Posts
“Radical
Hospitality”
The
Reverend Dr. Teresa Angle-Young
Watkinsville
First United Methodist Church
June 28,
2015
I Peter 4:8b-10a (from the Translation called The Message)
Love each
other as if your life depended on it. Love makes up for practically anything.
Be quick to give a meal to the hungry, a bed to the homeless—cheerfully. Be
generous with the different things God gave you, passing them around so all get
in on it: if words, let it be God's words; if help, let it be God's hearty
help. That way, God's bright presence will be evident in everything
I
am so happy to be here with you. Phil and I have never been welcomed as warmly
as we have here. Almost 30 of you showed up to unload our moving trucks on one
of the hottest days of summer. You brought ice and water and made our bed and
brought us a garbage can and sent over fresh produce from your gardens and did
whatever you could to help us and make us feel welcomed. It was and continues
to be a beautiful example of famous Southern hospitality, and for that we are
so grateful. You have already showered us with blessing upon blessing!
Many years
ago, when I was in graduate school at Emory, I took a class called “Systematic
Theology” which is required of all divinity students. In the final exam, we were surprised to be
asked this question: If
you were to propose a new sacrament for the church, what would it be and why?
A sacrament is a ritual that was instituted by Christ, so it has to be biblical,
and communicates God’s grace to the participants. In the United Methodist tradition, we have
two sacraments, baptism and Holy Communion. So, we were charged with coming up
with a ritual or practice that we could evidence in scripture as being practiced
by Christ that is also a means of communicating God’s grace and love to the
world. I knew, in a second, what my
answer would be.
Hospitality. If I were to add a sacrament to the church
doctrine it would be the sacrament of hospitality.
There
is a long tradition of hospitality in the Bible, beginning in Genesis and
weaving all throughout scripture. In
Genesis 18, Abraham and Sarah are blessed with a child after showing generous
hospitality to three divine strangers.
Lot, too entertains these divine travelers and in turn, he and his
family are offered the chance to flee from the destruction of Sodom and
Gomorrah. And there are many other examples in the Old Testament where
strangers in the land are treated with the same hospitality with which one
would treat a beloved friend or relative.
In
the New Testament, one of the most moving examples of hospitality is Joseph,
the man who is engaged to Mary, the mother of Jesus. Joseph took a divine stranger – Jesus – into
his home and raised him as his own son.
That was an act of radical hospitality.
But
I believe our best example for radical hospitality is Jesus. Jesus taught about hospitality in his
parables, and practiced hospitality through his actions. He even turned water into wine as his first
miracle, in order for a wedding host to show hospitality to his guests. We have
the parable of the prodigal son. A man
had two sons. One of them decided to ask
for his inheritance early and left the family farm to blow his money on the
indulgences of the world. The other son
stayed behind and was a dutiful son, helping the father on the farm and being
the model child. When the prodigal son
returned to the farm, expecting to be treated poorly by his family, the father
threw a huge party welcoming him home.
Jesus taught in the story that it didn’t matter whether or not the son deserved
the father’s generosity and hospitality, rather that it was simply the
right and loving thing to do to provide the hospitality anyway. In doing so,
Jesus revealed a characteristic of God.
This
thread of hospitality - irrespective of the status or standing of the guest or
stranger - is woven throughout scripture in the Old Testament and the New
Testaments. So, exactly what is
hospitality?
Is
hospitality making sure there are chocolates on the pillow and extra toothpaste
in the bathroom when you have a guest?
Well, yes and no. All throughout
scripture we see examples of hospitality that include taking care of the
physical needs of the guest, such as food and shelter, so it seems we are not
to ignore those aspects of care, but particularly with Jesus, hospitality
becomes something more, something beyond simple care. Hospitality becomes healing. Hospitality becomes life giving. Hospitality restores people to wholeness in a
myriad of ways, sometimes physically, sometimes socially, sometimes
emotionally, sometimes psychologically, and always spiritually. Hospitality becomes a spiritual tool and once
it becomes habit, once it is integrated into who we are, it transforms.
