"Walking the Talk"
Rev. Steven A. Peay, Ph.D.First Congregational Church – Wauwatosa, Wisconsin
Thirteenth Sunday after Pentecost
August 29, 2004[texts:Hebrews 13:1-8,15-16 /Luke 14:1, 7-14]
“If you’re going to talk the talk, you’ve got to walk the walk.” I’m not sure who said it first, but we hear it often enough and while it may have become trite, it’s profoundly true. We can say lots of things, but if what we say isn’t reflected in what we do, in how we act, the talk is going to be just that – talk.
I never tire of visiting bookstores, as my wife and others who know me well understand. What the appeal is I can't be sure, but I find both bookstores and libraries fascinating. Perhaps it is because books – what people write and read – give us an insight into human nature itself? Bookstores and libraries present us with row-upon-row, shelf-upon-shelf of the human person's attempt to understand his or her world and self. Even before the advent of the book human beings sought to share thoughts with one another. People used to gather for a party – a symposium – and wine, food, and ideas would flow freely.
Many significant pieces of literature have the symposium as their setting. Both Xenophon and Plato have works entitled Symposium. Plutarch wrote six books entitled Table Talks (centuries later students would write down Martin Luther's thoughts under a similar title). The same theme is even there in Jewish literature represented by the Letter of Aristeas. It's a good example of 'Wisdom literature,' the same genre that gives us both Proverbs and Ecclesiastes in the Hebrew Bible. The Jewish literature, however, centers on the gathered sages' devotion to the Torah, where the Greek and Roman counterparts run the gamut from the sublime to ridiculous. Regardless, the connection between table fellowship and great ideas is strongly linked. Perhaps that's why Luke seeks to show Jesus as both prophet and philosopher by having him so often at table. This notion also connects with the presentation of God's kingdom as a 'heavenly banquet.' Even Luke's account of the Lord's Supper in chapter 22 carries with it strong traces of the symposium theme.
Jesus is at table here with a whole group of important people; people who think they have ideas that matter. He observes their concern for "getting ahead" and addresses it using the common-sense etiquette found in Proverbs 25:6-7. Jesus reminds them that it's better to wait and be asked to come to a seat of honor at the table rather than assuming a seat and being sent down to a lower one. Of course, if Martha Stewart or some other etiquette expert were around this wouldn't be a problem since she'd have everyone seated right where they belong, with their names beautifully calligraphed on a hand-made place card. It's a good thing.
What separates Jesus' words from the self-help section or the books on business or social etiquette? Jesus uses the worldly wisdom, but as he so often does, puts a twist on it. When he says, "For all who exalt themselves will be humbled and all who humble themselves will be exalted" he's doing more than simply addressing a technique for success in the world. What Jesus does is question the very mindset and the need to be exalted. He parodies the "good advice" on how to get ahead and in so doing calls his listeners to a new sense of self and a new notion of what their priorities should be. He’s telling them that they have got to walk the walk if they’re going to talk the talk.
Jesus, again and again, reminds us that our focus is to be first on the Other – capital 'O' – and then on others – small 'o' – and lastly on self. Those who understand and who become a living part of God's kingdom live, think, and act in that manner. Thus, our extension of table fellowship should not be based on who can reciprocate our invitation. Rather, we're to extend ourselves to those who don't even have a chance to reciprocate – "the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind" (Luke 14:13). We extend ourselves to those folk because in doing so we're joined with them in God and our profession of who we say we are – followers of Jesus Christ – is given feet. In short, we’re walking the talk.
The great spiritual writer Meister Eckhart looks at this text and its reversal of worldly wisdom as an invitation to the soul. "Friend, come up higher" is God speaking to each of us and welcoming us into union, oneness with the One God. The invitation is to be what God intended for us to be from the beginning – extensions of God's self. If we accept this invitation to a place of honor we will, in turn, act as God acts, love as God loves, and care as God cares. It will be the most natural thing for us to extend ourselves to even the most unlikely people because we are acting in concert, in oneness, with God who has called us into God's very self through the Holy Spirit.
Thus, the writer to the Hebrews can exhort us to community (koinonia) and hospitality when he writes, "Let mutual love continue. Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for by doing that some have entertained angels unawares." The long list of good advice on practical Christian discipleship that follows comes down to allowing our lives to reflect every day what we say and do in our worship of a Sunday morning. Howard Clark Kee, a contemporary Biblical scholar, comments on this passage: "For this community, the sacrifice required is continual praise confessing Jesus Christ as the one whose life and suffering has given them access to God. This life of continual worship extends into daily life when people do what is good (eupoiia) and share what they have with one another (koinonia). Such is the life of faithful discipleship."
If we accept the Lord's invitation to come up higher we're going to approach the world differently. If we see our wealth more in who we are than in what we have, we can, as the author to the Hebrews says, "be content with what you have." Now, as at the time of Jesus, our faith turns worldly wisdom on its head. We live in a society driven by needs, most of which are manufactured for us. Everyday we're bombarded with the message that we need the latest fashion, the newest car, or the latest technology. Contentment, we're told, lies in things, not in others or self. To achieve this goal of contentment we extend ourselves, not to people, but to creditors.
There can be little question that America has a love affair with the credit card. Article after article reminds us of the dangerous situation in which that love affair puts us and still the “pre-approved” letters keep coming. Oddly enough I am reminded of something in Charles Dickens' novel, David Copperfield. David goes to visit his friend Mr. Micawber in debtor's prison and gets some advice from him. "He solemnly conjured me, I remember, to take warning from his fate; and to observe that if a man had twenty pounds a year for his income and spent nineteen pounds nineteen shillings and sixpence, he would be happy, but that if he spent twenty pounds one he would be miserable. After which he borrowed a shilling of me . . ." To be content with what we have doesn't mean that we shouldn't work hard, shouldn't be ambitious, or that we shouldn't have nice things. Rather, it means that we should have our priorities straight, with God at the center, and if we extend ourselves it should be to those in need we should walk the talk of hospitality and of good stewardship of the resources that are, ultimately, God’s gift to us.
Each time we gather the Lord invites us to "come up higher." This is especially the case when we gather to share around the Lord's Table. When we receive this gift of relationship through Word and through sacrament, may we listen deep within ourselves for that invitation to oneness with God. It is the invitation to walk the talk as a follower of Jesus Christ. As we leave this place today, may we go renewed within ourselves to live as God's people in the world, turning its wisdom and priorities on their heads – just as Jesus did, because he walked the talk.
Fads, fashions, books, and ideas all come and go, but God alone remains constant, for God is the ground of all being. "Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, and today, and forever," that truth is the foundation of our community, our faith, and our very life. It is that same, never-changing, Jesus who stands among us today and bids us, "Friend, come up higher." The invitation is there and we answer with our lives when we talk the talk and then walk the walk. Amen.