The Mission: Welcome and Serve

Scripture Reading(s)

Genesis 18:1-15

New Revised Standard Version: Updated Edition Genesis 18

18 The LORD appeared to Abraham by the oaks of Mamre, as he sat at the entrance of his tent in the heat of the day. 2 He looked up and saw three men standing near him. When he saw them, he ran from the tent entrance to meet them and bowed down to the ground. 3 He said, “My lord, if I find favor with you, do not pass by your servant. 4 Let a little water be brought, and wash your feet, and rest yourselves under the tree. 5 Let me bring a little bread, that you may refresh yourselves, and after that you may pass on—since you have come to your servant.” So they said, “Do as you have said.” 6 And Abraham hastened into the tent to Sarah and said, “Make ready quickly three measures of choice flour, knead it, and make cakes.” 7 Abraham ran to the herd and took a calf, tender and good, and gave it to the servant, who hastened to prepare it. 8 Then he took curds and milk and the calf that he had prepared and set it before them, and he stood by them under the tree while they ate.

9 They said to him, “Where is your wife Sarah?” And he said, “There, in the tent.” 10 Then one said, “I will surely return to you in due season, and your wife Sarah shall have a son.” And Sarah was listening at the tent entrance behind him. 11 Now Abraham and Sarah were old, advanced in age; it had ceased to be with Sarah after the manner of women. 12 So Sarah laughed to herself, saying, “After I have grown old, and my husband is old, shall I be fruitful?” 13 The LORD said to Abraham, “Why did Sarah laugh and say, ‘Shall I indeed bear a child, now that I am old?’ 14 Is anything too wonderful for the LORD? At the set time I will return to you, in due season, and Sarah shall have a son.” 15 But Sarah denied, saying, “I did not laugh,” for she was afraid. He said, “Yes, you did laugh.”

John 12:1-8

New Revised Standard Version: Updated Edition John 12

12 Six days before the Passover Jesus came to Bethany, the home of Lazarus, whom he had raised from the dead. 2 There they gave a dinner for him. Martha served, and Lazarus was one of those reclining with him. 3 Mary took a pound of costly perfume made of pure nard, anointed Jesus’s feet, and wiped them with her hair. The house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume. 4 But Judas Iscariot, one of his disciples (the one who was about to betray him), said, 5 “Why was this perfume not sold for three hundred denarii and the money given to the poor?” 6 (He said this not because he cared about the poor but because he was a thief; he kept the common purse and used to steal what was put into it.) 7 Jesus said, “Leave her alone. She bought it so that she might keep it for the day of my burial. 8 You always have the poor with you, but you do not always have me.”

WWTW

Introduction: What we’re about

What are you about?

I spent this week at a whole bunch of social events where I was meeting new people.

And as an introvert, that’s a challenge!

So I attack those things with a simple question: What’s your deal? What are you about?

Everybody is about something:

I met a person who was all about running, and we spent some time talking about qualifying times and training.

I met a guy who was about vintage, specifically depression era acoustic guitars.

I met a guy who is all about design, branding, logos, etc. (That’s a clue as to what might be coming to a church near you…)

Everybody is about something.

They have wide ranging interests, but everyone has that one thing that they’re about.

What’s ours?

Mission statement

Beulah Presbyterian Church glorifies God through it’s worship, by making disciples, and reaching out to welcome and serve others in the name of Jesus Christ.

And this week’s sermon is the challenging one.

The first two points of this mission statement are something we already live into quite heavily.

We are all about quality worship here.

And we are deep into our discipleship efforts.

Welcoming and serving though, that’s a bit aspirational.

That’s a statement about who we want to be.

So it brings up the question:

What does it mean to be about welcoming and serving?

Abraham, Sarah, and Hospitality

Pretend you don’t know the ending- These guys are strangers!

Abraham has never met these guys before.

He has absolutely no reason to suspect that they might be God’s representatives, messengers, or angels.

These are just three random dudes on the side of the road.

Abraham’s actions:

Abraham runs!

Quite frankly, in Abraham’s culture, this was undignified.

You don’t run. Ever.

A fella could get used to that kind of culture.

But to run made you look weak.

