Jesus' Cutting Edge Play

Luke 16:19-31

Jesus said: “There was a rich man who was dressed in purple and fine linen and who feasted sumptuously every day.  And at his gate lay a poor man named Lazarus, covered with sores, who longed to satisfy his hunger with what fell from the rich man’s table; even the dogs would come and lick his sores.  The poor man died and was carried away by the angels to be with Abraham. The rich man also died and was buried.  In Hades, where he was being tormented, he lifted up his eyes and saw Abraham far away with Lazarus by his side.  He called out, ‘Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, for I am in agony in these flames.’  But Abraham said, ‘Child, remember that during your lifetime you received your good things and Lazarus in like manner evil things, but now he is comforted here, and you are in agony.  Besides all this, between you and us a great chasm has been fixed, so that those who might want to pass from here to you cannot do so, and no one can cross from there to us.’  He said, ‘Then I beg you, father, to send him to my father’s house for I have five brothers—that he may warn them, so that they will not also come into this place of torment.’  Abraham replied, ‘They have Moses and the prophets; they should listen to them.’  He said, ‘No, father Abraham, but if someone from the dead goes to them, they will repent.’  He said to him, ‘If they do not listen to Moses and the prophets, neither will they be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.’ ”

Two different theaters.  Two different audiences.  Two different sets… BUT… One script.  One play.  Each audience sees BOTH the live actors on their stage, AND through a video “window” sees the other set, on the other stage, in the other theater.  And vice versa.  Two different perspectives on the exact same play.  Got it?  In one theater, the live scene is a rich person eating a lavish meal alone (Willi and Jules alternate playing this role).  The butler (played by John-Arthur and Teak) stands close at hand.  In the OTHER theater the live scene is the street outside.  There, a very sick and homeless person (Michael Siktberg and Wendy share this role) struggles to stay warm… their body cold and wracked with pain.  Their dog licks them in love but even that gentle, loving, touch just causes added pain.  The lights fade.  The homeless person dies.  

Immediately there is a knock on the rich person's door.  The butler answers.  “Death is here to see you” says the butler.  “Can’t he see I’m eating” shouts the rich person, “I have no time for Death right now!” “Death seems rather insistent” says the Butler and at that moment the rich person clenches their chest, falls to the floor, dies dramatically and the lights go out.

Both sets now dark, change and as the lights come back up we see on the one stage a wise looking person (played alternatively by Howard Sherman and Donna Bullock) sitting on a park bench with a much healthier, fully restored Lazarus/Lazara.  On the other stage the rich person is pedaling an ancient exercise bicycle wearing a 70’s era sweatsuit, in a gym that looks like a Cold War era concrete bunker.  “Jeeves!  Jeeves!” yells the rich person.  “Where is that damn butler!  This heat is intolerable!”  Looking out the “window” they yell to wisened figure on the bench.  “HEY!  You!  Yeah, you, yes… I’m talking to you!  It’s really hot here.  How about sending one of “those people” (waving toward Lazarus/Lazara) down here with a bottle of San Pellegrino.  Make sure it’s ice cold!”

The wise figure on the bench replies, “Oh Child, during your lifetime you received many good things while Lazarus here had a horrible time of it, but now it seems the situation has become reversed.  But that’s not even the real problem.  The real problem is this great chasm your life dug that makes us getting to you or you getting over here simply impossible.  “Yeah, I see that.  It's the greatest chasm!” Says the rich person.  “Okay, so here’s what I need you to do then.  Send, whose-itz, the poxy person there on the bench with you, uhhh Laz-whatever, yeah, them… Send them to my brothers to warn them about all this.  Got that?”  Abriana/Abraham replies, “Your brothers have been told how to treat other people.  They know Moses and the Prophets.  They know right from wrong… justice from injustice… they just need to do it.”

