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Today, we look together at Luke chapter 14, verses 1 to 24, asking the question: What are the conditions by which the socially elite may be able to participate in the community of God's kingdom? Reverend Daniel shares the word.

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I'd like to read to us again just a verse in Luke chapter 14, verse 1, because this sets the theme for the whole story that unfolds. It says, one Sabbath, when he, referring to Jesus, went to dine at the house of a ruler of the Pharisees, they were watching him carefully. So this verse, just one single verse, kind of framed the entire context of what will take place in the whole uh chapter. So it is uh, according to commentators, is a self-contained unit, meaning that everything that unfolds in the 24 verses, it is a commentary on Luke chapter 14, verse 1. So the context we are looking at is the context of the scribes and Pharisees. So they were inviting Jesus to dine, and not only so, they were watching him closely, perhaps to find out whether he has done, followed the rules and the regulations according to the law, and perhaps to find a way to trap him in his words. So the key group of people addressed were the scribes and Pharisees. So they were the religious teachers of the day. They were scruplus in following the law to its minuscule detail, and they were all out to find fault with Jesus. Therefore, they were watching him carefully. So Jesus was invited to the home setting for a meal, so to dine. So that's why the subsequent uh verses paints the context of uh table talk or table fellowship. What happens in the dining table? What happens? Who should come, who should be invited to a banquet? So therefore, it is an exposition or commentary on the first verse. So Jesus noticed that the scribes and Pharisees chose the places of honor, meaning that they were people of prestige socially, so they put themselves up to sit in the prominent places of honor so that they are visible to all. And presumably the man who had invited Jesus, very likely a Pharisee, was wealthy enough in the days uh during that time to give a dinner and banquet, reflecting that perhaps they were part of the socially elite in the time of Jesus. I'd like to explore with us just one question this morning, which will frame the sermon uh uh for us today. It is a key question that ties together the whole account of Luke 14, verses 1 to 24. And the question is this what are the conditions by which the gathering of the socially elite scribes and Pharisees may be able to participate in the community of God's kingdom? What are the conditions in which all these people, notably to be people of high status in society, what are the conditions in which they may participate in God's kingdom? And as we reflect on these questions, then we have to ask the question, point the question back to us. How does, how do uh these conditions in turn uh have implications for our life today? And I only answer this towards the end of the sermon, right? So, because it's a narrative, so I invite you to just follow me along as we move on. So, for us to better appreciate what was going on in the table talk or the fellowship, the context of dining, we need to understand uh a bit of the ethics of social relations in the Roman world. If we don't grasp this, we don't understand how people negotiate and relate to one another at the dinner table, if our mind just moves forward to our context today, then we will miss the point. But very poignantly is the social context in which dining takes place in the time of Jesus, in the Roman world. And two ideas, two concepts I like to share with us that colors Jesus' responses and colors the response of the Pharisees and the scribes. Firstly, this was a world in which one's social status and social stratification, where you are in the social packing order, whether you are scribe and Pharisee, you are the teacher, you are on the high end. If you are a laborer, you are a worker, you are on the lower end. If you are unclean, you are on the extreme low end. And everyone in the middle of the packing order will form up in that way. So one, wherever one related and one uh negotiated or uh talked to someone, one is very much aware of one's social status. Where am I? In reference to, let's say, A or B or C. So this was a world in which one's social status were vital considerations in the structuring of life, how one functions in life. With one's status based on the social estimation of one's relative honor, meaning, how do others view me? How do others view my status? How am I today versus someone maybe less uh lower down on the social packing order or someone above me, how do I relate to those above me or those below me? For example, where where one sat in a dining situation or was assigned or allowed to sit at a meal, vis a vis the host, was a public advertisement of one's status. Meaning, if I'm a host and invite A to come and say, uh, please sit at my right hand, well, that's a place of honor. That's why Jesus' disciples were jostling uh for places of honor because they thought this was the end game, you know, being at the place of honor was something every Jew wanted. Right? So consequently, the matter of sitting arrangements was carefully attended to. A bit perhaps like how you know some of us in uh Chinese weddings, we'll make sure we uh uh we adjust the sitting