Opening Chapel 8/28/13
Proper 17, Year C Luke 14:1, 7-14
Musical Chairs
Focus Statement: God calls for a humility of heart and actions.
Function Statement: To challenge the graduate school community to live in a non-competitive way with one another.
Video of Opening Chapel at the Graduate School of Theology, Abilene Christian University
Welcome to Graduate Chapel!
While at Duke I was given the assignment to write a series of sermons from the Lectionary that covered one season. I chose Easter. There are seven Sundays in Easter and the assignment felt manageable. I chose the seven Sundays of Easter because the Lectionary followed the book of Acts (lectio semi-continua). The assignment also asked me to preach one of those sermons. One student responded, “It doesn’t feel like Easter. It feels like Advent.” Everyone else in class chose Advent (only four Sundays in Advent). They had not chosen Advent because the season was short, but because Advent was rising on the horizon. They all had a deep sense of sacred time. “I may never know what Advent feels like.” While I have a keen sense of the time of the day, I do not have a keen sense of the time of the season.
- Throughout my years at Graduate Chapel, organizers have created a rhythm out of a deep sense of sacred time. Spiritual Themes or Sacred Texts have organized their planning. It has not been haphazard. And organizers in the past have created connections with the Christian Year, particularly certain days like All Saints Day and Easter, or certain seasons most notably Advent and Lent.
- Growing up in a Free Church tradition, I did not learn about sacred time. The Sunday closest to Jan 1—resolutions; July 4—freedom; late May—graduation Sunday; Nov—thanksgiving; etc. The tension was evident to me one Sunday morning when I realized that the occasion was Mothers Day and Ascension Sunday. And to quote that sermon in 2005 @ Eastland Presbyterian.
I appreciate the invitation to come and speak to you on this special day. I personally lack the capacity to handle, to juggle, the times and the seasons when they come into conflict. For example, Mother’s Day and my Father’s birthday often overlap. You know the phone call, “Happy Mother’s Day.” She responds, “Thanks. I just finished talking to your brother. What about your Father’s birthday yesterday? Is his card in the mail?” Mother’s Day is an important day, a time to remember and appreciate the many women who have loved us and nurtured us along our journeys to adulthood. … a time to affirm mothers who are currently engaged in R & R (run and rassle). … and a time to comfort mothers who have lost children or to comfort children who grew up without the gentle hand of a mother, to comfort men and women who are childless.
But sometimes the seasons of the year come into conflict and we make choices. At home, we make choices to go to mom’s favorite restaurant, to buy flowers and cards, to do extra chores around the house etc. … But at church, we may graciously acknowledge our mothers, but we choose to emphasize the Lord’s time, to emphasize the Lord’s season, and emphasize the Lord’s Day.
Eusebius, Bishop of Nicomedia (341 C.E.) was the first to establish Ascension as a separate and special day. …
This semester we will be using the lectionary as the rhythm for Graduate Chapel in order to participate in the rhythm of the Christian Year. And it’s odd practice, an odd choice because the academic year beats differently. For example, we are currently in Year C that tracks primarily through the Gospel of Luke. It is the season of Pentecost or sometimes called Ordinary Time. This coming Sunday is designated Proper 17, counting off the days of Ordinary Time. The Christian Year will not start for 16 more Sundays, December 1, the first Sunday of Advent, Year A and the Gospel of Matthew. Its odd to begin the academic year in the middle of a Christian season that is well underway. But for this year, Graduate Chapel is not going to beat with the drum of the academic year, but pick up, Lord willing, in mid-season of Ordinary Time in order to hear a Word from the Lord.
That said, this coming Sunday is Proper 17 and the Gospel text is Luke 14:7-14. Here the Word of the Lord.
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Will Willimon once remarked in class that preachers should resist running from the lectionary text on any given Sunday. While events of the week might spur the preacher to seek a relevant text, Willimon would say, “Don’t,” you might be surprised how relevant the pre selected lection might be. And as I look at Luke 14, Willimon’s advice pricks close to heart. While not a text that comes to mind to kick off a new semester with wit and optimism, it is what it is.
You heard the text read. It is one of many mealtime texts in Luke. The Gospel of Luke uses mealtimes to emphasize social inequalities. People noticed where one ate (5:29), with whom one ate (5:30), whether one washed before eating (7 & 11), and where one sat to eat (14), and who is invted (14). All of these matters determined one’s social position.
Today’s text is the one where folks are playing musical chairs. You know the game—keep your eye on the chairàthe prize; and your eye on the other playersàthe competition. And when it gets down to just the last few chairs, you know there’s going to be someone with an elbow here, a knocked down chair there, and someone crying foul. It’s the game of chairs where high society knows your status by the social graces you practice. Proper decorum and social conventions are indicators of your pecking order. And it happens in other segments of society. All cultures, societies, clans, tribes, neighborhoods, and kinfolks know the rules and the standings.
And churches and schools are no different.
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| And Me, I’ve already named drop Duke twice and Willimon once. We certainly like footnoting ourselves. |
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America teaches us to be assertive, aggressive, and self-confident in order to get ahead, win the prize, and be noticed.
- In any context, we can learn the rules of the game in order to win. Taking the low seat because one is humble is one thing. To take the low seat as a way to move up is quite another. You see, this is not good advice on how to be exalted. Can you imagine the scene where twenty-five adults are arguing about the low seat because of their desire to get the high seat? Like playing the game of musical chairs and no one sits down.
So as we all begin this academic year, where many of the systemic structures are designed around competing, advancing, achieving, and winning—Our faith let’s us not only imagine a different way, but to live into a different set of virtues and practices.
Jesus radically reverses the social order. In order to climb the ladder of success, you step down. In order to win, you lose. In order to lead, you serve. In order to live, you die. In order to be resurrected, you are crucified. There are no reserved seats. There are no designated parking spaces. There are no corner offices in the Kingdom of God. For all who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted. – And that, only by God.
The Word of the Lord.