The Humbling Experience of Hospitality

Matthew 10:40-42

Our Gospel this morning brings to a close Jesus’ Sermon on Mission. Throughout Chapter 10 of Matthew’s gospel, Jesus has been teaching his disciples what it means to be disciples, and what that experience will look like for those who answer his call.

As this chapter unfolded, Jesus commissioned the twelve disciples, empowered them to preach and teach and cure those who are sick and to drive out evil spirits – you know, all very “technical” aspects of discipling.

Then, Jesus sent them out and when they returned from their inaugural mission in the world they were all stoked up, full of the stories of the things they have done and seen, the people they had encountered, the ways in which they had grown throughout their time away.

If we go back to the beginning of his gospel account, we’ll remember that Matthew delivered Jesus’ genealogy, establishing connections between Jesus and the historical figures and prophecies of old, and pointing to him as the promised Messiah. Here at the end of chapter 10 the gospel writer Matthew, makes connections of another kind.

Here, Jesus draws the straightest line between himself and God, making the astonishing statement that to accept him means to accept the one who sent him – in other words, to know, believe in, and accept Jesus is to know, believe in, and accept God – which is the heart of the gospel. But then, Jesus extends that line even further:

“Whoever welcomes you welcomes me,” he tells those disciples who will carry out this mission into the world, “and whoever welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me.” Within these three verses, Jesus uses the word “welcome” no less than six times. Six times in this Gospel passage, as Jesus is wrapping up what it means to disciple, Jesus ties the welcome received by his disciples to discipleship itself.  

Jesus extends this understanding of discipleship to the potential hospitable action of simply giving a cup of water “even a cup of cold water” to one who proclaims and serves the mission of Christ, as themselves serving the mission of Christ and therefore earning the reward as well.

Those who offer hospitality to the disciples on the basis of their connection to Christ, are answering a call of their own, and are thus disciples themselves. Those who support the disciples through prayer, financial support, offering them welcome and caring for them enter into the mission itself, and Jesus welcomes the offering they make and the work they do and makes them disciples, too.

As twenty-first century followers and disciples of Christ, we are still being sent into the harvest.  The world may look vastly different from the first century Palestine of Jesus and these disciples, but as community being sent into a perilous world we still depend on the support and hospitality of others. Jesus says of those who enact such hospitality “whoever welcomes you welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me, welcomes the one who sent me.”

In the ancient world identity was tied to family and community. It was understood that in showing hospitality, one welcomed not just an individual, but implicitly, the community who sent the person and all that they represent. Therefore, welcoming a disciple of Jesus would mean receiving the very presence of Jesus himself and of the one who sent him, God the Father. That is the kind of interdependence still operating in the church, and it is consistent with the claim Jesus makes in his more well-known words from chapter 25 of Matthew’s gospel, “Truly I tell you, just as you did it (fed, quenched, clothed, nursed or visited) one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me." 

This week, nine members of our congregation went forth here on the Eastern Shore to participate in a Service Retreat. We expected to work – to serve the needs of several service organizations and facilities that serve some of the most vulnerable people living in this region. We expected to spend time in devotional study and activities. Four youth and five adult members of the congregation signed up to do our good works in the name of Christ, to spend some time deepening our spiritual lives, and, to have a little fun.

As I stand here today, I can’t even tell you what I expected out of this week. All I can tell you is that the experience of this week far exceeded any expectation that I, as the “spiritual leader” of this group might have anticipated as we began our planning months ago. To be honest, I am still processing the experience of the Service Retreat, the connections we made to those who regularly devote their time to address the wide-ranging needs of others. I witnessed the members of our group grow in awe of ways that God is known through the ministration of humble servants who are compelled to go above and beyond in regular ministries of compassion and care. The vast majority of those with whom we worked are volunteers, and even the paid staff go well above and beyond the time and limitations of their paid positions to compassionately care for the needs of others. The need is great and truly, the workers are few.

In every place that we went, we were known as followers of Christ – the t-shirts we wore might have had something to do with that – and we represented Grace Lutheran Church. In every place we were welcomed, genuinely accepted in to the ministry or work we were there to do, and offered overwhelming hospitality. It was, in a word, humbling.

Of the four places that we served during the week, three deliver services to those in need of the basics – food, clothing, help with everyday necessities, or shelter. You know, all the things you would expect to be supplied by a mission society, a housing shelter, and a soup kitchen.

We expected to do our good deeds, perhaps engaging with some of the recipients of our well-intentioned labors through this service week. What a good feeling that would be!

Sandy did a wonderful job of connecting us with the places where we would serve, scheduling our time with them and then preparing us for our service element. But she couldn’t prepare us for the people we would encounter.

In place after place we encountered true disciples who, because we were a church group volunteering our efforts for a time, offered us extraordinary hospitality. We, who came to serve for a few hours and leave, were welcomed and embraced by those who work in the trenches each day, each week, whenever they can put in a few hours.

