Let Mutual Love Continue; Do Not Neglect to Show Hospitality

Proper 17C 2013

Jeremiah 2:4-13; Ps 81; Hebrews 13:1-8,15-16; Luke 14:1,7-14

Father Adam Trambley

September 1, 2013, St. John’s Sharon

This morning in the Gospel, Jesus has gone over to a leader of the Pharisees house for Sunday dinner.  Of course, because they were Jewish, Sunday dinner happened on Saturday, but you get the picture.  Last week we heard how he healed somebody, and now this week we hear him scolding the guests for their bad behavior.

Apparently everyone was jockeying for the best seats, and in those days where people lined up at the table was an indication of how important they were.  So Jesus tells them a little story that we might paraphrase like so: 

A seat is open at the children's table.

When you are invited to a wedding reception, don’t go up and sit down at the head table.  Even if you think you are the groom’s best friend.  Even if you handed out the programs. Even if you look mighty sharp in your tuxedo if you do say so yourself.  Because then the groom or the wedding coordinator or, worst of all, the bride’s mother is going to come up and tell you those seats are all taken and usher you to a table in the back next to somebody’s drunk cousin who doesn’t smell so good  No.  Instead, go sit at the kid’s table, so when the bridal party comes in they will see you and say, “We’re sorry.  You don’t have to eat Chicken McNuggets™ with the children.  We’ll get you a filet, and if the other tables are full, pull up a chair on the end of the bridal party table.”  If you make it all about you, somebody is going to slap you down, but if you don’t consider yourself entitled to anything, somebody will pick you up.

Then, in the silent pause while everyone else in the Pharisee’s house looked dumbstruck at Jesus, he

followed up by saying not to invite the people to your parties that society says to invite.  Don’t give a dinner for your friends and family and rich acquaintances and professional contacts because they’ll invite you over the next week.  But instead invite all those who are too poor to ever invite you.  Invite those folks who are God’s people, and God will repay you on their behalf.  

Now this second part of Jesus teaching might sound a little different than the first story, but it really is the same teaching on a larger time scale.  Just like we are told not to angle for the best seat at any one individual party, we are also not supposed to worry about setting ourselves up into the right social circles by planning our guest lists in ways that get us invited to the right places in return.  Instead, be humble enough to live our lives with the people that nobody is paying attention to.  Give them a meal, and a conversation, and a nice day. Spend the time and effort to make people feel special who don’t often get to feel special.   Then, when Jesus comes by, he’ll say, “Good work.  You’re sitting with me.” 

Now I’m pretty sure that Jesus does not mean that we can’t have a family member over for dinner, or that we can’t get together regularly with friends.  But I think he does want us not to be generous and hospitable only with people in similar situations to us that we know and are comfortable with.  He wants our circles to get bigger, and to expand our circles based on who we can help instead of who we can get something from.

The author of Hebrews puts it well, I think.  “Let mutual love continue.  Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for by doing that some have entertained angels without knowing it.”  We are supposed to keep loving our family.  We are just supposed to love strangers, as well.

Think about the ways we show love for our brothers and sisters and friends.  We invite them to share meals.  We make time to listen to them.  We pay attention to what they are interested in.  We give them gifts that matter to them.  We open up our lives to them in any variety of ways. Now none of these loving actions are easy.  They take energy and intentionality.  To let mutual love continue means that we are going to be putting others ahead of ourselves.  That’s what love does.

Hebrews assumes we know how to love our family and friends and he tells us to continue.  But just loving those folks isn’t enough.  We are challenged also to do the same thing for people who aren’t our family and friends – or at least aren’t our family or friends yet.  All people are part of God’s family, so God wants us to treat all people like part of our family, as well.  And while we can’t have seven billion people over for dinner, even if we decide use paper plates, we can show hospitality to some people that aren’t already close to us. 

To show hospitality to strangers, we approach people with the same time, energy and intentionality we use when we love our family and friends.  We share a meal.  We listen to people.  We open up to them ourselves.  We allow our lives to be changed by them as we offer ourselves in ways that might change their lives.  We count them as people inside our circle of friends so that they can become people who are inside our circle of friends.  We may or may not see them again, but for the time we are together, the love we share is real.

Share a meal with strangers at McDonalds

One of the problems we might have in living this out is finding people to show hospitality to.  We usually aren’t in a position to meet random strangers and have them over for dinner, and, for good or ill, people don’t always appreciate it when you go up to them and ask to sit at their table in McDonalds.  Sometimes the offer is gratefully accepted, but not always.  We at St. John’s, though, have been living into these instructions of Jesus in a powerful way.  While many of activities past and present, including having a cup of coffee with a visitor after church, allow us to learn these qualities, the Saturday lunch really offers us a place to show hospitality to strangers, and probably occasionally to entertain angels unawares.  In addition to those preparing and serving food, Deacon Randy and Katherine and a few others just sit and talk with people.  They listen.  They share.  They pay attention to them.  Now two Saturdays ago, we served 180 people, so we have plenty of opportunities for anyone who is interested to come and share a meal with people that you might not otherwise know.  Not only does such hospitality increase our individual circles of friends, but having lunch and chatting with our guests builds the relationships people have with St. John’s.  The Community Lunch isn’t the only way to do this – our ECS food pantry, Episcopal Church Women events, and our youth and young adult activities can provide such opportunities, and many people are hospitable in their lives outside of church.  We can be show love at our desks at work or in the stands at a sporting event.  Hebrews encourages all of us, though, to find some avenue in our lives not only to allow our mutual love to continue and develop, but also to spread that love to other folks, as well. 

Hospitality at ECS

 

I’d like to close by sharing one of my earliest memories of such hospitality.  It happened on a Christmas morning when I was little.  Some years back, I wrote a song about it, taking the refrain from Psalm 37, verses 26 and 27.     

I don't have a video of the song to post at this time, but here are the lyrics: 

Refrain

In all my days I have never seen the just forsaken.

They share with those in need, and their children are a blessing.

A dazzling light off the cover of snow 

greeted us all on a cold Christmas morn.

Breakfast was sizzling in the cast iron pans

when a stranger with a shovel rang the front door.

My brother and I always shoveled the walks.

"That's why we had kids," my parents would joke.

So I sat surprised, perched on the stairs, 

when my dad thanked him kindly and accepted his help.

When the walk was done and the stairs were cleared,

Dad paid for his work and invited him in.

He sat on the sofa and shared our meal,

and was part of our family for a short time that day.