August 31, 2025

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.