Give up your place in line at the grocery store.

Liturgical Reading from 10/29/2022

Have you ever been in line at the grocery store with a cart full of food and someone with a lesser cart pulls up behind you? You immediately exchange that quick glance of shock and surprise.

That look that says, “Oh a person! Here at the store! That’s so strange. I had no idea I would see someone else here.”

You know the look. You also try to avoid eye contact while making eye contact and giving that quick smile to acknowledge them as a real person. Dang it. This is real. It’s happening. Why did I make eye contact? You know where this is headed.

You are both waiting in line, they have a small child. The kid begins to cry. The parent looks panicked, maybe they are disheveled and in a hurry to get a fussy baby back to the car.

You look again. It's the "cart assessment" look over their groceries. They have 4 items to your 27. They aren't asking but they would love to jump the line to get out of the store. It's moral decision time.

"You can go ahead of me... you don't have very many items." you say.

"No... are you sure? It's no big deal. I can wait." she replies. Her baby smacks her in the face with a bag of carrots.

"Please. Go ahead. I have some time to give, and it looks like you could be in a hurry."

You move to the side and allow her to move up in your place. This is humility. A modest view of one's own importance. It may only be a grocery line here, but letting others go in front of you is the message of the liturgical readings today.

I was always taught as a child, that the smallest acts of kindness and humility were important. They were easy acts to choose because you aren't sacrificing much, yet you are telling someone else that it's more important to feel kindness than to satisfy yourself at the moment.

Again as a child, I loved holding doors for people. I loved moving back in lines. I remember letting people cut in line to the lunchroom at my elementary school. Gradually working my way backward, further and further for the simple feeling of joy that it gave me.

Philippians 1:18–26

Paul is writing in Philippians about rejoicing. He is weighing out the pathway to martyrdom or continuing to preach the Gospel. He says it doesn't matter what direction he goes, only that Christ is proclaimed and he will rejoice in that.

His rejoicing will result in deliverance for him.

"For to me life is Christ, and death is gain."

Paul would be in glory with Christ if he was martyred. Death is a gain and he longs to be with Jesus, however, he knows that if he continues to live on, even in suffering, he can rejoice, because he knows what waits for him in the end. In rejoicing, he glorifies the Father. If he humbles himself to God's will, he will be exalted in death.

We have two options that Paul is lamenting over. Martyred death, which would be humiliating and brutal, or continuing to live on with suffering, imprisonment, psychological torture, and being hated by many for preaching the Word. These are our options and Paul is rejoicing. What?!? How can I access this type of joy? Where does it come from?

I remember the grocery line. I remember as a kid, letting people cut the line. Here we find rejoicing. It’s not the same scale as Paul’s writing but I can see the source of his joy here.

Luke 14: 1, 7–11

In Luke 14 verse 1, Jesus dines in the home of one of the leading Pharisees, and all of the dinner guests are keenly observing Jesus. I can imagine someone leaning over and saying to another,

"This Jesus guy tells great stories."

In this moment, Jesus notices how the dinner guests are selecting their places of honor at the table. He tells a parable.

Verse 8 - 11

"When you are invited by someone to a wedding banquet, do not recline at the table in the place of honor. A more distinguished guest than you may have been invited by him, and the host who invited both of you may approach you and say, 'Give your place to this man', and then you would proceed with embarrassment to take the lowest place. Rather, when you are invited, go and take the lowest place so that when the host comes to you he may say, 'My friend, move up to a higher position.' Then you will enjoy the esteem of your companions at the table.

For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted."

That is powerful.

I was once on a plane during a business trip, and before the plane took off, I decided to move seats. The plane was almost empty and I was in the back. There were assigned seats, but I didn't see the harm in moving toward the front of the plane. I waited until everyone had settled into a seat and then I moved. As the flight attendant began to count, she realized that I was not in the correct seat. She didn't ask me to move, she ridiculed me loudly in front of the other passengers for moving. I felt like a small child getting reprimanded by a parent. I got up and moved back to my original seat under the gaze of shameful eyes. Aside from the poor customer service and lack of compassion for my mistake, I was in the wrong for assuming a higher position without asking the host.

Similarly, I have also been at an airport where guests were asked to give up their seats to someone in need. A teenager in urgency on their way home to see family did not have a seat on a flight due to scheduling issues. I gave up my seat for a later flight because I had no restrictions on time. The airline gave me an upgrade to first class on the next flight home. I didn't give up my seat for the upgrade, I offered it up for the joy of helping someone else. The result was that I was exalted later.

We return to Paul in Philippians. This is what he is saying. Paul knows that he has a place of honor at the bridal feast. He continued to let others seat themselves while taking the lowest place of honor. This is the humility he has in life. Being killed for Christ would bring him into glory with Jesus. He may prefer this option but he knows that God's will is more important and by moving to the back of the line, he is experiencing great joy. In his humility, he is exalted.

How can we obtain the grace of humility that we see Jesus speak of in this parable? There can be no one more humble than Jesus. God became man in humility and went to the cross to make payment for sin that was not His. We can look to Mary, the Queen of humility. She is fully human but full of grace. No creature of God has ever surpassed her in merit or exceeded her in humility.

We can then look to the humility of the Saints. We have so many of them that were martyred for Christ. Each one living a life of humility and fulfillment. Some of the most peace-filled and joyous lives are those that are living in the promise of deliverance from our Lord. This is where we find Paul speaking of joy.

Rejoice and continue to rejoice. Just beyond the holds of suffering lies our redeemer. No matter the pathway that we take to Him, when we choose humility we can rejoice in the fact that we will live with Him forever.

It doesn't matter if it's the grocery store, the airport, the line at McDonald's, or even (gasp) the waiting room at the DMV, every day is a chance to show the light of Christ through our actions.

Lord, help me choose humility in every opportunity that presents itself each day. Whether I come to you soon or many years down the road in my life, help me to give the deliverance of Christ to others knowing that my redeemer waits for me in the end.