A Posture of Hospitality and Generosity in the New Year

Hello. You’re online, I’m here at the church talking to an empty room. I thought about wearing my pajamas to really get in the spirit that is online church today, but I decided to go a more sparkly direction instead. Because it’s New Year’s Eve! That means it’s time to celebrate. Tonight we can turn on our TVs and watch New year’s Eve parties from around the world filled with celebrities performing party anthems, sharing memories from the past year and their hopes for the next. We’ll watch insane amounts of confetti fly, and see so many pairs of those iconic glasses with two of the numbers for the new year as the lens. I was first introduced to the game Telestrations at a New Year’s Eve party. That’s where you draw something, then the next person guesses what you drew, write that then the next person guesses what they drew... and so on. It’s hilarious and perfect for new years when you’re wondering how in the world you can stay awake and hang out with people until all hours of the night. I’m showing my age, I just get really tired that late so a fun game helps keep my very short attention span.

For any of you that have young kids or grandkids, something we did with some friends one year was to show a YouTube countdown to New Year’s at like 8:37pm. The kids got to celebrate the New Year before 9 and we parents got to go home and put our kids in bed and not deal with the devastation that is parenting littles who still wake up at 6:30am no matter what time they go to bed.

Heading into the New Year is a great time for all kinds of parties. Guess who else loves parties? Jesus. Jesus loves parties! We can read about his life in the gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John that detail his time on earth, which was often while he was at meals and parties. His first miracle happened at a wedding reception where he transformed water into wine. Jesus loved to celebrate well. And the way he attends and hosts parties offers us an incredible example of hospitality and generosity.

Today we’re wrapping up our series on hospitality and generosity with a story appropriately timed for the celebration of the new year, and that’s with Jesus at a party. As followers of Jesus, we’re invited to imagine ourselves as both guests and hosts. Jesus helps us explore the significance of how we engage, host, accept invitations and extend them to others. Biblical hospitality prompts us to examine our character, welcome strangers like friends and notice how Jesus epitomized this through his love, service, suffering and sacrifice for all of us.

Today we’re going to be looking at a party and a story about a party in Luke 14. And before we do that, let’s pray.

Hospitality Flows Out of Our Character (Luke 14:7-11)

As we welcome in a new year, what else are many of us thinking about today? New year’s resolutions! These often revolve around vague goals like losing weight, exercising more, drinking less, eating healthier, getting more sleep and reducing stress. We think about something we want to change and make a wide statement with no measurable goals and hope this year will be different than every other year before.

Statistically speaking, we’ll fail again this year. 23% of people give up their resolution by the end of the first week in January. And 43% by the end of January.

Maybe this year our resolutions can be less about what we can do better in our own self-imposed imperfections and instead we can courageously ask God to examine our heart and character, and invite him to do some deep transformative work in our lives.

Let’s consider who and what is forming us. Today I wanna suggest we skip making unrealistic new year's resolutions and instead invite God to do the work of refining our lives as we assume the posture of a guest at a party. To give some context, Jesus has been invited to a Pharisee’s house for a meal and let’s see what he says.

Luke 14:7–11 NIrV

Jesus noticed how the guests picked the places of honor at the table. So he told them a story. He said, “Suppose someone invites you to a wedding feast. Do not take the place of honor. A person more important than you may have been invited. If so, the host who invited both of you will come to you. He will say, ‘Give this person your seat.’ Then you will be filled with shame. You will have to take the least important place. “But when you are invited, take the lowest place. Then your host will come over to you. He will say, ‘Friend, move up to a better place.’ Then you will be honored in front of all the other guests. Anyone who lifts himself up will be brought down. And anyone who is brought down will be lifted up.”

Let’s start with what in the world Jesus is talking about here. He addresses the significance of where these guests position themselves at the table.

This was something called the patronage system. Back then, when you invited someone to a dinner, you did so with a motive in mind. Party invitations were very carefully considered: you invited people who would enhance or preserve your social status. This was a mutually beneficial arrangement: saying yes to a dinner invitation meant you were committing to returning the favor.

guests were seated according to their level of relationship to the host. Those in closest relationship to the host sat the closest and so on down the table. And as these super important guests who were specifically invited to prop up their host pick a seat, we learn something about them. Where you sit matters, both externally and internally. Jesus is inviting the guests to consider sitting down further from the host and in doing so assume there are others at this party who are more important to the host than you are. He’s inviting them into a posture of humility.