“No, no, no, no, you don’t know my brothers.  They think all that ‘do justice, love kindness’ crap is… well, crap!  They just love using religious nationalism to manipulate people.  They don’t actually BELIEVE the religion part.  They certainly don’t DO it!  BUT!  I'm sure they would listen to a dead person!”  Abraham/Abriana replies.  “If they don’t listen to Moses and the prophets, they’re not gonna listen to anybody.  Even somebody raised from the dead!”  And with that, the lights on the stage dim and an woman’s voice with a very Eastern European accent yells through a speaker, “1000 year aerobics starts NOW and YOU’RE LATE!!!!”… and… Scene.

Okay, it needs to be worked up into a full script, I know, but you get the take home message that Jesus’ play is trying to communicate, right?  It’s not riches that landed the one person in the gym from hell and it wasn’t poverty that got the other a spot on the bench in the park.  It was that one of them KNEW they were NOT God and KNEW only God was in control and KNEW that God’s love and GRACE was their only salvation.  The other continually insisted THEY were in complete control and that THEIR power, success, and influence was their salvation.  Even DEATH was unable to knock that false notion from their minds!  Even pedaling away in the gym from hell they STILL tried to throw their weight around and boost themselves up on the backs of others.  In their minds they NEVER needed Grace in life… they were SURE as hell they didn’t need Grace now!  They just needed one of “THOSE PEOPLE” to know their place, turn up the air, and get them some cold mineral water!”  

THAT manipulative “I’m better than them” way of seeing their neighbors… that “I am Self Made and need no one’s help” delusion… that insistence that the world revolves around Me, Myself, and I… all of THAT is what had dug that great chasm and the only way they would ever bridge that divide, in this life or in the next, would be to realize and confess the truth… that on their own they were lost… they were stuck… that they were nothing… that they were DEAD and would always stay dead without God and without the free gift of Grace that God has given to everyone and all of creation. 

Jesus wrote this play to remind us that it is only through DEATH that we receive life!  Only when we DIE to our need to be in control… DIE to the idea that our own power, possessions, and position can give us life… DIE to the thinking that some people can be treated as less than neighbors and less than fellow children of God… only then… only when all of that DIES within us… only then will we find ourselves finally OPEN to receiving God’s freely given gift of Grace.  A gift that has been ours all along with only a chasm of our own creation keeping us from picking up that gift and living into the real and abundant life God created us all to live.  Amen

Don't Do LOST Alone!

Luke 16:1-13

Then Jesus said to the disciples, “There was a rich man who had a manager, and charges were brought to him that this man was squandering his property.  So he summoned him and said to him, ‘What is this that I hear about you? Give me an accounting of your management because you cannot be my manager any longer.’  Then the manager said to himself, ‘What will I do, now that my master is taking the position away from me? I am not strong enough to dig, and I am ashamed to beg.  I have decided what to do so that, when I am dismissed as manager, people may welcome me into their homes.’  So, summoning his master’s debtors one by one, he asked the first, ‘How much do you owe my master?’  He answered, ‘A hundred jugs of olive oil.’ He said to him, ‘Take your bill, sit down quickly, and make it fifty.’  Then he asked another, ‘And how much do you owe?’ He replied, ‘A hundred containers of wheat.’ He said to him, ‘Take your bill and make it eighty.’  And his master commended the dishonest manager because he had acted shrewdly, for the children of this age are more shrewd in dealing with their own generation than are the children of light.  And I tell you, make friends for yourselves by means of dishonest wealth so that when it is gone they may welcome you into the eternal homes.

   “Whoever is faithful in a very little is faithful also in much, and whoever is dishonest in a very little is dishonest also in much.  If, then, you have not been faithful with the dishonest wealth, who will entrust to you the true riches?  And if you have not been faithful with what belongs to another, who will give you what is your own?  No slave can serve two masters, for a slave will either hate the one and love the other or be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth.”

Parables are stories that take us from somewhere familiar to a place we might see the Divine from a new point of view.  The characters… the sheep, coins, managers… they are just vehicles to get us there.  They are not the destination.  We are NOT meant, for example, to read the Parable of the Lost Sheep and conclude that leaving 99 sheep unattended in the wilderness to go looking for one is good shepherding practice.  Only Wile E. Coyote would suggest that shepherding practice and he’s never had any sheep’s best interest at heart!

