Luke 14:7-14; Jeremiah 2:4-13; Hebrews 13:1-8, 15-16

As you already know, because media remind us at every moment, once again, we are in elections time and during this time we realize that we live in a country filled with people who are searching for honor, for the first place and ironically, they called themselves “public servants.” Everyone of them promises us to have the solution for our problems, but previous experiences tell us that they do not, they just have another point of view. Times like these reveal a sadly truth: we live in a society; if there is any unity is very fragile unity, and this reality is a challenge for Jesus’ Church. Today’s scriptures have a message, some advice we can say, to live in this world, without being part of this world. As Jesus asked. 
This Sunday we heard the three scriptures the liturgical calendar askes us to read.
Let’s begin with the Old Testament. In verse five, God complains that Israel “went after worthless things, and became worthless themselves” in verse 13, He complains that they have forsaken him, the fountain of living water, and dug out cisterns for themselves, cracked cisterns that can hold no water. Israel left, forgot about the real and only God, and went after Baal, a worthless god; the outcome of their decision is that they became the same as the god they followed, worthless. The advice or message we get from chapter 2 of Jeremiah is that we are who we worship. If we worship a God of love, mercy, and justice we will become people of love, mercy, and justice, but is we, as Israel did, walk away from the only God, and worship the Baals of our time we will become like those gods. Maybe we have become a divided nation because we follow divisive gods, divisive idols, or leaders. 
What do we have to do?... Jeremiah’s advice is “Come back to the fountain of living water and drink from it and cleanse ourselves in it.” I have heard the expression “our nation has to come back to God” but sometimes the people who say it does not do anything to start walking toward God. The first step to our coming back to God is, to put God as center of our personal and collective life. My sisters and brothers we are who we worship. If we worship a God of love, we will love; if we worship a god who hates, we will hate; if we worship a God of mercy, we will learn to be merciful; if we worship a divisive god, we will become a divisive people.  
The Gospel of Luke describes Jesus on a Sabbath having a meal at the home of a prominent religious leader. Other religious leaders and lawyers were there too. And they were watching Jesus. They wanted to know if he is going to observe Sabbath properly. Remember that last week we read about another Sabbath story in which the leaders tried to get Jesus in trouble for healing a woman on the Sabbath. They’re trying it again, so they got their eyes on Jesus. But Luke tells us that Jesus had his eyes on them too. He was watching them rush to get the best seats in the house. can you imagine the scene – people pushing each other, and carefully shifting position. Everyone wants to sit in the place of honor or at least as close as possible.
Jesus is observing and He uses this situation to teach a lesson about what or how the seating arrangements will be like in the Kingdom of Heaven.
Outside the church like in Jesus’ story our leaders are racing for the first place, and they are pushing, shoving, lying, and doing everything to win, everything to gain the first place, the place of honor. And Jesus is watching, and He sees that our leaders remember everything good they did and everything bad their opponent have done. They remember a lot of things except to be humble. They need to remember and to understand what the Bible says about humility. According to the Bible, humility is not just a matter of how we regard ourselves. It is also a matter of how we see others and how we treat them. 
What Jesus saw at that day was not only a divided group, but also a selfish group. They had forgotten to love their neighbor as God commanded them; they had changed the love for their neighbor for the love of power, control, and high positions. But that evening somewhere in what we call now Holy Land, Jesus introduced the solution for division and selfishness, that is according to the gospel: humbleness. Humbleness is the rock we should stand when we treat others. Listen to 1 Corinthians 11:17-22, here Paul talks about another gathering to eat. “In the following directives I have no praise for you, for your meetings do more harm than good. In the first place, I hear that when you come together as a church, there are divisions among you, and to some extent I believe it. No doubt there have to be differences among you to show which of you have God's approval. When you come together, it is not the Lord's Supper you eat, for as you eat, each of you goes ahead without waiting for anybody else. One remains hungry, another gets drunk.”
Paul continues in verse 33 “So then, my brothers, when you come together to eat, wait for each other. What Paul means is, do not try to get the place of honor, don’t try to get the best food, wait for each other, in other words we all are equal before God, we all deserve the same place and the same honor. And no one should remain hungry or left out.
Remember last week a woman was set free, was released from her illness, release from her burdens; a crippled woman was released from her condition and restored to a full life with her family and friends. This Sabbath, Jesus wants to release us from the burden of having to find honor for our own. Jesus says that if we humble ourselves – if we don’t try to put ourselves in the place of honor – he will exult us. 
The last advice comes from Hebrews 13:2-3. “Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for by doing that some have entertained angels without knowing it. Remember those who are in prison, as though you were in prison with them; those who are being tortured, as though you yourselves were being tortured.” The message from Hebrews is, show empathy with those who are around you. Empathy is something rare in our society, even as Christians, we do not relate to those around us. And today, Hebrews is telling us “Try to feel what they feel, as though you were in their situation.” At Christmas we celebrate that Jesus became one of us, He did it because he wanted to feel in His own body what we feel. The message from Hebrews is “feel what others feel” and it’s resumed in the following story: Rev. Samuel Grano de Oro is now a retired Pastor from the Dominican Republic.
He was pastor in NY for a long time and one day he shared this experience: He invited to preach in a church in Hawaii and because of the change of time he was hungry at 3:00 a.m. local time, so he went out looking for a place to eat and the only place he found open was a late-night grill/bar and he did it for several days. One  he sat down and order food, while he was there, he overheard two prostitutes talking in the booth next to him. One was talking about her birthday the next day and said that she never has had a birthday celebration. So, pastor Samuel decided to organize one for her on the next night. So, he invited some people from the church and others who were there. The next night they have the Birthday party, and this woman was overwhelmed... She said, “No one has ever done something like this for me before.” Pastor Samuel identified himself as pastor and asks everyone to pray for her. The bartender said, ‘I didn’t know you were a preacher. What church do you belong to?” pastor Samuel says, “The kind of church that throws birthday parties for prostitutes at 3 O’clock in the morning.” The bartender says, “No, you don’t. There is not a church like that. If there were, I’d join it.”
	If Christians relate with those outside the church as though we were in their condition our churches will be not only attractive, but also relevant for peoples’ life. Therefore, let us place God at the center of our lives, let us humble ourselves and let us have empathy with those around us.