In the name of God – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
Amen.
The
year was 597, and Augustine had just arrived in England after being
commissioned to go there and preach the Gospel by Pope Gregory the Great. Of
course, Christianity had already existed on the British Isles for a few hundred
years by this point, but this was the event that brought British Christianity
into the Roman Catholic Church, where it would remain for almost the next
thousand years. By 601, Augustine’s mission was going so well that the king was
converted and baptized. In 603, there was a conference held between Augustine,
who was a bishop at this point, and the leaders of the congregations that had
already existed in Britain.
The Pope had famously told
Augustine “For things are not to be loved for the sake of places, but places
for the sake of good things.” In other words, if what you find in Brittan is
working and is good and holy, then don’t force them to do things the Roman way.
Augustine did not heed this advice. History tells that that before these
English bishops met with Augustine, they were quite uncertain how to handle the
situation. So they consulted a wise hermit and asked him “Should we accept this
man as our leader, or not?” The hermit replied, “If, at your meeting, he rises
to greet you, then accept him, but if he remains seated, then he is arrogant
and unfit to lead, and you ought to reject him.” When the time of the meeting
came, Augustine remained seated and it would be at least another generation
before there was any sort of amicable relationship between Rome and the British
bishops. A little humility and hospitality would have gone a long way. Jesus
says “For all who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble
themselves will be exalted.”
That story from our
Anglican history illustrates well the points made in today’s Scripture
readings. In Hebrews, which is likely a sermon, the preacher writes “Let mutual
love continue. Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for by doing
that some have entertained angels without knowing it.” In Luke, Jesus speaks
about deference, humility, and hospitality. Hospitality is a buzz-word these
days, it’s even become an industry. Often though when a corporation speaks
about hospitality, they’re thinking in terms of “how do we put our customers in
the best possible mood so that they’ll open their wallets?” Jesus’ lesson on
hospitality though has a different focus.
The word used in the
Bible for “hospitality” means “love of strangers.” You’ve perhaps heard of the
word “xenophobia,” which means “the fear of strangers;” well, this Biblical
word is the exact opposite, as it is “xenophilia.” In our English language, you
can probably pick up on the relation of the word “hospitality” to “hospital.”
And what is a hospital? It’s a place of refuge and shelter, where the sick are
nursed back to health. So hospitality is rooted in that idea of providing a
safe space for people. Hospitality is a Christian virtue, not a business model.
Think about what
hospitality looks like in your life. Who do you eat your meals with? Or
perhaps, who do you not eat meals with? By changing our meals and the rituals
around them, you can understand why what Jesus was suggesting was so
subversive. He said that we shouldn’t be inviting our friends, relatives, or
wealthy acquaintances to dinner, but rather the poor, crippled, lame, and
blind. I don’t know about you all, but I’ve been to very few meals like that,
and when I invite people over for dinner, it does tend to be friends and
family. If we, or those in Jesus’ time, actually shared meals with those who
are not like us, that might shake things up. It might mean that we see poverty
in a new way. If we invited someone to dinner who is a different race than us,
we be exposed to things that rattle our comfortable ignorance. What if you had
a meal with someone who plans to vote for the other candidate in November?
The thing about meals is
that when you sit down at the table together, you are committing to sit with
that person for a while. It means that you have to listen, it means that you
have to find common ground. And so we tend to only eat meals with those whom we
trust and those whom we are comfortable around. Hospitality isn’t about having
a few friends over on Friday night for dinner, rather hospitality is taking a
risk to welcome the unwelcomed to your table. Hospitality requires humility
because it requires us to make space for the other. True hospitality is hard
work.
We’ve all heard the
phrase “you are judged by the company that you keep.” So what does that say
about God? God seems to have a preferential favor for the weak, the broken, the
lost, the sick, the rejected, the outcast, the poor. God’s hospitality is for
those who have no other place to go for welcome and refuge. If there was a
person that we knew who acted like God, what would we say about them? We’d
probably call them a “do-gooder,” we might even respect them. But we’d never
call them “powerful” or “successful.” Think about Mother Teresa or Saint
Francis – people who dedicated their lives to hospitality to those in need.
There have been stories of people who have shown remarkable hospitality in
Syria, helping children and those injured by bombings. But does our culture
focus on these people? Of course not, instead we are obsessed over a spoiled swimmer
and his antics in Rio. We’re more interested in the very opposite of success
rather than paying attention to stories of God’s redeeming and saving work that
are happening through the hospitality of people all around the world. The
humble don’t often make the front page of the paper.
