The Best Place-- Sermon for the 12th Sunday after Pentecost, August 31, 2025
- Leslie Scoopmire
- 3 minutes ago
- 7 min read
by the Rev. Leslie Barnes Scoopmire
Readings:
I'm not a big fan of commercial country music radio. I hardly ever listen to it, to be honest. Maybe it was all those gazillions of miles driving 75 miles an hour over the Plains to Grandma's house, trapped with my siblings in the back seat of a 1969 Lincoln Continental with suicide doors as Conway Twitty wailed about heartbreak on my dad's 8-track player up in front, trying not to barf from the smell of the can of vienna sausages my mom had just opened in the front seat. I don't know.
But when I think of the emphasis in our readings about humility, there are two country songs that come to mind.
The first one is by Mac Davis from 1974. Who knows-- I might've even heard it in that same back seat back then. It's called "It's Hard to Be Humble." It starts out with the chorus, like this:
Oh Lord, it's hard to be humble
When you're perfect in every way
I can't wait to look in the mirror
Cause I get better lookin' each day
To know me is to love me
I must be a hell of a man
Oh Lord, it's hard to be humble
But I'm doin' the best that I can
My friend and mentor Brooke Myers used to quote this chorus in one of his sermons, and it always made me laugh out loud. But then the second verse was always my favorite, especially if you remember that Mac Davis was thought by many people to be a pretty good looking guy:
I guess you could say I'm a loner
A cowboy outlaw, tough and proud
Well, I could have lotsa friends if I wanted,
But then I wouldn't stand out from the crowd
Some folks say that I'm egotistical
Hell, I don't even know what that means
I guess it has something to do with the way
That I fill out my skin-tight blue jeans...
Whoa, Nelly! I may not like commercial country, but I do like songs that can make you laugh, and think at the same time.
It's human nature to want to stand out from the crowd. but it often isn't the way to be liked, not really. NOBODY is perfect in every way, b ut that shouldn't be cause to target them, either. Preening and showing off certainly isn't not the best way to get your priorities straight, as our fable at the children's message made clear. You know what I mean?
Our reading from Luke's gospel this morning, and the proverb which Jesus is probably quoting that made up our first lesson, is a reminder about priorities-- namely, who should get to BE the priority. Who should be the object of our attention. And Jesus and his opponents have a very real disagreement about that, at a foundational level.
I may have mentioned before that, whenever I am looking at our lectionary readings, I always want to go and see the verses that are omitted, because I think context is always crucial in understanding the intention and mood of the text. And in this case, the five verses that are omitted I think are important for our understanding today.
We start with Jesus being invited to a Pharisee's house for a sabbath dinner. The fact that it's the sabbath becomes important when hearing the omitted verses:
2 Just then, in front of him, there was a man who had edema. 3 And Jesus asked the experts in the law and Pharisees, “Is it lawful to cure people on the Sabbath or not?” 4 But they were silent. So Jesus[b] took him and healed him and sent him away. 5 Then he said to them, “If one of you has a child[c] or an ox that has fallen into a well, will you not immediately pull it out on a Sabbath day?” 6 And they could not reply to this.
So, just like last week, we have a healing on the sabbath. But it's from THAT action that Jesus then begins watching the scrambling of the guests for seats at the table.
In the gospels, especially in Luke, meals were also often where Jesus shocked the living heck out of his hosts-- and often seemed deliberately challenging, even rude to them. Letting "loose" women wash his feet with their hair. Criticizing his hosts' manners. Eating with dirty hands. No wonder they were watching him. Notice that this also was on a sabbath--- another day in which Jesus was prone to what his opponents though was scandalous, even blasphemous behavior. It's a wonder he got invited to dinner at all. It was almost like their curiosity always got the better of them-- which makes sense, what with all the miracles and "what-not." Ha ha ha.
Just like last week, we also get to see the salty side of Jesus. This is not a mamby-pamby Jesus. This is a Jesus who has every right to be frustrated. His opponents invite him to a meal, deliberately place a sick man in front of him on the sabbath, and then watch closely to see what he does. If anyone has ever been around people who are just LOOKING for a reason to play "gotcha" with you, and I certainly have, it's annoying and exhausting and sometimes dangerous to be in situations like that.
