Hospitality

Ache

Turn to Luke 5:27-32

Last Week Pastor Ben started a new series for us on Community. If you did not hear it last week, you can go listen to it on Apple Podcasts.

We had moved to the town in the fall and were excited to begin making friends and hanging out with people. A church full of new friends. I was so full of hope, ready to get to know the other staff and other disciples in our new community. I could see game nights in the future. Movie nights. Small Groups. Prayer and Bible Reading. I was so full of hope for the future.

But they never happened. Over the next few weeks I would be on staff for the church, we would say hi to others, maybe go out to dinner. Laugh at church. But we never seemed to get passed that. And so weeks went by, months. And the relationships just kept feeling shallow. Stuck. We made it out to a couple peoples houses a couple times. But it felt like there was a wall up. Like we were always on the outside looking in of what everyone talked about being such a good community.

By a year in I began to feel crazy. And even worse, it began to make me feel bitter. It was as if pain of loneliness was not just echoing from the past, but screeching forward to where I was now. And it made me feel sad. It made me feel angry. And it made me feel bitter. And so I stopped trying. I began to build up my own wall, my own castle to keep the pain and hurt away. If they did not need me, I would not need them. And in what I had hoped would be a land fertile for community, I found myself becoming void of love. I withdrew. And I continued over and over in a cycle of withdraw, hurt and bitterness. Over and over, until it drilled down a whole of loneliness of my own making.

My story is not special. We have all been there. We all know how it is to be rejected or betrayed by someone. In fact, Sociologists would argue that most relationships that you and I have are built on the woundedness of the past.

Attatchment Theory says that the way you relate to people now is built on when you are very young. From an infanot on up you are learning your place in the world.

That means that if you felt insecure as a young one, you feel insecure now.

If you felt lonely and alone, you feel alone now.

If you felt safe, your baseline is safe.

And it is not just parents. It is siblings. It is the friends we make. Mentors, coworkers. Your spouse. Every relationship is building the foundation upon what the next ones are.

And for most of us that means we are building upon broken foundations. Foundations that lead us to two different styles of relating to others: Fightoand Flight.

I am going to take you out or I am going to isolate where I am safe.

And that is maybe not bad? I mean we live in a divided an unsafe world.

And so we build our own personal castles. Our homes become as much havens for rest as they are a wall to keep others out.

And so instead of neighbors we at best dont see anyone of real significance, and at worst we see an enemy.

And this loss of grounding in the community of people we live with leads to

Isoaltion

Fear

Misunderstanding.

Our world needs safe people and it needs safe spaces.

Seam: And so we are going to look at the life of Jesus. We are going to look at his way and teachings to see how he went about not only creating safe spaces, but spaces where the very love of God could be poured out.

Luke 5:27 “After that He went out and looked at a tax collector named Levi sitting in the tax office, and He said to him, “Follow Me.””

Background of Tax Collectors.

So Jesus has gone up to an enemy of his people, not a friend. Not just an outsider. But an Enemy and invited him into apprenticeship with him. This is wild!

Luke 5:28–30 “And he left everything behind, and got up and began following Him. And Levi gave a big reception for Him in his house; and there was a large crowd of tax collectors and other people who were reclining at the table with them. The Pharisees and their scribes began grumbling to His disciples, saying, “Why do you eat and drink with the tax collectors and sinners?””

Why the meal is scandalous. Who you have meals with is who you are choosing to have relationship with.

Jesus’ meals are upside down.

For the pharisees, they were sepratists. They believed that redemptoin only came from remaining seperate from the impure.

But this is what we see Jesus doing over and over and over.

Luke The Calling of Levi (5:27–32)

Jesus views people in terms of what God could make them into, rather than pigeonholing them into who they currently are.

Matthew–Luke § 66. Tax Collectors and Sinners (Mark 2:14–17; Matthew 9:9–13; Luke 5:27–32)

Jesus was not interested in isolating himself from sinners, but was interested in bringing change to the lives of sinners

Jesus is constantly eating meals throughout the Gospel of Luke. One commentator says “Jesus is either going to a meal, at a meal or leaving a meal”.

He did this so often that….

Luke 7:34 “The Son of Man has come eating and drinking, and you say, ‘Behold, a gluttonous man and a heavy drinker, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!’”

He does it so often that they are calling him out for it. But here is the thing. Jesus is doing this intentionally. It is the way he is choosing to reach out to the lost.

The reason came was to save the lost.

The way he did it was through eating and drinking.

This Rhythm of practice of Jesus is what we call Hospitality.

Luke 19:1–10 “Jesus entered Jericho and was passing through. And there was a man called by the name of Zaccheus; he was a chief tax collector and he was rich. Zaccheus was trying to see who Jesus was, and he was unable due to the crowd, because he was short in stature. So he ran on ahead and climbed up a sycamore tree in order to see Him, because He was about to pass through that way. And when Jesus came to the place, He looked up and said to him, “Zaccheus, hurry and come down, for today I must stay at your house.” And he hurried and came down, and received Him joyfully.