 

Last week Jesus used a sheep and a coin as vehicles to take us to a place where we could see how humans get lost and how God responds.  Head down, eat some grass, wander off, look up and discover… we’re lost OR be suddenly dropped by life right on our heads… or on our tails… like a coin.  A sudden and painful crash… and we’re lost.  In this week’s Gospel Jesus uses a Manager to drive us back to that very same place to look once again at a human getting lost.  LOTS of people I read this past week were absolutely sure this Manager was the “sheep wandering off” kind of lost.  They were sure he was guilty as charged.  BUT let’s read it again…“There was a rich man who had a manager, and charges were brought to the rich man that this manager was squandering his property.  So the rich man summoned his manager and said to him, ‘What is this that I hear about you?  Give me an accounting of your management because you cannot be my manager any longer.’

So basically Chad came up to the rich guy at the country club and told him, “I heard on the back nine that your manager is a shady dude.”  The rich man gets in his car and races back to the shop.  He calls in the manager, accuses him, tells him to turn in the books, and tells him he’s fired.  No investigation.  No evidence.  No defense allowed.  Just fired on Chad’s rumor from the country club.  

So, was the manager guilty as charged… lost like a sheep who wandered off?  Maybe.  Or was the manager lost like a coin, dropped on his head by an unsubstantiated rumor spread by Chad?  The answer is “The text doesn’t say!”  It could actually be either one and I think Jesus told this parable that way ON PURPOSE to remind us all one more time… THE WAY WE GET LOST JUST DOESN’T MATTER TO GOD!  Why?  BECAUSE FINDING THE LOST, HOWEVER THEY GOT THAT WAY, IS BOTH THE DIVINE’S SPECIALTY AND GREAT JOY! 

Whether he got lost as a result of his own long practiced book cooking or because Chad at the Country Club did him dirty, just doesn’t matter.  Either way is reputation is ruined.  Either way he’ll never get another accounting job.  Either way he can’t dig ditches.  Either way he doesn’t want to beg.  Either way he’s just… LOST.  The Good News for the Manager… the Good News for You and the Good News for me is that the ONLY thing any of us needs to DO to get God out searching for us… the only prerequisite there is for God scooping us up and carrying us home… the only requirement we need to fulfill in order to get the Divine to call for a party with the Heavenly Host… is that we be totally, completely, absolutely, and unequivocally LOST.  Lost like a sheep.  Lost like a coin.  Lost like the manager.  Lost like an American in 2025.  Doesn’t matter the KIND of LOST you get.  God could not care less.  Why?  Because God just LOVES finding the lost, bringing us home, and throwing a party to celebrate!  Finding the Lost, Bringing Light out of Darkness, Raising the Dead… It’s God’s Jam!  The church calls God’s Jam “Grace” and Jesus thought that understanding the radical, unconditional, and unlimited nature of God’s Grace was SO important that he told around 16 different Parables of Grace… ALL driving us to the same place in the hope that we might finally see and then reflect into the world the radical, unconditional, unlimited nature of God’s Grace and allow it to change the world into the dream God has for it!

As I looked out at the world and into my mirror this week my first thought was, “Hey Jesus!  16 Parables of Grace weren’t enough!  We still don’t get it!”  But then it occurred to me that Jesus had a second place he was driving us with this parable.  We see that second place in what the manager did AFTER he got fired.  In THAT place he chose NOT to do LOST alone.  He reached out to his community by any means necessary.  He gave radical, unearned, un-asked-for grace to those around him and unashamedly hoped to receive the same in kind.  Was THAT the shrewdness the rich man saw in his manager’s actions?  Choosing NOT to do LOST alone but to instead lean into his community DOING radical grace and not caring if the world thought it was shrewd or dishonest or anything else?  