As we imagine ourselves as guests, looking up and down the table, as we pay attention to who is there and how they can benefit me and why they are sitting closer to the host than I am, what makes them so much better than me… Jesus is inviting them, and us, to take a look inside ourselves. What are we motivated by? Why do we do what we do?

And, is our culture all that different? Sometimes it’s just the subtle pride we feel when we know someone’s secret and we know someone else doesn’t. How does it feel when we see our friends post about a get-together on the socials and immediately fomo, wondering why they were included and not me? Or how about when I sneak past the person in line at the checkout and just keep looking at my phone, hoping others don’t notice because I just wanna get out of here. In a world focused on appearances and actions, Jesus challenges us to examine our motivations and intentions. Why we do what we do and think what we think impacts how genuinely we show up in the world around us.

Jesus tells us in Matthew 6:21 “Your heart will be where your riches are.”

We all want something. We’re all driven by something. Jesus isn't saying it’s bad to want something. He’s asking us to consider if what we want matters on earth or in heaven?

When we interact with people with an idea of what we can get from them, that’s self indulgent. When we approach others with an attitude of really wanting to love and serve, altruistically, without a concern for what we get out of it, that’s when we’ll receive a kingdom kind of honor with an eternal value.

Colossians 3:23 NIrV

Work at everything you do with all your heart. Work as if you were working for the Lord, not for human masters.

Hand in hand with Jesus, we can approach life with a sense of humility instead of seeking personal glory or recognition. Are you the same person when you’re with your friends as you are with your co-workers, running errands and the person in front of you in obviously not in any kind of hurry at all, towards strangers, or towards people you don’t like? How about your dog? This is a personal one for me, you guys, I can be so kind to humans but my dog gets the brunt of my frustration. My dog just needs to go outside and go the bathroom at 10:30pm when I’m trying to go to bed. Right before bed, that’s when I’m at my worst.

Many of us don’t have the things we want because we haven’t considered that maybe everyone else isn’t the problem. If I’m the one at the center of the drama that is broken relationships and a need for more, maybe it’s my heart and not other people, our economy, or our political leaders that are the problem. Maybe it’s not them, it’s me. Hi. I’m the problem, it's me. Swiftys, you know what I’m saying.

Jesus cares about our character and not our achievements, our posture and not our position. As we head into the new year, let’s invite God to examine our hearts. Why do we do what we do? We’re heading into a new series next week about our character, and we’ll walk through the fruits of the spirit over the next 6 weeks. Maybe commit to attending church or listening to those messages and asking God to examine our character. Let’s commit to the hard work of looking internally instead looking up and down the table.

As we consider hospitality through the lens of a guest, we can ask God to examen our hearts and show us how we can honor others instead of ourselves.

Our posture, our character matter. Now, let’s consider what we can learn about ourselves through the lens of a party host.

Hospitality Means We Treat Strangers like Friends

Part of Biblical hospitality means welcoming people into our homes and lives, treating strangers as valued guests, and watching God turn some of them into friends.

Story: Guess who’s coming to dinner.

The church I went to growing up in Cincinnati had this fun event called “guess who’s coming for dinner?” Someone would sign up to host and then others signed up and were assigned a home to head to for dinner. The host home cooked the main course and guests were assigned another course of the meal. One year my family decided to host. I remember sitting by the window in my parents living room waiting to see who pulled in the driveway. It was so much fun. Some people we knew, others we didn’t. And some of those people are still a regular part of my parents' lives today. I got to see some of them this summer when we were back home for my mom’s birthday party. God can bring unexpected people into our homes in surprising ways and we can find friendship in unlikely places.

Let’s see what Jesus has to say as we imagine ourselves as the host of this party. Read Luke 14:12-14

Luke 14:12–14 NIrV

Then Jesus spoke to his host. “Suppose you give a lunch or a dinner,” he said. “Do not invite your friends, your brothers or sisters, or your relatives, or your rich neighbors. If you do, they may invite you to eat with them. So you will be paid back. “But when you give a big dinner, invite those who are poor. Also invite those who can’t walk, the disabled and the blind. Then you will be blessed. Your guests can’t pay you back. But you will be paid back when those who are right with God rise from the dead.”

