Preached at First Presbyterian Church of Rolla on August 31, 2025. Based on Luke 14: 1, 7-14.

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Recently, Vicki and Lloyd turned me onto a great book called Jesus Through Middle Eastern Eyes by Kenneth E. Bailey. He was from Bloomington, IL, attended Pittsburgh Theological Seminary, and was an ordained PC(USA) pastor. However, he spent most of his career in the Middle East—Egypt, Lebanon, Cyprus, and Israel. Being immersed in Middle Eastern culture but educated in the West, he had a unique ability to analyze parables and other scriptural lessons that rely on their original culture and to translate them to our culture.

One takeaway is that Jewish writings are replete with a certain rhetorical form that he calls a “ring” structure. It’s a seven-part structure with symmetry, A-B-C-D-C-B-A, that emphasizes the middle of the passage. We’re used to focusing on the end, the conclusion of the passage, but common Biblical rhetoric emphasizes the middle.

Today’s lectionary reading has two short parables. The first one is about choosing your place at the table. The center of the ring structure is this: “when you are invited, go and sit down at the lowest place.” Huh, that’s odd. Why is that so important?

Well, let’s consider the setup. Jesus is dining at the house of a Pharisee on the Sabbath, and “they were watching him closely.” There is a short story that the lectionary skips over that is almost the same as last week’s reading: a man is suffering and Jesus heals him on the Sabbath, to the consternation of those who are gathered. These particular Pharisees have invited Jesus to dine with them not because they wanted to honor him, but because they wanted to catch him doing something wrong, something they could attack. So what does he do? He tells a story that reflects back their dishonor. He points out their obsession with honor and status, their self-righteousness, their self-centeredness.

Then he tells another short parable, which has an abbreviated ring structure that still puts emphasis on the middle statement: “when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind.” Where the first short parable talks about the proper behavior of guests, this one addresses the proper behavior of a host. In a world built on reciprocity, Jesus says, Don’t worry about being repaid, just do what’s right.

OK, maybe Jesus was just talking about the best way to throw a good party, but I doubt it. If that was all, nobody would have written these stories down, let alone put them in the Bible. Instead, I think Jesus was talking about THE Party, the glorious banquet that awaits us in the eschaton, at the end of history. From Isaiah:

On this mountain the Lord of hosts will make for all peoples

    a feast of rich food, a feast of well-aged wines,

    of rich food filled with marrow, of well-aged wines strained clear.

And he will destroy on this mountain

    the shroud that is cast over all peoples,

    the covering that is spread over all nations;

    he will swallow up death forever.

Then the Lord God will wipe away the tears from all faces,

    and the disgrace of his people he will take away from all the earth,

    for the Lord has spoken.

It will be said on that day,

    “See, this is our God; we have waited for him, so that he might save us.

    This is the Lord for whom we have waited;

    let us be glad and rejoice in his salvation.”

Isaiah 25:6-9

You know me—I always preach about the kingdom of God, which is universal flourishing. But you know what else God’s kingdom is? It’s a party! It’s a wonderful banquet that awaits us, a joyful banquet where Christ is our host!

So when you read parables about wedding banquets, you should always be thinking of what Jesus is teaching about His kingdom. In the first parable, the central teaching is: humble thyself. Do not take a seat of honor, lest you be demoted. Instead, take a low place and let Christ raise you. I am resisting the urge to sing “Humble Thyself,” but many of you know that song. Humble thyself in the sight of the Lord, and He will lift you up.

There are many, many problems in the modern Christian church, but I would say chief among them is hypocrisy, which is bound up with self-righteousness. The hypocrite says, You need to follow rule X, but I don’t really need to because I’m already holier than thou. We see it in politics—Christians holding members of their own party to lower standards than the other party, simply because the politician tells them what they want to hear. We see it in sports—fans tolerating behavior from star players on their team that they criticize from opposing players. And of course we see it in church governance—witness the many cases of sexual misconduct and abusive, exploitative behavior that church authorities have covered up in order to protect one of their own.

The truth is, we all need to pursue God’s righteousness, but we all need to recognize that we are no more or less worthy of membership in God’s kingdom than anyone else. Jesus didn’t tell the Pharisees that they shouldn’t go to a banquet, only that they should not think themselves better than other guests. Christ invites everyone to His Table. We have not earned the right to join Him. We come as guests invited.

And that’s a message for everyone, myself included. Maybe especially me, and people like me. I have a title and a role. On campus, I’m Dr. Kimball, professor and department chair. Here, I’m commissioned ruling elder or lay pastor. But in God’s kingdom, I’m just Jonathan. Those titles and roles mark me as someone who has certain training and is called to serve in a certain way, but the Lord does not look on our outward appearance. The Lord looks at the heart.

