How much do you do that God asks you to do and how far do you take it? And do you listen?
The Gospel reading for this week has been heard before, so if you listened, you would have heard it. Like other parts of the Bible, I am not sure I agree with all of it but then I have to remind myself of when it was written, who it was addressed to and other factors behind it.
If I were to ask the question, how many of you pray to God and expect/hope for results, I am sure all of you would put up your hand or I guess nobody would pray at all. When I pray to God, quite often it is a chat.
The first part of the reading about where you should sit at a wedding would not be too difficult to follow, obviously as a guest you should not go sitting up with the bride and groom or at the family table but I am not so sure sitting in the lowest place is the right place either. That is, if you are doing so, like the reading says, “so that when your host comes, he may say to you, Friend, move up higher then you will be honoured in the presence of all who sit at the table with you”. I think this makes you stand out and appear to be a bit theatrical or a bit ‘show-offish’. A ‘look at me’ scenario. Seems to me it would make more sense to sit somewhere in the middle and not expect to be moved higher or lower.
The second part of this reading is the more difficult to try to do. Most of you who read this know that my ministry is with the homeless or less fortunate folks in St. Catharines. I use this experience a lot in my reflections but my role as a Deacon is that I bring the concerns/issues that happen outside the church to you who are inside the church. I am face to face with the people who come to get breakfast and I am happy to do so. Others are happier being in the kitchen making the breakfast or making coffee. As I type this I am reminded of that first part of the Gospel and taking the lowest seat/place in the room. Yes, the kitchen is further away from the people but there is no more or less important place at the breakfast program. We all have our jobs to do, places to be and none of them more important than the next. Without each other we couldn’t feed the over 100 clients who show up. We are in the church doing this work that we have all been called to do, because we listened to what God asked of us, but could you invite those same people into your home when lunch time rolled around? I am not sure any of us would say yes. Safety might come into your mind, cleanliness of your new guest would be a possible concern. (they certainly don’t all smell like lemon verbena). Is this really expected of us by God. I don’t think so. I think it is an extreme ask, that helps us to understand that we need to give as much to those in need as we do for our friends and family. We may be repaid by our friends and family by way of being invited to their place, but believe me, the joy at the end of every shift at the breakfast program gives me more repayment than a dinner out with a friend paying me back for something. (Don’t get me wrong, if you want to take me out or invite me over, I would not say no). So whatever you can do for those less fortunate than you; tossing a coin to guy on the corner, donating a backpack and school supplies, is what God is asking. And many of you have listened.
This brings me to the Psalm and the lines that immediately jumped out at me were, “But my people did not listen to my voice. So I gave them over to their stubborn hearts, to follow their own counsels. O that my people would listen to me”.
If I were to ask the question, how many of you pray to God and expect/hope for results, I am sure all of you would put up your hand or I guess nobody would pray at all. When I pray to God, quite often it is a chat. I have to confess that my prayer/chat routine had gotten lost, put on the back burner I guess, because of things I had been struggling with in my life. But how wrong is that? I was beginning to wonder why I felt the way I did and couldn’t figure out the reason it was taking so long for me to ‘get over it’. One day, when I was feeling sorry for myself, I realized that it had been a while since I ‘chatted’ with God. It could be that I had finally sat quietly long enough to hear him calling. I had not been listening for a while. After chatting with God for a bit that afternoon, I felt relief. Like Sheila said in her sermon last week, we need to pass things over to God and let him carry them for a bit. As I reflect on ‘passing things over to God’ I am reminded of the old Tag-Team Wrestling matches, where one of the wrestlers is in the ring and the other is on the outside, waiting to be tagged in. I see myself in the ring, the ring is a representation of life and God is my tag team wrestler. When I am tired, beaten up and need a rest, I can reach out to God and switch places. After I have rested enough I can once again take my place in that ring, knowing that I can tag in God at any time.