Sermon

All of you be subject one to another, and be clothed with humility:  for God resisteth the proud, and giveth grace to the humble. Humble yourselves there under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time: Casting all your care upon him; for he careth for you…

First I want to understand the context of Peter’s Epistle. He addressed what he called the Diaspora of Christ’s Church in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia and Bithynia. He refers to them as “strangers” and “resident aliens.” Though we often spiritualize these terms, they likely refer to the legal status of many of the Christians Peter is writing to. This Epistle was composed in Rome, the imperial city. Silvanus is named as the courier, and he appears also to have been Peter’s secretary/scribe. He sailed from Rome, following a well-established trade route, stopping off at major population centers to deliver the Epistle to the Churches. It is reckoned, conservatively, that about 40,000 Christians were living in Asia Minor in the late 60s. By the turn of the century, when Ignatius of Antioch wrote his Letters and Clement wrote the Corinthians, the Christian population had grown to 80,000. 

Now, there was a sobering situation that Peter is addressing. He refers to their “heaviness,” to “ fiery ordeals,” and to their common experience of sharing Christ’s sufferings. Some have thought that a Roman sponsored pogrom was underway. There is not a hint of that in the Epistle and in fact, Peter specifically instructs them to submit to the Emperor and governors who punish evil behavior. There were no Roman persecutions at that time.

But there are serious problems and they are all local – homegrown. These are hometown troubles and conflicts rising from the differences between Christians and their unbelieving neighbors. Christians were not thought to be enemies of the state at this point, but they were objects of slander, suspicion, accusations, and hostility because they were so different from their neighbors. And all these “localized” hostilities are connected on a subterranean level. Peter says they have a common source in “the ruler of this age,” the cosmic slanderer who is behind all the enmity and abuse being heaped upon believers by unbelieving neighbors and what we would call community leaders. Peter says these societies that aim to absorb and neutralize the Church are devil-driven: 

Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion walketh about, seeking whom he may devour; who resist stedfast in the faith, knowing that the same afflictions are accomplished in your brethren that are in the world.

Behind the campaign to absorb and reduce the effect the Church lurks the Devil himself. The same is the case today. The society, the culture around you, our institutions, our neighbors and even much of the church itself urges us to accommodate standards, values, and behaviors that are alien to the Gospel and the will of God. “Resist” these pressures Peter declares! Remain “stedfast in the faith” and resist those who lean on you to assimilate to this culture. You are called to be the holy children of God, you are called to holy non-conformity, to holy and exclusive solidarity within the Body of Christ formed by the pattern of Christ, not the patterns of this world. This is the way Peter puts it in Chapter 1:14:

Do not allow yourselves to be molded by the craving of your former ignorance, but, in conformity with the Holy One who called you, you too be holy in all your conduct…

Do not be “molded by cravings.”  These are cravings are on display in institutions, popular culture, and even neighborhoods: selfish yearnings, uncontrolled passions, and compulsive ambition. These cravings mark the moral condition of the unbeliever. But you are Children of God. All that is “former ignorance” for you. Don’t fall back into that pollution. You have been liberated from that ignorance and contamination through the New Birth. Peter is crystal clear that our break with this way of life must be conscious, intentional and definitive for ourselves individually and in our community. Believers must end allegiances that lure us into assimilating pagan standards. Note this: assimilation occurs when we allow our common life to be molded by selfishness, run-away ambition and unrestrained passions. So how may we resist? 

All of you be subject to one another, and be clothed with humility… 

is not the best translation of this text. This is better:

Finally, all of you: clothe yourselves with humility in your relations with one another because God opposes the arrogant and gives grace to the humble…

The word used here for “clothe” is a verb that may be used to express the action of a slave tying an apron around his waist as he performs domestic work; which would include washing the feet of guests. That was a common experience in that day. Walking was a dirty business. They were barefoot or they wore open sandals. There were few roads. And those that did exist were either really dusty or really muddy, depending on the weather. All manner of filth was thrown into the streets and it couldn’t be avoided. It was a mark of good hospitality to have a servant greet one’s guest in the atrium and wash and dry their feet. Then they would enter the home without worrying about tracking in rubbish. That servant was the lowest servant. It was degrading work. Humiliating. Punishing, even. The kind of work no one else wanted to do. And it is the very work Peter could recall Jesus himself performing on the night he was betrayed. Jesus, the humble servant of God, took the lowly domestic slave as his exemplar for the ethic of the Household of Faith. This is how we resist the demonic culture. The Greco-Roman world radically opposed Christian humility. A free man, a nobleman would never have the mind of a slave. For these Christian’s neighbors, this servile attitude was debasing and corrupting; a character flaw that indicated self-contempt and for that matter contempt for proper social order. From the point-of-view of their neighbors in the world, this Christian value of humility was downright subversive. These Christians were turning their world upside down. They were promoting a quiet sedition, a rebellion against the ethics and standards of the present age. 

