Sometimes sermon inspiration comes from the most
random of places. And this week, I want to talk
to you about chairs. Chairs, you say? Yes. And
frankly, they're far more fascinating than you
can even imagine. Just a few hundred miles north
of us, in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New
York City, resides the oldest chair in existence.
It is the chair of Reneseneb, who was a scribe
in ancient Egypt. The chair dates to the 15th
century B .C., 1 ,400 B .C. It is in pristine
condition because it was entombed with Renesbev
when he died. The only thing that's been changed
over the years is the wicker seat faded away,
deteriorated, and they had to re -bind it. But
that's not the only ancient chair around. In
the Christian tradition, we have the cathedral.
which is a fancy term for the chair that the
bishop sits in. It's actually the term by which
cathedrals have come into usage. Cathedrals are
the place of the cathedral. The term the chair
of St. Peter is a descriptor for the bishop of
Rome, for the pope. But in Rome, in St. Peter's
Basilica, there is an actual chair of St. Peter.
It is today encased in a golden reliquary, but
it's a literal wooden chair that at least dates
to the 9th century and has pieces embedded within
it that appear to be far older. By tradition,
received tradition, it is understood that the
chair or significant pieces of the chair are
part of a chair that Peter, the first bishop
of Rome, sat in himself. And then in our tradition,
in the Anglican Communion, we have the chair
of St. Augustine of Canterbury. It is a beautiful
Sussex marble chair that dates to the 13th century.
and is still to this day used in England for
the inauguration and enthronement of the Archbishop
of Canterbury each time we have a new Archbishop.
But one of the chairs that captures me almost
more than any other is the coronation chair used
in England. It's known as St. Edward's Chair
or King Edward's Chair. And it's an ancient wooden
chair used by British monarchs since at least
the 14th century. We know that it was used in
1308 at a coronation and has been used in recent
memory as far back as we can go. But the thing
that fascinates me about it is that it's a rather
plain chair with a rather plain origin. it wasn't
anything fancy or made specifically for the purpose
of being a throne. And today, it is quite decrepit.
In the 18th century, in the 1700s, when Westminster
Abbey was kind of hard up for cash, they would
let people pay a few pence and sit in the chair
itself. And people, tourists, in the 18th century,
would carve their initials into the coronation
chair. So if you see a picture of it today, it
looks like a wooden bench in a park where people
have come through and carved their names over
time. It really is not very attractive. And then
on top of that, the seat of the chair is an ancient
stone from Scotland used to enthrone the kings
of Scotland. It's called the Stone of Scone,
and it itself is very rough -hewn. and not very
attractive. So the whole design of this chair
is rather plain and ordinary. But there's something
really profound about that too, isn't there?
Of something so plain, so ordinary, so run -of
-the -mill, being the chair that is used to enthrone,
arguably, the most prominent and powerful monarch
in the world today. And that... brings us to
the gospel passage. And this sense of what it
means to be humble and how we are to live with
humility in the world around us. Now there are
kind of two distinct elements of this gospel
passage that we hear today. Because the first
is this parable that Jesus is offering about
not positioning yourself At the head of the table.
Not preemptively or presumptuously thinking that
you will be the person of prominence. But taking
that opportunity. Taking that opportunity to
be reserved. To be humble. To step back. And
wait until you are invited. Wait until you are
acknowledged for that position of preeminence.
But in that parable, there's a little bit of
a presumption there, or could be a presumption,
of self -servingness. That we will have this
facade of humility so that when we are recognized
for the important people that we are, that we
will be put in that place of honor. That we do
it not out of true humility, but out of an effort
not to be scandalized or not to be embarrassed.
But Jesus doesn't stop with just the parable.
He adds the second element that really does kind
of upend our human inclinations. He says, when
you throw a banquet, don't do it for those self
-serving reasons. Don't be humble for self -serving
purposes. But instead, go out and invite the
people on the margins. Go out and invite the
people that cannot repay you, that cannot do
anything of their own volition, that are incapable
of reciprocating this false sense of humility
with some kind of recognition of your status.
But do it out of a true... of connection and
service to those who are in need, those who are
desperate for support, compassion, and love.
