Sermon – Mutual Love and Hospitality – August 28, 2016

Sermon for the 15th Sunday after Pentecost, August 27-28, 2016, for St. Peter Lutheran Church in Greene, Iowa. This week’s lectionary texts are Luke 14:1, 7-14, Hebrews 13:1-8, 15-16, and the exceptionally brief Proverbs 25:6-7.

Welcome to the only day in the church year where the primary topic is table etiquette.

In Luke, Jesus gives advice about avoiding embarrassment at important functions. When attending a wedding, don’t sit at the head table, or the parent’s table, or another place of honor, lest you be embarrassingly asked to move. Anyone who says the Bible isn’t relevant to today’s world hasn’t read today’s reading, because this is still good advice.

In today’s very short Old Testament reading from Proverbs, we get more good life advice about proper manners, this time when visiting a royal court. That one might be less relevant to us today.

We’ll come back to these texts, but before we get to table manners, I want to look at this reading from Hebrews.

Did you know we have no idea who wrote this letter? The author never identifies him or herself. At this point, he or she has spent 12 chapters talking about these grand topics of faith, about the nature of Christ and Moses, Jesus as a great high priest, and how Christ’s sacrifice is once and for all.

There are beautiful, deep theological arguments for Jesus as Lord. In this final chapter, the author finally gets to the “so what.” What difference does all this make?

Today’s reading talks about how we as Christians ought to live in light of God’s grace, in light of the fact that Jesus has died and been raised for us. He or she covers several topics, including keeping marriage sacred, avoiding the love of money, and honoring those who spoke the word of God to you, but the very first things on this list are to “Let mutual love continue” and “Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers.”

We have lots of ways we show mutual love. We show love through letting other groups use our building, by delivering meals, by supporting the food bank and parish nursing, by giving of ourselves to support other groups, by our fellowship time, and by praying for those in need. I’m sure you can think of many more ways we show mutual love.

I read an online post this week from Sheryl, a member at St. Paul Lutheran Church in Baton Rouge about the outpouring of support her congregation has received and given out in their flooded neighborhood.

She writes,

Because we are all members of Christ’s Body, we are joined together and have a responsibility to each other. And, brothers and sisters, the Body is stepping up.

From local congregations going out of their ways and stretching budgets much further than they were meant to be stretched to meet the needs of people in the larger community, to a tiny congregation in Mississippi driving hours to bring bottled water and much needed money, to a synod organizing a work day and bringing desperately needed cleaning supplies, to individuals and congregations from all over the country sending money, school supplies and prayers.

We are indeed one body in our One Lord.

The church is at its best when we show love to each other and to the world. Her story shows the importance of being church together, so that when there’s a crisis somewhere, the rest of the body can help.

“Let mutual love continue. Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers.”

There’s so much we could talk about in just these two instructions, but I want to talk about one area I’m really passionate about, showing hospitality to strangers here at church.

For most of us, walking into church for a worship service isn’t a big deal. It’s normal. Maybe you’re not here every week, but most weeks it’s part of your routine.

And that’s great! Like we talked about last weekend for those of you who were here, worship and Sabbath time are essential to the Christian life. But for many people, visiting a worship service is unusual, and that makes it intimidating.

If you grew up here but haven’t come for a while, or if you visit a church where you grew up, some things will be different. You might also worry about people noticing you haven’t made it to church very often.

For other people, church itself might be a foreign concept. Let’s face it, what happens in a worship service is unlike anything else in the world, and if you aren’t familiar with what’s going on, it can seem pretty strange.

We repeatedly stand up and sit down, we read words aloud together talking to someone we can’t see, sometimes we sing back and forth with each other, and we say prayers and creeds from memory. And that’s not even mentioning communion and its rituals.

So how do we as a church be more welcoming to those not here every week? The first step is realizing what we’re doing is foreign to many people, and recognizing newcomers are present. Nearly every service I’ve been to here has had visitors from out of town, someone who hasn’t been here in a while, or someone new to our congregation.

The best way I as pastor can show hospitality in worship is verbally welcoming people, then giving clear directions throughout the service.

You might have noticed I try to always announce what we’re singing, or how to say where we are in the hymnal, and to say how communion is going to happen. I’m going to keep doing that. If you’re sitting by someone who’s not used to our hymnal, help them out!

I also try to greet as many people as I can, especially new people. That’s extra challenging because I’m still working on names and faces of members, so please help me out by introducing me to guests and pointing out visitors so I can meet them.

And of course, hospitality is not just the pastor’s job! One way we can be a friendlier congregation is by continuing to wear name tags at every service. Wearing name tags helps me with names, but it also sends a welcoming message to visitors and allows to greet them by name.

Another way is by making the effort to greet people you don’t know well. There’s nothing worse than getting to the part of the service where we greet each other and not having anyone come up to you to say hi.

Where we sit also matters. When you walked in this morning, how did you decide where to sit?

I noticed no one sat in the very front chairs. I tried sitting there the first time I led worship and I discovered sitting right in front of the pipes makes the organ really loud. While I appreciated that I could sing without anyone else noticing if I was on key, I also appreciate my hearing!

Do you sit in the same place each week? I know people who’ve visited a church and someone’s told them “That’s my pew” and made them move. That’s not hospitality. It is a great way to tell someone how unwelcome they are, though!

In the Gospel reading, Jesus talks about choosing where to sit. He says to avoid sitting in the place of honor unless you’re invited there. I think people who visit a church may not know this parable, but they often follow it and worry about accidentally sitting in a place of honor.

I wonder, where is the seat of honor here? Is it in the front? Most of us do a good job of avoiding it, then. Or is it in the back, where most people want to sit? Should we leave that open?

Another aspect of true hospitality is in Jesus’ second parable. He says, when you have a dinner or a party, don’t invite good friends or family or people you’re trying to impress so they’ll invite you in return. Instead, invite people who can’t repay you.

If you’re going to benefit from it, then it’s not the kind of hospitality Jesus is talking about.

If, as the Proverbs reading advises, you deliberately sit farther away in order to get honored by being asked to move closer, that’s good social advice, but it’s the opposite of what Jesus says.

If we invite people to church hoping they’ll join so we’ll have a bigger church, or so Sunday School will be bigger, or so they’ll donate, that’s not hospitality. If we greet someone in worship who is a really good singer and new to the area hoping they’ll join and start a choir, that’s not hospitality, that’s recruitment. If hospitality goes well, we’ll get more people who don’t have the money to give their share of the offering, who don’t have the time to volunteer.

This isn’t like customer service and trying to get repeat customers; this is about us not getting in the way of people encountering God. Jesus says to invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind.

The beauty of Jesus’ parable, of course, is that that list includes us. These aren’t just practical etiquette instructions; this is a picture of how God works. On a heavenly scale, Jesus invites all of us to God’s banquet. Jesus is the host of the heavenly banquet, and none of us can repay him for the invitation.

We are all the ones in need. We are all the least of these We belong in the lowest seat in the back of the room, yet Jesus the host calls us forward to the table.

Our hospitality to others relies on Jesus’ hospitality to us. Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for by doing that some have entertained angels without knowing it.

We continue our worship by singing together hymn #492, Oh Master, Let Me Walk with You.