This morning’s gospel, Luke 14:1, 7-14, starts out looking like the kind of etiquette lesson we find in Proverbs and Wisdom: it is bad manners to seat yourself at the head of table.  Instead, we should “know our place”.  Then Jesus takes it further: we should not only know our place but also the place of others, “when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind.” 

If we do, Jesus tells us, we will “be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous”.  But what exactly does this mean?  Does it mean that we still expect a reward for our generosity only from God rather than our peers?

Yes and no.  Jesus is not suggesting that any of us, rich or poor, have anything to offer God.  He acknowledges that in the world’s economy some of us are valued more than others but not in God’s economy.  We are all equally in need of God.  If, instead, we believe that we have more to give and less to receive we will separate ourselves from others and from God.  In the words of Ecclesiasticus 10:12-18 “the beginning of pride is to forsake the Lord, the heart has withdrawn from its Maker.”

If we think that we are the ones with all the gifts we will miss the chance to let others give us the gifts God is offering through them: we are not the hosts in God’s economy we are the guests and, if we let them, our fellow guests will teach us, heal us, love us, and remind us that we are all equally in need of God’s grace.

Do not be afraid.  Both of our readings today start with these words.  What is it that we should not be afraid of? 

In Genesis 15:1-6 Abraham is afraid that he will die childless and that a slave will be his heir.  In Luke 12:32-40 the disciples are afraid of many things, of persecution, of loss of community, of lacking food and clothing and the necessary things of life. 

In each case the real fear is lack of a future: Abraham’s name will not pass into the next generation; the disciples may not survive this generation. 

Abraham is assured that he will have a son, the disciples are assured that they will be given what they need but more than this they are not to be afraid because God will give them God’s very self: “for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom”. 

The problem is that we can only receive the kingdom, all that God desires to give us, if we stop chasing after all the things that we are afraid we may lose or will never have.  No matter how hard we try, none of us can assure our future, not through family or status or possessions.  But God can and will if only we can stop living in fear.

On Sunday 13th July at 6.30pm in church, our monthly choral Evensong service.