josephholubsermons


 

October 9, 2011 -   Pent 17
Hebrews 13:1-3
Matthew 22:1-14

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Thoughts on Kingdom Hospitality

“Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for by doing so some have entertained angels without knowing it.”  - Hebrews 13:1 –

I “googled” “hospitality” this week and guess what?   It spit out 41,600,000 responses!  I did not check them all, but in the first few pages of responses, I saw no references to Jesus or Christianity.

The vast majority of responses had to do with the “hospitality industry” which has become synonymous in western culture with things like hotels, resorts, casinos, vacations, cruises, conventions, special events and other services for travelers and tourists.  In western culture “hospitality” has come to mean etiquette, entertainment and amenities for the guest, who are usually paying customers.  That is a perfectly legitimate use of the word hospitality, but I would suggest that there is a deeper level of meaning. 

Another meaning ascribed to hospitality is friendliness; a friendly disposition, attitude or creating a friendly atmosphere in community.  Churches are often evaluated by visitors based on, what we could call, a “friendliness factor.”  Church dynamics experts have studied and discovered that “the friendliness factor” is one of the most important things someone uses to evaluate their initial experience of a congregation.  Initially, everything else is secondary to the “friendliness factor.”  A visitor will come back to evaluate other things only if they had a welcoming and friendly experience. 

Hospitality does, most definitely, includes the “friendliness factor,”  but I would suggest hospitality goes even deeper than that.  A definition of “hospitality” that I first heard over 35 years ago was provided by one of my seminary professors.  He said, “Hospitality, in the biblical sense, “kingdom hospitality”, means making room for another; creating space for another in your heart.”  The professor asked us if we could think of a time when we created space for another person.

A memory surfaced for me that I shared with the children this morning.  My brother went off to college when I was in the 6^th grade.  We grew up in a small house, and he and I shared a room – half was his-half was mine.  In reality, since I was the younger brother by seven years, the “half” that was mine was more like 1/3.  The room was small and quarters were cramped. When he moved out and went to college the whole room was awarded to me.  I remember how excited I was!  I spread my wings and arranged my room the way I wanted it.  My design and identity was soon stamped upon it. 

Not long after, my mother announced that a distant cousin, who I hardly knew, was coming to stay with us for a couple of weeks.  Of course, that meant I was required to share my room with someone I didn’t know very well.  For a shy, introverted boy, that was asking a lot.  I soon discovered it meant creating space for him – clearing out some of my stuff and rearranging things so there would be room for him and his stuff.  So, I boxed up some of my stuff and carried it to the basement.  I remember it felt like my newly acquired territory was being invaded, and I had to capitulate  This went far beyond friendliness – this creating space required a commitment on my part. 

I heard this anecdote about the difference between being friendly and hospitable.  Being friendly means you welcome someone into your home, invite them to sit down and make themselves comfortable, get them a drink or offer them something to eat.  But you are very clear (implied) about one thing, “Don’t rearrange the furniture.”  Showing hospitality is to welcome them into your home, invite them to sit down, make themselves comfortable, get them a drink or offer them something to eat, but also add, “if you like, go ahead and rearrange the furniture!”  Hospitality goes far beyond friendly.   

Kingdom Hospitality is about making room and creating space. Friendliness doesn’t require that.   I can put on a very friendly face (facade), but withhold the person I am at the center of my being; withhold a part of me that may be anxious, resentful, and prejudiced.  But true and radical hospitality calls upon me to make room and create space for the other, and to do that may I need to “clean out” some things like negative feelings that may be embedded in me. Friendliness offers my face – hospitality offers my heart and connects me with the heart of the other.

The practice of hospitality is deeply rooted in the Old Testament biblical tradition as well.  We read in Leviticus that the Israelites were instructed to treat “aliens” and strangers in a way that might surprise us.   It reads, “When an alien resides within your land, you shall not oppress the alien. The alien shall be to you as the citizen among you; you shall love the alien as yourself, for you were aliens in the land of Egypt.”  These words might take shape in numerous ways in our contemporary world. 

Jesus stood firmly in that tradition and advanced it as far as he could.  Jesus carried hospitality far beyond religious boundaries and limits of social convention. Many people were threatened and offended by his kingdom hospitality. A stern criticism leveled against him was that he “ate with tax collectors and sinners”; which was considered blasphemous and a sacrilege.  

In today’s gospel, Jesus tells a rather poignant and radical story that is ultimately about hospitality, but we have to read it carefully to see it.  He tells it using characteristic rabbinic hyperbole which was a part of Jesus’ style being of the Jewish tradition.  Hyperbole is the use of exaggeration as a rhetorical device to evoke strong feelings or make a point, but it is not meant to be taken literally. 