correctly, you know, uh so that we don't offend our guests, right? You know, we don't we try to accommodate. And sometimes those of us who have planned weddings know it's a laborious task. A lot, a few rounds of iterations, you know, checking with our wives, checking with our children. Is this correct? No. So I remember for my wedding, I think I went through six or seven, six or seven iterations uh for the dinner. So perhaps this is the way of life in the world today, right? So one may presume to claim a more honorable seat with the hope that uh the honor may be granted along with it. What is more, because meals were used to publicize and reinforce social hierarchy, invitations to meals were themselves carefully considered to allow to one's table only one's inner circle, meaning that if the scribes and Pharisees hold a feast, very likely those they invite were people of the similar status, maybe a fellowship of teachers, uh similar status, or fellowship of uh engineers or lawyers. So they were people uh who logically would apply that principle. Um so those who are at the table will probably be people who either enhance their or preserve one's social position. So that's the first point, the first idea. Who we are on the social packing order and who we sit with makes all the difference to one's honor. Secondly, central to the political stability of the Roman Empire was the ethics of reciprocity. It is a gift and obligation system in the Roman world in the time of Jesus that tied every person from the emperor in Rome to the child in the most distant province into an intricate web of social relations. Gifts, when you receive gifts, you have an obligation to give back even more, perhaps. Gifts in the Roman world is based on the principle of reciprocity, right? It was it was never free. Or in other words, there's no free meal, right? Gifts were given and received with either explicit or implicit strings attached. Expectations of reciprocity were naturally extended to the table. To accept an invitation for a banquet was to obligate oneself to extend a comparable one, a practice that circumscribed the list of those to him to whom one might extend an invitation. The powerful and privileged would not ordinarily think to invite the poor to their meals. For this would, number one, possibly endanger the social status of the host. I mean, I'm a dignified man of honor, who I invite to the table will be a reflection of my honor. Secondly, the powerful and privileged would not think of inviting the poor because it'd be a wasted invitation, since the self-interest of the socially elite could never be served by an invitation that could not be reciprocated, meaning that if I throw a banquet and invite the poor, they can never return to me, right, the honor or the good. They cannot reciprocate what I give to them. And not only that, thirdly, it will ensure embarrassment for the poor who could not reciprocate and therefore would be required by social protocols to decline the invitation. It's a bit like uh some of us who are invited uh for uh dinner invitations, then we we Google, we check the hotel, you know, we realize, wow, this hotel, the hotel rates for dinner banquets are increasing, right? And sometimes we find, wow, I probably can't afford a family of four, you know, uh 200 times four. That's the amount. So I may need to kindly excuse myself. Perhaps in a in a in a normal context, it could be that that kind of situation, right? And um so gifts were never free, but were reciprocal in nature. So I had that experience, I'm sure we all have in Singapore culture, uh uh Chinese culture, Indian culture, perhaps uh very prevalent, you know, that when someone gives, give a gift to you, you must always give them back, maybe something better. Right? So I I've struggled with that because I find that the principle is when you give, you want to bless someone, right? So you don't expect that someone will give you back. So I once had this encounter, uh not in YCCA with someone, right? So we we bought a gift for the person, but the very next week the person bought a bigger gift for us. So we felt, I truly don't need. No, we just want to bless you. Don't need to return back, you know. So, but that's the that's the life, right? We always feel uh uh certain cultures obligated. You give me, I must give you better. You know, I must give you more. Or whatever you give me, I must give you back. You know, there's no free meal, we think so. So at that culture at the day, it was very strong, right? This principle of reciprocity. You know, what there's never a free meal, right? And certain cultures of the day, uh tribal cultures, perhaps uh in in the jungles of Kalimantan or parts of Indonesia and perhaps even uh the uh places like Vietnam and so on. So um they do have the culture when they throw uh a marriage fee for uh for the family. Uh if they are not able to uh pay up for the family fees, they will actually ask their neighbor whether you can cover my expenses. And when they do so, the neighbor, they will be in debt to the neighbor for life. You know, there are certain cultures that have that in their in their in their rubrics of interaction. So it's very scary. You know, we never think of that in in Singapore because we always think uh within our means, right? If we have more, we we perhaps can afford to spend a bit more, throw a big button. If not, then uh nowadays those who plan weddings, we are