Many of us feel quite lost these days.  I know I do.  Perhaps it isn’t an undiscovered 17th parable of Grace that we need for study, but rather to start DOING what that manager did:  Invite our community to come in close.  Be unafraid of using both hook and crook to get them there and then start DOING radical acts of grace without caring if it is seen as shrewd or foolish… honest or dishonest.  Perhaps we don’t need to hear any more stories ABOUT Grace.  Perhaps it is simply time we start DOING it.  Amen. 

Major Shaky McFumblefingers

Luke 15:1-10

Now all the tax collectors and sinners were coming near to listen to Jesus.  And the Pharisees and the scribes were grumbling and saying, “This fellow welcomes sinners and eats with them.”

So he told them this parable: “Which one of you, having a hundred sheep and losing one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness and go after the one that is lost until he finds it?  And when he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders and rejoices.  And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and neighbors, saying to them, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found my lost sheep.’  Just so, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance.

“Or what woman having ten silver coins, if she loses one of them, does not light a lamp, sweep the house, and search carefully until she finds it?  And when she has found it, she calls together her friends and neighbors, saying, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found the coin that I had lost.’  Just so, I tell you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.”

This lesson highlights two ways to get lost.  Neither recommended and yet both universal and unavoidable.  The first is like a sheep.  Head down, eat some grass, spot the next tuft, move, munch, repeat until one day you look up, have no idea where you are, and discover… you’re lost.  The other way we get lost is to be suddenly and unceremoniously dropped by life right on our heads… or on our tails… like a coin.  In one sudden and painful crash, sometimes followed by a brief or extended, wobbling roll… we find ourselves concussed and wedged in some unexpected, unknown, and very undesirable spot.  Head spinning.  Lost.  

I see you all nodding.  We’ve all wandered off like sheep.  We’ve all been dropped on our heads by life, like a coin.  We’ve all been lost.  Many of us feel lost right now!  So why do we pretend for the world that we are not?  Why do we, like the Pharisees and the Scribes in this story, not admit to wandering off inadvertently or that life has dropped us on our head and we feel like we’ve rolled into some deep, dark, life-crisis crevasse?  Why is it, that when we are asked, “how are you doing”, we automatically respond with, “Oh, I’m Okay… I’m fine… I’m hangin’ in there… doin’ good” or some other culturally appropriate BS when the truth is… I’m LOST! 

Jesus knew being lost was not just a “tax collector” thing or a “sinner” thing… it was then, and is now, an every human being thing!  Every single solitary one of us wanders off and gets lost… not just once in a while… but all the dang time!  Every single one of us goes from being just fine, safe, and secure in the cozy-coin-purse of life one minute, to being suddenly and terrifyingly dropped hard on the floor, rolling to who knows where, and completely LOST in the next.  And sometimes it feels like we aren’t just the coin of a careful, tidy, woman who only drops us once.  No!  All too often this life feels like we’re a coin belonging to Major Shaky McFumblefingers who drops us hard on our heads, over and over and over and over again!

With that in mind, I’d like to propose that in this room… in this “flock” we all just agree to say “I’m LOST” when that’s what we are.  No more “I’m hanging in there” when you’re only hanging on by your fingertips.  No saying you’re “Okay” when you feel painfully alone.  As individuals, there ain’t nobody here who has never been LOST… multiple times… some of us multiple times this week!  Yes, I’m suggesting we face a scary thing… Both being LOST and more so being HONEST about it!  But here’s why I think we can do both.  Because it is BOTH God’s Speciality AND God's Great Joy to find the us when we are lost, scoop us up, bring us home, and throw a universe-thumping party to celebrate!  This Gospel tells us that God is both GOOD at finding the lost… and LOVES doing it!  I think we can brave being honest because getting lost is simply part of being human AND finding the lost is simply part of being The Divine.  It is literally a match made in heaven!   

