Sermon Tone Analysis

By Pastor Glenn Pease

Earl M. Finch became one of the most popular bachelors in Hawaii because he had the gift of hospitality.

It all started in Hattiesberg, Mississippi when he saw a Japanese soldier reading the menu on the window of a drugstore.

He felt the impulse to go over to the G I and say, "Are you hungry son?" "You bet," came the reply.

He started talking to the soldier and discovered that there were a number of Japanese soldiers in nearby Camp Shelly, but they were not welcome anywhere in town because they were Japanese.

Earl said, "How would you like to bring a couple of your buddies to my place for supper tomorrow."

He said, "Yes," and the next day when Earl got home from work he found flowers.

The soldiers were so grateful for his hospitality even before they experienced it that they said thanks by means of flowers.

Soon Earl had 100 Japanese soldiers over for a barbecue, and he became so popular that he rented a store downtown and turned it into a club for them.

As they sailed off to war he began to write letters to them.

New soldiers came and he wrote letters to them.

In all he wrote 15 thousand letters.

Earl kept getting letters back from them, and as they married and had children he got letters saying they named their son Earl in his honor.

We are not talking about one or two, or even 5 or 6, but 15 hundred babies were named Earl because of this man's hospitality.

When the war ended a large number of the soldiers went home to Hawaii.

They got together and invited Earl to come and visit them.

When he arrived the band began to play, and there was a big parade to a park where 5000 Japanese gave Earl Finch a barbecue.

The governor and mayor were there, and one by one the mother's brought their babies for Earl to see.

Earl was one of the most popular names in Hawaii because of this man.

He never married, but he felt like the biggest granddaddy on earth.

He moved to Hawaii where he enjoyed the hospitality that was a reaping of the hospitality he had shown.

This true story is an historical illustration of the power of hospitality to determine one's destiny.

Jesus taught this very thing in Matt. 25 where He said, "I was a stranger and you invited me in, and the righteous ask, when did we see you a stranger and invite you in?" Jesus replies, "Whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me."

They were welcomed into the kingdom God had prepared for them because they were hospitable to strangers.

The Greek work for hospitality means love of strangers.

Why was Jesus so concerned that we have a love for strangers?

It was because Jesus came into this world as a stranger, and he knows what it is like to be rejected.

He came unto His own and His own received Him not.

There was no room in the inn at His birth, but this was a problem easily overcome and the stable was a satisfactory substitute.

But when you find no room in people's heart and lives for you, there is no substitute.

Jesus was not even welcome in His hometown of Nazareth.

It was one of His greatest sorrows in life to experience a lack of hospitality in prejudice people.

Jesus knew the burden of being alone and being a stranger that is unwelcome.

That is why Jesus loved to tell the parable of the Good Samaritan, for it is the story of hospitality in action.

The love of and care of a stranger in need is what it is all about.

Paul portrays the whole outreach of the Gospel to the Gentile world as a ministry of heaven's hospitality.

Paul says in Eph.

2:12 that the Gentiles were separate from Christ, excluded from the citizenship of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of the promise, without hope and without God in the world.

But he goes on to say that they were by Christ brought near through His blood and made one so that they are no longer strangers and aliens, but members of the household of God.

They were strangers, but God took them in, and by His loving hospitality made them His own, and adopted them as His children.

Hospitality in the heart of God is the heart of our salvation.

Jesus expects that we will respond in kind and be hospitable.

He says in Rev. 3:10, "Behold I stand at the door and knock.

If any man hears my voice and opens the door I will come in and eat with him and he with me."

Salvation begins with a hospitable heart that invites Christ in.

Jesus has no greater joy than that of being invited into our lives in a spirit of hospitality.

His next greatest joy is when we express hospitality to others.

In Heb.

13:2 we are reminded, "Do not forget to entertain strangers, for by so doing some people have entertained angels without knowing it."

We never know who it is we may be blessing by our hospitality, but the one we know we will always please is our Lord.

He is pleased when we are hospitable because that is a form of service, and the servant is the highest class in His kingdom.

Jesus in our text makes a special point of urging His followers to go out of their way to show hospitality to the stranger.

He urges us not to invite those in who can invite you back, but to focus on the poor and those who cannot repay you.

This is a troubling passage to read, for it seems to go against the grain of our nature.

It is not a popular text for preaching.

I have indexed many thousands of sermons and found only a couple who have preached on this passage.

Part of the problem with this text is that it is so easy to misunderstand.

It could be taken to mean that Jesus is opposed to family fellowship and friends and relatives getting together to share in a meal.

We know this is just a part of life to have friends and relatives over for all the major holidays, and all of the special occasions in life.

It is so much a part of life that we don't want to hear anything that even suggests that this is not important.

It is obvious that Jesus was not saying anything against this universal custom.

He loved it Himself and it was a part of His heritage.

The Jews were famous for their family feasting.

Jesus treasured the time He could get away to the home of Mary, Martha, and Lazarus.

He loved the hospitality of family and friends, and He would not want to convey the idea that we ought not to cultivate the relationships of our friends and relatives by means of hospitality.

Jesus would not condone the spirit of Richard Armor's poem called Relationally Speaking, even though he would, no doubt, chuckle at it because it contains a grain of truth.

Richard Armor writes,

I've relatives living near me,

I've others who live afar.

I've relatives I'm at peace with

And others with whom I war.

I've relatives who are wealthy

And some who are very poor.

There are those who are fairly decent

And others I can't endure.

Two kinds of relatives please me,

But few of either I've known:

The kind who leave me money

And the kind who leave me alone.

Jesus is not supporting this put down of relatives.

He is simply saying that when we use hospitality exclusively for the purpose of entertaining friends and relatives we are limiting this gift for service and relationship building to the natural level.

In other words, even the world does this.

The most ungodly people on the planet have their relatives and friends over, and there is probably a pagan or atheist alive who has not had the virtue of hospitality on this level.

The Christian is to learn how to use all of life's natural gifts and virtues in such a way as to go beyond the natural man and be a blessing to the world.

This is not to say that hospitality is not Christian when it only serves those within the kingdom of God.

We are to do good to all men, but especially to those of the household of faith.

Hospitality to those in Christ is a very precious virtue.

In 3rd John the Apostle writes to his dear friend Gaius, and says in verse 5, "Dear Friend, you are faithful in what you are doing for the brothers, even though they are strangers to you."

He gained a reputation of helping travelling Christians get their task done by providing for them.

John adds in verse 8, "We ought to show hospitality to such men so that we may work together for the truth."

It is a wonderful ministry to show hospitality to those within the Christian family.

The Bible no where hints that the natural virtue of hospitality is not among the highest of values.

It is very good, but Jesus is challenging the Christian to go beyond the natural, and to go beyond eros love, which all normal people have, and phile love, which all normal people have, and on to agape love, which is above the normal and exercised only by those who are open to be used as channels of God's love in the world.

All love is good, but most love is self-pleasing love, but agape is self-giving love.

It is not natural to invite strangers to your home for dinner.

That is why the vast majority never do it.

We are just normal and natural as anybody else.

It is abnormal to so love the poor, helpless, and forgotten people to the point of doing anything with them socially.

The idea of fixing a nice meal for people we don't even know is completely foreign to us.

But this is the point of Jesus.