more conservative, we'll say, okay, within our means, what we can, we offer, what we cannot, we don't offer, right? No, but uh a culture where hospitality is vital, people will borrow, get into debt just to you know throw a fees and have a good meal, but the become a lifetime uh uh a debtor debtor to someone else. So, with that in mind, uh it helps us to better understand uh Luke chapter 14. So Luke chapter 14 begins by giving us the context. On the Sabbath, Jesus was at the house of a ruler of the Pharisees having a meal. Then enters a man which shouldn't even be there, a man with dropsy, came before Jesus. What's he doing there? Who invited this man with drop sea? Why is he there in the story? So the Pharisees were watching him closely and carefully, perhaps to see if Jesus would break the Sabbath law, would heal him, or be in contact with the man, which is even worse, with drop sea, which will make him unclean. Immediately, once he touched the man with dropsy, it will make Jesus unclean. And it will defile those who are present. That means all the guests there will also be defiled. So the question of whom one eats with is significant, as I shared with us earlier. According to dining conventions, this ruling Pharisee is odd because he should only invite those whose presence would maintain or advance his social status in the community, which we will see that the table will probably be occupied by mostly Pharisees and scribes, because they are of equal social status. So the concern of the Pharisee for ritual purity was also critical. So why would a man with dropsy be present among the guests gathered for a meal at the prominent Pharisee's home? Moreover, the condition of dropsy describes an abnormal swelling of the body which would make him unclean and impure, dishonored and marginalized. Anyone, as I said earlier, who touches him would be ritually impure. It is also on the Sabbath day, Jesus not only healed him, which we know he did in the account, but he risked being ritually impure. But he did it also at the wrong time on the Sabbath day where work is not supposed to be done. Why did Jesus do that? We'll come back to this question at the end of the story, because it's vital for us to understand what Jesus was trying to say. Let us then continue. Jesus continues by telling them a parable to those who were invited. When he noticed that how some of them chose the places of honor, and then Jesus began to tell them uh that when you invite, when you are invited by someone to a wedding feast, you know, take the lowest seat instead of the most honorable seat so that you will not be ashamed. And he goes on to mention about the principle of humility whoever exalts himself will be humble, and he who humbles himself will be exalted. He goes on to say, when you give a dinner or banquet, do not invite your friends or your brothers or your relatives or rich neighbors, least you also invite, they invite you in return and you be repaid. So Jesus was breaking cultural norms here. He was really being radical about all that I was saying to you earlier. He said, When you give a feast, who should be your among your guest lists? These are the people. Call the poor. The crippled, the lame, and the blind. So the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind is a series of words that refer to the marginalized, you know, those who are outside the ranks of society. In the social stratification order, backing order of the Roman world, they are probably on the extreme lower rank. And Jesus said, When you give a feast, don't just think in economic terms, don't just think about getting your dues, but bless, don't expect anything in return. Bless, and you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you. So when one of those who reclined at the table heard him say these things, he said to him, Blessed is everyone who will eat bread in the kingdom of God. So in Luke chapter 14, verse 17 to 14, Jesus is calling into question the self-seeking agenda of those invited who are seeking places of honor. He insisted that honor is something that must be given. It must not be pursued after. In fact, he goes even further to make his point. He exalted the humble, who in the social world of Liu usually denotes persons who are of low birth, base, and ignoble. Yet they are the ones that should be honored. And he goes on to make the radical statement to go and extend the invitation to the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind. Those who cannot reciprocate and would endanger the social status of the host. But why? Why did Jesus make such radical statements? This is because, in Jesus' view of the matter, it is precisely the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind that are invited to feast in God's kingdom. Luke 14, verse 15 follows with the insertion of a beatitude. Blessed is everyone, or blessed are those, which is a key point. Luke says, Blessed is everyone who will eat bread in the kingdom of God. So the verb will eat bread, right, is is key because if you put your hand there and move back to Luke chapter 14, verse 1, Jesus went to dine. And here the the unknown person says, Blessed is everyone who will eat bread. So Jesus is redefining what it means to eat bread in the kingdom. You know, it's and to dine together. It's not about inviting people of the similar social status. It's not about your own honor, but it's something much more and much deeper. And