But, you say, what about when it’s my fault I got lost?  Maybe I wasn’t just dropped by life.  Maybe I wandered off?  THE DIVINE DOES NOT CARE!  Because finding the lost, however they got that way, is the Divine’s Great JOY!  But, you say, I get lost all the time, for the same reason, over and over and over again and never seem to learn my lesson.  Again, I can’t emphasize this enough… THE DIVINE DOESN’T CARE!  Because it is God’s HEAVEN-SIZED, CALL THE ANGELS TO REJOICE, GREAT JOY to find you over and over and over again just as often as you might wander off or as often as life… a.k.a. Major Shaky McFumblefingers drops you on your head (or your tail) like a coin.  How many ever times you get lost… THAT is how many times God will REVEL in the JOY of finding you, bringing you back, and throwing another party!  

In Church-y lingo, we call that Grace, and you and I… EVEN as highly imperfect, perpetually lost, and repeatedly dropped on our heads followers of Jesus… You and I are NOT ONLY called to give thanks for the Grace that finds US over and over and over again… BUT WE ARE ALSO called to make Grace OUR Speciality and OUR Joy as well.  Of course, individually we have absolutely no chance of finding our way out of a paper bag let alone a lost sheep, coin, family member, friend, or neighbor.  Individually we are just as lost as that joker sitting right next to you right now!  Yeah, that one.  

Individually we are indeed nearly perpetually LOST… but together… OH, TOGETHER… we are nothing less than the Body of Christ!  Together, in some mystical way, we are the Good Shepherd with the fully developed specialty of finding the lost, hoisting them on our shoulders, and bringing them home to a party!  Together, in that same mystical way, we are caught up with the Divine in Feminine form, lighting the lamp of unrelenting Grace, expertly searching the darkness, lifting the lost back to life again, and celebrating with the heavenly host!  Individually we are, and can only be, completely and totally lost.  But together… Oh TOGETHER… together, members and friends, both new and old... Together we are nothing less than the Body of Christ, gifted with the power to bring God’s unrelenting Grace to our neighbors... and Grace, it turns out, is exactly what our world most desperately needs right now.  Amen.   

The Discipleship-O-Meter

Luke 14:25-33

Now large crowds were traveling with [Jesus], and he turned and said to them, “Whoever comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and even life itself, cannot be my disciple.  Whoever does not carry the cross and follow me cannot be my disciple.  For which of you, intending to build a tower, does not first sit down and estimate the cost, to see whether he has enough to complete it?  Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who see it will begin to ridicule him, saying, ‘This fellow began to build and was not able to finish.’  Or what king, going out to wage war against another king, will not sit down first and consider whether he is able with ten thousand to oppose the one who comes against him with twenty thousand?  If he cannot, then while the other is still far away, he sends a delegation and asks for the terms of peace.  So therefore, none of you can become my disciple if you do not give up all your possessions.”

So, today we need to figure out how to be good disciples by hating mom, dad, brothers and sisters… Oh, and don’t forget, hating the kids and spouse too!  But before we get to THAT fun, we first need to remember that in this lesson Jesus is talking about DISCIPLESHIP and not SALVATION… two churchy words that we should not get confused.  SALVATION is going to heaven, getting your mansion in the sky, eating food rich with marrow and well aged wines strained clear at a feast that never ends… all of THAT.  THAT is SALVATION.  SALVATION is a complete and total GIFT from God.  In Christ’s life, death and resurrection we are ALL given SALVATION as a free gift with no take-backsies!  Salvation is God’s Work AND as the song says, “The Strife is O’er, the Battle is Done.”  You’re in!

THIS lesson is about DISCIPLESHIP.  DISCIPLESHIP is the particular Way that we Christians are called to walk through this thing called “life”.  I think what this lesson is trying to tell us (albeit in a super dramatic, confusing way) is that to be a Disciple means to prioritize our walking through this life on what I like to call “The Jesus Way” over all the other possible “ways” we are pushed and pulled to walk through this life… the family way, the friend way, the way of success, the career way, the money way, the way of possessions… just to name a few.  

