Scripture: Luke 14:1; Luke 14:7-14; Genesis 4:1-9 Series: 2022
Continuing the ‘In the World’ series, this sermon on Luke 14:1, 7-14 asks how wide we draw our ‘circle of responsibility’ toward our neighbors. Using everyday examples (screen-time parenting, grocery carts, kitchen cabinets) and Cain’s evasive question, Wilson argues that humans always seek the minimum needed to count as good, but Jesus inconveniently draws the circle uncomfortably wide—commanding us to host the poor and strangers we’d never invite. Rejecting an ‘à-la-carte faith’ that softens hard teachings into mere metaphor, he insists that if Jesus truly is the risen Son of God, we cannot pick and choose. The call is not perfection but, knowing our insufficiency, to draw the circle wide together as the church, dependent on the Holy Spirit—receiving responsibility to neighbor not as burden but as the freedom and grace of the kingdom of God.
Illustrations: ephraim-grownup-screen-time, grocery-cart-return, open-kitchen-cabinets, making-the-bed, cain-and-abel-keeper, serial-killer-dinner-guest
August 28
Responsibility
“One Sabbath, when Jesus went to share a meal in the home of one of the leaders of the Pharisees, they were watching him closely. “When Jesus noticed how the guests sought out the best seats at the table, he told them a parable. “When someone invites you to a wedding celebration, don’t take your seat in the place of honor. Someone more highly regarded than you could have been invited by your host. The host who invited both of you will come and say to you, ‘Give your seat to this other person.’ Embarrassed, you will take your seat in the least important place. Instead, when you receive an invitation, go and sit in the least important place. When your host approaches you, he will say, ‘Friend, move up here to a better seat.’ Then you will be honored in the presence of all your fellow guests. All who lift themselves up will be brought low, and those who make themselves low will be lifted up.” Then Jesus said to the person who had invited him, “When you host a lunch or dinner, don’t invite your friends, your brothers and sisters, your relatives, or rich neighbors. If you do, they will invite you in return and that will be your reward. Instead, when you give a banquet, invite the poor, crippled, lame, and blind. And you will be blessed because they can’t repay you. Instead, you will be repaid when the just are resurrected.”” Luke 14:1, 7-14 CEB
One of the biggest differences between my childhood and my children’s childhood is the internet and screens. Screens are everywhere. I had screens when I was a kid, I. I spoke a few weeks ago about the video games I played as a child, but there weren’t many screens in my house. And if you were watching TV, you were stuck with whatever was on. You had no choice in the matter you couldn’t pick and choose what you wanted. But with kids today, there’s a lot of screens. There’s phones, tablets, computers, TVs, and every parent has to make their own choice on this matter and how they’re going to parent their children. I don’t think there’s a right answer, honestly, to any of it. But one of the things we do as a family is we try to have a balanced screen time. And so during the school week, the kids can’t be on the screen. And then on the weekends, they can. Sometimes, Ephraim our youngest, will be like, “gosh, I wish I could be a grownup. And then I could watch whatever I want all the time.” My response is usually, “well you could, but once you’re a grownup, you also have a certain level of responsibility.” As an adult, there are things that you do that you don’t want to do. Growing up is not about being able to do all the things you want. Depending on where we’re from, how we were raised, how we see the world, how we see our faith, we all have different levels of understanding of our responsibility. For instance, at the grocery store, there are some people who don’t return the grocery carts to the rack. This astonishes me. This is something that was ingrained to me as a child. But it’s true. As well, there are also some people who, when they open a cabinet, never close it. True confessions, one of those people would be me. I am a person who, if I’m in a kitchen, you know it because every single cabinet is open and none of them are closed. Some people have the urge to make their bed every day of their life. Others couldn’t conceive of taking the time to make it. There are different levels of responsibility in all aspects of life. But being in this world that was created by God, what is our responsibility to each other?
My friends, we are continuing our series on In the world, looking at how to live in the world, but not the world. Last week, we talked about the privileges of being a child of God. This week, it is responsibility. Responsibility is a wonderful English word made up of two other English words, response and ability, the ability to respond. Do you have the ability to respond to these situations? What we are responsible for matters because if we draw that circle of responsibility narrowly, then we don’t have to think about many things other than ourselves and our own desires. When we draw that circle narrowly, it’s like the child’s dream of being a grownup. You get to do whatever you want whenever you want. There are no consequences or limitations. There is no one to tell you to make your bed or brush your teeth or close the kitchen cabinets. You are gleefully ignorant to any consequences for your actions. We may also think that if you draw the circle too broadly, you never have a chance to rest. You never have a chance of peace.
This question deeply matters. It matters from the very beginning of the Bible. We see it after creation with Cain and Abel, the children of Adam and Eve. Cain becomes jealous of his brother, Abel, tricking him into the pasture and killing him. Then, Cain lies about it to God. When God asks him where his brother is, Cain’s response is: “am I my brother’s keeper?” What is the size of our circle? This is a question that people have been wrestling with for all of human history. As long as there has been any concept of the good or doing good to others, there has been a further concept of who should I do to good to? Who are the people I need to care about? Humans are very good about trying to figure out what is the minimum I need to do? What is the least I can do to be a good person? This is usually the question. We don’t come out and say it, but I think all of us confront it in different ways. Some of us begin with the proposition that we’re already good people. Others look at it from a perspective that we’re trying to be good people, but it is important. What is the least I must do for my neighbor? Another way this comes out is just defining who my neighbor is, who is my neighbor? Who am I responsible for? This is what it means, as a Christian, to live in the world. This question has to be confronted. Inconveniently, Jesus draws the circle wide. Jesus draws the circle very wide, uncomfortably wide. Jesus draws the circle so wide many think it’s impossible to actually follow him. We make it out that no one could actually follow the ideals of Jesus. They are beyond the scope of human possibility, but that’s how Jesus presents them.