Your robes might open up, which would be scandal of the highest order.

And it makes you look rushed.

So the very first thing Abraham communicates to these guys is that they are important enough to him that he’s willing to lower himself a little bit for their benefit.

But he also makes sure that he goes to them.

He’s not going to stand back and wait for them to come to him, where he is, and where he’s comfortable.

The first step in welcoming and serving others is to leave your own comfort zone, so that you can make someone else feel welcomed and loved.

Abraham feeds them.

I know that Abraham is the father of the Jewish people, but let’s be honest, he was Presbyterian!

New friends are here! Let’s have brunch!

The assumption was that these guys were travelers, and Abraham had what they needed to recharge and keep going.

Wash your feet, take a load off, and let’s feed you.

And not just feed you...

Abraham uses the good stuff.

Abraham has Sarah make cakes.

Not the unleavened bread that would have been both easier and cheaper, but cakes.

Abraham takes a calf, a really good one, and cooks up some steaks.

This is the kind of thing that was usually done for wedding feasts, not strangers.

In essence, Abraham isn’t afraid to use his resources to be welcoming and serving to these men.

Abraham isn’t afraid of scarcity.

Scarcity is a killer

Scarcity defined

Scarcity is the mindset that suggests that there is a limit to God’s provision.

Scarcity is when you play a zero sum game.

If I give away my calf to these strangers, that means that I won’t have another calf for myself later.

Scarcity is a steadfast refusal to believe that God will provide what we need and when we need it.

The disciples were practicing scarcity

When Mary pours a pound of costly perfume on Jesus’ feet, the disciples freak out.

Essentially what they are saying is that there are limits.

There’s a limit to what generosity should look like.

There’s a limit to our resources.

There’s a limit to what God has given to us.

And because of those limits, the disciples argue, we should be focused on the poor.

That’s an argument that is alive and well today in the Church.

But Jesus has a different perspective.

No limits

No limits to possibility- The poor will always be with you

Look, Jesus says, if you want to be excited about serving the poor, don’t sweat.

You are never going to run out of opportunities to change someone’s life for the better.

You are never going to run out of opportunities to give food to a hungry person.

You are never going to run out of opportunities to make someone feel more welcomed and included.

No limits to God’s providing

A jar of perfume, in the Kingdom scheme of things, isn’t that much.

God will provide more than you can imagine.

God will give you the tools you need to welcome and serve others.

God will give you the resources needed to do the mission and ministry of the Church.

Let me tell you, the Church is usually in its worst shape when we forget that this is real.

Of course, we have to do some work to steward those resources, yes. (Stay tuned for a stewardship sermon series coming soon!)

But the reality is that God provides, and we respond.

That’s how it’s always been.

And when that’s true...

No limits to what is too wonderful for the Lord

There’s no limit to what God will show us.

There’s no limit to the beautiful moments that we will get to be a part of.

There’s no limit to the beautiful human interactions we’re going to experience.

There is nothing too wonderful for the Lord, as God says to Abraham.

Jesus invites his disciples to drop the scarcity mindset, and adopt a mindset of abundance.

There’s no limit to what God will provide for us.

There’s no limit to our possibilities to welcome and serve.

There’s no limit to what God would show us that is wonderful.

And he’s making the same invitation for us!

What are you laughing at?

The Rules: You never leave a Penguin game early!

A few months back, I had the incredible privledge of fatherhood: Taking Josh to his first Penguin game!

Julian wasn’t interested in going, but Josh was all in.

So I had to work a little bit before the game to prepare Josh for what was coming.

It’s going to be loud.

It’s going to be crowded.

People might say words that we don’t use at home.

But I had to establish Dad’s #1 rule about hockey games:

You never, EVER, leave a Penguin game early.

First off, those tickets aren’t cheap and I want to get my money’s worth.

But more importantly, in most sports but especially in hockey, you never ever count the home team out.

The Pirates- Biggest comeback in franchise history this week.

I don’t really watch baseball, but Tim Bosse pointed me in this direction this week.

The Pirates were down 9-0.

That’s an incredible deficit for a baseball game!

And they came all the way back to make sure they won the game 13-11.

