Romans 12:13-21 (The Message)
Don’t burn out;
keep yourselves fueled and aflame. Be alert servants of the Master, cheerfully
expectant. Don’t quit in hard times; pray all the harder. Help needy
Christians; be inventive in hospitality.
Bless your enemies;
no cursing under your breath. Laugh with your happy friends when they’re happy;
share tears when they’re down. Get along with each other; don’t be stuck-up.
Make friends with nobodies; don’t be the great somebody.
Don’t hit back;
discover beauty in everyone. If you’ve got it in you, get along with everybody.
Don’t insist on getting even; that’s not for you to do. “I’ll do the judging,”
says God. “I’ll take care of it.”
Our Scriptures
tell us that if you see your enemy hungry, go buy that person lunch, or if he’s
thirsty, get him a drink. Your generosity will surprise him with goodness.
Don’t let evil get the best of you; get the best of evil by doing good.
Have you ever wondered what Hospitality looks like?
What if I added the word
radical to it ---
what does radical
hospitality look like?
We find radical hospitality modeled throughout the Biblical story
Abraham modeled a radical hospitality, when he welcomed the strangers
into the shade of a tree, washed their feet, and offered them the finest of
foods (Genesis 18:1-8).
Lydia, too, modeled this when she housed Paul and Silas (Acts 16:11-15,
40).
The author of Hebrews writes:
“Let mutual love continue. Do not neglect
to show hospitality to strangers, for by doing that some have entertained
angels without knowing it” (Hebrews 13:1-2).
Hospitality is not just having someone over for a nice meal.
Hospitality is not just inviting someone in for a visit.
And really, when you think about it --- there’s no such thing as
“radical” hospitality
We like to add all kinds of adjectives to
our hospitality practices as if to suggest that ours is better than others.
At its heart, hospitality is, simply, radical.
There is no other kind of hospitality.
You either are or you aren’t hospitable --- and if you are, it is
pretty radical
If we welcome some and exclude others we shouldn't pretend we are
hospitable.
Last Monday was the 4th Anniversary of the shooting at Mother Emanuel
AME church in Charleston, South Carolina.
Four days after nine people were murdered at the end of a bible study,
on Sunday June 21st, Mother Emanuel A.M.E. church flung open its doors so that
the community could gather for worship --- can you even, imagine what it would have
been like to walk through those doors that Sunday?
Are you ready for that
kind of hospitality?
Are you prepared for
that kind of showing of mercy?
Are you willing to be
received with that kind of welcome?
Phillip Gulley is an Indiana Quaker pastor who has written a number of
provocative books. In Front Porch Tales, Gulley share that he
believes that one of the reasons for the decline of community in our country is
the demise of the front porch as a feature of American homes.
How many of us ever sit on our front porch (if we even have one)?
Instead we have shifted to back porches and
decks and do everything we can to shield ourselves from our neighbors.
Gulley writes:
Perhaps more things were resolved on
America’s front porches than in any other place, and yet so few are used
today. . . . Community is a beautiful thing. It heals us and makes us better than we would
otherwise be. I live in the city now. My
front porch is a concrete slab. (But)
community isn’t so much a locale as it is a state of mind. You find it whenever folks ask how you’re
doing because they care, and not because they’re getting paid to inquire.
Hospitality is all about building community --- something we struggle
to do in our world today.
Too often the church acts as if it is selective in who is welcome ---
and who is not.
We sometimes act as if building a welcome station, or an information
hub in our welcome center, and encouraging each other to wear nametags is
enough.
We frame our conversations around who is in --- and who is out --- of
God’s redeeming grace without even realizing it.
And it is not just us, the church that does this; our society at large
is built on FEAR of the other, and we want to build bigger walls and put
security at every public space in an attempt to calm this irrational fear.
And fear prevents
hospitality
As I have pondered over this topic the last few weeks the key to
hospitality is simple, yet elusive.
Simple, because we all give at least lip
service to the idea.
Elusive, because we struggle with living it
out.
The key to hospitality (and really to Christian discipleship) is
understanding that God loves us UNCONDITIONALLY.
God loves YOU
unconditionally --- exactly as you are
Everything starts there.
The author of 1st John makes this abundantly clear when he
proclaimed:
“We love because he first loved us.” (1
John 4:19)
Hospitality begins in the very heart of Jesus as he extends to each one
of us his unconditional love.
Paul Tillich, the great theologian of the 20th Century, writes that one
of the first steps to a relationship with God is that we must “accept that we
are accepted.”
Before we can reach out to others with the hospitality of Jesus ---
before we can share his love and grace and acceptance --- before any of that we
must not only receive God’s unconditional love --- but truly believe it we have
it.
That is the first step in becoming a follower of Jesus.
Tillich goes on to ask the question that makes it personal for each of
us.
“Do we know what it means to be struck by
grace? We cannot transform our lives, unless we allow them to be transformed by
that stroke of grace.”
Bishop Schnase continues this thought when he writes:
God’s love for us is not something we have
to strive for, earn, work on, or fear.