Peter declares that the Household of God will not model itself upon pagan households. The Christian Mother’s duty was not to produce sons who would bring honor and if necessary die for the City. The Christian Father would not be a Roman Pater Familias, but rather he would exemplary the strength of the Servant of God, his savior Jesus Christ. God’s offspring will not assimilate the values of a demonic-driven culture: the will to power, the domination of the weak, unbounded ambition that tramples upon the souls of competitors! Absolutely not! Our model is the meek and harmless Lamb of God! Holiness in our life together; holiness amongst our pagan neighbors, holiness when we are all by ourselves, trust in God’s generosity, confidence in his destiny for us, submission to his will, and the mutual humility of all our members –- that will route the Devil and his attempts to absorb us into the violent banality of whatever present darkness we may experience. These little parishes all over Asia Minor, so harassed and disparaged by their pagan neighbors, responded to Peter’s insistence to break clean of alien standards. Their subversion did turn the world upside down. It is easy to see how pagan chatter and derisiveness could and did spill over into brutality and bloodshed. There were occasions and even seasons when anxiety virtually pulsated through these little parishes. How are we to live with such contingencies? Peter has more advice. 

Casting all your care upon him; for he careth for you…

The word for “care” is more exactly rendered “anxiety.” The word we translate “casting” means “to throw something upon something else,” as in throwing a blanket upon a donkey for riding. Or lifting a lamb to the shoulders of a shepherd. This is a natural extension of humility. It is recognition of our limitation and creature hood. 

The danger of anxiety is that we might try to solve the problem ourselves and that very action is sin. We try to secure our future without reliance upon God. Worry is deceptive. We even try to make of worry a virtue. “The more I worry over you, the more I show how much I love you! Right?” Wrong! That kind of worry is just what Peter is trying to avoid. It is rooted in a need to dominate and control, which are pagan values. It is arrogant, prideful, willful and stubborn. It is exactly the sort of thing Peter is concerned with when he writes:

Do not allow yourselves to be molded by the craving of your former ignorance…

So how do we avoid this trap? By following Peter’s advice:

Caste all your anxiety upon him, because he cares for you…

All who are beleaguered and worn out – fretful for your present wellbeing, fearful of your future fate: give it up! Divest yourself of all those prideful attempts to dominate – and let God be God. Free yourself from anxiety. You are under God’s care and God’s protection. You are the apple of his eye. He cares about you personally and as a community. I hope you see that this little parish, you moms and dads, you grandparents and grandchildren – that the devil has not ceased looking for someone to devour. We face a culture that is just as hostile to the Children of God as the ones Peter and Paul warned about. And anyway, you don’t have the control you think you have. So unload that anxiety! Roll it over onto God’s back! What is sure is that God loves you and you can shed you fear and anxiety and cast it on him. 

All of you be subject one to another, and be clothed with humility: Casting all your care upon him; for he careth for you…

“There was a certain rich man, which was clothed in purple and fine linen, and fared sumptuously every day: And there was a certain beggar named Lazarus, which was laid at his gate, full of sores, And desiring to be fed with the crumbs which fell from the rich man’s table: moreover the dogs came and licked his sores.”

A certain man made a great supper, and bade many; and sent his servant at supper time to say to them that they were bidden; Come; for all things are now ready. And they all with one consent began to make excuse…

The Church has come up against many difficult situations: We claim that God has taken action to save the world and that action involved God becoming a creature. But after becoming a creature, a human being, he was rejected by the people he had come to save – the very People God had been preparing for his coming, those who were to receive him on behalf of the whole world – rejected him. And, as you know, it was worse than that: He was publically tortured and killed. How may a rejected and crucified man be the consummation of God’s love? Well, as counter-intuitive as it is, the Church has come to understand his death as somehow necessary for the redemption of the world. The proof that his death is redemptive, and the proof that he is all that he claimed to be, is the fact that he was raised from the dead and appeared to his disciples whose names we know. 

Of course, he did not merely appear – he was not a spirit or specter hovering momentarily hither and thither only one day to vanish once and for all. He was not a spirit that survived physical death; he was the same Jesus, body and all, who was impaled upon the cross. And we are keenly aware that his death and resurrection did not eclipse the past, but rather his death and resurrection opened up horizons never imagined – new horizons that included the human body and human relations. For example, his relationship with his disciples was not merely intact after his resurrection; it continued to mature. Some things remained while others had to change. After his resurrection he ate with his apostles, he even cooked for them, he taught them, and he gave them an overarching plan to execute. And in at least two cases, one with Peter and the other with Thomas, prior to handing over his plan, he had to deal with some unfinished matters for their good and the good of the new community of the Church. So he addressed them, in front of their peers, so personally, so specifically, so poignantly concerning their recent apostasies that we have recorded even the fits of emotion that followed. And yet he does not come off as goading or even scolding Peter or Thomas, but instead, helping them get on with a new beginning they could never had guessed. In all these things we see one hard situation after another that becomes a blessing. 