In the patronage system of Jesus’s day, inviting those who were poor or experiencing homelessness would mean a major breakdown of the social hierarchy. You only asked people who could return the favor. If you invited people of a lower class to your party, you’d risk your reputation and social status.

That’s what you’d lose in this world. But in verse 14, Jesus says we will be blessed. Hospitality means we welcome people into the places we live our lives, treat strangers like we want to be treated, and because of God’s divine intervention in the cosmic Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner adventure of our lives, some of those humans we invite over will become true friends.

When we do this, we knock down stereotypes and expectations and even who we think we will be friends with and instead open up the gates to see who God might unexpectedly be bringing into our lives.

How do we host like this? Maybe, for multiple reasons, you can't have folks over where you live. Where else do you spend time? Invite someone from work out for coffee or to your favorite restaurant. The next time you’re at church, maybe instead of sitting where you usually sit on the right side of the auditorium, sit on the left side and meet someone new. Or, the next time you come to church, you could look for someone you haven’t met and invite out to lunch. And pay for them.

Have a decent living space? Ask God who you can invite over. Maybe even now God is bringing someone to mind. Invite that person you keep seeing over and over again. It might not be a coincidence that you keep noticing them after all. And, maybe some of you could even invite someone to live in your house. A friend of mine hosted some students at her home over the summer, could you consider doing something like that?

If we are hosting someone who doesn’t go to church, we could invite them into our living space instead of church as a first step. We so want people to come to church and experience what we experience and we hope that our favorite preacher will be talking and that they’ll have a powerful encounter with God, they’ll become forever friends with Jesus and we’ll go to church together and live happily ever after. And to be clear, that’s a great thing to want!

But from my experience, people don’t usually begin a relationship with God because of a well laid out talk with a great outline and three compelling points. I don’t think loads of people believe simply by hearing a message. They believe because they spend time with those of us who believe and get to experience love and acceptance and generosity that is radically different from what they find in the rest of the world. Consider inviting someone into your space first.

How else can we practice hospitality? You can host a small group. We have small groups beginning in February. Invite folks into your home or a coffee shop or bar or somewhere at your school. I know a group of students from Hermantown who meet in a high school classroom every Tuesday morning for a Bible study. If you host a group at a restaurant, coffee shop or bar, please support their business and tip well. That’s also practicing hospitality and generosity.

You can maybe volunteer on a hospitality team here at church. We’re online today to thank the generous group of people who make our services happen each week. We have approximately 75 folks who help out each Sunday. Consider greeting people as they walk in, helping with offering or in the coffee bar. Some of you have wondered why the coffee bar hasn’t been open as much recently, it’s because we could use some great folks to help make some specialty drinks. Come join the team!

If you’re lonely, if you could really use some friends, find a way to serve someone and humbly offer hospitality. When we take the time to care for others, our lives are filled with joy and satisfaction. Two of my closest friends came from serving in a classroom together downstairs in Vineyard Kids.

Let’s make this really timely: what are you doing to celebrate tonight? It’s a great chance to host some people! Break out some games, confetti, grab some snacks, and your favorite dessert. Get to know some people. Laugh and have some fun.

Jesus invites us to host strangers and with a mindset of altruism, we get to watch some of them become unexpected blessings in our lives.

Why would we do this? Why give without expecting anything in return, why invite people we hardly know in our sacred spaces? Because….this is what Jesus did for each of us.

Jesus Perfectly Modeled Hospitality

After addressing the host, Jesus responds to a dinner guest who says in verse 15: “One of the people at the table with Jesus heard him say those things. So he said to Jesus, “Blessed is the one who will eat at the feast in God’s kingdom.””

And Jesus is like, ok, let’s talk about that feast in God’s kingdom. So he shares this parable beginning in verse 16.

