Ecclesiasticus 3:17-20, 28-29 / Hebrews 12:18-19, 22-24 / Luke 14:1, 7-14
A cup is used for containing beverages so that it would be easier to drink from it.
The beverage can be anything from plain water to tea or coffee or other kinds of drinks.
And cups can be made of any material from paper to plastic to porcelain.
And it can also be of any size from cute little teacups to big mugs.
And nowadays, cups have taken on other purposes and meanings.
There are things like the popular cup noodles, which are like tasty instant meals in a plastic disposable cup.
And then there are cups that symbolize a status, or to be exact, a trophy.
So, there are World Cups for various types of sports.
Those are really big cups usually made of silver or some kind of valuable metal.
We may wonder why they are called World Cups when nobody brings anything from it.
In a gospel passage, Jesus told a parable about humility, because He had noticed how the guests picked the places of honour.
The teaching in the parable is about having the humility to go to the lowest place first, so as not to be embarrassed if we were asked to change places.
But practically speaking, whether we go to a wedding feast or to a restaurant for a meal, we let the host or the waiter show us to our seats.
So, out of manners and etiquette, we don't choose the seats, but we choose something else.
Later, if we go to the canteen for a drink, we would choose the cups.
Whether we are going to drink water or coffee or tea, we will choose a nice and clean cup.
We may have our reasons for choosing a particular cup, but this following story may help us do some reflection.
A group of successful graduates once visited their former professor.
They had built impressive careers, held prestigious titles, and lived seemingly perfect lives.
While waiting for the coffee, their conversation turned to the stresses of work, exhaustion, and the pressures of adulthood.
Some laughed.
Some complained.
Some philosophized.
The professor returned with a tray full of mismatched cups —
porcelain and glass, ceramic and plastic, elegant and chipped, minimalist and ornate.
As the guests chose their cups, the professor quietly observed. Then he spoke:
“Notice how you all instinctively reached for the finest cups — the fancy ones.
Not a single person chose the worn-out or plastic ones.
And that’s the root of much of your stress.”
“You wanted the coffee — not the cup.
But you focused on the cup’s appearance, not the essence of what you came for.”
He continued:
“Life is like coffee.
Career, salary, status, home, car — those are just cups.
They don’t define the richness of life itself.”
“Sometimes we get so distracted by the ‘cup’,
we forget to savour the coffee.”
So drink your coffee with joy.
Not by comparing.
Not by competing.
Not by glancing sideways.
Because the happiest people aren’t those who have the best of everything —
but those who know how to make the best of what they are having.
Still, the cups are important. Because we don't want to drink from a chipped cup.
And a broken cup is of no use. It is to be discarded.
But even a broken cup can also be a subject of reflection about life.
In the 15th century, a Japanese shogun sent a broken Chinese tea bowl back to China for repairs.
It was returned repaired with ugly metal staples, and that prompted the Japanese craftsmen to look for a more aesthetic means of repair.
The broken valuable pottery was repaired with lacquered resin mixed with powdered gold. It is called kintsugi.
Kintsugi means “to repair with gold”. But the important point in the art of kintsugi is that the broken piece is now more beautiful for having been broken.
It takes humility to acknowledge that we are chipped, and cracked, and even broken, although no one can see it and no one may know about it.
But Jesus knows, He notices, and He is inviting us to come to Him so that He can heal us.
But in order for Jesus to heal us, we have to give Him our broken pieces.
Jesus won't throw us away or discard us.
He is our Healer, and He is the Master Craftsman.
He will heal us and even make us beautiful in our brokenness.
We just need to be humble and let Jesus recreate us back into His image of love.