But there is yet another great difficulty that continues to loom large for us, and it is his absence. How can Jesus continue to be the pledge and surety of the love of God in a meaningful way when he is absent? 

Peter said:

Without having seen him you love him; and though you do not now see him you believe in him and rejoice with unutterable and exalted joy.

Well, yes, sometimes we do rejoice, and sometimes we don’t. The heaviness of his absence has always weighed upon the saints. At the very end of the last book of the Bible, the Revelation, St. John the Theologian cannot hold it back any longer and he writes:

He (Jesus) who testifies to these things says, ‘Surely I come quickly.’

And John replies: 

Amen! Even so, come, Lord Jesus!

We are not at home with his absence and yet we love him and believe in him and even rejoice that we know him. But what does that mean? How do we know him? The answer is Word and Sacrament. We experience the love of Christ and very real presence in both the Word of God written and the Blessed Sacrament of the Altar. 

A certain man made a great supper, and bade many; and sent his servant at supper time to say to them that they were bidden; Come; for all things are now ready. And they all with one consent began to make excuse… (And the master of the house said) Go out quickly into the streets and lanes of the city, and bring in hither the poor, and the maimed, and the halt, and the blind…

First , I want you to see the context: Jesus presents this parable of a great supper while dinning with a group of Pharisees. All this happens in chapter 14 of Luke. 

One Sabbath when he went to dine at the house of a ruler who belonged to the Pharisees, they were watching him.

They watched him throughout the meal and from the beginning  they tried to entrap Jesus by having a man present at the dinner that had dropsy. So here was a sick man placed right in front of Jesus. They watched him. There’s almost no dialogue. Jesus of course knew exactly what was going on. He asked the lawyers who were present a question:

Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath?

They did not speak.

He then “took the man;” a phrase that indicates some form of embrace. He took him and healed him and then let go of him. Then Jesus must have sat back down and he addressed those present:

If you have an ass or an ox that falls into a pit will you not immediately pull him out on the Sabbath?

No answer. 

At that point Jesus told them how they should be careful not to rush to the high tables when they are invited to a feast since someone more honorable may come in and then the host would have to ask them to move to a lower table. Choose the lower table first and then the host may invite you to move up. Then he made the point: 

He who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.

Then Jesus turned to his host and said:

When you give a dinner do not invite your friends and kinsmen and your rich neighbors. They will in turn invite you to a dinner and you are repaid. Instead give a feast and invite the poor, the maimed, the lame and the blind. They are the right ones to invite because they cannot pay you back. And God will repay you at the resurrection.

That is the first half of Luke 14 and there is a big lesson to learn from it. How are God’s people supposed to live? God’s people are to live with humility and generosity. Humility and generosity are marks of discipleship. Do not seek the front seats or the high tables of honor, but rather the less conspicuous seat. In fact not only will the disciple of Jesus live with true humility, but his disciples will give to the humble, those who have nothing, without any hope of repayment. Jesus’ disciples will live generously toward others without expecting a pay back. You can identify the humble person because he or she ignores issues of class or rank. God honors the friend of the poor, the lame, and the blind. These ailments alone would have excluded a Jew from Temple worship. Now here’s a point I wish to make: The theme of humility and generosity are at the very heart of the life of how Jesus lived and what he taught his disciples about how they should behave in this life. Jesus was himself humble and generous. And if you wish to follow him then you should pursue those virtues. 

Now Jesus presented the Parable of the Great Supper at the end of dinner with the Pharisees. In this parable Jesus is holding up the failure of the Israel’s leadership. Most of the so-called leaders of Israel will miss out on the Messianic banquet because they have other priorities. They all have excuses for turning down the host – Jesus the Messiah. Their rejection of God’s invitation means that others will be invited and they will flock in. There is a touch of irony here. Those who love the high tables and seats of honor will be entirely excluded from the Kingdom of God, while those that they despised and shunned will take their seats in the most important meal of all. 

Here’s a final point: God Almighty can easily bring to pass his purposes and put others in our place if we reject him. The Gospel today is an invitation to self-examination. It is a warning that we must not be presumptuous of our relationship with God. Do I think that my salvation is so certain that I am beyond the common duties of every Christian? Do I think my service so necessary to God that I am released from the common life of the Church? I once knew a man who thought he was called to such special service for the Church that he was exempted from the necessity of Sunday worship. He was so busy “saving the Church” that he was not required to go to church. He perceived a caste system in the body of Christ. Do you think you have some special claim upon the promises of Christ that sets you above others? Are you offended by the suggestion that you too can fall away from Christ? This presumption of self-importance is condemned throughout the Scriptures. In the Gospel for today our Lord rings loud a warning to all who feel entitled, who think themselves worthy, who are presumptuous of their special status with our Lord.

For I say unto you, that none of those men which were bidden shall taste of my supper (St. Luke 14:24).