we also see a strong connection between the men with dropsy in Luke chapter 14, verse 2, and the marginalized that Luke mentions, the poor, the lame, the blind. So those were in a similar context. They were in a similar predicament. They were the poor. They were those who cannot repay if they were invited to the feast. So Jesus is throwing a feast. He's inviting us to come to his table. As uh Judith read for us from Isaiah 55 you know, come, all you who are thirsty, all those who labor and have no money, come buy and eat what that cannot be bought with money. So all kinds of people with all sorts of makeup are invited to come to feast at the kingdom of God's table. So the implications is this will Jesus' audience, the Pharisees, include the poor among their table intimates without concern for reciprocation? Will they live according to an utterly transformed social order in which their practice as dining hosts are oriented not towards status maintenance or advancement, but towards the implementation of a social order privileging and uncalculating generosity towards the poor. Jesus continues by sharing a story about man, a man who came, who gave a great banquet and invited many. At the time of the banquet, he sent his servants to say to those who had been invited, come. Come, for everything is now ready. But they all alike began to make excuses. The first said to him, I bought a field, I must go and see it. Please have me excuse. Another said, I bought five yoke of oxen. Let me go and examine that. Please have me excuse. Another said, I married a wife, therefore I cannot come. So the servant came and reported these things to his master. Then the master of the house became angry and said to the servant, Go out quickly, go to the streets and the lanes of the city. Bring in the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind. Servant said, Yes, we have done that. Still room. There's still room in the feast. And the master said, Go even further. Go to the highways and the hedges. Compel everyone to come in, that my house may be filled. For I tell you, none of those men who were invited shall taste my banquet. We noted the way in which the would-be guests are persons whose lives are wrongly embedded either in their possessions andor family relationships, such that they reject the priority of the invitation to the feast. Although many were invited, all of them had their own excuses, right, not to be present. The first two clearly portray persons of wealth, of status, of property, perhaps alluding to the Pharisees themselves. The first said, I bought a field, I must go and see it. So um, so it portrays perhaps a landowner who has much land, and perhaps due to his negligence he didn't have time to inspect it and say, I must do that now. But clearly, if you own a field, you probably are probably a rich person of comparable wealth. The other said, I bought five yoke of oxen and I go to examine it. Uh for for though for the second person who has to examine the five yoke of oxen, it again reveals a person of wealth, of prestige and property. Okay, uh according to the social historical context, five yoke of oxen would be required to work a farm well over a hundred acres, right? So a large, a relatively large land area, over a hundred hect uh acres acres for five yoke of oxen. If you versus this, you compare to a substantial property in which the a peasant family, the poor, own, it's only about three to six acres. Three to six acres versus over a hundred acres. These people are rich, man. They have property. So they are all full engaged in their own life, their possessions, their assets, their accumulations, inspecting the land and all that. Saying, Jesus, I don't have time for you, you know. You know, I have my own business, my own possessions, my own assets to look after. You know, it's a bit like you know, sometimes, you know, in the working world. We are so busy, so caught up in the world out there, uh in making the dollar that we don't have time for Jesus. We don't have time to come and worship him. The third, make excuse related to family commitments. He said, Sorry, uh Jesus, I can't come because I have married a wife. You know, so lame excuse, right? I mean, you marry a wife, doesn't mean you can't come for the feast. So, in other words, he's saying that, hey, my family is more important, lah. You know, God can come second place, you know. Uh my family have needs, don't you see that? I just met my wife. Maybe we need to uh uh consummate the marriage, you know, and have children, do some family planning, right? So we recall uh I mentioned the last time I preached about about the issue about family relationships. It again alludes to Luke 9, 59 to 62. You know, the one who said, uh, let me first go and bury my father, and the other that said, Let me bid farewell to those at home. So the priority of kingdom, of Jesus' kingdom, and the invitation to the feast takes precedence over everything, over our possessions, wealth, and assets, over our family relationships. So then Jesus began to engage in the story in the second and third series of invitations. Servant came, reported these things to the master, and master said, Go to the streets and the lanes, bring in everyone the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind. Since those invited would not come, the man who gave a great banquet will not include anyone among his stable guests. The streets and the