I have transitioned into a new ministry role and church employment, and I recently had the privilege to preach for the first time at St. Christopher’s Episcopal Church in Lubbock, TX.
If you are interested in the title question, then just keep reading —
Twelfth Sunday after Pentecost (Proper 17 Year C)
August 31, 2025
St. Christopher’s Episcopal Church, Lubbock, Texas
Readings: Jeremiah 2:4-13; Ps. 81:1, 10-16; Heb. 13:1-8, 15-16; Luke 14:1,7-14
Rev. Dr. Dann Wigner
May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable in your sight, O God – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit
After a parable, Jesus loved to say to his disciples: “He who has ears to hear, let him hear.” which roughly means that he was asking them, “Are you listening? Really listening?”
Are we listening today? Really listening?
These passages may be familiar to some of us and new to others – but there are some warm and comforting pieces here:
“Let mutual love continue” (Awww)
“Show hospitality to strangers” (Of course…)
“Jesus Christ is the same – yesterday, today, and forever” (How reassuring)
“All who exalt themselves shall be humbled, and those who humble themselves shall be exalted” (Right on! Amen!)
Wait a minute…Are we listening? Really listening?
Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever, BUT…
If those who are exalted, will be humbled and vice versa….If the first shall be last and the last shall be first…then doesn’t that mean… change. And not just a little change. Jesus calls for magnificent, momentous, …catastrophic change.
In fact, if we stop and think, Jesus himself represents that God changes. The God of the Bible acts in history, becomes human, grows and learns, takes sides, intervenes on behalf of others, gets angry, weeps, trusts, …risks.
How is Jesus Christ the same?
And, if we stop for a moment and consider, the Gospel passage is also talking about a change that we don’t see. I don’t know about you, but when I look around I see the “exalted” taking care of themselves. I see the “humbled,” the “least of these” getting stepped on all the time. Being forgotten.
Where is that change?
Any “same” that I see sure doesn’t look like Jesus.
Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.
The last shall be first, the humbled shall be exalted.
Well, which is it?
Are we listening, really listening?
You know, whenever we read things in the Bible, or see things happening around us, that don’t seem to make sense together – we sure seem to automatically jump into rationalization mode. We want to reconcile the two parts – to make them make sense.
I find myself in a mad dash to resolve the contradiction; I’m afraid to let the incongruity sit or, rather, I’m afraid to sit with the incongruity. Do you sometimes feel the same way?
Interestingly, sitting with the incongruity of these sayings, not rushing off to rationalize or resolve them, is a very ancient spiritual practice. When Jesus called his disciples to listen – really listen – he is inviting them to a difficult task.
Jesus wasn’t giving them a clever puzzle to solve. He was inviting them into a space of not-knowing, of unknowing. It can be a very uncomfortable place – to say “I don’t know.”
“I don’t understand.”
BUT
To also say, “I’m sticking around. I will stay with the discomfort.”
Can we do that? Can we walk around with these contradictory statements – Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever AND the last shall be first, the exalted shall be humbled – can we walk around with them, for a day – a week – a month?
Can we walk around with them on our hearts – coming up again and again in our minds, like a half-remembered song – constantly drawing us back to paying attention – look closer, listen harder – until the day that knowing happens to us?
That’s tough – walking around in contradiction, walking around in uncertainty and not-knowing. Why would we do that?
Maybe, because we need the practice of unknowing. You see, we often get into trouble when we know exactly what to do.
How will the last be first, how will the humbled be exalted?
The passage from Hebrews gives us a clue – “Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for by doing that some have entertained angels without knowing it.”
The stranger – literally, the unknown one – how could we even think of approaching them by knowing what to do? We need practice in staying in that uncomfortable place not knowing, unsettled, uncertain if we expect to see, to hear that in them too.
Are we listening? Really listening?
Until we can walk in contradiction – and still show hospitality, concern, care, kindness – we’re not much use to that stranger – because they are walking in that unknowing place. Know-it-alls aren’t very helpful when empathy is what is called for.
In fact, early Christians believed that it was in the space of not knowing that we could only really encounter God. The desert fathers and mothers of the early centuries used sayings and stories like Jesus used parables – to make us stop, to consider, to pay attention, to be still in mind as well as body (and that “stillness” is where we get a glimpse of what Jesus being “the same” across time might really mean) – I want us to end with one of their sayings. Take it with you – walk in contradiction – that we might be listening, really listening, when the stranger crosses our path.
Here it is:
A monk once asked an old hermit, “Why don’t I fear God?” The hermit stayed perfectly still, looking into the monk’s eyes. Finally, he said, “Remember that you have to meet God.” Visibly chagrined, the monk quietly, penitently asked, “Where can I meet God?” The old hermit said, “Find the oppressed and dry their tears. And ask them to forgive you.”
Amen.