Luke 14:16–24 NIrV

Jesus replied, “A certain man was preparing a big dinner. He invited many guests. Then the day of the dinner arrived. He sent his servant to those who had been invited. The servant told them, ‘Come. Everything is ready now.’ “But they all had the same idea. They began to make excuses. The first one said, ‘I have just bought a field. I have to go and see it. Please excuse me.’ “Another said, ‘I have just bought five pairs of oxen. I’m on my way to try them out. Please excuse me.’ “Still another said, ‘I just got married, so I can’t come.’ “The servant came back and reported this to his master. “Then the owner of the house became angry. He ordered his servant, ‘Go out quickly into the streets and lanes of the town. Bring in those who are poor. Also bring those who can’t walk, the blind and the disabled.’ “ ‘Sir,’ the servant said, ‘what you ordered has been done. But there is still room.’ “Then the master told his servant, ‘Go out to the roads. Go out to the country lanes. Make the people come in. I want my house to be full. I tell you, not one of those men who were invited will get a taste of my dinner.’ ”

Let’s take a look at who gets invited to this party. Someone who just bought a field, so they can’t come. Another person has to take care of some oxen they just bought, so they can’t come. Another one just got married and can’t come.

Jesus picked these people because they were all people who would normally be invited to a dinner party. Again, the patronage system. These invited guests were people of means, they were rich. And they all have excuses for why they can’t attend this banquet.

Parables are stories that reveal something else, kinda like a metaphor. To explain this parable, let’s consider another story Jesus tells earlier in Luke chapter 8. He uses seeds, soil, rocks, and the sun to describe different kinds of humans. He explains that the seed is God’s message of good news to the world. In Luke 8:14, Jesus paints a picture of this kind of “in” crowd party decliner: “The seed that fell among thorns stands for those who hear the message. But as they go on their way, they are choked by life’s worries, riches and pleasures. So they do not reach full growth.” Their treasure isn’t in heaven, it’s here on earth.

Snubbed by his original guests, the host is still determined to have a party. The host doesn’t say invite the poor, the lame, the blind… he says, in verse 21, to bring them in. Culturally, those in a lower class couldn't accept an invitation to a party because they didn’t have anything to offer in return. The host doesn’t invite them, they swing open the doors and usher them in. This metaphorical party shows us that the kingdom of God is open to everyone. And there is nothing you can do to pay that back.

If we were to place ourselves as a character in this parable, where would we least want to be? In the kingdom of God economy, we are the poor, the lame and the blind. At the great heavenly party, that puts time square on New Year’s eve to shame, we are nothing and have nothing to give. There’s nothing we can offer in return for what’s been done for us through Jesus.

How does Jesus offer hospitality? Jesus goes to lots of parties and has meals with lots of people. In his very first miracle, he turned water into wine. At another dinner, he washed his disciples' feet. And Jesus said this in John 14:2-4

John 14:2–4 NIrV

“There are many rooms in my Father’s house. If this were not true, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you. If I go and do that, I will come back. And I will take you to be with me. Then you will also be where I am. “You know the way to the place where I am going.”

The only way we could get invited to the eternal all you can eat buffet is if Jesus was thrown out. He was crucified, naked, on a hill, murdered on a cross for our sins, so we could be lavishly welcomed in. Jesus’s death means we’re ushered in and welcomed from strangers to family. Jesus’s sacrificial acts, his homelessness, his death, ensures we’re brought to the never-ending all-inclusive Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner party that is heaven. Through his resurrection, he is the one transforming our lives and preparing a party for us in heaven. And that party will blow every other party out of the water. It’s gonna be epic.

This passage is about way more than hosting or going to a party. It’s about who we are, why we do what we do, how we treat each other and what we have to offer. Instead of starting the new year kicking ourselves and swearing this year we’ll do better, what if we instead shift our focus to the one who can change us for the better.

Getting in touch with God’s miraculous hospitality means we are the ones with nothing to offer. He does everything. As we begin 2024, let’s consider examining our own character, our own pride and the ways we think what we have here on earth is what matters most.

As we come to terms with how Jesus has radically hosted us and welcomed us in, we have an opportunity to decide how we’re going to respond to his amazing hospitality and generosity in our lives.

We’re going to transition to ministry time. I’d like to invite Rachel and Xena back up.

How do you feel heading into 2024? Hopeful? Discouraged? Mad? Excited? Why is that? We all have things going on in our lives that don’t just reset as the calendar resets tomorrow. What’s currently happening in our life that has you feeling overwhelmed or alone? What were you hoping God would change and it didn’t happen in 2023?

Pray.

Our pastoral staff is online this morning and you can ask for prayer by the prayer button. They would love to pray for whatever is going on in your life as we head into the new year. Thanks so much for joining us online today.