lanes of the city would be the location of the dwelling of those of low status. Luke is intentional to mention, uh, explicit to mention the streets and lanes of the city. Who will stay there? The outskirts of the city, perhaps the poor, those people of low status. And under the Roman structuring of city planning, we know that the rich will always occupy near the city area. So the the poor will stay in the streets, near the streets and the lanes. So they were people who dwelt or in there people who dwelt in dwellings uh possibly much uh lower class, so to speak, of low status, whether due to their despised occupation, their family heritage, their religious impurity, their poverty, or some other cause. So notice that the poor, creeple, blind, and lame will not normally be at great banquets, you know, because the word being used is they are not just invited. You invite them, they cannot come, they can't repay you. So Jesus said, bring them in. Carry, I mean, pull them in. Don't just invite. You invite, they won't come. Bring them in. Similarly, those of the third invitation list, the highways and the hedges, the is even more extreme language. It's not only now the streets and the lanes, but these are the outlying areas uh of the city. Right? So the outlying uh areas of the city. So these are probably the utterly destitute people. These are the people who dwell in those areas, the impure, those who are disassociated with normal living, uh, they are now all invited to the feast. So it's important for us to recognize that the master hosts, when Jesus tells this story, in extending hospitality to such persons, he has not thereby become their benefactor. That in other words, in the system of the Roman world, to be a benefactor means that if I invite you for a meal today, um I benefit you, right? You got to repay me. So Jesus was not talking in those terms. They were not, they are not able to repay him. There is no hint that his practices are based on the calculus of reciprocity and onerous obligation. Instead, by extending hospitality to such persons, the lowest of the lowest of the rank of society, and the lowest and lowest of the ranks of society, Jesus has participated in the creation of a new social order in which the boundaries that normally exclude people are rendered inconsequential. He initiates a new community grounded in a gracious and uncalculating hospitality. And sometimes in our context today, we do face that, right? Uh sometimes uh when pastors, again, I'm speaking in general terms, not to uh YCCA members, sometimes we invite uh members over or we say uh we want to visit you. Yeah, sometimes the which is understandable, the reaction is, why you want to visit me? Is there something you want you want to get from me? Or you know, uh, is there other hidden? I mean that that's our uh that is our sometimes our our normal reaction. Yeah, perhaps especially those of us who are in the business world, right? Whenever you know we are invited for a meal, we think, uh, you want something for me, is it? You want a favor? You want your you want a yeah, so but I'd like to assure all of us that when we do uh you know invite you for a meal or do catch up with you at iZone or yeah, it's really uh with no strings attached. It's really to get to know your but if there's a need that I think you can help in the church to contribute to the growth of the church based on your gifting and your strength, I will also be honest to share with you, right? So uh there's no strings attached, no hidden agenda, right, when when we do so and interact with you as much as possible, right? This is my stance. Yeah, so what are some implications for us today? I mean, we've been hearing so much about that. Some of us say, hey, I'm not like the Pharisee and scribe. I mean, these are elite people, I'm just a commoner, you know, just uh trying to get by in life. So, what what are some implications for us this uh morning? So, to bring us back to the beginning in Luke, uh to Luke 14, verses 1 to 6, the story of the man with dropsy is very key to understanding uh this uh pericope, this uh this story. Um we asked the question earlier: why is the man with dropsy present in the company of guests gathered at the prominent Pharisees' home? Why? Why is he present? He shouldn't be there. If he's there, shouldn't he be checked and chased out? Because his very presence would dishonor everyone. And it further complicated things when Jesus went to touch him and heal him, and doing it on a Sabbath day. So by being physically present, the man with dropsy uh with dropsy would possibly endanger the social status of the host, be a wasted invitation since the self-interest of the elite could never be served by an invitation that could not be reciprocated. It will also ensure embarrassment for him. And since his condition of dropsy will make him unclean and impure, he will be defiling the guests present. I'd like us to look deeper into why this man enters the scene. In antiquity or in times past, the paradoxical fate of the person with dropsy was proverbial. And there are quotes that say nothing is as dry as a person with dropsy. And uh usually when someone with that medical condition, it usually signifies the dissatisfaction and uh a craving, a thirst uh that causes someone to retain too much fluid in the person's body. Also known in antiquity is the metaphorical use of dropsy as a label uh for people who are money