Proper 17C
Hebrews 13:1-8, 15-16
Luke 14:1, 7-14
Episcopal Student Center, Austin, Tex.

The Episcopal Student Center and the University of Texas have been neighbors for a long time. UT was founded in 1883 on “the Forty Acres,” a big square around where the Tower is now, from Guadalupe to Speedway between 21st and 24th Streets. All Saints was founded in 1899 as a chapel for Grace Hall, where Kinsolving Hall now stands, the first all-women’s dormitory at UT. Not long after came a building called Gregg House, which was the first home of the Center for Episcopal Student Work. It was later replaced by the building we’re in right now; this chapel has been here since 1955. Since the beginning of the month I’ve been spending a lot of time here, and if you pay attention to some of the things that are framed on the walls here, you can see pictures of past generations of students who have called this place home and after a while have left it for the next classes behind them, on and on, down to you. I find myself wondering who they are and what happened to them. I find myself wondering how their lives were transformed here.

This place has always had close ties to UT, and so there’s been a bit of a give and take that’s happened over the years. In one of the study rooms over by the kitchen you might have seen the big Texas Longhorn logo with the Episcopal shield design inside it. I’m told that this used to be our only logo, until the university’s lawyers sent us a cease-and-desist letter. If you go to the ESC’s website or look at some of our printed materials, you’ll probably read our slogan: “What starts here transforms lives.” If you’re paying attention that probably sounds pretty familiar, because if you go to the university’s website, you’ll be greeted with their slogan: “What starts here changes the world.” That sounded pretty good, so I guess someone decided to borrow it (and I’m glad they did!). If UT’s mission is to change the world, then our mission as part of our ministry to you and all the other students of UT is to make this a place that transforms lives, in a community that knows and celebrates the loving, life-giving, and liberating God who Jesus embodies. That’s part of why I came here to be your priest, because it’s obvious that this is a place that transforms lives, through our worship and study and prayer, through the ways we create safe spaces for one another and share meals together, through promoting health and wellbeing at our counseling center and in so many other ways. Every week I meet someone new who tells me they’re an alum of the ESC and I love watching their eyes light up with memories. I find myself wondering what stories they could tell about this place. And I find myself wondering what stories you could already tell and one day will.

In our calendar of readings we’ve been making our way through the book of Hebrews for a while, and today we hear the conclusion of that book. Scholars believe that Hebrews began as a sermon (or maybe a series) that later got edited into the form we have it in today, and if it’s a sermon it’s a long one. The author has taken us on a wild ride from the Old Testament to Jesus and beyond as he tries to spell out the big picture of how it all fits together, reminding his readers that there is a master plan and God will stay faithful to the promises God has made. The author reminds us of a whole list of people who put their trust in those promises, those past generations that have called God’s house their home, and he encourages his readers to remember those past generations and to hold them close, to stay true to their faith even when there’s so much going on in the world that could distract us. He’s covered a lot of ground. In the passage we hear today, right at the end of the book, you kind of get the impression that he’s trying to wrap it up. “But enough about all that,” he seems to say. “Let’s put the big theological ideas down for a second and get back to basics. What does all this mean for your actual lives? Well… keep loving each other like family.” That’s it. Love each other. Open your homes and your hearts to newcomers, because that’s one way God is able to get around our assumptions and tell us something important. Remember and advocate for people who are imprisoned and oppressed. Keep your commitments and don’t use other people for your own gratification. Don’t chase after wealth. Find contentment in the circumstances God has given you. All those other big questions are important and will still be there, but this basic stuff? This is how people will recognize you as followers of Jesus. In the midst of this messed-up, selfish, violent world, be a person who cares for the people around you because Jesus cared for you first. This is what a transformed life can look like.

If you look on the back of your green announcement sheet, you’ll see four things there: the values of the ESC, which the vestry wrote in 2019. The ESC is a place that seeks to be open, inclusive, and affirming, to cultivate a sense of home, to pray together regularly, to create a safe space to wrestle deeply with the “big questions.” You might say that these are the things that we believe lead us to be able to live life the way the preacher of Hebrews reminds us to live. These are the things that can lead to transformed lives in a world that desperately needs them if we are to have any hope of overcoming our deep divisions and inequities and violences. So whether you’re new to the ESC or have been here a long time: pull up a chair and get comfortable at this table where we meet God every week. Jesus reminds us today that at God’s table everyone has a seat, and we shouldn’t be in a hurry to think we’re too good for the cheap seats (because you’re not) and we shouldn’t be in a hurry to think we’re not good enough to be here (because you are). At this table, we all have the same access to Jesus, we all share the same extravagant banquet of grace, we all take on the same responsibilities of using what we find here for the good of the world.

This morning I saw a sign that seems to have popped up outside several buildings on campus; you’ve probably seen them. If you look at it one way, it reads “Make this your Texas,” but if you stop and look a little closer, it also says, “Make this our Texas.” So in the spirit of the give and take that has represented the relationship between the ESC and the university, I want to propose another borrowed slogan for us here: Make this your home. Make this our home. How will you accept that invitation? How will you take your part in the long story of the Episcopal Student Center and the many students who have come before you? How will you make a place for somebody new to find their home here? How will you accept the invitation from others to lay down your guard, get comfortable, and stay a while?

Welcome home.