just hospitality

from my sermon on 2/28/10 from Romans 12:9-13, 15:7

Ten thousand doors...the UMC has been saying "open minds, open hearts, open doors," but now we are saying 10,000 doors. Google 10,000 doors and see what the UMC is doing. It seems we want everyone to come in, not just to a building but to a relationship....not just to church but to Christ. All are welcome.

I can hear you saying, "But Pastor Lynn, we are a friendly church." That's what every church says. And then we will do the Welcoming Church survey and Transforming Congregations study and find that we can do better! Already we have updated signage, created more parking for guests and the less mobile, put a rocking chair in the back of the worship center for those with young children, trained greeters, created the Tent for fellowship time...and yet we can do better.

Today we are talking about hospitality in our ongoing study of the 5 fruitful practices. I know the book calls it radical hospitality, but I would like to call it just hospitality. For you linear thinkers, I mean first "just" as the most basic level, and secondly to look at the word hospitality, and third to look at "just" as part of justice.

So, first, hospitality at its most basic, practical level involves the card you find in your worship bulletin. The side that says WEAVE is your home work; we don't have time to do this in worship today.
(Each of us is part of God's tapestry of hospitality! WEAVE kindness and thoughtfulness throughout all we do as part of Christ's church.
W--Welcome on a personal level.
E--empathize with others; truly listen!
A--Acknowledge the concern and needs of those you meet.
V--Verify all needs have been met.
E--Exit on a personal level.)

Let's go over the 5-10-LINK rule.
5--Refers to time. Fellowship and and visiting with friends is so important in church. 5 minutes before the service starts and 5 minutes after it ends, meet someone you don't know!
10--Refers to space. Even if you are with a group of friends, when someone you don't know comes within 10 feet of you, reach out to them and invite them into your group!
LINK--Refers to connecting. When you meet someone new, immediately link them to someone else based on some common affinity (occupation, home, state, interests, etc.)

Is this scary for you to think about? Imagine being a first time guest in worship here....how much scarier is that?

I want to teach you one more thing, a line that really works in hospitality. When meeting someone new, you could say Hello....or How are you....or Welcome....they are all good. But the best thing you can say is this: Help me with your name. What that does is change the power differential. You are no longer the one with all of the answers. You have just made yourself vulnerable and the guest, the stranger the one with all of the power and information.

We are going to practice it right now in worship. I want you to get up and meet someone you don't know and say, Help me with your name. I will allow for some organized chaos. Go.

That wasn't so hard, was it? You can do it. It's just hospitality. You have heard me say it many times: God didn't make us for loneliness, God made us for community.

Secondly, about the words, hospitality to strangers is literally, love of the stranger, the unknown one. It is the opposite of xenophobia; it is philoxenia. And sometimes in the NT, where it says welcome one another, the word is literally synagogue.

I was rereading a book on hospitality this past week. There's a great quote from the chief rabbi of the united congregations of the Commonwealth, Sir Jonathan Sacks, that he came up with after 9/11 (p. 101 of Just Hospitality by Letty M. Russell):

I used to think that the greates command in the Bible was You shall love your neighbor as yourself. I was wrong. Only in 1 place does the Bible ask us to love our neighbor. In more than 30 places it commands us to love the stranger.

What happens when we love the stranger, he or she is no longer the stranger. We become community. It's just hospitality.

Thirdly, just hospitality involves justice, going way beyond these walls and Sunday morning. OUr youth wanted to practice hospitality by taking a hot meal on the mobile loaves and fishes run. They usually make sandwiches, but 2 weeks ago they made hot lasagna and fixings, boxed them up to take out on Sunday afternoon to the homeless in downtown Austin. They also wanted to take the sacrament of communion to these that live on the street. That's where I come in....I am a pastor...I needed to consecrate the elements. I wondered how would I do that. Do we have a prayer of confession and time of pardon? Is there a Thanksgiving over the elements? Do we say the Lord's Prayer? You know I didn't have a course in serminary on serving communion to the homeless. Here's what happened. A cold front had come through. The wind was blowing; the temperature was dropping. We had a box of individual communion cups with wafers on top. The homeless folks would walk right by us and head for the truck. They would ask, "What are you serving?" They were grateful for the hot meal and hot coffee. As they left the truck they passed me and some of the youth with the box of communion elements. Some stopped and asked, "What do you have?" "It's communion," one of the youth would answer. If that person wanted to have communion. The youth would pray with him or her. That was the prayer of consecration. They would then say, "there's a wafer under the pull back tab.....the body of Christ for you. There's grape juice in the cup....the blood of Christ for you."

It was just a little wafer. It was just a little grape juice. It was just hospitality. May we all practice it. Amen.