THE HUMBLE CALLED UP IN THE MIDST OF THE FEAST: A SERMON FOR THE 17TH SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY

Christ Calls the Humble to His Feast

By Bp, Joseph (Ancient Church of the West)

INTRODUCTION

As we gather on this seventeenth Sunday after Trinity, our hearts are still warmed by the memory of the holy men and women whose feasts we celebrated just last week. We recalled St. Paulinus, who carried the light of the Gospel into the distant lands of Northumbria, laying the foundations of our Church in steadfast faith and courage. We also honored Sts. Eulampius and Eulampia, whose love for Christ endured through persecution, and the blessed Apostle Philip, whose ministry exemplified service to both body and soul. Their examples remind us that the Church is built not upon human ambition, but upon humble fidelity and the willing offering of ourselves to God’s service.

The turning of the season toward autumn reflects the same divine pattern. The golden light softens the earth, leaves fall and return to the soil, and the harvest reminds us of God’s providence in sustaining all creation. In this season, as the world quiets from summer’s fullness, we are invited to quiet our hearts as well, to reflect upon our lives, and to seek the renewal of our spirits. Just as the earth prepares for winter in humble surrender to the Creator, so too are we called to a posture of spiritual readiness and receptivity.

And now, as we prepare to hear the holy Scripture, let us lay aside our distractions and worldly pride. Let us approach the Word of God with hearts made humble, eyes made attentive, and souls made eager for instruction. For it is in the Scriptures that the Lord speaks to us with the same clarity He showed to Moses, revealing His will, His mercy, and His call to humble obedience. Let us listen, therefore, and let the words of our Lord and His Apostles take root in our hearts, guiding us in meekness, love, and unity.

SCRIPTURE

Numbers 12:1–8

And Miriam and Aaron spake against Moses because of the Ethiopian woman whom he had married: for he had married an Ethiopian woman. And they said, Hath the LORD indeed spoken only by Moses? hath he not spoken also by us? And the LORD heard it. (Now the man Moses was very meek, above all the men which were upon the face of the earth.) And the LORD spake suddenly unto Moses, and unto Aaron, and unto Miriam, Come out ye three unto the tabernacle of the congregation. And they three came out. And the LORD came down in a pillar of cloud, and stood in the door of the tabernacle, and called Aaron and Miriam: and they both came forth. And he said, Hear now my words: If there be a prophet among you, I the LORD will make myself known unto him in a vision, and will speak unto him in a dream. My servant Moses is not so, who is faithful in all mine house. With him will I speak mouth to mouth, even apparently, and not in dark speeches; and the similitude of the LORD shall he behold: wherefore then were ye not afraid to speak against my servant Moses?

EPISTLE

Ephesians 4:1-6

I THEREFORE, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you that ye walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called, With all lowliness and meekness, with longsuffering, forbearing one another in love; Endeavouring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body, and one Spirit, even as ye are called in one hope of your calling; One Lord, one faith, one baptism, One God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all.

GOSPEL

St Luke 14:1-11

And it came to pass, as he went into the house of one of the chief Pharisees to eat bread on the sabbath day, that they watched him. And, behold, there was a certain man before him which had the dropsy. And Jesus answering spake unto the lawyers and Pharisees, saying, Is it lawful to heal on the sabbath day? And they held their peace. And he took him, and healed him, and let him go; And answered them, saying, Which of you shall have an ass or an ox fallen into a pit, and will not straightway pull him out on the sabbath day? And they could not answer him again to these things. And he put forth a parable to those which were bidden, when he marked how they chose out the chief rooms; saying unto them, When thou art bidden of any man to a wedding, sit not down in the highest room; lest a more honourable man than thou be bidden of him; And he that bade thee and him come and say to thee, Give this man place; and thou begin with shame to take the lowest room. But when thou art bidden, go and sit down in the lowest room; that when he that bade thee cometh, he may say unto thee, Friend, go up higher: then shalt thou have worship in the presence of them that sit at meat with thee. For whosoever exalteth himself shall be abased; and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted.

SERMON

Beloved in Christ, in this sacred season, the Lord calls our eyes not only upward to heaven but inward to the hidden chambers of the soul. Today’s readings present a recurrent motif: the humble raised, the proud abased, the faithful exalted by God’s inscrutable justice.

We begin in Numbers, where Patriarch Moses (“humble above all men upon the face of the earth”) is challenged by Sts. Miriam and Aaron. Their murmuring against him because of his Ethiopian wife is more than a familial dispute; it is a profound spiritual temptation. They sought to assert equality where God had appointed singular authority. And the Lord responds with a vivid demonstration of His presence: “With him will I speak mouth to mouth, even apparently, and not in dark speeches.” Here, St. Moses is the archetype of the servant-leader: meek, yet steadfast; lowly, yet intimate with God. St. Augustine, reflecting on the same, observes that humility is “the secret strength of the soul, by which the soul is lifted, not by its own power, but by God’s exceeding grace.”

