Friend's Day 2026

[Shout out to a new friend here at Church of Grace - Jackie who just got baptized on Friday.

Romans 15:7 “Accept one another, then, just as Christ accepted you, in order to bring praise to God.”

Accepted: to welcome in. To welcome into one’s presence or home.

Belonging

I, P, B

Who am I?

Why am I here?

Where do I belong?

This is vital to human existence. Today people all over the world will compromise their values and convictions in order to be accepted, in order to conform to a group. To be liked, to be accepted.

Yet this is a cheap superficial acceptance. It is understandable though. We always try to put our best foot forward, be what people want because too often we have been rejected. As soon as there is something not agreeable about us, people leave.

If you are new to Church of Grace, please recognize, you belong. You do not need to wear a mask here. You do not need to put your best foot forward you belong with God and us.

We will not agree on everything. All through church history there have been disagreements. However, we have more in common with one another than not.

Believe

Behavior

Belong

In Essentials - unity

In Non-Essentials - liberty

In all things love

love will not leave, love will not forsake, love will not give up on another. Love will never fail. It is only in love that true relationships can flourish.

This is exactly what we have in Christ and what we are to have with each other!

We have been accepted

Our acceptance is not based on our merit or “putting our best foot forward” God knows us entirely (all the darkness, all the dirty secrets, all the baggage, all the sin) and still welcomes us.

Romans 5:8–9 “8 But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. 9 Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God’s wrath through him!”

Titus 3:3–5 “3 At one time we too were foolish, disobedient, deceived and enslaved by all kinds of passions and pleasures. We lived in malice and envy, being hated and hating one another. 4 But when the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, 5 he saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. (it is the mercy and grace of God that sustains our relationship with Him).”

In welcoming me, we see the grace and mercy of God in welcoming me, who is undeserving (of relationship and presence), and we are to share that same grace and mercy with others in welcoming them.

We can say: I have been welcomed and accepted by grace alone and it carries a sacred responsibility to share with others.

You have freely received therefore freely give

I submit that your understanding for how forgiven and accepted you have been by God has implications for how you treat others = as in those who are strangers and different than.

Word Hospitality: Philoxenia - kindness in welcoming guests or strangers

A stranger is a person you do not know or have never met. It generally refers to anyone who is not a friend, family member, or acquaintance, and can also describe an outsider, newcomer, or someone who is unfamiliar with a specific place or environment

“Hospitality - The creation of a free space where the stranger can enter and become a friend instead of an enemy.” Henri Nouwen

The early church was known for this.

Example

Julian the Apostate

Julian was trying to strengthen pagan religion and believed that one reason Christianity was growing was because Christians consistently cared for: the poor, widows, orphans, the sick, travelers and strangers.

He was frustrated that paganism lacked a comparable ethic of hospitality

In a letter to Arsacius, the pagan high priest of Galatia, Julian wrote:

"These impious Galileans support not only their own poor, but ours as well; everyone can see that our people lack aid from us."

He urged pagan priests to imitate Christians by establishing charitable institutions. He even instructed them to provide food and hospitality, not because he agreed with Christianity, but because he recognized its effectiveness in winning people's loyalty.

Julian's observation makes a compelling historical illustration: even Christianity's critics recognized that ordinary acts of generosity and hospitality were transforming the Roman world.

Contemporary Significance

They weren’t necessarily known for the things they said but what they did?

Are you known more for the things you say or the things you do: the love and hospitality towards others not like you?

Early Church Motivations

It was the three main motivations of the early church that led to a miraculous growth from a crucified rabbi to a global faith.

Gratitude

Responsibility to share the news (that it is not okay that I keep this to myself)

Deep concern for their neighbor and the stranger.

We can call this hospitality that turns strangers into neighbors, and neighbors into family.

This concern for neighbor, as we have seen - hospitality. Yet, according to Rosaria Butterfield, have we lost this power.

Rosaria Butterfield

Butterfield was a tenured professor of English and women's studies at Syracuse University. She specialized in queer theory and identified as a lesbian. She was active in the LGBTQ+ community and viewed conservative Christianity with suspicion, seeing it as intellectually shallow and politically motivated.

When Promise Keepers and other Christian groups became influential in the 1990s, she decided to write a critical article examining the Religious Right.

An Unexpected Letter

As part of her research, she wrote an article criticizing evangelical Christianity. She received a wide range of responses, but one letter stood out. It came from a local pastor, Ken Smith.