Over and Over, Jesus reaches out to the lost through hospitality.

Hospitality is the intentional creation of space for friend, stranger and enemy to experience the spirit and love of God.

See Hospitality for Jesus was how the Gospel was lived out. It was taking those who were far from God and bringing them near to not just hear what is true, but to experience it.

And so as his apprentices, we seek to practice this.

It is so easy for us to make a privatized faith. Or even just a club for us Jesus people.

But Hospitality is a practice that forces us to look outward to those who are not yet close to God.

Writer Justin Whimel Early writes “ Cultivating rhythms of the table must not pull us away from the outsider… A redeemed table is one that invites outsiders in.

Our personal faith must go out.

This is why the master of formation Dallas Willard writes “Spiritual Formation, good or bad, is always social.” The way you treat, or live with others is intrincictly linked to your relationship with God.

This is why when Jesus is asked “what is the greatest commandment?” What does he respond with?

Love the lord….

This was Shema.

But he is linking two

Love your neighbor as yourself.

As apprentices of Jesus, Hospitality is one of the primary ways we create space to do this!.

And so it became incredibly important to the early church. Over and over we see this command to show hospitality.

Romans 15:7 “Therefore, accept one another, just as Christ also accepted us, for the glory of God.”

proslambano = Accept, take in, welcome

Paul’s invitation to the church was for them to welcome in one another. Why? Because that is what Jesus did. It how they are to be his presence in their city.

1 Peter 4:9 “Be hospitable to one another without complaint.”

Peter is calling for hospitaltiy that is born of love, not obligation that we complain about.

Hebrews 13:1–2 “Let love of the brothers and sisters continue. Do not neglect hospitality to strangers, for by this some have entertained angels without knowing it.”

Over and over there is this practice of hospitality that is expected.

Paul in both 1 Timothy says it is a prerequisite for leadership[.

Why?

Whether it is the life of Jesus or the early Church, it is in hospitality that people experience the love and presence of God.

In the early Church, it is the primary vehicle of evangelism. Not arguments or tracks. But meal after meal after meal over relationship. Ordinary everyday people creating space for people to experience the love of Jesus in tangible ways.

And this was culture changing.

No Hotels

Change Rome.

Origen is an early church leader after the apostles, and he writes that “The communities of God to which Christ has become teacher and guide are in comparision with the communities of the pagan people among whom they lives as strangers like heavenly lights in the world.

Hospitality is the counter formational practice that our communities need to see the love of Jesus in their daily life.

Seam: So What exactly is Hospitality then?

Our definition of Hospitality is “Intentional making of space for friends, strangers and enemies to experience the presence and love of God.”

So Hospitality is intetional space making for God to be known. That means it is not us at the center. But God himself.

Writer Karen Burton Mains writes

The essence of Hospitality is a heart open to God, with room prepared for the guestness of the Holy Spirit, that welcomes the presence of Christ. Thisis what we share with those whom we open our doors. We give them him.”

The heart of Hospitality is the wanting to bring Jesus to people.

Another formation writer, Adele Calhoun writes “Hospitality creates a safe open space where a friend or stranger can enter and experience the welcoming spirit of Christ in one another”

This means that Hospitality is not really about you and I. It is about the space we create for God to be known and experienced. This means…

“Hospitality becomes a means of grace as God works through the relationship hospitality enables.”

Is Hospitality becoming clearer for you? Hospitality is not about what you offer, it is about who you are creating space for.

It is important for us to get this right, because our definition of Hospitality is different than the worlds definition of Hospitality.

Secular Hospitality has two elements.

First, it is transactional. It is looking for what it gets out of it.

So when you go to a hotel, a hotel is looking for something from you. It might be the best customer experience you have ever experienced, but at the end of the day you are that: A customer.

Cafe’s are that way. HOWARD SCHULTZ STORY. You are a customer

Its easy for Churchs to fall in to this.

This is not hospitality. Because it creates a good feeling consumer instead of a Christ centered community.

Second, if our why is transactional, our how will be transactional. And so instead of showing hospitality, we begin to entertain. Entertainment does not actually make your life any better. It is about making you feel good and hopefull become a repeat customer.

True Hospitality is free of the need for calculated results. It just delights in showing Hospitality. And what makes it a practice or discipline is that it shows up even when you do not feel like it.

True Hospitality is not based on your emotions or needs, it is completely other focused.

Here is another thing though, entertainment requires you to do or have something to entertain them with. Hospitality is about who you are giving.

Hospitality is not a what you do. It is a who you are.

Christine Pohl Writes “ Hospitality is not so much a task as a way of lving our shared lives and of sharing ourselves.”.

This means that test of true hospitality is not what you are serving or doing. It is your motive for what you are doing.

Ulterior vs ultimatte motive.

For the Christian, We need to ask the question “Why?” Is it out of love for the other. Or am I trying to get something out of the other person.

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