In the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen.

When I was in my late teens I had the opportunity to travel with my family to Puerto Vallarta, Mexico for a Christmas vacation. And in one part of the town there were a number of stores that catered to the “gringo” tourists and wealthy Mexicans because they were the only ones who could afford to shop there. One Saturday, my family went shopping in this area of the town and as I emerged from the Ralph Lauren clothing store I almost stumbled over a woman begging outside of the store.

Needless to say this encounter literally stopped me dead in my tracks. There she was with her two small children, her hand extended hoping to receive a few pesos from the tourists passing by. She never uttered a word but rather sat silently hoping to receive some small bit of change from those passing by. I remember that most of the people simply passed her by, many without even noticing her as they hustled from store to store with their purchases.

However, I was transfixed. Growing up on a farm north of the city of London I had never experienced anyone begging before. And the contrast between the opulence of the stores and this woman’s stark poverty bowled me over. The image of that woman and her two small children begging has stayed with me for over twenty years, as fresh as if it was yesterday.

Now certainly since then I have experienced that same level of poverty when I worked at Evangel Hall in Toronto and with L’Arche. But the image of that woman made a profound impression on me and over the years I have reflected numerous times on that experience. She has stayed with me partly because she was so dependent upon the kindness of strangers in order to care for herself and her children which stands in sharp contrast to our culture.

We live in a culture that praises independence, detachment from one another, and freedom. The image of the “self-made man” or human being is especially strong south of the border but it resonates here as well. There is that push both overtly and covertly to get a good education so one can get the good paying job, the house in the “burbs” with the two car garage and the 1.5 children. To stand on one’s own two feet.

And this sense of independence continues to persist even as we grow older. Refusing to acknowledge the limitations that come with the aging process or sickness. Refusing to acknowledge that we are in need of help, that we are dependent on other people for our well being. Refusing to acknowledge that ultimately we are dependent upon the grace of God. I know that this loss of independence is a great fear for many people as they grow older.
 In the words of the prophet Jeremiah, we continue to dig “our own cisterns, broken cisterns that cannot hold water.”

Because of this pervasive sense of independence it comes as no surprise that Christianity is not doing very well in our society. Sure, some may gain some comfort from religion, an emotional lift but few people need it for its radical sense of dependence on God, its radical grace. And yet Christ calls us to lives that are marked by mutual dependency as illustrated in our gospel reading from Luke concerning the parable of the wedding banquet. 

In the first part of today’s parable, Jesus addresses the people who have been invited to a wedding banquet and were choosing places of honour for themselves at the table. He tells them that this type of behaviour will be an embarrassment for them because the host may have invited someone more distinguished and will then proceed to ask the person to move to the lowest place.

However, if the person judges himself as worthy only of the lowest place, then the host will come and ask him to move up, In this action the virtue of humility is illustrated. The second part of the parable addresses the issue who is to be invited to the banquet – the poor, the crippled, the lame and the blind. Those who cannot repay you. The subject is hospitality.

Now the two subjects, humility and hospitality, both point to the issue of dependency. But it is the first part of the parable that I would like to explore more deeply because the virtue of humility is much maligned and misunderstood in our culture. In our culture, humility has at best been labelled neurotic.
It is self-esteem and getting ahead that we are into. But our culture has plenty to relearn about humility because humility does not mean beating our breasts and saying how awful we are. Nor is about being a doormat for other people to walk over. Rather it is a sense that all life is a gift from God, and that the only proper attitude is to be grateful in each of the ordinary moments of our lives rather than proud. Humility comes from understanding our place in the universe.

Humility is that admission of God’s gifts in our lives and the understanding that we have been given them for others. Certainly God’s gifts to us can come in different forms – spiritual (peace, love, compassion) and material (creation itself). But no matter what form they take they flow out of the grace of God.

Each of us have experienced that grace in our lives and continue to experience in each and every ordinary moment. We have been touched by God. And through the power of grace we have come to realize and acknowledge our dependence on God in times of both joy and sorrow, that we are not little islands all to ourselves.

Like the woman I encountered in Mexico, we too are beggars dependent upon the grace of God, called simply to tell other beggars where to find food. God has chosen us to be in relationship with the divine and to carry that same sense of dependence, love and grace into all of the other relationships in our lives.

So think of the church as lifetime training in dependency. Here we are gathered with people that we didn’t even know at one point in our lives. Yet we are told to look upon them as brothers and sisters in Christ, as people who are in great need of your gifts. We are taught to acknowledge our need, to hold out our empty hands and declare our need to God.

We are all beggars as far as our relationship with God is concerned. What we need is not ours to earn. What we need is only God’s to give. Let us open our hands and receive the gifts we need. Let us open our hands and give the gifts we have to give for we are all beggars simply telling other beggars where to find food.
THANKS BE TO GOD, AMEN.