And so if we take both of those admonitions today,
we are presented with this call not just to deep
humility, but the experience of humility as an
act of service. Humility as a call in our lives
to be of loving servitude to each other. As we
hear in this great reading from Sirach or Ecclesiasticus,
the book has both names, the beginning of human
pride is to forsake the Lord. So often, So often
in our lives, we get tied up in knots with our
own presumptions about who we are, what is right,
how we should be, how the world should be. And
the moment we get ourselves down those tracks,
we have forsaken the Lord. That the Lord's...
of orientation for us. The place in which he
shows up and most fully works through us is when
we are the people of humility and openness prepared
to hear and receive the truths of the world around
us. Hear and receive the needs of the world around
us. and to be that transforming change agent
in the world around us. It can be so very easy
to come in on our high horse, as it were, and
to dictate to the world what needs to happen,
what changes must be made, how the world could
be a better place if just X, Y, or Z thing were
different. Different in the ways that we think
they need to be different. But I invite us to
consider today that even when we are those empowered
change agents in the world, when we are the voice
and the presence of transformation in the world
around us, we are that most fully. when we have
an openness and generosity of spirit, when we
have a humility to be the people of faith who
we are and to stand firm in that faith, but to
do it with love and compassion, with a deep ear
to listen to what the world is begging us for,
what the needs are before us. How we might be
a better service to each other. There have been
numerous thought pieces over the last 30 years
that have talked ad nauseum about the decay.
Of our social bonds and ties that bring us together.
The ways in which we have been able to cross
bounds and boundaries and barriers. To be in
relationship even in the midst of great diversities
that we have in this country. We see this politically
in the dissolution of bipartisanship. If we look
at the ways in which subsequent congresses. have
conducted their affairs in the last 50 years,
we've grown further and further apart, more and
more polarized, more and more centered in our
own echo chambers, unwilling, unable to hear
the voice of the other, to be invited into a
space of deep relational connectivity, even when
we are encountering an experience. or a person
or a community that isn't quite what we think
it should be or quite how we think the world
should be. But yet in that humility, in that
deep place of humility, we find our ability to
be the transforming change agents of compassion
and love, to be the people of deep... care and
service that god calls us to over and over again
throughout all of holy scripture years ago when
i was still in arkansas i worked as a coordinator
for disaster relief services with the red cross
And I had the responsibility for three separate
counties, but I had an older retired gentleman
who was kind of my right -hand man and helped
guide me as I was taking on this kind of first
opportunity of leadership as a young 20 -something.
And he was this kind of gruff, old Marine veteran
who had been a gunnery sergeant in Vietnam. And
one of the great lessons I learned from him on
several occasions when we were responding to
disasters was that whatever needed to be done,
whatever activities were before us, if I as a
leader was unwilling to do even the most basic
and most menial of those tasks, then I wouldn't
be respected in my leadership. by the rest of
the team. So not only was I the one directing
stuff at kind of a top -level layer, organizing
response calls, but more often than not, I was
with Richard down in the muck, doing the dirtiest
of jobs, responding to the most difficult of
calls. Because doing that helped me understand
what everyone else was doing, gave me the humility
and openness to see how best to lead those who
are doing the same things that I was doing. When
we're called into this place of humility, when
we're called into this place of service, it's
going to be disorienting. Sometimes it's going
to be uncomfortable. But it's life -giving. It's
transformative. And it helps us to be the most
robust, and the fullest proclaimers of this gospel
good news that we have to offer to the world
around us. When we don't sit on our laurels proclaiming
what should be done from on high, but instead
get down into the thick, nitty -gritty needs,
the difficult, dirty, dark spaces of the world
around us, that's... Where we are most impactful.
That is where Christ shines through us most fully.
But I want to bring us back to chairs for just
a moment. Because I said that Edward's chair,
King Edward's chair in England is one of my most
favorite chairs. My absolute most favorite chair
anywhere in the entire world. is just down the
road in Washington, D .C. At the Smithsonian
American Art Museum, just around the corner from
Chinatown, there is a space in the American folk
art wing. It's an entire room. Called the throne
of the third heaven of the nation's millennium
general assembly. It's a mouthful. But it's an
entire throne room. Lavishly decorated in this
stunning metallic beauty. It was designed by
James Hampton in a carriage house in Georgetown.
14 years in the early part of the 20th century.
And James Hampton became convinced in his life
that he was to make the throne room for the return
of Jesus when he arrives again. But I say this
throne room is gilded in this metallic sheen.
The entire throne room, this ornate, beautiful
array. Of the throne and all of its accoutrements.
Is cardboard and tinfoil. How profound. It would
be. For Christ to come arrayed in all the splendor
of glory. And for his throne to be cardboard
and tinfoil. I faithfully believe that that may
well be Christ's throne when he returns. That
is what servant leadership looks like. That is
what the humility and beauty of humility looks
like. For us to be present to those lowest and
most left out. To be the presence of God to those
most in need. To find our place in that deep
humility. Because ultimately, as St. Paul talks
about in our reading from Hebrews today, that
is where the depth of our love comes from. It's
in that place of hospitality. That place of caring
for the stranger. That place of being Christ
to those most in need. So as we come this day,
as we come in this weekend where we celebrate
all the laborers in the society and world around
us, may we see more clearly the labor we are
called into, the labor of being humble and open
proclaimers of a gospel that is centered on love,
compassion, and care. And may we find in our
humility our place of honor in God's kingdom.
In the name of the Father and of the Son and
of the Holy Spirit, Amen.