In an op-ed column last
year, New York Times columnist David Brooks wrote about the difference between
eulogy virtues and résumé virtues. Résumé virtues are all about worldly success
– the size of your bank account, the number of employees you manage, how many
leadership courses you’ve attended. But then there are the eulogy virtues – the
things that we will ultimately be remembered for; things like generosity,
compassion, and showing hospitality to those in need.
We can chase worldly
success all day long, it’s not hard to do. We can even win that that game. The
issue is that it’s an empty game. It demands our all and leaves us with
nothing. Humility isn’t the way of this world. Seeking our exaltation doesn’t
take us into the depths of love, it doesn’t further God’s kingdom on earth as
it is in heaven. Instead, when we live for God and show hospitality to those
who need it most, we’re not chasing worldly success or trying to climb the
ladder.
I wonder if I would have
been called as the Rector to St. Luke’s if I had been my most humble during the
interview. If I had said “I’m really nothing special, just an average priest. I
have some flaws, I preach decent enough sermons, I’m going to make some
mistakes, I’m going to disappoint people. The good that does come will be more
of a credit to God than me” would I be standing here today? Now, the Search
Committee was wonderful, perhaps they still would have called me, but I
wouldn’t have left the interview feeling like I performed well. When I
interview people for positions at the church, I confess that I look for impressive
résumés. What Jesus is suggesting is a very different way of being.
Jesus says “You will be
blessed, because they cannot repay you.” Hospitality isn’t about networking,
getting a donation, or securing a vote. The economy of our culture is quid pro quo – this for that. You give me
this, and I’ll give you that. We sign contracts all the time that reinforce
this model. But that’s not how God’s Kingdom works. The economy of grace
operates differently, as God is the one from whom all gifts proceed, and God
does not lack something that we have. In God’s economy, there is no shortage of
grace or love.
This means that faith is
an invitation, not a transaction. We don’t practice the faith in order to
receive something or avoid punishment. We don’t give money to the Church in
order to get benefits of membership. We don’t show hospitality in order to have
the favor returned. Instead, we are invited to participate in a life full of
the love out of which we were created and which we are destined to return. So
when we pass the offertory plate, it’s not paying your dues or buying your seat
at the table, but rather it’s an invitation to take part in the wonderful
things that God is doing in and through St. Luke’s. It’s an invitation to order
your life in such a way that generosity and hospitality are common.
One of the major themes
that runs throughout Luke is the idea of “the great reversal,” which can be
summed up as “For all who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who
humble themselves will be exalted.” We see it in the words of Mary at the
beginning of the gospel: “God has cast down the mighty from their thrones, and
has lifted up the lowly. He has filled the hungry with good things, and the
rich he has sent away empty.” We see it in the words of Jesus when he says “Blessed
are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God. Blessed are you who are
hungry now, for you will be filled.” And we see it revealed most fully when
Luke writes “When they came to the place that is called The Skull, they
crucified Jesus there with the criminals.”
The Good News of the Gospel
of Jesus Christ is that things are not always as they seem. The sick will not
be sick forever, death is not final, poverty is not a sign of weakness, the
last will be first and first will be last, the Cross becomes a throne, those
who exalt themselves will be humbled and those who humble themselves will be
exalted. If this is the crux of the Gospel, then our task is to practice this
humble hospitality. It is the Church’s role to be the stewards of a place where
this reality exists, a place where success is recast as love and not power, a
place where eulogy virtues are cultivated and praised over résumé virtues, a
place for God’s hospitality to be practiced and found.
And it is worth pointing
out that hospitality is not a means of bringing people in so that we can change
them and make them more like us. The spiritual writer Henri Nouwen has written
that “hospitality isn’t about changing others, but offering them a place where
change can take place.” God does the work of transformation. What our ministry
of hospitality does is to provide a safe space for that to happen. I recently
heard someone astutely say that the ideal congregation isn’t a place that
should make people feel uncomfortable by challenging them all the time. Nor is
the parish a place where people should just settle into a sort of comfortable
normalcy. But ideally, the Church is a place where people can be comfortable
being uncomfortable. In a sense, that is what hospitality is all about. As we
navigate the changes and chances of this life, the Church provides a hospitable
place where we can rest in God’s eternal changelessness. As Hebrews notes, “Jesus
Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.”
Jesus’ teaching about
humility and hospitality shows us a new way of seeing and being in the world.
May God grant us the grace to chase not our success, but dignity and justice
for all. Know that faith is an open invitation, not a transaction. May this be
a place of hospitality for all, a place marked by God’s love, a place where you
can be comfortable being uncomfortable. Amen.