He tells the story of a king who gave a wedding banquet for his son.  The king invites all the people we would expect at a king’s banquet; the in-crowd, the powerful, rich, nobility, the famous, the stars of stage and screen.  But they dismissed the banquet of the king as trite, and they ended up on the outside (symbolized by being dead) even though they considered themselves the insiders.

The king then goes to Plan B.  He sent his servants out into the community to get anybody they could to come to the wedding banquet – good and bad - it mattered not – no ID’s checked at the door – no moral or social credentials were required – just all kinds of different people all mixed up together and it included the good and bad: the working poor; the walking wounded; the homeless and derelicts; all of them just said “yes” and joined the party. "The wedding hall," says Jesus "was filled with guests;" filled by those the in-crowd never expected to see at such an occasion!  Well, they didn't see them they because they weren't there!   Remember, they had other priorities, other values, other more important things to do?  So, for all practical purposes the parable declares they were dead to the banquet – dead in their own self-aggrandizement – dead to the king’s wild and crazy paradigm.

Jesus' story concludes with one final ironic twist.  The king spots a man who was not wearing the appropriate wedding attire. The king asks, "How did you get in here without a robe?"

You must understand that in biblical times there was appropriate attire for a royal wedding - a special robe. In addition, this garment was provided, free of charge at the door, for the guest who did not have one. The idea was to preserve the decorum that went with these kinds of celebrations.

But this one man was committed to doing his own thing.  He ignored the directive, perhaps felt he was superior to the others and needed no such robe – he was above it. He crashed the party without wearing the appropriate attire. He wanted to stand out over and against all the others, not wanting to be  identified with the others.  He wanted the party, but he was not willing to swallow his pride and be identified with the others.  He wanted his cake and to eat it too.  The king would not allow it. 

The point of the parable is that kingdom hospitality cuts through and levels all the distinctions of relative worth that human beings use to fragment and striate humanity.  All are invited to God’s banquet table - the good and bad are so mixed with one another you cannot tell the difference – and no one seems to really care – they are just there enjoying each other and the party, as does the king.

There are a couple of banquets that occur regularly in this community that are modeled off this very parable and one similar to it in the gospel of Luke. In fact, this congregation was a founding sponsor.  It is called The Community Dinner  meeting every Tuesday, and if you haven’t been there to serve or eat I suggest you give it a try and not dismiss it as trite for more important things.  The other is the Divine banquet that is celebrated right here at this communion table every week. 

Tex Sample, author, story-teller and emeritus professor at St Paul School of theology in Kansas City, MO tells a story that was told to him by a friend, Don Bakely, who was pastor of a city church in New Jersey.

Pastor Don had been working with a gang of very tough, street-wise youth and trying to establish rapport and win their respect.  Things finally progressed to the point when one weekday the leader of the gang, Big Mart, actually dropped by and came into the church building for the first time ever.   Pastor Don was in his office when suddenly he heard Big Mart’s booming voice shout a profanity and call someone a vulgar name. Seconds later a woman named Ella, who was the church matriarch, a good person but kind of straight-laced, a woman of real power in that church, came bursting in Pastor Don’s office madder than a wet hen and said, “Did you hear what that young man called me?  What are you going to do about it?” 
     Pastor Don said, “Well that’s an interesting question Ella, but I guess I want to know what you are going to do about it?” 
     She said, “I want you to go out there and throw him out of this church!” 
     Pastor Don said, “Oh Ella, I’ve been trying for months to get him in here and this is the first time.” 
     I don’t care.  I want you to throw him out,” she retorted.
     Pastor Don said, “Ella, Ella, just listen to me for a moment.  Let me tell you a story about Big Mart.  Just listen to the story and then think about it. Take your time, but think about it.  If, after you’ve thought about it, you still want me to throw him out, I will.”  

Pastor Don went on to tell her that when Big Mart was a child, his daddy came home in a blind, mad, crazed, rage.  He gathered all the children in one room and murdered their mother right in front of them.  He then took a paring knife and severed their mother’s head and threw it one of children and knocked the child to the floor.   

Don then said to Ella, “That child is the young man out there who called you that vulgar name.”  Ella then spun on her heels and stormed out of the room.  She was gone only a few minutes, and she came back in and walked up to Pastor Don’s desk and just looked at him.
     “Well, asked Pastor Don.
     Ella said, “I guess I am just going to have to learn how to get cussed out!”

   Don told Tex that the ministry of that church to that gang began right then and there, that very day. 

Ella, you see, made the commitment to make room, to create space in her heart for the young man who was so insultingly vulgar to her, and when she did, so did others in that church and their lives began to connect at a deeper level – the level of “kingdom hospitality.”

“Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for by doing so some have entertained angels without knowing it.”  

Have you ever noticed that the word  “hospital” makes up a major part of the word “hospitality?”  Hospitals are all about healing.  Living with Jesus’ heart of kingdom hospitality is an energy that can live in each and every one of us, and in our community of faith, that can help heal a wounded and broken world.  Amen.