heart that ONLY comes through stooping lower. Even so, the Spirit will not let them, or any of us rest. There are still shelves below the one we are presently reaching – and if we live in a growing faith we will always live with the tension of the question “Will you stoop lower?”

16) AFRAID? But the tension Christ calls us into, does NOT have to leave us afraid! Our Hebrews text says (13:6) “The Lord is my helper, I will not be afraid. What can anyone do to me?” In other words, all who humble themselves and let the needs of others take precedence over their personal needs for status… all those who no longer take the time to calculate what is in it for them, but who trust in God to provide… THEY WILL BE BLESSED, and they WILL PRODUCE FRUIT for the Kingdom of God! You can put your fears aside! Why? Because God does NOT invite you and I into the lowly places without FIRST giving us the tools we will need! He is here today, to fill our hearts with the peace of the Holy Spirit! “The Lord is my helper, I will not be afraid!” Can you trust those words? Take a servant’s risk and stoop down lower – and you WILL find those words trustworthy and true!

17) WORLD WONDERS WHY! The rest of the world scrambles to stay away from the low places, and is puzzled by all who enter those places willingly. The world wonders why anyone would want to deal with street derelicts, drug addicts, prisoners, or want to feed and clothe the homeless and needy. Why would a sane person walk away from “the good life” to engage themselves with the diseased, poverty stricken, lower classes? Why would you extend a helping hand to the troubled family or child or neighbor next door who seems to be “looking for love in all the wrong places”? The world wonders “Why” would you want to be concerned with the lost and lowly in the world, if you didn’t have to? What’s the secret?

18) THE SECRET? Well, the secret of why we do what we do - is no secret: We do it because Christ, who humbled Himself and took the lowest place, was raised and lifted up! He was exalted! And now He promises that all who follow Him into the lowest places will also be lifted up! “And those who humble themselves will be exalted!” It is not a secret: We, who were the lowliest of the world, have been embraced, forgiven, and saved by His sacrificial love! We who were unworthy are in the process of being lifted up – higher and higher!

19) THE BEST SEAT! Now the world may use the word “low” to express something negative, but that’s because they seek the best seat in the house! But for you and I, the best seat in the house is wherever Jesus is! And He is found in the lowest places, working among the broken hearts of humanity. Is that where we are seated too? Amazingly, God empowers us today, longing to use us to graciously touch and lift up the lowly! As Jesus reaches out to take our hand in His, He asks us once again, “How low are you willing to go?” Immersed in His never-ending love, let us joyfully and faithfully follow Him anywhere, knowing “The best seat in the house is wherever Jesus is!” Praise God! AMEN!

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