lovers, the aggressively greedy or grasping persons who share the very conditions with which the Pharisees are indicted in the gospel of Luke. In other words, in his literary uh strength writing, uh Luke was posting an indictment against the very guests that were present. In fact, he's saying, You Pharisees are like the man with dropsy. You don't see that, but that is you. He may have the physical condition, but actually the metaphorical implications of that condition reflects those who are present, those who think that, oh, we are, you know, we are the honorable ones, what is this man doing? But they didn't know that metaphorically speaking, the story reads them, you know, because the use of dropsy is often metaphorically refers to, like what I say earlier, the money lovers, those who are greedy and grasping. Um, so they were the Pharisees were lovers of money. You can refer to Luke 16, verse 14. Luke 16, verse 14, they were lovers of money. They were known to be full of greed and wickedness. Luke 11, verse 39. The Pharisees also loved the best seat in the synagogue. They love the places, the places of honor and greetings. You know, they love to be called rabbi, you know, to bow. You know, they love that respect. And and the story goes that whenever there's time for prayer, the Pharisees with their long gowns and all, in the middle of the marketplace, they will bow down to pray. So everyone around will have to stop in their tracks. Okay. Time for prayer. So it's very ostental, uh, it's very uh deliberate, it's very uh upfront. So you you can't help but notice the Pharisee is present based on uh their dressing and their actions. So, yeah, so the Pharisees are portrayed in scripture as persons who exploit hospitality for self-serving agenda, whose patterns of hospitality both secure their positions of dominance in their communities and insulate them from the needy. If the appearance of the man with dropsy, and this is the key point I'd like to bring to us today, if the appearance of the man with dropsy was an indictment against the Pharisees, their possible healing was also imminent. If only they could see themselves in need of healing and restoration. Let me repeat again if the appearance of the man with dropsy was an indictment or judgment against them, the Pharisees, their possible healing was also imminent. If only they could see themselves in need of healing and restoration. So the Pharisees wanted to judge Jesus. Why are you here on the Sabbath? But unknown to them, the man with dropsy actually reads them and judges them. And why? Because Jesus played out the full story when he healed the man. He healed the man with dropsy. In other words, the Pharisees can be healed. The Pharisees can be healed of their self-serving agenda, they can be healed of their blindness, uh their greed, and their wickedness. If only they could understand what Jesus was getting on. So, what are the conditions by which the gathering of the socially elite scribes and Pharisees will be able to participate in the community of God's kingdom? And what are some of its implications for us this morning? Firstly, we need to receive the bread freely. Receive the bread freely. Luke 14, verse 15 says, Blessed is everyone who will eat bread in the kingdom of God. This is a blessedness that Luke inserts in the narrative. Suddenly, blessed are those. So, who is the everyone? Everyone. The poor, the lame, the crippled, the blind, the man with dropsy, even the Pharisees who understand and appropriate Jesus in their lives, is they are all welcome to eat bread in the kingdom of God. So the bread alludes not to physical bread, but God's open hand. God's open hand of fellowship to all kinds of people, all kinds of backgrounds, all kinds of uh different strata of society, the rich, the poor, none are excluded who would come to feast in the kingdom of God. All are invited, regardless of status and position in life. It is not Jesus inverted the whole process. It is not a reciprocal transaction. It's not even a transaction, it's not a mutual obligation to return benefits to Jesus. In fact, it's precisely this that Jesus gives to us what we can never repay on our own. And this is in essence what the gospel means. That means whenever we come to Jesus, we come to a God who is almighty, in which we can never repay him, even though we serve him with all our might. But that service is not a means whereby we gain favor or carry favor with God. You know, that was never the means. We serve him because we delight in God. We want to give our time, our talents, our energy to serve God's kingdom. Not because by serving, by being a prominent leader or uh whatever positions of service we think that, yeah, because you know it's common human wisdom, right? Or because I'm serving, because I'm involved in church, I come to church, means yeah, I secure a place in heaven. So sometimes we we do hear that comments, right? You know, sometimes in funnels and weeks, and sometimes, wow, the person has been coming to church and serving. So I think he's in heaven, lah. Yeah, so our human logic goes that way, but God's logic is different, right? It's not about what we can do, even it's not about our spirituality in some ways that give us an entrance to God. But it's rather the other way. It is when we receive such love outpoured by God, such blessing, such thankfulness to his grace in our life, that that really overflows. So the best