            In each place, we were welcomed as honored guests by staff and volunteers who were ridiculously grateful for our little bit of time. We heard about the mission of each organization, and we came to understand how each staff person and each volunteer who keep these places going sacrifice of their time and give their talents because they care deeply about the tremendous need they witness through their work, and because they feel called to make a difference. They serve with humility and passion and humor. They see the humanity of the people they serve, and they are committed to making lives in some way better, more tolerable, more secure.

            While the welcome we received and the gratitude that was expressed to us were both heart-warming and humbling, especially when compared to the daily work of the saints serving these ministries, they were also indicative of the Spirit at work in places where the mission of God is being served through the outreach, feeding, sheltering, accompanying and clothing ministries take place day in and day out.

            Even on the day in which our service took the form of care of the environment as we fought mosquitos and flies to clean up trash at Assateague, we received a warm welcome and the gratitude of the staff and patrons of the park.

As Jesus preached to the disciples and continued to prepare them for their imminent work in the field for the sake of the Kingdom of God, Jesus spoke of welcoming and hospitality as broadening the mission and reach of their ministry. God connects us to one another through these things as we we are immersed in God’s ongoing mission. The good news for us today is Jesus’ reassurance that even your smallest acts of kindness and generosity, done in faith are remembered and they have cosmic significance because they make a difference beyond what we can see.

Each act of kindness or support for the mission and ministry of those on the front lines are an extension of Christian kindness and are gathered into God’s work to love, bless, and save this world. Each of us here this morning is commissioned and empowered to serve in the greater work of God in whatever way we can, offering hope, compassion, love, care, and new life to those on the margins.

In all we do, let us pray that we might never tire or be discouraged, that we might know the presence of God’s Holy Spirit to be present and active, blessing our work and support of ministries near and far. May you come to know how God is calling you to serve the mission of the church, that others may know the love and care of Christ Jesus, and be welcomed into a new reality of hope and love in the name of the one is was, who is, and who is to come.

Amen.

The Demands of a Broken-Hearted God

Galatians 3:23-29 & Luke 8:26-39

For many of us, thinking back on the parent-child relationship calls to mind complicated feelings and memories, especially as they apply to the demands of our parents. Who here does not remember a time, when their parents seemed overly demanding, with high expectations and what you deemed as low tolerance for goof-ups? Even in the best parent-child relationships, although the intent of the parent is good, reasonable and responsible, the demands of a parent may seem harsh and unwelcomed. Especially during those rebellious, teenage years. Sometimes those feelings persist into adulthood.

Well, my friends, the truth is, ours is a demanding, unsettling God, a God who also makes demands of us, demands we are often unprepared to hear and unwilling to follow.

We much prefer the God who is full of grace, (which he is) who forgives us all our sins, (which, through Christ, he does), who promises us great things, who blesses us abundantly, who is ever for us and ever before us, and never asks us for a thing.

So, while it is true that God is the giver of all good things, there is also the other aspect of God, the God who, in relationship with us says, “yes, I love you and you are mine, and there is nothing in this world or the next that can change that. I have given you unending life through Jesus. But it is not for you alone. It is for the goodness of the kingdom of God in which you have a stake. Therefore, there are things I need you to do.” And then come the demands.

The demands of God begin with things like,

believe in me,

trust in me,

            love me, and

be still, and know that I am God.  

            Frankly, those seem like okay demands, inviting us into a relationship where God is our rock.

But then, there are these others: Look out and stand up for those who are ignored, preyed upon, or oppressed. Show mercy to all, love the stranger, forgive as you wish to be forgiven. Turn away from the things that have come before, and follow me by following Jesus.  

Of course there are these demands we Lutherans especially love to hate – “go!” Jesus says, “Go out into the world; spread the good news; tell my story; tell others about the good things you have seen and heard. And remember, to follow me, you will love like me, live like me, and die like me.”

Whoa! These demands are a little more tricky, and we are as resistant to those as we were to those of our earthly parents.

Then we realize the truth: This loving, demanding God has expectations. And it is our nature to push back against them. They are demands we often ignore. They call us out of our comfort zone. They make this relationship with God not about me anymore, but about God, and about the things and the people God values and cares for.

When it comes right down to it, these demands have one thing at the core – love. They all hinge on what Jesus called the great commandment, that we love the Lord our God above everything else and that love be at the core of all we do, of our relationships with all people.

Obeying God then becomes about sharing this love that Jesus modeled so perfectly and allowing it to shape our lives so clearly that others will see and know that we are disciples of Christ.

Events in our world today call us to be ever more faithful stewards of this family that God has created but which has become so fractured and torn apart by sin.  These events testify just how much the world needs to know the healing, saving, inclusive love of God. It is this love, created by faith through Christ, of which Paul writes when he argues that in Christ, we are made children of God and we are clothed with Christ.

Because of Jesus, within the human family created by God, there is to be no  distinction – no difference - among us. In Paul’s words, There is no longer Jew or Greek, no longer slave or free, no longer male or female. There is to be among us no distinction by age, class, color, language, nationality, sexuality or religion.