The Pirates, the team who is constantly snatching defeat from the jaws of victory, they came all the way back and won it.

Never count us out.

You never ever leave the game early.

You never count the home team out.

Sarah had counted herself out.

Sarah at this point is long past child bearing age.

She knows that God has promised to provide, but she’s understandably a little bit doubtful.

So when these strangers that they’ve welcomed tell them that when they come back in a year’s time Sarah’s going to have a child, Sarah does another understandable thing:

She laughs.

The thought of it is so absurd that she cracks up.

Me? A child? At this age? And not for nothing, but with that old dude?

No way.

Count me out, because it’s never going to happen.

But then God starts to poke at her.

What are you laughing at?

Sarah tries to deny it, because she knows this is the wrong answer on the test.

But she’s laughing because when she’s leaning on her own ability, she’s counting herself out.

Better leave now, beat the traffic.

This game has been lost.

So has the Church.

I had the privledge of attending not one but two presbytery meetings this week.

I’m that kind of nerd.

And there was one spectre that was hanging over both of them.

Us? Grow? Increase? Welcome new folks?

No way.

Count us out on that too.

The numbers have been too depressing for too long.

We’ve been in a tailspin of a decline.

Nope.

No way.

Beat the traffic.

And every time that specter came up, I heard the same question from God as I had this sermon rattling around in the back of my head:

What are you laughing at?

Why is it that you assume decline is inevitable?

Why is it that you are afraid of your declining resources?

Why is it that you are afraid of reaching out to welcome and serve others? Is it because you’re afraid it will cost you too much?

Is anything too wonderful for God?

Is it such an impossibility that folks out there need to hear the loving message of Jesus Christ?

Is it true that God is done with the Church?

No.

No it’s not.

We have so much left in us.

Don’t count us out yet folks.

To be about reaching out to welcome and serve, we need to quit laughing.

God means business, and he means it through us.

How can we welcome and serve?

Let’s offer the good stuff.

I mean this in terms of what we feed and offer folks, same as Abraham:

Let’s not offer Folgers, let’s get the good coffee!

Let’s spend extra for our dinners.

Let’s donate the very finest we have so that someone else can have it.

But I also mean this on a personal level.

So many churches think of their mission and outreach as the thing they do when they’ve exhausted every other option.

So what winds up happening is you have exhausted saints trying to be excited about what God’s up to in other people’s lives, and it just sounds flat.

Let’s offer the good stuff of ourselves.

Let’s meet the visitors first after the service, rather than chatting with our familiar friends.

Let’s run out of the tent of our sanctuary towards the community, and give them the first fruits of our energies.

Let’s dedicate the very best of our resources to people who aren’t members, but rather to our visitors.

Speaking of which...

Abundance, not scarcity

Is anything too wonderful for God?

Is there any gift that we are lacking to welcome and serve our neighbors?

Are we in any way suffering?

Or are we the recipients of every good and perfect gift from God above?

Do we trust the provider to make sure that we are provided for?

We need to let go of a scarcity mindset.

With our resources.

With our abilities.

With our time.

With our faith.

And embrace abundance.

God will provide the resources we need to collect.

God has blessed us deeply and richly with talents and abilities, each of which is uniquely suited to welcome and serve our neighbors.

God has blessed us with our time, and probably asks us to use it a bit more wisely.

And in those moments when we are weak, when we feel like leaving the game a little bit early, God comes to us in Christ to renew our faith.

Incidentally, that’s why we gather around the table.

On this world communion Sunday, we gather around the table to remember.

To remember that Christ hasn’t given up on anyone on this planet.

To remember that the whole earth is the Lords, and the Lord has redeemed it.

That each and every soul is valuable, important, and loved by God, and should be by us as well.

That includes you, and me, and those who need to be welcomed and served.

Don’t leave the game early

Don’t give up on what wonderful things God can and will do through us.

Don’t give up on the new folks who might join us in our efforts, who might be a part of what’s going on here.

Don’t give up on welcoming those who God puts in front of us.

Don’t give up on running from the tent to meet the needs of those in our neighborhood.

And most importantly, don’t give up on God working through you.

In Christ, God will give us everything we need to reach out to welcome and serve.