Luke 14:1, 7-14 What would Emily Post or Martha Stewart say? Where should you sit if Oprah invites you over for a dinner party at her Montecito estate? Should you try to get there early and try to grab a seat at the head table? Or do you take a seat near the back of the room? Oh, surely it would be more fun and interesting to sit up front with all the important people, but . . . Proximity to greatness suggests greatness. Think back to the old Soviet era, when we’d read articles about the presumed order of succession. Kremlin watchers believed that the closer you stood to Gorbachev or Brezhnev during a public spectacle like a May Day parade of the troops, the more important you were. Changes in proximity suggested changes in the line of succession. This sense that proximity to greatness can rub off, drives our culture’s craze about celebrities. For some reason we hope that an autograph or a picture with a celebrity will change our lives. We live in a society that worships success, and n...
Sermons of a Disciples Preacher Ministering in Troy, Michigan