Welcome: We are gathered

When I was 12-14 I caddied in a local country club. This is a place where people paid lots of money to be exclusive with one another and have other people wait on them all day.

I would go to school all week and then wake up at 5am on Saturday and Sunday (no church for this heathen). And I would hopefully get signed up to caddy. I would carry a members golf bag for 18 holes, about 4-5 hours and I would make, with tips about $20.

When I arrived about 5:30 we had to wait in a very specific spot. We would walk past the golf carts, past the maintenance shop where there were some benches outside surrounded by some chain link fence. We couldn’t leave that area unless with a member. So we would wait until we got called to caddy (or not).

I was on their property every weekend for two years. I probably spent more time on the golf course than a lot of the members. But not once did I ever feel like I was a part of what they were doing. Never once did I feel like I belonged. I was never invited in, only transacted with.

Now that makes sense with being a caddy but it points to a larger problem. We live in a world where it feels like we have a hard time belonging, only transacting with.

We don’t always feel like we belong like we are a part of something, like we are invited in.

That is the nature of living in the world. We don’t get picked for teams, we feel left out of conversations or plans. We feel like we don’t belong.

HAve you ever felt that way?

The good news is Christ has come for those who have felt left out. HE has come to invite us in. He created the church to be a place where people are invited to take part, where people are invited to belong. There is always plenty of room under the tent of Christ. And He has called the church to go out and invite others in.

So this morning we are going to look at the idea of Christian hospitality and see how Christ has invited us in and how the church has called us to invite the friend, neighbor and stranger in.

Showing hospitality is trusting God for another person. We make room for them.

If you look into the first few verses in this passage, there is a clear message that to be hospitable with one another means that there needs to be a proximity with one another.

If we are going to live as the church then there needs to be a proximity with one another, with our neighbor and with the world. Meaning that we have to be close and be seen.

Paul tells us to love one another with brotherly affection. to outdo one another in honor. To contribute to the needs of the saints and to seek or desire to show hospitality.

What we will see is that hospitality is not just cookies and tea at someones home. we have mistakenly defined it as that and in doing so have limited what the Bible calls us to

We have reduced and closed down the definition of hospitality. We need to open it back up to see its spiritual significance. It is really our posture as a Christian.

let’s look at the practice promise purpose and posture of hospitality

The practice of hospitality is honor. The self before another.

The practice of the self before another. Vv 14-17

Romans 12:14–17 ESV

Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse them. Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep. Live in harmony with one another. Do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly. Never be wise in your own sight. Repay no one evil for evil, but give thought to do what is honorable in the sight of all.

This is actually a difficult passage to practice because Paul is telling us to bless people who persecute us

We are called to join others in weeping.

to associate with the lowly

not repay evil for evil.

These are hard things to do, in fact they can really only be done in the shadow of following Christ.

These are peculiar things to do.

No other organization on the earth will tell you to love your enemy and bless them.

They will say other things about how to handle your enemy, but not bless them

The Church in Christ is called to love beyond what is comfortable for us to do. We need Christ already just in the practice of hospitality.

The passage earlier tells us to outdo one another in honor. I hope you have heard me say that before because I think that is the vision of church relationships.

That we are competitive about how we can honor one another.

In order to do honor one another we have to learn how to love and serve God well, how to live patiently in tribulation, how to be constant in prayer.

We are called to honor one another and that is the practice of hospitality.

The people who you see this morning deserve honor

Just as you do.

To practice hospitality is to show honor through offering another your time, attention and recognition.

how are you giving others your attention?

How are you giving others your time?

How are you giving others recognition?

Do you know that we have people in the church who send cards out to others in the church?

Or that we have a care team who proactively reaches out to those who are hurting?

We have deacons and deaconesses who are actively looking to help.

And while we are called to honor those in the church and contribute to the needs of the saints.

Much of what hospitality is is how we treat the stranger.

Maybe the new people around us this morning

Or maybe someone we bump into on the streets

How we offer the stranger our time, recognition and attention is a spiritual practice.

And it matters to the witness of the church

Good Samaritan

Someone asks Jesus who exactly his neighbor was. Who is the stranger among them?

Jesus responds with a story

Luke 10:29–37 ESV

But he, desiring to justify himself, said to Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?” Jesus replied, “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and he fell among robbers, who stripped him and beat him and departed, leaving him half dead. Now by chance a priest was going down that road, and when he saw him he passed by on the other side. So likewise a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. But a Samaritan, as he journeyed, came to where he was, and when he saw him, he had compassion. He went to him and bound up his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he set him on his own animal and brought him to an inn and took care of him. And the next day he took out two denarii and gave them to the innkeeper, saying, ‘Take care of him, and whatever more you spend, I will repay you when I come back.’ Which of these three, do you think, proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell among the robbers?” He said, “The one who showed him mercy.” And Jesus said to him, “You go, and do likewise.”