And the same goes for everyone here. Each of you has been given certain gifts and certain roles, in the church and in your life. A huge fraction of the congregation has at some point in time served as a deacon, an elder, or both. When you are ordained, you are marked as someone who the congregation recognizes, through the Holy Spirit, as capable of fulfilling an important part of our church’s ministry. When you are installed, you are marked as someone who is important to our church’s ministry at that particular time. But that does not make you any more worthy of honor in God’s kingdom than the others in the congregation.

Nor, for that matter, does it make you any more worthy of honor in God’s kingdom than those outside the church. That’s part of the hypocrisy and self-righteousness that is so pervasive in American Christianity. The belief that insiders, people who go to church—as long as it’s the right kind of church—are somehow better in God’s eyes than outsiders. We’re not.

What sets us apart from church outsiders is not worthiness, but spiritual enrichment. We come to church on Sundays, and read, and pray, and join in Christian fellowship, and engage in a wide range of spiritual practices, so that we can fill our faith cups. You can’t pour from an empty cup, so it is essential to find a way to recharge, to abide in Christ so that Christ can abide in you. We all have different needs, but I hope that worshipping together satisfies some of your spiritual hunger. I am spiritually restored in many other ways. I read the Bible, I pray, I run, I serve at the Mission, and I have some dear friends who nourish my soul. Each of us needs to find the combination of spiritual disciplines that will fill us.

But the point of spiritual enrichment is not personal satisfaction. Maslow’s hierarchy of needs has physiological and safety needs at the bottom, followed by love & belonging, esteem, and self-actualization. The baseline need that a church should fulfill is love & belonging. Everyone should be able to find a church that will embrace them just as they are and will love them as a fellow sibling in Christ. If a person can find such a place, they can begin to flourish and hopefully have their esteem needs fulfilled and pursue self-actualization.

But the pinnacle of Maslow’s hierarchy is something more: self-transcendence. The goal of the spiritual journey is to be able to share the abundant life that God gives each of us. Our faith cup shouldn’t just have some dregs in the bottom. It should be overflowing, so that we have spiritual food to share.

I’m often reminded of the dark valley of my life back in 2013, when Rhonda was battling facial pain. I was empty. I was drained. I was hopeless. Into that dark place stepped so many people who were filled with God’s light—deacons, friends, and others who could share from their abundance. I don’t mean time or money, I mean spiritual abundance. You all helped me through that dark time and helped me become the man I am today. In the same way, I strive to fill my faith cup, through worship, study, prayer, and fellowship, so that I have spiritual resources to share with those who are struggling.

The second short parable centers on the admonition to “invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind.” Now, I believe in God’s preferential option for the poor. I do believe that Jesus was telling the rich Pharisees to share their material abundance with those who were in need. In that time and place, being crippled, lame, or blind meant being a beggar, so in all of those ways, Jesus is saying that we should share from our material wealth. But remember, he is also teaching us something about the kingdom of God. He is telling us to include those who the world deems unworthy. He is telling us to welcome the outcast, those who are spiritually hungry, those who are treated as unworthy of receiving God’s abundant life, and bring them into our fellowship. As United Methodist pastor Rev. Eston Williams said, “At the end of the day, I’d rather be excluded for who I include than included for who I exclude.” Jesus is telling the religious traditionalists that on the Last Day, at the end of history, everyone will be welcome in His heavenly banquet.

But the kingdom of God is at hand! The kingdom of God doesn’t only come at the end of history. It comes here and now. We can experience a foretaste of the heavenly kingdom whenever we live as Jesus taught us to live: with open hearts, minds, and doors, welcoming the stranger, comforting the broken-hearted.

You may recall that last year around this time, I asked you all to evaluate this church against the six Great Ends of the Church. I was surprised to see that by and large, everyone rated us pretty high on all measures. I would say that we do pretty well on some, and less well on others. But the one that really matters to me is the last one listed in the Book of Order: The exhibition of the kingdom of heaven to the world. To me, that is the core of the Gospel: living into the kingdom of heaven now, not when we die, not at the end of history when all things are reconciled to God. Now.

But how do we do that? The other Great Ends build up to it. The shelter, nurture, and spiritual fellowship of the children of God, along with the maintenance of divine worship, helps us all individually and as a congregation to build up spiritual riches that we can share. We leave on Sunday, or on Wednesday after Bible study or choir practice, or on Friday after First Friday Out, filled with the Spirit, refreshed and renewed in our commitment to God. That empowers us to proclaim the gospel for the salvation of humankind and promote social righteousness.

For as long as I’ve been in this church, we have talked about the importance of reaching the community. The key is human connection. The key is relationships. We don’t need a program or a media blitz. We need to love those who are spiritually hungry, in word and deed. Not by telling them about God’s love, but by showing them love. Entering into relationships of mutual respect and love, not from a position of superiority or special blessedness, but as a channel of the Holy Spirit. Embracing those outside the church as beloved children of God, equally worthy of honor at God’s Table.

