Sermon at All Saints’ Farley Parish Church, Evensong - Trinity 11 – Sunday 28 July 2022
Luke 14:7-14
Today I want
to do something a little different from just talking to you about my own
thoughts and reflections on the readings we have heard this evening – I want to
involve you in an exercise which was used extensively by the great theologian
St. Ignatius of Loyola and adopted by the society he founded – The Society of
Jesus or more commonly known as “The Jesuits”.
The exercise, I dare say you know well, bears the posh erudite Latin
title of lectio divina or more simply “holy reading” and we are going to
use the process together to unpick our New Testament reading from Luke’s Gospel
and listen to what God might be saying to each of us through the words. I think we are the right sized group to do
this. You may say as much or as little
as I you wish but, hopefully we will all go away all the wiser for our study of
the passage in this way and might have heard a message from God for ourselves
or someone else.
The way we
do this is for me to read the passage again, and for each of you to look out
for any particular word or passage which stands out for you and to make a
mental note of it. This first reading is a bit like setting the table for a
meal – don’t worry too much about the historical or biblical context too much –
the meal is yet to be served - just let it speak to you. After that we will
then read it out again, a little slower and this time think about yourself
being one of the characters in the story - immerse yourself as though you are
there. What message is there for you or
your character? Perhaps you are a “lowly
guest” at the wedding or somebody of standing. Perhaps you are the host.
Finally, we
shall have a short discussion as to what the story means for or to you, for
yourself or others, what message it contains,
and I will happily share with you my own thoughts. Finally, we will read it one last time to see
if anything else has been communicated to us through this piece of
Scripture. It’s an exercise you can do
at home anytime you have a spare moment when you get out your bible and read a
passage.
Here is our
reading:
On one occasion when Jesus was going to the house
of a leader of the Pharisees to eat a meal on the sabbath, they were watching
him closely.
When he noticed how the guests chose the places of
honour, he told them a parable. ‘When you are invited by someone to a
wedding banquet, do not sit down at the place of honour, in case someone more
distinguished than you has been invited by your host; and the host who
invited both of you may come and say to you, “Give this person your place”, and
then in disgrace you would start to take the lowest place. But when you
are invited, go and sit down at the lowest place, 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. For all who exalt
themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.’
He said also to the one who had invited him, ‘When you
give a luncheon or a dinner, do not invite your friends or your brothers or
your relatives or rich neighbours, in case they may invite you in return, and
you would be repaid. But when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the
crippled, the lame, and the blind. And you will be blessed, because they
cannot repay you, for you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.’
Amen MFB/174/28082022
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