Pentecost 12C (Proper 14)
September 1, 2019
Luke 14:1, 7-14; Hebrews 13:1-8, 15-16
INTRODUCTION
Today is one of
those times when all four of the readings really complement each other, lifting
up very similar themes. Their combined purpose could be summarized by the first
line from our reading from Hebrews: “Let mutual love continue.” All four
readings will describe some of the specific ways we can live in mutual love as
Christians: for example, by practicing humility, selflessness, concern for the
other even over yourself, generosity, and hospitality toward strangers –especially,
Jesus will tell us, toward strangers who have nothing concrete to offer you in
return.
They all seem like
nice enough things, and some even joyful… but not a-one of them is easy! And so
as you listen, watch for some of those ideals of Christian love, and consider
what they each look like, practically or metaphorically, in your life – your
personal life, your church life, your life as a citizen. Think about how some
of these ideals enacted or embodied as a community, a nation, and as a global
neighbor. My sermon will be focus on hospitality and welcome, so think
especially about that ideal. Okay, let’s listen.
[READ]
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| This morning's bulletin cover from Augsburg Fortress. |
Grace to you
and peace from God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
My grandparents
lived in Germany for several years after World War II. They were sent there by
the national Lutheran church as a part of what we now know as Lutheran World
Relief. They helped rebuild the Church there after the war, and reunite
families. During their time in Germany, and throughout their 60+ years of
marriage, they kept a guest book. Every guest they had at their home – whether
a German dignitary or a refugee child – every guest was asked to sign their
book, and perhaps leave a note about their time there. What resulted was
volumes and volumes of records of strangers and friends to whom they had shown
hospitality over the course of their lives. Really, those guest books are a
record of their life of faith, and one of the many ways they lived it out.
When my brother
and I each got married, after my grandparents had both died, my parents gave us
each a guestbook, too, and inscribed in the front is this verse we heard from
Hebrews: “Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for in doing so some
have entertained angels without knowing it.” It’s a lovely verse, isn’t it? I
look to my grandparents as models of faith, and want so dearly to follow in
their footsteps in the way they welcomed so many strangers into their lives and
their home, and in doing so showed them the love of Christ. This is, in fact,
one of my favorite verses for this very reason, that it makes me feel connected
to my grandparents.
But now that I
have a home of my own… it turns out that showing hospitality to strangers is
not easy. Everyone who has signed our guestbook is friend or family. Though we
love having people over, we’ve had very few strangers in our home. Maybe you can
say differently – perhaps yours is the house where all your kids’ friends hang
out, and you constantly provide drinks and snacks for all manner of stranger on
a regular basis. Maybe you hosted one of our small groups this summer and
called to invite several people you’d never met to enjoy dessert and
conversation in your home. Maybe you have hosted an exchange student, refugee
family, or traveler. But generally speaking, while inviting friends and family
to our homes or our church or wherever can be a real joy, showing hospitality
to strangers can be… risky, scary, vulnerable. Because you just don’t know what
you’re getting, with a stranger. Yes, they may turn out to be angels, but… what
if they don’t?
This is not
just a concern for us on a personal level. Just look at what is happening on a
national scale right now. So much fear has been cultivated around strangers, foreigners,
especially those who look different from the majority of Americans, and so they're easy to pick out. And so, rather
than welcoming strangers, a large percentage of our country wants to build
walls to keep them away. Asylum seekers are turned away or put in detention
indefinitely, refugee admission caps are being lowered dramatically, and strangers
trying to come to our land are not being given basic hygiene or necessary
medical care. This week we learned that some people are being deported who are
receiving life-saving medical care here that is unavailable in their home
country, and being sent back means they will almost certainly die. We seem to
be doing all we can, not to welcome strangers, to love them, but rather to
turn them away and even cause them harm. What a contrast this is to Jesus’
parable: “Invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind,” he says.
“And you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you.”
How utterly
counter this is to how society works! Ours is a society in which, rather than
letting mutual love continue, we let mutual backscratching
continue. We seek to make connections, to swap favors, to help each other out mostly
or especially when we know it will ultimately be to our advantage. Thinking
again on a national scale, it has been expressly stated that we’re happy to let
strangers, immigrants, in, if they can contribute something valuable to our
country. Merit-based immigration, it’s called. But here Jesus tells us, “No,
don’t reach out to your rich friends or your family. Don’t do things because
you know they will come back to benefit you. Serve others just for the sake of
serving others, for the sake of letting mutual love continue (as the author of
Hebrews would say). Serve those who really need it – the poor, the crippled,
the lame, the blind. Call in all the neediest strangers, and love them, feed
them, and serve them.”
This is the call
Jesus issues, and boy, is it difficult! It may not be sound policy! It may put
us at risk, whether as individuals or as a country! We may be blessed in the
long run, “at the resurrection of the righteous,” as Jesus says, but what about
now? Don’t we want to do things to benefit ourselves now, today? Why would
Jesus ask of us something so difficult, even impractical?
But here’s the thing: we shouldn’t do
this – invite and welcome strangers with no promise of immediate return – we shouldn’t
do this because Jesus told us to do it. We extend hospitality to strangers and
welcome them because God already did it and does it for us. Yes, it is true –
God welcomes us as strangers, even potentially dangerous ones, welcomes
us to his bountiful banquet, not because we can do anything to pay God back,
but simply because God dearly loves us. When we are the poor in spirit, poor in
faith, poor in riches, God welcomes us. When we are crippled by pain, by doubt,
by fear, God welcomes us. When we are lame in our walk of faith, turning our
faces away from the brokenness of the world, negligent in tending to our
relationship with God, God welcomes us. When we are blind to our own sinful
ways, God still welcomes us to the feast of love that God prepares for us.
We certainly
don’t deserve, nor do we do anything to earn this gift. Yet still, God invites
and welcomes us each to this table, and gives us love, grace, belonging, and
salvation. God provides us all that we need, and even when we greedily take it
with hardly a thank you, even when we imagine only that we are entitled to
these things and overlook the gracious gift that they are, even when we totally
squander that gift… God still gives us more the next day. God gives and gives
though we could never repay that gift.
So let us go
now to the banquet, brothers and sisters. God invited us, after all, and
welcomes us with open arms. And then, nourished by this feast of love, let us
go out to proclaim Christ’s Gospel of radical welcome of the stranger, in word
and deed, trusting that God’s promises to us are true, and that we will indeed
be blessed, perhaps by the angels we encounter, and most certainly in the
resurrection of the righteous.
Let us pray… Welcoming
God, our instinct with strangers is often mistrust and fear. Make us bold to
extend hospitality to strangers, trusting that in doing so, we might just find
ourselves entertaining angels. In the name of the Father and the Son and the
Holy Spirit. Amen.
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