We have been given a great gift: each other. Let us be united in our commitment to the divine Truth that all are worthy of full participation in God’s kingdom, which is universal flourishing. Let us lean on each other to be filled with the Spirit, and then share our spiritual bounty with our community. Amen.

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Preached at First Presbyterian Church of Rolla on August 10, 2025. Based on Luke 12:32-40.

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Last week, Susan talked about being rich towards God. Today’s passage continues the theme. But here, Luke writes that we are to lay up treasure in heaven, which is just a little bit different. Let’s see if we can figure out what Jesus was trying to teach his disciples.

How do we lay up heavenly treasure? One way is to worship God. I mean, that’s kind of why we’re here, right? To earn our Jesus Points™? Oh, but wait a minute, Jesus Points aren’t real! Under the old Temple sacrificial system, people would bring animals and other items to sacrifice as a way of getting in God’s good graces, earning Adonai Points so to speak. In about 760 BCE, during a time of great prosperity for the Israelites, Amos was chosen as a prophet and sent to God’s people with these words (Amos 5:21-24):

 ²¹ I hate, I despise your festivals,
    and I take no delight in your solemn assemblies.
²² Even though you offer me your burnt offerings and grain offerings,
    I will not accept them,
and the offerings of well-being of your fatted animals
    I will not look upon.
²³ Take away from me the noise of your songs;
    I will not listen to the melody of your harps.
²⁴ But let justice roll down like water
    and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.

Now, Amos isn’t saying that worship is pointless. Rather, he is saying that worship is not the real goal. The real goal is justice and righteousness. We come to worship God so that we are empowered and inspired to pursue justice and righteousness in our daily lives outside these four walls. Here, justice doesn’t mean tit-for-tat punishment and revenge, and righteousness doesn’t mean being completely pure of heart. Justice is restoring wholeness where there has been harm, and righteousness means the pursuit of that which is right in God’s eyes, rather than what seems good to our selfish desires.

Jesus’s guidance to his followers is to allocate our resources in accordance with God’s justice and righteousness, that is, to allocate our resources in the pursuit of God’s kingdom, which is universal flourishing. As we allocate our resources, so also we will believe and behave. This is a reminder that a church budget is a theological statement, and a personal budget reflects a person’s true values.

In preparation for this sermon, I ran a report of my last twelve months of spending. I was pleasantly surprised that the single biggest category was charitable giving. Next was the cost of our accessible van, including both the loan payments and the major repair we did in January. Then comes the mortgage, then vacations including the cruise we just took, then retirement savings, then groceries. I was a little surprised to find that hunting is less than 2% of my annual budget, about half of what we spend on eating out. So then I asked myself: Is this appropriate? Well, let’s see. Putting God first by giving to charity: check. Van and house for the sake of Rhonda’s quality of life: check. Vacations while Rhonda is still capable of enjoying them, and so that I can recharge, and so that we can keep our relationship refreshed: check. Food: check. That all adds up to about 2/3 of the total. I’m less certain about the relative importance of the smaller buckets, but overall, I’m satisfied.

Then I took a look at the church budget. Now I will say that our expenditures do not necessarily track the budget exactly, but the budget gives us a starting point for discussion. Over the past year, I’ve met with most of the people in the congregation, and it seems like everyone’s priority is worship. The total budget allocation to worship, including Jeff, Lorie, Susan, and me, plus things like organ and piano maintenance, is 17.5% of the annual budget. The two larger categories are the building, at 18.2%, and the non-worship personnel, at 37.8%. Our per capita obligation to the presbytery is 1.9%, and what we allocate to ministries other than worship such as fellowship, education, and the deacons’ activities total less than 1%.

So in effect, the largest portion of our annual budget is to maintain the building and our daily operations, not our worship. Hmm. I don’t think this is what we would choose if we were making a conscious allocation of resources based on the congregation that we have today. Rather, it is the result of decades of cutting back anything deemed non-essential, including a full-time pastor, coupled with a building that was constructed for a very different congregation 60 years ago. I am pleased that we still allocate a significant portion to missions, 3.5%.

Another resource that we all have, some would say our most valuable resource, is time. I looked at my “typical” schedule from last spring. In a given week, I spend roughly equal time on teaching my class and leading this church. I spend more than twice that amount in various meetings related to being department chair. In April and May, my daytime calendar was basically filled with meetings and events almost every weekday. I try to allocate half an hour or more to spiritual development every day, and half an hour or more to running every day. I feel reasonably good about the allocation of my calendar even though it can be a real grind sometimes. I’m naturally an introvert, so even though I recognize the value in having meetings both to get things done and to foster relationships, they can be really draining for me.