It is freely given. That is key; that
we are loved, first, finally and forever by God, a love so deep and profound
and significant that God offers His Son to signify and solidify this love
forever, so that we get it.
We have to start there!
I know how hard it is
--- but hear me GOD LOVES YOU UNCONDITIONALLY
If we don’t feel that love, we will always fall back into fear.
And there is NO
hospitality when we live in a state of fear
But Jesus love for us is so powerful it enables us to move beyond our fears
and to live in hospitality
So let me share four practical ways that we can demonstrate
hospitality.
Welcome everyone
you meet.
I mean this literally and figuratively.
Extend a kind word to everyone you meet, but also,
share your time, energy and life with others—especially those who may need you
more than you need them.
Jesus welcomed strangers and outcasts
In
the same way that Zacchaeus was a "son of Abraham" and worthy of
Jesus' time, the people that you interact with are loved by God and worthy of
your time too.
I love the suggestion that Glennon Doyle offers
--- she offered this advice at a women’s retreat but the advice is good for all
of us. She said:
If you are standing with other woman in a
circle and there is a woman standing alone in your circle’s vicinity --- the
thing to do is notice her, smile at her, mover over a bit and say, Hi, come
join us!” Even if she decides not to
join your circle --- even if she looks at you like you’re crazy --- inviting
her is still the thing to do. Widen your
circles. All the time.
She continues:
Also: horseshoes are better than
circles. Leave space. Always leave space. Horseshoes of friends is greater than circles
of friends. Life can be lonely. Stand in horseshoes
Engage people.
Engage others with the mindset of being Jesus, not
just inviting them to a function at church.
But I will tell you right now, this type of
engagement requires a personal connection, not just a "connection"
via text or social media — I'm talking about face-to-face interaction.
I have a favorite phrase that I like to remind the
staff of every now and again --- and it goes like this: An announcement is not
an invitation
An invitation is always personal and filled with
hospitality
Make meals a
priority.
The table is always central in the most important
moments in Jesus’ ministry.
Invite a person to a meal.
Pay for the meal
if possible
Pray for this new friend specifically and serve
him or her.
Use mealtimes to build relationships and talk
about things that really matter.
Pay attention.
We all interact with people at work, at church, at
school and in our communities.
But how many times do these interactions go
unnoticed or undeveloped.
Take some time out of your day to stop, look
around and show kindness to others.
Your uplifting
word or kind action may change someone's life forever.
If you do these things --- simple --- but oh so hard --- you will be
living Jesus message of hospitality.
Karoline Lewis, from Luther Seminary challenges us when she wrote:
A theology of hospitality requires a
reassessment of everything -- practices, language, and symbols; rituals,
confessions, and flags; sacraments, rulings, and where we falsely assume power
is located. But it’s worth it. Because to experience the kind of hospitality
that Jesus has in mind is to experience the love of our God -- so deep, so
wide, so huge; the love of our God which shows mercy no matter what; the love
of our God which became flesh so that the doors of the divine heart might be
flung open to all.
I said in the email this week that we have only one chance to make a
good first impression.
That is true every day, every week, when someone new comes into our
community.
If you are visiting with us this morning, I pray that we have made you
feel welcomed and accepted here. And I
hope that I get a chance to personally meet you today.
I had a young man, at another church, who
always wore a silly looking hat --- it was just him --- and I can’t tell you
how many people complained to me about his hat (and believe me, without even
intending too --- many shared their distain with him). There were women in the same service who were
wearing hats, I NEVER heard anyone complain about them.
How
welcome do you think he felt?
I also know of a young pastor with three small children whose wife
wanted to sing in the choir but could not sit with the choir
There was not Sunday School during the
worship time so the children would have to be in the service
She went to the choir director and asked if
she could sit in the pews and come up and sing with the choir and then return
to the pew with her children. The choir
director never said yes, or no --- but made it clear that was not a welcome
idea.
I am thankful that we have young children who sit in our choir pews on
Sunday morning. Are they disruptive sometimes?
---- sure --- but which is more important, that they are here or that they make
a little noise.
I prefer noisy children over prim and proper adults --- it is good to
know that there is life out there.
Hospitality is filled with grace.
We must be careful not to consciously or unconsciously build walls that
separate us from each other. Walls that
preclude us from being hospitable to each other
In two weeks Mary Dicken will be joining our staff as a pastor.
How will we welcome her?
What kind of first
impression will we make?
Let me offer some suggestions
Pray for Mary and the transition
Be here on July 7th
Yes, I know it is summer . . .
Send her a card or note welcoming her
Include it in
your card or note, or bring to the office a gift card to your favorite local
place
Offer to meet her for coffee or a meal (and
pay for it)
Help us provide food in the house and meals
for her first few days
WEAR YOUR NAMETAG and introduce yourself
repeatedly
I am sure there are many other things that I am forgetting, but if you
will take these on it will be a great start and we will make a wonderful first
impression.
Hospitality is powerful
Powerful when it is
offered
Maybe even more powerful
when it is withheld
May we be a people who share (who live) the hospitality of Jesus.
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