Sunday, September 1, 2013

Sermon for 9/1/13 Luke 14


What’s our status?
 Most of us think of ourselves as average, maybe a bit above average, doing pretty well.
   social
   economic
   cultural
   well-fed
   well-clothed
   good moral people
   “spiritual”
And we like doing things with our friends. We all think, deep down, that we are the kind of people who can and should be invited to just about anything, that we’d be able to fit in.
 young people - all above average
 all our families are special
 “Maybe some people can’t fit in, but I can.”
What does Jesus say about us?
 Don’t consider too highly
 take the lowest seat
 invite the kind of poor, crippled, lame, blind that we are
People like us? So we should invite respectable people.
poor, crippled, lame, blind
None of us is above that, none has escaped the challenges which can lay us low

In fact, we think too highly of ourselves. We deceive ourselves into thinking we are the kind of great people Jesus would like to hang with.

Jesus invites us, poor, crippled, lame, blind, to come to his feast.
He has laid his life down, given it for us, given it to us.
We cannot repay him. We’re exactly the kind of guest he wants. What he gives is truly a blessing to us, because we could get it nowhere else.

 forgiveness
 life
 hope
 all the blessings of God in Christ are ours. He invites us to his table, to his feast. We cannot repay him. He would have it no other way.

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