Am I “laying up treasure in heaven” with the way I spend my time? Well, I spend roughly one-seventh of my waking hours on commitments to God, whether serving the church or working at the Mission or focusing on my own spiritual development. I’d say that’s not bad. I would recommend that everyone does an assessment of how you allocate your time and your money and see if it aligns with your values.

The point is to pay attention to the right things, and to act in pursuit of justice and righteousness. People often comment on how much I do. One way I can do so many different things is that I see everything I do as part of the same goal. What is the core message of the Gospel? The kingdom of God is at hand! God’s kingdom is universal human flourishing. Whether I am preaching, or teaching engineering, or meeting with my colleagues, or working in the community, my goal is to foster human flourishing. When I’m running or studying, I’m working towards my own flourishing.

The second part of today’s lesson is all about being ready. Jesus said, “Be dressed for action…like those who are waiting for their master to return from the wedding banquet. … You…must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.” This is an echo of Matthew 25, which tells us to keep our lamps lit like the maidens at the wedding waiting for the bridegroom, and also to watch for Jesus to show up in the form of the hungry, the naked, the prisoner—the least of these children of God. We stay ready by paying attention to the right things. We stay ready by spending our time and money in ways that are in accord with God’s claim on our lives. We stay ready by keeping informed about world events like wars, famine, and disease. We stay ready by staying engaged with our community and aware of the needs of our neighbors. We stay ready by learning about the lived experiences of those who are different from us, different by age or class or race or gender or education or socioeconomic status. We stay ready by fulfilling our own spiritual needs, as well as our own material and emotional and relational needs, so that we have resources to help others fulfill their needs. And I want to emphasize that word: our needs.

Unfortunately, most of us put our trust in the wrong things. Rather than stepping out in faith and relying on God to provide, we trust on our own ability to provide. We cling to more than we need. We trust in people and systems that claim to offer security in exchange for our obedience. Why? Fear. Walter Brueggemann wrote,

“The truth is that frightened people will never turn the world, because they use too much energy on protection of self. It is the vocation of the baptized, the known and named and unafraid, to make the world whole. The unafraid are open to the neighbor, while the frightened are defending themselves from the neighbor. The unafraid are generous in the community, while the frightened, in their anxiety, must keep and store and accumulate, to make themselves safe. The unafraid commit acts of compassion and mercy, while the frightened do not notice those in need. The unafraid are committed to justice for the weak and the poor, while the frightened see them only as threats. The unafraid pray in the morning, care through the day, and rejoice at night in thanks and praise, while the frightened are endlessly restless and dissatisfied. So dear people, each of you: Do not fear! I have called you by name; you are mine!” says the Lord.

Throughout the Bible, God’s message is clear, as it is in the opening of today’s passage: “Do not be afraid, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.” Now, that doesn’t mean that you should be irrational and wasteful. It means that you should focus on God’s kingdom, on helping other people to flourish, on building strong relationships. If you are doing God’s work, people will want to be a part of it.

Take The Rolla Mission for example. They are not a Christian organization, although they were started by a church. However, they are clearly following Jesus’s command to care for the least of his siblings. They have done a phenomenal job for many years. Sara Buell gave a great presentation to the city council this past Monday. Some sample statistics over the last year: 92 jobs secured, 136 people into housing, almost 33,000 meals served and more than 16,000 loads of laundry, and furnishing for 208 new homes.

Any time I’ve spoken with Ashley Brooks about the Mission’s funding, she has been unconcerned. In her early days as their only employee, she would worry about it a lot, but she soon realized that all she needed to do was to tell people about the Mission’s good work, and they would want to be a part of it. Now, that doesn’t mean she doesn’t keep working on keeping the funding flowing—far from it. Sara, who gave the presentation, is a full-time staff member dedicated to donor relations. Ashley frequently submits grant applications. The organization is committed to responsible fiscal management; for example, they didn’t replace one staff member who left because of the federal funding uncertainties. But the Mission doesn’t worry about the future. They just keep looking for ways to help the community, knowing that if they are doing good work, the resources will come.

We too are called to live that way, as individuals and as an organization. Rather than hoarding our time and money, being stingy with our resources out of fear, we are called to be generous as God is generous. We are called to build strong relationships and foster the flourishing of our neighbors, our community, and the world. We are called to step out in faith, to proclaim the gospel for the salvation of humankind, to promote social righteousness, and to exhibit the kingdom of heaven to the world, even as we continue to maintain divine worship and to shelter and nurture the children of God in spiritual fellowship. In these ways, we preserve the Truth that is God’s love for us all. We preserve the Truth that God will make a way for us. And we lay up treasure in heaven, God’s eternal provision that will sustain us always. Amen.

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