I DON’T think Luke is using the word “HATE” here to call us to an emotional hatred of our own families.  I also DON’T think Jesus is calling us to a life cut off from all familial relationships, living a hermit’s existence without money or possessions.  What I DO think Luke is doing here is trying to tell us that as we begin to prioritize walking The Jesus Way over all those other ways we are pulled and pushed to walk through this life, it may very well FEEL at first… both to us doing the walking and to those around us… like we have suddenly begun to HATE those who now come behind walking The Jesus Way.  

I think that is what we see from the crowd that was following Jesus.  They had all been following Jesus because, well, he was awesome!  He had fed 5000 people!  He healed folks and cast out demons, he calmed storms and walked on water… People were following Jesus because… WOW!  They all said, “Let’s tag along and see what amazing thing this guy does next?”  But when Jesus turned around, he told that crowd that following him JUST to see the next awesome thing, isn’t Discipleship.  The loaves and fishes might have been free, but REAL discipleship… that costs BIG!!  So how do you even do THAT?  How do you put all those other possible ways to walk through the world behind The Jesus Way? 

I don’t know how YOU do that, but the way I do that is… POORLY… INCOMPLETELY… in fits and starts… and with grand intentions that never quite fully pan out.  That’s how I do discipleship.  Don’t get me wrong.  I FULLY understand what Jesus is asking of me.  It is the same thing he asked of all those people following him, to walk onto God’s Way and put everything, and everyone else, behind that.  I get it… and I really do try… a lot of the time… well, some of the time… I really do try though!  Honest!  But even with all that effort, I think the maximum I have ever hit on the ol’ Discipleship-O-Meter is about 10.3% Disciple… and that was on my most Disciple-y day ever.

Other folks have been known to do better.  Mother Teresa once got to about 89% on the Discipleship-O-Meter, but she also had years and years of doubt and darkness where she was down in single digits.  Saint Peter once got to a 93% for a minute when he said “Jesus, you’re the Messiah” but then just a couple of steps later and he pegged the needle back at zero when he told Jesus “by no means” should he go to Jerusalem.  The point is, nobody ever makes it all the way to 100% on the Discipleship-O-Meter.  Discipleship is a walk that is technically within our reach, because it doesn’t demand MORE than what we have, BUT, since it demands nothing LESS than EVERYTHING we have, we humans, by the nature of simply “being human”… will always fall short.

Still, even though nobody ever gets to 100% discipleship, Jesus, and Luke in his telling of this story, are trying to help us understand that it is STILL, really worth making the walk along The Jesus Way a priority for just as long and as far as we can manage each and every day.  Because as we walk, step by step along The Way; as we strive to love God more completely and love our neighbors more sacrificially… as we live each day doing more justice, loving more kindness and walking more humbly like Jesus did… step by step we will find that we are ACTUALLY living more deeply into the life we have been given… a life that is meant to be full of meaning, purpose, and contentment AND it turns out that the more we are able to prioritize that walk into discipleship itself… the more room that walk makes within our being for the joy filled, abundant life we were all created to live AND the more room that walk makes within our being for mom, dad, brothers and sisters, the kids and yes, even for the spouse!  Amen.

Chutes and Ladders, Musical Chairs, and Clown Cars

Luke 14:1, 7-14

On one occasion when Jesus was going to the house of a leader of the Pharisees to eat a meal on the Sabbath, they were watching him closely.

When Jesus noticed how the guests chose the places of honor, he told them a parable.  “When you are invited by someone to a wedding banquet, do not sit down at the place of honor, in case someone more distinguished than you has been invited by your host, and the host who invited both of you may come and say to you, ‘Give this person your place,’ and then in disgrace you would start to take the lowest place.  But when you are invited, go and sit down at the lowest place, so that when your host comes, he may say to you, ‘Friend, move up higher’; then you will be honored in the presence of all who sit at the table with you.  For all who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.”

Jesus said also to the one who had invited him, “When you give a luncheon or a dinner, do not invite your friends or your brothers and sisters or your relatives or rich neighbors, in case they may invite you in return, and you would be repaid.  But when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind.  And you will be blessed because they cannot repay you, for you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.”

