Sermon at Team Service at St. Mary’s Church, West Dean - 11th Sunday after Trinity –Sunday 31 August 2025
Ecclesiastes 10:12-18; Hebrews 13:1-8,15-16; Luke
14:1,7-14
May I speak in the name of
the Father, Son and Holy Spirit and may these words be those of you, Lord, and
may they be a blessing to all who listen and hear them.
Whenever my mother heard
anyone, especially a politician, speak arrogantly about themselves or what they
had done she had a phrase which I am sure is well remembered by many of you of
my generation - “Pride always comes before a fall, you’ll see”. Indeed, my mother really didn’t like people
who were boastful or full of their own importance and, as the wife of a local
politician, and later the mother of one, me, there were many occasions when she
met and conversed with people with whom she struggled to like. She had been
brought up as the daughter of a simple Norfolk farm worker who had a very
simple philosophy – “You should remember you are what you are, and there is no
room for “airs and graces”. You are who
God created you to be, was his philosophy, although he might not have put it in
so many words. He was not an ardent church goer but he served the church in
many other practical ways as verger, coffin maker and grave digger, and most
definitely led a Christian way of life. He had observed so many corpses that he
often said – “All the time I’ve been helping the local undertaker I have never
seen pockets in a shroud”. What material
wealth you have you can’t take with you.
Each of our readings this
morning reminds us of this philosophy and at its centre is the need for us to
remember that it is not by our own efforts and wealth that we reach salvation,
but in trusting in, and following God.
In Ecclesiasticus, our first
reading, the writer, presumed to have been King Solomon, states, right at the
beginning, that human pride is to forsake the Lord – in other words, once we
talk about ourselves in such a way that would not have received my mother’s
approval, we are placing ourselves at the centre of everything and displacing
God in our hearts. As I read what King Solomon had written, some 3,000 years
ago, it seemed to me that he was also foretelling the state of the world as it
is today. There is too much pride and arrogance being displayed by many leaders
of the world’s nations, but this passage reminds us that those who act in this
way will be brought down – there will be a fall following the sin of
pride. It is a matter for God to be
proud of us, his creation, not us of ourselves.
It is this message, written by King Solomon, which is the essence of
Jesus’s parable which we will look at in a moment, but it is another reminder
of the importance of understanding the importance of the Old Testament in
prophesying what was to come and that Jesus came to fulfil those prophesies and
to teach us all how we are to treat others.
Our second reading is one
which I reach for from time to time and has been such a great comfort to me
through some of the toughest years of my life. As with pride, many believe that
money and wealth, material prosperity generally, will keep at bay all things
evil and troublesome. This is the world
many of us live in – believing that if we have lots of money we will be
alright, we will have good health and never have worries or fears. I am reminded of Harry Enfield’s character
“Lots of Money” and his Birmingham accent “I am considerably richer than yow”. That is the false teaching we find with the
prosperity gospellers who spread this wrong message. Appealing to the
vulnerable, the only people who prosper, materially, are they themselves,
telling the weak and sick that they need to “sow a seed” of money into their
ministry to receive a blessing. The
reality though is that this is a totally false premise. God does not need to be
bribed in order to bestow a blessing on us. Jesus himself told his disciples
that following Him would never be easy but that the treasure we store up in our
heart is the heavenly treasure of eternal life. You will recall the parable of
the farmer who built bigger barns to store his wealth. You will also recall the
time when Jesus suggested to the young wealthy man that to enter the kingdom of
Heaven he should give all his possessions to the poor and follow him.
Here the writer of Hebrews
reminds his readers, and us, that we don’t need masses of money and especially
we should not worship it or believe that “sowing a seed of money” will yield
ever more wealth. That is the gospel of the greedy, not of the true Christian.
In our last, gospel reading,
Jesus declares “don’t sit at the top table” when attending a function. As Tom
Wright puts it “If this is a parable then it is not about table manners at a
dinner party”! It’s actually a warning
to his contemporaries – to the leaders of Israel. God has promised a great
wedding party, the “messianic banquet”, but if Israel thinks that it has an
inalienable right to sit at the top table by virtue of simple obedience to the
law, she has another think coming. Jesus is reminding those Jewish leaders that
pride comes before a fall or humility before exaltation. That is again the message for all – for those
who would seek to think of themselves as better than others. Jesus is saying
that such people, by their lack of humility towards God, the great host, are
themselves already committing a great sin even though they think of themselves
as superior through religious fervour.
We see this again later on in Luke’s Gospel (18:9-14) when we meet the
Pharisee and the Tax Collector in the Temple.
Jesus’s message to all the
great leaders of the world at the time, and is today, is a focus on the Cross –
the epitome of humility where the highest was seemingly crushed; followed by
the resurrection, it summons the powers of the world to humility – those who
think themselves great are being confronted by their own true King shamefully
executed – a sight which overturns all arrogance and unmasks all pretensions.
He is saying that faced with the crucified and risen Lord of the world, the
rulers of the nations will begin with shame to take the lowest place.
This gospel passage ends
with a reinforcement of what the writer of Hebrews is saying. Don’t do things in the hope of receiving
something in return, or being repaid, or for monetary gain (this again is in
direct contradiction to the theology of the prosperity gospellers), but do it
for those who cannot repay you but need your help and assistance. You will be
repaid at the end times, when there is foretold the resurrection of the
righteous.
We all need to be reminded
of these teachings often, especially those of us in positions of influence and
power. I am sure that there are many
leaders of the world today, and I guess you could name many of them, like me,
very easily, who especially need to take heed of these words of scripture and
of Jesus’s teachings generally throughout his ministry on Earth.
I can do no better than,
before we say a prayer, conclude with a quotation from Paul’s letter to the
Romans which, I believe, summarises the message contained in this morning’s
passages of scripture and this sermon:
Therefore,
I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your
bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true
and proper worship. 2 Do not conform to the
pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your
mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his
good, pleasing and perfect will. 3 For
by the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself
more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment,
in accordance with the faith God has distributed to each of you. (Romans 12:1-3)
Let us pray :
"Loving God, thank You
for Your promise to bless those who help others in need, knowing that they
cannot repay us. Forgive me when I only invest in those who can return my
kindness. Father, open my eyes and give me the strength and resources to bless
others, especially the poor and vulnerable, from whom I can expect nothing in
return. May my actions bring glory to Your name and my body be a living
sacrifice, holy and pleasing to you. Through Jesus Christ your Son and Saviour”
Amen
MFB/223/28082025
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