Rather than condemning or debating her, he wrote respectfully and invited her to discuss her questions over a meal.

Butterfield later wrote that he "didn't act like a salesman. He seemed genuinely interested in me."

Hospitality Before Evangelism

Ken Smith and his wife, Floy, repeatedly welcomed Rosaria into their home.

Over the course of about two years:

they continually invited her to their home to share meals.

They listened to her

They never treated her as a "project,"

welcomed her into their family life,

They loved her before expecting her to believe.

For research she read the Bible and describes it as the Bible “reading me”

She struggled because becoming a Christian would mean rethinking her entire identity and worldview.

She eventually repented, placed her faith in Christ and today is a brilliant Christian author who is married to a Presbyterian Pastor and focuses on welcoming strangers into her home. Saying that the Gospel comes with a house key.

Butterfield argues that her conversion was not primarily the result of winning an argument. Instead, it came through the combination of:

faithful exposition of Scripture,

genuine friendship,

patient listening,

consistent hospitality,

Christians whose lives matched their message.

She believes many people in today's post-Christian culture are more likely to encounter Christ through ordinary, faithful relationships than through impersonal evangelistic methods alone.

Hospitality is “Expressing the welcome of God the Father to all through tangible acts of love, namely through giving food, shelter, and relationship.”

Hospitality

Romans 12:13 “Share with the Lord’s people who are in need. Practice hospitality.”

1 Peter 4:8–10 “Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins. Offer hospitality to one another without grumbling.

Hebrews 13:2 “2 Do not forget to show hospitality to strangers, for by so doing some people have shown hospitality to angels without knowing it.”

What can we learn from the early church hospitality.

1. Hospitality Builds Genuine Relationships

Evangelism is often most effective through long-term, ordinary relationships, not one-time events.

The implications of the above Scriptures encourage Christians as those who have been welcomed and accepted by God to:

Eat meals together regularly,

Know your neighbors,

Welcome strangers,

Invest time over months and years.

Butterfield’s own conversion happened because a pastor and his wife repeatedly invited her into their home without treating her as a "project."

2. Hospitality Welcomes People Who Are Different

The early church emphasized caring for the poor and marginalized, regardless of whether they were pagan or Christian.

Hospitality gives the privileges of insiders to outsiders.

We welcome into relationship those that:

Disagree politically,

Live different lifestyles,

Come from different religions,

Are lonely,

People are not a project, we don’t require them to be “what we want” we welcome them as they are.

We hear Jesus shouting to Zacchaeus… come down, I must stay at your house today.

3. Hospitality Isn’t Easy, it is Costly

It requires:

sacrifice,

interrupted schedules,

financial generosity,

emotional investment,

and being inconvenienced.

Hospitality disrupts our comfortable lives because true ministry is almost never convenient.

Perhaps the miracle is in the inconvenience...

We see Jesus

Jairus pleading with him to go heal his daughter.

Being interrupted by the woman with the issue of blood

Jesus’s sermon interrupted by 4 faith filled friends who lowered the paralyzed man into the room from the roof.

Jesus on the road through Jericho with crowds following him, two blind men sitting nearby, shouted at him. He stopped and called them...

We see the degree of sacrifice to which Jesus committed as he hung on the cross in suffering to welcome us to the family of God.

[Closing]

Truly, hospitality and welcoming others, reflects the Character of God

Because God welcomed sinners (us) through Christ (Romans 15:7), so we receive His welcome, acceptance, and hospitality and then imitate by opening our homes and lives to others. This is an embodied expression of the gospel itself.

Back to where we started

Where do I belong? Where do I fit in?

In a world of clicks, groups, and tribes. Do I need to change who I am to “fit in”

The Gospel says no!

The Gospel says you belong! You were created to be WITH God and WITH others through Jesus. We don’t have to earn love, or our place in the Body of Christ. We BELONG to God and to one another. We are not alone. We are Family.

This means safety and security. Your truest belonging to God and his yearning to be with you, among you, in you, and always near you every moment of every day is not dependent on the success or failures of others. It is not dependent on your own merit but has already been decided by the unconditional love of God through Jesus our Savior and by the Holy Spirit who has shed his love abroad in your heart. And is experienced in the unity and love of His church.

And yes, this love, this belonging will change you, just as it did Zacchaeus, just as it did the disciples, and the millions upon millions of Christians through the centuries who found their belonging in Christ Jesus and the church.

God’s hospitality has welcomed you, accepted you, cared for you and loved you. You belong.