Who is the character from literature or theater or film or television who, no matter what is going on around them, is simply unflappable… who can not be riled… who is eminently comfortable in their own skin, who can hear what other people think or say about them and can just as easily take it or leave it based only on their own honest, dispassionate reflection?

In the Family Systems psychology world, those people would be called, “self-differentiated.”  They are not swayed or convinced by any sort of “group think” and never feel like they have to go along to get along.  They might CHOOSE to be part of a particular group, but only after checking the group’s direction against their own values and then making a non-emotional choice for themselves.  They are also NOT people who need everyone around them to do what they do and think as they think.  Rather, they are the people who can be comfortable around others who have very different thoughts and values, but neither feel the need to become those people, nor convert them away from their way of thinking 

The people Jesus encountered at that Sabbath dinner party were NOT self-differentiated.  They were very much obsessed with what others thought, where they stood on the social ladder, and how close they could sit to the head of the table.  They were the sort of people who easily changed what they thought and routinely abandoned their values if that would move them up the ladder, get them more influence, or a better seat at the table.  These were the sorts of people who would bully others to conform to their way of thinking and being in the world, simply because allowing others to think independently around them would reveal just how much of their own SELF they had given away. 

The particular folks at this parable’s dinner party who were struggling with self-differentiation needed to hear from Jesus that a little humility was in order.  But a simple “BE HUMBLE” doesn’t get us to the real root of this parable.  I can just as easily imagine Jesus telling a different room filled with different people struggling with self-differentiation in different way, “Do not think TOO LITTLE of yourselves!”

Our world is filled to the absolute brim with people who proclaim they are the only show in town.  They call out to the world with promises of better seats and higher honors, all in exchange for the low, low price of your true SELF.  AND, if enticing you to give them your own true SELF doesn’t work, they will taunt you, demean you, and bully you until you find yourself sucked into their circus through the back door. 

At the real root of this parable, Jesus is telling each one of us… whether we happen to be erring on the side of needing a little more humility OR on the side of needing a boost of self esteem… that “What other people think about you is none of your business” or to quote the prophet Ru Paul, “Unless they payin’ your bills, pay them bitches no mind.”  

At the root of this parable is the TRUTH those folks do not want you to hear, or remember, and certainly not take to heart and that is…  Their show does not have to be your circus and you are absolutely NOT required to be one of their monkeys.  

At the root of this parable is the reminder that you and I have been loved into being, with the Divine intention that each and every one of us would be a self-differentiated, unconditionally beloved, perfectly free, child of God.  

At the root of this parable is God’s intention for you live free from the need to be told to “Be Humble” and also live free from the need to be told “Do NOT think too little of yourself!”  

At the root of this parable is the truth that God has created you with the power to take a PASS on the world’s childish games of musical chairs and chutes and ladders.  

At the root of this parable is Jesus’ call to you and me to instead, live this life in the self-differentiated, confident knowledge that we are… in every moment and every situation… nothing more than… and nothing less than… a BELOVED CHILD OF GOD… a child of GOD… for God’s sake!  What the world thinks of us compared to THAT is a grain of sand on a beach, on a planet, on the other side of the universe!  As a child of God, what the world thinks of us or has to offer us, is laughably insignificant.  We are, after all, unconditionally loved and infinitely valued children of God!  Children OF GOD!  What could the game players and clown car drivers of this world even BEGIN to offer or even threaten that could ever compare to that?

Jesus loved the people at that party.  He knew they were not made for circus life or for a life of childish games AND JESUS KNOWS… THAT NEITHER WERE YOU!  Jesus called the people at that party out of the circus, away from the monkeys, to put down the games, and to live INTO the self-differentiated, unconditionally loved life they were created to live.  Jesus calls you and me to nothing less!  So let us pay no more attention to the man behind the curtain… let us pass on any sort of ride offered from a clown car… let us not be drawn into the silly social and political games of musical chairs or chutes and ladders AND INSTEAD, let us fully live the life we were loved into being to live.  Amen.