way for us as a church to be motivated is from the inner world of our hearts, the depth of our hearts. That's where life begins. That's where, as we allow God to minister to us and touch our hearts, we trust that he will overflow in our hearts that give us a motivation to want to serve and want to be involved in the life of the church. Then the pastor doesn't need to force and compel people, you know, and we know that nominations is open now, right? So we we want to pray that the Lord will open your hearts to seek his will for your life and for the life of the church, right? So receive the bread freely. You know, there's nothing, Jesus in other words, is saying there's nothing we can do that can ever repay the debt we owe him. So the question is that can we receive the good news? Blessed is everyone who will eat bread in the kingdom of God. Secondly, we need to resist, resist our self-serving tendencies. All of us, including myself, have a self-serving tendencies. And how that plays out, a lot of times when we interact with one another, we serve in communities, committees, you know, our ego gets the better of us, our right, uh personal right gets better of us. Then we see all that manifest. And sometimes we've got to pray for us as pastors because we absorb a lot of things, right? Uh, generally speaking, not just people's problems, but issues. Again, I'm saying this in a general sense, right? Not saying it's YCCA. But generally, as pastors gather, we hear a lot of things, and sometimes we are very burdened because you know, everything that we hear is yeah, more negative things. This there's a need here, there's a help here, this issue, that. So a lot of things we are grappling with as pastors, and realize that at the root of it is this self-serving tendency. You know, that's what the Pharisees were struggling with. They were people who are prideful, self-righteous. They think they are at the top of the world, at the packing, the top order of society, you know, socially speaking. So issues like pride, position, greed, uh, and in uh the dissatisfied with what they have, uh desire for more and more, right? Uh kept them from Jesus, kept them for seeing their need for Jesus. So if only if we honestly ask ourselves, we may not be too far off from the Pharisees, right? If we allow God to search our hearts, we too have the pride of our lives. We too. Sometimes our ego, especially for men out there, our ego is affected. You know, when maybe we are not consulted in matters or when uh people sideline us, you know, we don't respect us. You know, all this ego is playing out in our lives daily, especially if we are in positions of authority or leadership, that is even worse. That is exactly uh, that is uh, sorry, trying to find the right, that is further intensified in our lives because we are put on a pedestal and everything comes out in our lives. So resist our self-serving tendencies. All of us have that to a certain degree and extent. For some of us, perhaps the self-serving tendencies could be like the guests who were invited to the great banquet. We have our own excuses for not coming to the banquet. When Jesus calls and invites us, it could it may be our self-centered focus on accumulating our assets and possessions or putting commitments to our family and children before heeding the call of Jesus. So resist putting ourselves on the throne, resist uh serving ourselves, but surrender all this to Jesus and He will make it right, you know, like the Sunday school song teaches us say a little prayer to Jesus and it will be well, you'll be right. Lastly and thirdly, we need to adopt a posture of humility because the principle in Luke 14, uh it drops uh Jesus drops it here and there, but in Luke 14, 11 is poignant. He says, For everyone who exalts himself will be humble, and he who humbles himself will be exalted. We need to adopt a posture of humility to receive the bread that Jesus offers to us freely. And we need to adopt a posture of humility to resist our self-serving tendency. So may the Lord help us. Uh, three implications, three points. First, receive the bread freely. Jesus comes, he offers us bread without cost. You know, come, come to the waters, as Judith reminded us in the reading of Isaiah 55. Come to the waters, receive. All are invited, no one is excluded from the feast that Jesus calls. Not even the Pharisees. If only they could see that the men of dropsy reflects who they are. Secondly, we resist our self-serving tendencies. It's all in us that nature, our egos, our greed, our pride, our position, uh the appetite for more and more, accumulating more and more assets. Um resist our self-serving tendencies. Thirdly, adopt a posture of humility because only in the posture of humility can we receive from Jesus the bread freely. Only in a posture of humility can we resist our self-serving tendencies. And we are in the season of land where some of us would like to fast, preparing ourselves to focus on the spiritual. Uh it's a good reflection for us, uh, scripture this morning, that we need to adopt a posture of humility because only then can we receive what Jesus offers to us freely. And only then can we resist our self serving.

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We pray that you've been ministered to the Word of God today. If you'd like to know more about Eastern Christian Church, please visit our website at yccanglican.com. Have a blessed day.