It’s an ugly sort of à-la-carte faith that tries to say that the things in the Bible that are achievable should be take seriously, literally, but the things that are unachievable should be taken figuratively. It’s a metaphor. We should be nice to people. This passage from Luke 14 is a great example of how it is easy to take the hard teachings of Jesus less seriously. Jesus is telling us to have dinner parties and to not invite our friends, but to invite the poorest people around us. Jesus is telling us to have dinner parties at our home, in our house with homeless camps, from downtown Austin, or with anybody. What could happen? It could be dangerous. What if you let a serial killer in the house? Jesus draws the circle uncomfortably wide, and we need to face this. If we’re going to actually read the Bible and take it seriously, Jesus doesn’t offer a simple path for a stable faith life. It’s really not there. Christians have tried to create the stability which assumes one kind of family life, which assumes communal responsibilities, community engagement and involvement. The only stability Jesus offers is leaning entirely upon him. We cannot lean on ourselves, our own structures or assumptions. We cannot lean on even assumptions of safety if we are actually going to follow Jesus.
Now, when we read a passage like this and Jesus literally says to us, don’t invite your friends. Go invite the closest people you see, go invite random people. I think there are a number of ways we should read it. I think one way is we should read it is literally and we do what he says. I must confess, I haven’t tried it honestly. I’m convicted to do it, but I am not there yet. I think we should also read it is that Jesus is redefining who our neighbor is here, who we are responsible for. And our responsibility is not just to our friends and our family. It is to the people around us that we would not invite to our parties, we would not invite into our house, we would not welcome in our house, we would be offended if they entered our house. Our responsibilities as a Christian go beyond the level of our comfort.
Now, if Jesus is just a good teacher and faith is just a nice story that brings some order to the world and gives us some nice morals, that’s one thing. It’s a lot easier to have an à-la-carte faith, to pick and choose what we want to follow, to pick and choose what we want to do. To say, “oh, you know, I think Jesus is speaking really metaphorically here. He doesn’t want us to feel uncomfortable. And so I’m not going to ever do this. I’m only going to invite my friends. I’m only going to love people who look like me and act like me and think like me and live in a similar status as me. Jesus says, love your neighbor as yourself. Well, I love the neighbors in my house. I love the neighbors I already know. They’re great. I have enough friends.” This is a way that we can respond if Jesus is just a human good teacher, but if we respond this way, his death ultimately has no meeting. If, on the other hand, Jesus is the son of God, the second person of the Trinity, out of whom all things were made, the Word made Flesh that dwelt among us. If Jesus actually rose again, defeating death, offering us mercy and new life offering us the kingdom of heaven here, not just in the future here, then we should respond in a different way. Then we should be a lot less willing to pick and choose the scriptures we are going to follow. These are hard words from Jesus: what are we going to do about them? That is really the question. The question is not: are we already perfect? Are we already flawless? Are we fine with inviting anybody to our house all the time. The question is knowing our insufficiency, what are we going to do about it? Are we going to draw the circle narrow so that we think we’re doing good? Or are we going to draw the circle as Jesus does, realizing our responsibility to our neighbors and to the world and work together as the body of Christ, with the Holy Spirit, to fulfill it. When Jesus is preaching, when Jesus is speaking, he’s not always speaking to people as individuals, but to the church, teaching us how to be the church. And so we should act as the church as we draw this circle wide,. And that my brothers is our call. As Christians, we should draw the circle wide together. We should work with each other in the different gifts we all have to live in the world. That takes time. It takes a willingness to listen. It takes a willingness to admit when you’re wrong. It takes a willingness to admit when you have fallen short, it takes a willingness that goes beyond the expectations of the world which calls us to draw a circle super narrow, the call of the world which calls us to have the circle be just what we want to consume and support and nothing beyond that.
My brothers and sisters, the only way we can follow Jesus is by faith. And by the Holy Spirit: we cannot do it on our own. You cannot will yourself to it. I am not enough. You are not enough, but together, with God, we are more than enough. God has done amazing things in this world. God is doing amazing things and we can do amazing things, if we’re willing and humble to see as God sees, to read the words of Jesus and take them seriously and be convicted about how to love, about who to love, and then to actually go and do it.
My brothers and sisters, I hope you can hold me accountable to this, to draw the circle wide, to draw others into the body of Christ, to call and live out the gospel here. And now may you realize your own responsibility to your neighbors is not a burden. It’s not a way to feel guilty, but a freedom that Christ gives you that you don’t have to be the one to draw that circle. You can live into the kingdom of God and receive grace to love your neighbor, whoever they are, wherever they are, to love them through the Spirit together.
Let us pray. Heavenly father, your call is daunting, but your yoke is easy and your burden is light. Help us to be your church, help us to be your body. Help us to be your hands and feet and live into your kingdom now. In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.