In
scripture, the Greek word for hospitality is philoxenia (fil-ah-zeen-ee-a),
which derives from philo, a word you might recognize from the name
Philadelphia, which we know as the City of Brotherly and Sisterly Love, and
xenia, which means stranger. So,
hospitality in the Bible means, “love of stranger.” It does not just mean “niceness to
stranger.” It means genuine, selfless,
extravagant, full out love of stranger.
When we look back at the Abraham and Sarah story, I think it’s important
to note that when the three strangers showed up at Abraham’s tent, Abraham did
not begrudgingly go out and find the skinniest calf to serve nor did he tell
Sarah to pull out last year’s grain and fry up a cake. He called for the finest of what he had and
prepared a feast. And so we are called,
as the church, God’s representatives in the world, to offer hospitality with
enthusiasm, offering up the best of what we have to those around us, not what
we have leftover.
But
hospitality is more than just sharing food and shelter with others. In his book “Reaching Out: Three Movements of
the Spiritual Life” mystic, monk, and distinguished professor at Notre Dame,
Harvard, and Yale, Henri Nouwen, said that there are three critical movements
in the Christian’s life. The first
involves moving from loneliness to solitude, and the focus is on us as we learn
to dwell comfortably in solitude with Christ.
The second is the development of spiritual maturity to move from
hostility to hospitality, and of course, the focus in on our relationships with
others as we strive to become more like Christ.
That leads to the third spiritual movement, our movement toward
God. Without the first two movements, we
cannot make the third move. So Nouwen
argues we must find peace within ourselves, make peace with others and move
toward this idea of radical and selfless hospitality, before we can truly
experience a move toward God. The practice of hospitality actually brings us
closer to God.
And
it’s important to exercise this hospitality with whomever comes into our
lives. In other words, just as Abraham
and Sarah offered hospitality to the three strangers without quizzing them
about their worth and position, and just as Jesus offered love and hospitality
to those in the community others would deem as unworthy, we are called to offer
our hospitality to those who are before us, whomever they may be.
So
how do we do that? I think we must do
what the author of our scripture passage today tells us to do: Love each other as
if your life depended on it. Hospitality
means really opening yourself up and becoming vulnerable, making space for
someone that you might not ordinarily allow into your life. Hospitality means looking past those things
that separate us from each other, like dress, and speech, and possessions, and
race, politics, and social standing, and seeing others the way Christ sees
them, as beloved members of the family of God.
Adopting an attitude of hospitality means putting aside your own agenda
and schedule to really listen to the other person, to pay attention to their
needs, and to respond to them in a genuine way.
Hospitality
is more than a beautiful table or a comfortable bed or a hot cup of soup or a
contribution to the food panty.
Hospitality is making space in your life and in your heart for another
person, whether a stranger, a spouse, a child, or a friend, and giving them
your time and your attention without resentment – cheerfully, as 1st
Peter reminds us. Hospitality is making
the table bigger to accommodate the stranger, and letting yourself be
open to the idea that you might, like Abraham and Joseph, be entertaining a
divine guest. Hospitality is the
realization in the very depths of your soul that everything we have is a gift
from God, and that by sharing what we have, whether meager or abundant, is to
be an instrument of God’s grace and mercy in the world.
My
hope and my prayer for this church and my time with you is that Watkinsville
First United Methodist Church will be, for each of you and for the world, a
place of safety, a place of love, and a place of extravagant hospitality. You have shown two strangers, me and Phil,
the beauty and hospitality of your hearts. Now may we take that beauty to the
streets of Oconee County, and share with our community the Sacrament of
Hospitality. Thanks be to God.
Let
us pray: Gracious and loving God, you
said, “when you give a feast, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the
blind, and you will be blessed.” God we
are all, in some way, strangers, lonely and lost, seeking a family of love and
acceptance. We pray that Watkinsville
First is such a place for those gathered here and will be so for those who have
yet to come. We ask, God, that you help
us to move from hostility to hospitality, from fear to love, and from mistrust
to comfort, then empower us to move out into the world and share your unending
grace and peace with others. In the name
of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Benediction:
May each day be a new beginning,
a new opportunity to open ourselves
to the mystery and miracle of life
and to give from our hearts in generous hospitality
to a world that needs us.
Go now in the grace and peace of Christ, in the name of the Father and
of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