St. Paul, in Ephesians, builds upon this principle: “Walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called, with all lowliness and meekness, with longsuffering, forbearing one another in love; endeavouring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.” Observe how the Apostle binds personal humility with communal unity. It is not enough to be meek in isolation; meekness must manifest in patient endurance, in reconciliation, in a refusal to assert self over the body of Christ. St. John Chrysostom comments: “He who is truly humble does not seek to be praised, but by his deeds brings praise to God alone.”

Our Lord’s teaching at the Pharisee’s table in St. Luke 14 continues this thread with pastoral clarity: “When thou art bidden of any man, sit not down in the highest room… but go and sit down in the lowest room; that when he that bade thee cometh, he may say unto thee, Friend, go up higher: then shalt thou have worship in the presence of them that sit at meat with thee.” The feast itself becomes a mirror of heaven, where divine honor is revealed not in human preference, but in God’s sovereign arrangement. Here we witness the economy of grace: the exaltation of the lowly, the abasement of the self-exalting.

And yet, the heavens themselves seem to echo this divine ordering. This past month, humanity has observed the passage of comet 3I/Atlas, a strange visitor from the distant reaches of the cosmos, and the continued disclosure of unidentified aerial phenomena, which deeply unsettles us as we realize how little we know and how we may be manipulated with the “principalities and powers of the air.” These events remind us that God’s creation is vaster, stranger, and more ordered than we often perceive. Just as St. Moses stood in the cloud of God’s presence, uncertain eyes of our age witness phenomena that defy familiar explanation. But the point is not speculation alone; it is trust. God’s providence extends over the known and the hidden alike, and humility before Him is the proper response.

Closer to home, our hearts ache for those shaken by the earthquakes in Cebu and Mindanao, for our families and friends whose homes are reduced to rubble and whose lives are disrupted. The trembling of the earth is both literal and symbolic: the fragility of human life, the transience of worldly certainties. And yet, it is precisely amid these tremors that the faithful, walking in humility and service, reflect the presence of God’s mercy.

We also confront the ongoing unrest in Israel, Palestine, and the wider Middle East. Ancient enmities and modern ambitions collide, and the world watches. In this context, the lesson of Numbers, Ephesians, and St. Luke is not theoretical: humility, unity, and patient service are acts of prophetic witness. The Church, though small, is called to intercede, to serve, to heal wounds both visible and invisible, and to model reconciliation where violence reigns.

St. John Cassian, reflecting on the desert fathers, reminds us that “true humility is a solitary victory over self, but its fruits are communal, extending grace to all who dwell near it.” The humble man, like St. Moses or the poor guest at the feast, demonstrates that spiritual elevation comes not by ambition but by fidelity.

Practical application for us, beloved, flows from this reflection:

Embrace the humility of service. In our workplaces, homes, and communities, let us prefer the lowly seat, the unseen labor, the quiet word of encouragement.

Engage the world in mercy. Whether responding to natural disasters, societal unrest, or global tensions, let our actions embody the long-suffering love that St. Paul describes.

Stand in awe before creation. Contemplate the comet, the tremors of the earth, and even unexplained phenomena, as signs of God’s omnipotence, and allow them to shape a worshipful imagination.

Let us reflect, too, through the lens of English poetry, which often catches divine truths in human experience. Wordsworth, in his “Ode: Intimations of Immortality”, writes:

"Our birth is but a sleep and a forgetting;

The soul that rises with us, our life’s star,

Hath had elsewhere its setting."

In this poetic insight, we discern that our temporal trials, the upheavals of the world, and the cosmic mysteries are not ends in themselves, but reminders of a greater order, a call to lift the soul beyond pride and fear toward God. Humility opens the eyes of the heart to this higher reality.

In conclusion, the call of this Sunday is clear: walk in meekness, bear one another in love, prefer the lowly seat, serve in quiet faithfulness, and trust in God’s exaltation. The disasters, mysteries, and conflicts of our time are opportunities to exercise humility, unity, and hope. The Christian life is lived at the intersection of the ordinary and the cosmic, the local and the universal, where grace raises the lowly and orders the heavens in ways our eyes may only begin to behold.

COLLECT

Almighty and Everlasting God, who seest that we have no power of ourselves to help ourselves: Keep us both outwardly in our bodies and inwardly in our souls, that we may be defended from all adversities which may happen to the body, and from all evil thoughts which may assault and hurt the soul; and so order our lives that, walking in humility and patience, we may glorify Thy holy Name; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with Thee and the Holy Ghost, ever one God, world without end. Amen.