Come to the Table: Lavish Hospitality
Romans 12:9-21 Matthew 16:21-28
September 3, 2023
Emmanuel Baptist Church; Rev. Kathy Donley
Note: A recording of the worship service in which this sermon was preached may be found here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k8S-XXi45zk
Many people would say that we live in a hostile world. It is trendy to speak of how polarized Americans are, of how difficult it is to have a civil conversation with those who disagree with you. We are quick to blame each other and harsh words often escalate into acts of violence. We sometimes act as though this kind of hostility and polarization is a new thing.
Let us quickly remember the situation of the early church in Rome. At first that church, like all of the early churches, was mostly a congregation of Jewish Christians. But then, the Emperor Claudius expelled all the Jews from Rome. That included Jewish Christians. The letter to the Romans seems to reflect a situation in which Jews are returning to Rome a few years later, after Claudius died. So imagine this: Christian Gentiles have been worshiping Israel’s God and celebrating Jesus as Messiah for years, without any Jews present at all. It becomes easy to forget the Jewish roots of the faith. Then, the Jews return, including Christian Jews. And people have to figure out how to live together in one faith community. [1]
Today we have Protestants and Catholics. Today we have mainline and evangelical Protestants. But right near the beginning, one of the biggest threats to the gospel were the cultural and social and theological differences between Jewish and Gentile Christians. Talk about being polarized.
Those Roman Christians might have been at odds with each other, but they were even more at odds with the dominant culture where it was their patriotic duty to worship the Roman gods and goddesses. Because of their allegiance to Jesus, both Jewish and Gentile Christians were often viewed as atheists and trouble-makers.
Church life was difficult because of one set of cultural conflicts and civic life was difficult because of another set of cultural conflicts. Paul is appealing to them to build up the community, inside and outside the church because of the love of God demonstrated by Jesus. “Let love be genuine, hold fast to the good,” Paul says.
He provides a long list of practices by which they might embody that genuine love. For just a few minutes, let’s focus on verse 13, which says “contribute to the needs of the saints; extend hospitality to strangers.” That one verse has an internal focus – the needs of the saints – and an external focus – hospitality to strangers. It implies a balance. We are to care for insiders and outsiders in equal measure.
Biblical hospitality is more than treating others with good manners or setting the table so that every piece of silverware is in the right place. It is about extending a radical welcome because everyone needs a place to belong. It is about being a community of grace and mercy where transformation happens.
Too many times, churches have failed the most basic forms of hospitality. Fred Craddock was a nationally respected Disciples of Christ preacher and teacher when he died a few years ago. When he was a young pastor he served a church in the hills of eastern Tennnessee. Years later, he went back to that church. He took his wife Nettie along for the ride because she had never seen it.
On the way, he told her about his experience in that church. Oak Ridge National Laboratory was nearby. It was expanding and new families were moving into the area. The young pastor Fred urged the congregation to call on the newcomers, to invite them to church.
“Those people wouldn’t fit in here” the church members said.
A week later, there was a congregational meeting. One of the longtime members said, “I move that in order to be a member of this church, you must own property in the county.” The motion passed, over the pastor’s objections.
When Fred and Nettie pulled up to the old church building, years later, it looked to be a busy place, much busier than he remembered. The parking lot was full — motorcycles and trucks and cars packed in there. And out front, a great big sign: ‘Barbecue, all you can eat.’
It was restaurant, so they went inside. The pews were against a wall; the organ pushed over into the corner. There were all these aluminum and plastic tables, and people sitting there eating barbecued pork and chicken and ribs — all kinds of people. Thinking about all the people in Jerusalem in the book of Acts, preacher Fred thought to himself – “there are Parthians and Medes and Edomites and dwellers of Mesopotamia, all kinds of people here.
He said to Nettie, “It’s a good thing this is not still a church, otherwise these people couldn’t be in here.”[2]
When the world is hostile, Paul says, you are to be hospitable. Bless those who curse you. Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. That is the high calling of those who follow Jesus. Sometimes we forget. Sometimes we act as though it is our church, our special community, rather than the instrument of God’s love which Jesus built for a purpose.
Hospitality is hard, friends. For all kinds of reasons. Trust doesn’t come easily. There are language barriers and generation gaps, intense theological differences, and political ones. Sometimes people smell bad. Sometimes they don’t like the food you’ve worked hard to prepare. They’re too loud or too quiet. They don’t respect our traditions. Sometimes we are tempted to say “Those people just wouldn’t fit in here.”
Our FOCUS executive director, Fred Boehrer uses a phrase that I really appreciate. He says that FOCUS practices lavish hospitality. That’s what Paul is talking about. Lavish hospitality helps people recover a place in the world and find healing within community.
Lavish hospitality is also risky hospitality. Expansive welcome, radical inclusion, even of those who are so different from us, and even of those who hate us is not safe. Definitely not safe. It got Jesus killed.
I often think about Mother Emmanuel Church in Charleston, South Carolina. That congregation came into being because of the hostility of white Christians towards black Christians. The black Christians formed a separate church for their own safety. A crowd of angry white people burned the original church building to the ground in 1822. The congregation worshipped in secret until it was safe to rebuild after the Civil War. But they continued to open their doors to outsiders. They invite everyone to come and join them, even people who don’t like them.
And so, one Wednesday night 8 years ago, a young white man walked into Bible study. He didn’t look like most of the congregation, didn’t share their background, but they welcomed him into the circle. They talked with him and listened to him and prayed with him. He repaid their kindness by pulling out a gun he should never have had and he killed nine dear, faith-filled men and women.
You remember what that church did, right? In the midst of their trauma and horror and grief, just four days later, on Sunday, people filled the church and proclaimed their commitment to compassion and forgiveness. They refused to return evil for evil.
No one would have blamed them if they had cancelled Bible study for a while or if they had hired a security guard, but they didn’t. The next Wednesday night, they did what they’d always done on Wednesday night. They held a Bible study and welcomed anyone who was interested. This time, about 150 people of different races, faiths and backgrounds committed themselves to the Spirit of radical welcome, in the same room where nine people had died. [3]
Lavish hospitality is radically counter-cultural and deeply risky. Do not be deceived into thinking it’s about good manners and being nice. Lavish hospitality is part of the transformational abundance that Jesus envisioned for us.
Paradoxically, Jesus said that those who want to save their life will lose it and those who lose their life for his sake will find it. The way to have abundant life is not to save it, but to spend it, not to protect it and keep it safe, but to give it away.
As Frederick Buechner puts it, “Faith is a word that describes the direction our feet start moving when we find that we are loved.”[4] So we must allow ourselves to be found by the love of God. Friends, come to the table of lavish hospitality today, because Christ has invited you. Come to this table to embody the transformation that Jesus offers. Come not because you outrank your friends or your enemies. Come as a beloved and cherished child of God who belongs here whether you identify as sinner or disciple or both. Come to the table of grace knowing that all of us belong, that everyone is truly welcome. And may you leave here today strengthened as you respond to Christ’s call, “Follow me.” [5]
[1] J. R. Daniel Kirk, Romans for Normal People: A Guide to the Most Misused, Problematic and Prooftexted Letter in the Bible, (Perkiomenvill, PA: The Bible for Normal People, 2022) pp. 17-18
[2] [2] Craddock Stories, Mike Graves and Richard Ward, eds. (St Louis: Chalice Press, 2001), pp 28-29.
[3] https://sojo.net/articles/bullets-and-radical-welcome
[4] Frederick Buechner, The Magnificent Defeat, (New York: HarperCollins, 1966), p.99
[5] https://orchardpark.org/sermons/second-sunday-after-pentecost/