In the human family of God’s creation we are all one, while at the same time expressing the individuality with which we are blessed in myriad ways. We are all members of one family, where love and acceptance, mutual respect and equality are presumed. In this family of God, we are not all the same, but we are all cherished the same, with no distinction in the economy of God’s care – black, white, Christian, Jew, Muslim, agnostic, Taoist; rich, and poor, straight or queer, God has created and loves us all.

In the past year, as we have watched, horrified at events unfolding in the world all around us, we have become more aware than ever of our own failures and at the systemic failure to make God’s way known. It was one year ago this week that the massacre of black Christians during a bible study in a church in Charleston, South Carolina took place; a massacre committed by one of our own, deeply entrenched in racist ideology.

A week ago, as we gathered for worship here in our sanctuary, news outlets were broadcasting the horrific details, yet unfolding, of another, larger, hate-inspired massacre, a mass killing that has earned the distinction of “largest-ever,” mass shooting in our country. The divide in our culture and in our country is so wide, and the bigotry and hatred of groups so pervasive, that this kind of violence has become routine, except by its scope. Who is possessed by demons now?

It has to stop. This, has. To. Stop. The God we experience and know abhors the killing, abhors the hatred, and is deeply saddened by the divisions and in-fighting that follows every one of these atrocities. We live in a society that is so divided by our differences that rather than come together in solidarity following each of these tragedies, we become further polarized.

The God who gave his own son over to death for the salvation of the world is a demanding God, a God who demands our love not only for Godself but for one another. The God who demands our compassion be poured out on the “least of these” will not stop sending us out to heal the sick and tend to the broken-hearted, and commands our love for all people.

The texts we have before us today invite and demand our participation in the mission of reaching out to those who are disenfranchised, those who are hated, those who are persecuted. The texts we have before us today testify to just how much the world needs to know the healing, saving, inclusive love of God.

In our Gospel story, Jesus and the disciples have just crossed the sea on their way to Gerasa, which is in Gentile territory. On the way the disciples’ boat was beset by a storm, which Jesus miraculously stilled – the discipes are amazed and frightened – how is it that Jesus has the power to still a stormy sea, calm the winds, and transform their terror?

When they arrive on the distant shore, they encounter a Gentile man whom Jesus heals, from whom demons, who obey Jesus’ command, are driven. Not only does the natural world of wind and rain and catapulting waves obey Jesus, but the supernatural world of demons knows and obeys him as well.

Jesus heals and transforms a man who has been so encumbered by demons that his whole identity has been swallowed up by their possession of him. So overcome by demons has the life of this man become that when Jesus asks him his name, he tragically replies not with a name as you and I have, but with a label that underscores the horrible possession he has endured – one that has rendered him inhuman. But Jesus knows better. Jesus connects him to his humanity.

My friends, there is nowhere that God will not go to reach, love and free those who are broken and despairing. Not only is the demoniac a Gentile, living in the wrong zip code, without a name of his own or an identity, but because of the demons possessing him, he has been hanging out in the tombs – you know – where dead people are lain.

On so many accounts, it would be understandable for Jesus to pass him by. He is perilously unclean – he is possessed by an unclean spirit, living in an unclean place, among the dead. By any measure, one to be avoided and despised. This is the very last place Jesus should be, and the very last person Jesus should have anything to do with. And yet – that is exactly where God usually shows up.

After his healing, he sits at the feet of Jesus – this is the place disciples sit. He wants to go where Jesus will go when he returns to Galilee. But Jesus tells him, no, stay and go – go tell the story of what I have done for you.

They will see your transformation and understand my power and authority.

Tell them that there is nowhere that God will not go to breathe life into those who are dead. Jesus does not leave this man unforsaken, but transformed. David Lose writes:

“…there is no place on earth that is God-forsaken. Moreover, and more importantly, there is no person that is God-forsaken. Unclean. Outcast. Abandoned. Unpopular. Incarcerated. Unbeliever. No one is left out. Consider, there is no indication that this Gentile man later became Jewish or, for that matter, Christian. He wants to follow Jesus, but Jesus sends him back home with the instructions, “Go and tell what God has done for you.”

To put all this another way: There are no conditions to be met to receive God’s love. You don’t have to be wealthy…or poor. You don’t have to be from one ethnic group…or another. You don’t have to have believed your whole life, or come to faith only recently, or have any faith at all. Jesus seeks out everyone, even this unclean man possessed by an unclean spirit living in an unclean place. And just so God loves all: male and female; young and old; gay or straight; white, black, Asian, Latino; believers and non-believers; Christian, Jewish, Buddhist, Muslim, atheist; the list goes on.

“Which might make us ask, where are we willing to go? Whom are we willing to love? In the wake of one more violent crime of hate and terror, we need, I think, first to be reminded that God is always among those in greatest pain and need and, second, that we are sent to go and do likewise. This week, that means God was particularly present in Orlando, and so should we, whether physically present, via vigil other means of support, or in our own corporate and personal prayer.

“This is not often easy work, of course, but we take it up and go out knowing that as God is sending us, God is with us, working through us to seek out those in need, to share a word of mercy and grace, and to witness to the hope we have in Jesus, the one who continues to seek us out when we feel down and out, caught in the shadow lands, eager for a new name, identity and future. 

Thanks be to God!