Humility

I always remember my late mother saying never invite anyone to dinner as they might feel duty bound to invite you back. For me having dinner with someone is a pleasure. Enjoying good food and sharing company with people is a good thing. Yes you may well be invited back but that’s a good thing also. This brings me on to Communion. It is a meal where Jesus invites his friends to join with him. It is a remembrance of the last meal the disciples had with Jesus before his crucifixion. It is a time to reflect on what Jesus did for us on that cross but also how Jesus often invited people to share meals with him. He would hang out with anyone who would have him including from prostitutes, people who had diseases and even a Pharisee or two!! Our reading Luke 14: 1, 7-14 focus on two points about hosting a banquet one is aimed at the diners and the other at the host. Both speak of attitudes. Firstly we deal with the diners. They would sit on chairs named Triclinium on which one would recline onto ones left elbow. You would be seated round in a U shape and the guest of honour would be at the apex of the U. So Jesus says if you place yourself on seat of honour your host may move you. In the words of the L’Oreal advert you sit there because your worth it. However your host does not always agree. Remember Hyacinth Bouquet? She had special people round to her candle lit suppers and indeed the local councillor would have pride of place but do not sit where you want to because you may be moved!! Humility should be our watchword. How often do we think we are the best at something only for someone to do it better than we do, or that some role confers on us specialness. Sometimes we think we deserve special treatment for all we have done. It is important not to have big head for it is likely to be pricked. For the first shall be last and the last shall be first. So rather than picking for ourselves the best place or seat of honour we should take the seat of lowest rank for we run no other risk than being exalted. By parading round as though we are the most important we will run the risk of humiliation and being made of fool of in public just like Hyacinth did in Keeping up Appearances. So when we go about in life it is wise to be humble in our attitude and not to go round being arrogant and boastful. Confidence is one thing but what Jesus is pointing out here is the attitude of thinking you are the bee’s knees. Maybe sometimes we should give up our place at the banquet to someone who may need food more than we do. This brings me on to the second part of Jesus teaching aimed at the host. Now as I said I don’t mind being invited back for dinner and indeed their nothing wrong with that per see but here Jesus points to humility again by challenging his host to invite those who can not host you back where their in affect is no reward other than the good act of hosting a beggar or homeless person to lunch. When we see a beggar on the street sometimes the easiest thing to do is to pass by. After all, whether they are genuine or not, we don’t want to be drawn into their lives. It might be time consuming and become difficult for us. Often beggars ask for money. The best thing to do we are told is to ask them what they want it for and then go and get it yourself. Just conversation can be helpful with an listening ear . This brings me back to Communion. This is a meal of thanksgiving at which the seat of honour is Jesus. We believe he is here with us now. His presence is close by and in the meal we give thanks for his sacrifice on the cross and for his wonderful resurrection. We can never repay him fully but we can do our bit by invitating as many people as we can to meet Jesus. He invites all people to share his meal just as he sat with all people sharing meals all those years ago. So let us give thanks for his awesome gift of Grace, that though we do not deserve it we are forgiven for all the bad things we do and cannot forgive ourselves, and for the wonderful gift of a new start, that Christ wipes the slate clean and helps us to be new people. So go as new people into the world and tell every person you meet of our saviour Jesus Christ.

Trust in God

What is the most common phrase in the Bible? It is ‘Do Not be Afraid!!!’ Do not be afraid! When I look at my life and see the things that made me afraid!! The list would be endless! For me it was the first day at School, when I was scarred on this new situation, or when my father and I were in South Africa and had been taken to where the Meerkats were in the wild. Fear of what you may say. Well when we were told a rattle snake lived in the same tunnels as the Meerkats you may understand my unease but all turned out fine. Also my Russian phrase book was not needed. Simples! We are all afraid at some time of our life! It might be of the bully at school, or going in the forest if you are a city dweller, it might be starting your first job, or going on holiday to country that has had its problems. It maybe leaving home for the first time or being unable to go home. It could be the fear of death itself. So Yes we do fear. As Franklin D. Roosevelt once said ‘We have nothing to fear but fear itself self.’ Fear can grip us, make us frozen, can lead to inaction and a certain kind of paralysis. Fear is a negative side of being human and so often we let it rule us. This may well be the reason the words Do not be Afraid is used in the Bible. In Luke 12:32-40 Jesus is preparing his disciples for a time when they will have to go it alone. His physical presence will not be there but he will still be guiding them and assisting them. He asks them to trust God. In doing so they will receive life in all its richness and abundance as he promises the Kingdom he has been talking about. If they trust they will be given a part of his Kingdom. How awesome is that? All they have to do is trust God. That’s the hard bit! The Bible is full of stories where sometimes trusting in God is put to the test but ultimately he comes through. In the book of Ruth, Ruth and Naomi may have wondered where God was but they would play a part in God’s plan leading to David and then Jesus. Abram, in Genesis 15, certainly wondered when God was going to come through for him. He was an old man and with an old wife and God said Abram would father a great nation and that his descendants would be as many as the stars in the sky!!! Amazing but years passed and Abram was older and his wife Sarai was older too. Long past giving birth let alone child rearing. So Abram decided to take matters into his own hands. How often do we take matters into our own hands? When someone promises to do something but intend on doing it in their own time? I know I am often guilty of taking matter into my own hands. Someone has not written the report on time or delivered something on time. I end up doing it myself. I tell myself ‘At least I know it will be done!!’ Yet maybe I am disenfranchising that person? I remember watching an episode of The Apprentice recently where one of the contestants was hectoring another contestant into making a decision. She was talking so much I am surprised he had time to think to make that decision!! So Abram had taken matters into his owns hands and appointed Eliezer his servant too be his heir. After all he thought ‘how on earth can we have children?’ However God comes in and maintains that is exactly what will happen! Indeed it does. For Abram and Sarai become Abraham and Sarah and she gives birth to Isaac. Age is not a barrier for God. Perhaps sometimes we put God in boxes of our own creation. So we are to go into this world and trust in God that he will give us life in all its abundance if we follow him. For we are to treat each day as if we expect to come face to face with the master. We should live life as if we are about to bump into him. Trusting in possessions too much means we trust in God less. How many people today are consumed by possessions? The latest fashion accessory, the latest iPod or IPad, or a coca cola you drink with your friends. All these things are sold to us as somehow the answer or part of answer to our lifes dilemmas. Yet they are pale imitations of God. When they run out we need our next fix but God never runs out. He gives all good things to us but we are to follow him. In doing so we should not put our faith in possessions to make us happy but as tools that are a means to an end not the end in itself. We too are to give all around us generously. For God gives to us the precious gift of grace that we are forgiven for all the bad things we do and he provides for us in our daily lives. So too we are to give money and more importantly time to serve others. The best way of serving is together as we make a statement of God’s love together it is so much more effective. Trusting in God does not mean he will just give us whatever we want but he will give us whatever is good for us and whatever will see us flourishing. He can see the big picture we cannot. I don’t know if anyone has looked at the back of a tapestry? It looks an utter mess of threads and you really cannot make head nor tail of the design but when you see from the other side it looks brilliant. We often see the back of life’s tapestry and God sees that and the front. He knows what is good for us even if we do not. He also wants people to know him and will give us what we need to share the hope that is inside us with others. So we are to trust in God and to not be afraid. We are to follow God like Abraham did in his life and the early followers of Jesus did. God always comes through even if we cannot see it as we look at the back of life’s rich tapestry for in following Jesus we will all be part of Gods awesome kingdom.