Now this passage deserves its own sermon but here is what I want to point out regarding hospitality.

The man and the samaritan would have been natural enemies. They wouldn’t have culturally connected

The samaritan didn’t only offer recognition, time and attention but paid for the man to get well.

He sacrificed his time attention and finances for the well being of a stranger.

He showed honor to the man who could not, by the way, repay in honor.

How we treat others matters because we are called to pay attention and to be in proximity of the other. We are called to give our time attention and recognition to others.

That is the church

The promise of hospitality is trusting God for another. The self before God

Romans 12:19 ESV

Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.”

It seems like we take a sharp right turn here but we really dont. Paul is addressing the need for us to trust God for another in order for us to love people well.

One of the reasons we hold onto our anger with other people is because we feel like we need to be the ones who exact vengeance on another.

We feel hurt, we feel slighted. And we feel like we are the ones who must make sure that person pays.

That mentality will keep us locked in vengeance and failed attempts at justice for the rest of our lives.

Vengeance is a clenched fist.

How long can you keep a fist clenched?

Attempting to exact vengeance on another for hurting us, trying to seek vengeance on your hurt will be like clenching your fist for the rest of your life

You think its a position of power but it will only end up exhausting you and atrophying your fist.

Not only will you be exhausted but what happens to two parties exchanging vengeance after a period of time?

Have you ever seen a mafia movie or a show?

everyone ends up hurt and dying.

Now thats a bit dramatic but when we make ourselves soley responsible to exact justice then once we do the other person will feel the same way and do the same thing. But there is never justice in the way we exact it. We need someone with better vision and more time.

God has both.

Only when you can let go of that clenched fist can you begin to practice hospitality.

vengeance is different than justice. We act justly but we don’t exact vengeance. Justice is what’s right vengeance is about payback

Now this doesn’t mean we allow people to do anything we want. It doesn’t mean that we are quiet about injustice. It doesn’t mean we don’t call evil what is evil. We need to name evil and be honest about injustice, personally and publically, we just can’t be the ones to act on it.

We can be wise with it

We can name it

We can report it

It is not ours to exact.

We can Trust God to be just. That way we don’t have to spend all our time exacting justice. Vv 19

The purpose of hospitality is that it localizes the truths of God. The self in the world.

Romans 12:20–21 ESV

To the contrary, “if your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink; for by so doing you will heap burning coals on his head.” Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.

This is repeated from earlier but with a motive. Loving our enemies is overcoming evil with good. The action of hospitality shifts the needle toward goodness.

Hospitality create space for goodness, the action allows some dimensionality for the promises of God.

As we act hospitably,

give of our time, attention and recognition to others, it provides some space for the promises of God.

IT shows people what God’s promises look like.

What the goodness of God looks like.

It creates something tangible for people to point to and see what kind of God created the world.

Our hospitality is the foothold of the reality of God in the world.

The way in which we choose good over evil,

giving our enemy something to drink

We realize when we humanize our enemy, realize that they have need as well, that they get hungry and thirsty, that they are limited, then we see we are not that much different.

In America in the 1960s, a few years after desegregation, which made illegal the discrimination of race in public areas, the public swimming pool became an area of contested rights. white people didn’t want to swim in the same pool as black people and in response there were protests demonstrated to point to the cultural wrongs.

There are picture of black people in pool and in this case, the manager of the hotel dumping additional pool chemicals in the pool to get the kids out.

this was a complete scene of inhospitality

Enter Mr. Rogers.

Now the loveable, squishy kind mr Rogers was also an ordained minister.

He was also incredibly hospitable, showing what the kindness of God looks like in a world of tension, hate and racism.

In 1969 one of his shows aired with him sitting with his feet in a kiddy pool on a hot day. The local policeman, Officer Clemmons stops by and Mr Rogers, in a simple act of hospitality, invites Officer Clemmons into the pool to cool off.

They talk for awhile and then the officer moves onto his day.

This simple act of hospitality could not be taken for anything else than a radical act of love that flies in the face of an angry culture.

This was aired in order to show what it looks like to be in relationship. IT was aired to push against the darkness of evil and racism in the world.

Hospitality allows us to show the goodness of God in the face of the world.

We are called to recognize others, to see them. We are called to take time for others, to know them. We are called to pay attention to others.

Whether in our home or at church or work or on the street or in the store. Whatever space we find ourselves in we can slide over and make room for others.

As we shift toward communion

The posture of true hospitality is found at the cross. Christ before the self.

while we were still yet sinners Christ died for us.

God has made room for us in the life He has offered on the cross

Romans 5:6–8 ESV

For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die— but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

Christ showed hospitality to us, giving us all of who He is for us. Loving us in such a way that He gave His life to save us from evil that encroaches.

When we celebrate communion we celebrate the greatest act of hospitality history has ever known. Christ freely gave His life for us so we can freely enter into relationship with Him.

Communion