So no, Jesus was not always a "nice person." This is a reminder he is fully human, and that's a comfort to me. Jesus had a willingness to challenge authority, even when it was unpopular. Jesus came to proclaim a gospel that was new-- that's why it's called Good NEWS, after all. And that gospel was radical ESPECIALLY because of its emphasis on grace and mercy over judgment and legalism.
This follows nicely after last week's frustrated comment by Jesus that he had come to create division within families and communities. While many people were starving for that proclamation of grace, others were threatened by it. Because grace is, by its very nature, NOT bound by human notions of justice, where "justice" is used as a synonym for "punishment." As it is currently being used by far too many people today.
Getting back to the story, and I don't know about you, but especially after last week's cure of the woman on the sabbath, I smell a set-up. Could it be that they were watching him carefully because they deliberately placed this suffering man in Jesus's path to see if he would "violate" the sabbath again by curing him?
Jesus sees through the charade, so he pauses before curing the man, and places a Biblical question before his hosts, who of course were expert in the Torah: is it lawful to cure people on the sabbath? After they stare at him, he cures the man and sends him on his way. But then Jesus cites verses from the books of Leviticus and Deuteronomy that allowed exceptions to the sabbath injunction to rest.
So back to that idea that Jesus is not always "nice--" whoa, you should be able to smell the snark from here as our own gospel picks back up. Jesus watches all the guests sitting down for the meal, and he starts innocently musing about people placing themselves in places of honor-- probably just as people are scrambling around for seats. Then he tells the host not to invite the rich, or the well-connected-- out loud! In front of the guests, who probably are-- wait for it-- exactly that.
This meal is a vehicle for Jesus to explain about how we should not have distinctions among each other, and be humble within the community. It is better to humbly accept a lowly position than get above ourselves and be rebuked for putting on airs. Arrogance is destructive to community and breeds resentment.
Another way of putting it is this: “The first must be last.” This statement is expressed by Jesus in all four gospels. Thus, we are confronted with an important reminder, indeed. It is reminding us how far our priorities are from those of the kingdom of God. The highly hierarchical world of Palestine in the first century CE is not how the kingdom of God is supposed to be. Thehighly hierarchical world of "Keeping Up With the Kardashians" and "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire" of today is just the same.
So many of us are heartsick at the callousness and cruelty that has taken root in wide swaths of our world right now. The joy people take and the laughter as people are torn from their loved ones-- that sense of smug satisfaction that too many people feel when watching the suffering of others-- all the while thinking that they themselves are somehow immune from being targeted themselves.
What if we considered Jesus's urging to be welcoming and humble in light of the admonition that starts our Hebrews reading? "Let mutual love continue." And we do that by being hospitable. Look with empathy upon people in prison. Don't chase wealth over relationships.
It's normal to want "the best place" if we can get it. but Jesus says the best place is alongside others, opening ourselves to getting to know each other. Because when we get to know each other, it becomes a whole lot harder to dehumanize each other, and think that we are not dependent upon each other for all the good things in our lives, from our groceries to clean streets to entertainment-- a particularly good reminder of respect and mutuality on the Labor Day Weekend.
This brings up the second country song I was reminded of as I considered today's scripture message to us. It's from about ten years ago. It was sung by Tim McGraw, who seems to be a pretty grounded person for a country music star, and was called Humble and Kind. It was sung like a father giving advice to his kids. It included advice like
Hold the door, say "please", say "thank you"
Don't steal, don't cheat, and don't lie....
But then it closed with this admonition:
Don't take for granted the love this life gives you
When you get where you're going don't forget to turn back around
And help the next one in line
Always stay humble and kind.
I love that last stanza especially. "Don't take for granted the love this life gives you." We constantly walk around with our dukes up right now. We constantly live in a state of anxiety, or dread, or suspicion, or anger-- even if it's righteous anger. And a lot of those emotions have to do with the world's insistence on scarcity, and how that fear then makes us see each other not as fellow-community members, but as competitors.
Jesus calls us to a better way. A way of fellowship. A way of appreciation. A way of opening our eyes and seeing the love that this life gives you-- and giving us the desire to want to share that love and pass it on.
That's the best place. Opening up our hearts, humbly and joyfully to the love this life gives you. Sitting and celebrating and loving alongside everybody else.
Amen.
