Sunday, September 27, 2009

St. David’s Episcopal Church, DeWitt NY

The Rev. James C. Bresnahan, Interim Rector

“Radical Hospitality”

 

I’d like to depart today from my usual reflection on one or more of our readings to speak more about hospitality.

 

As you know our Vestry and all of us are on a journey together toward greater hospitality – radical hospitality.  Radical hospitality, we have been learning, is far more and far deeper than we have so far practiced. Radical hospitality is Jesus’ hospitality, the way he welcomed others.  “Welcome one another,” Paul wrote, “as Christ welcomed you.”

 

We are all welcoming of our friends. To our friends we reach out; our friends we help, our friends we are gracious to - without being asked.  And we hope for them to reciprocate.

 

Radical hospitality, however, is more than about being friendly to those who are friendly to us.

 

The Greek word for hospitality in our New Testament is ‘philoxenia,’ which literally means love of strangers, of aliens, of foreigners, of outsiders.

 

Such is the hospitality showed by the Samaritan in Jesus’ parable, who finds on the road a Jew, a foreigner to him, beaten and dying, loads him on his animal, takes him to an inn, pays for his room and meals, and promises to return to pay what more may be needed.

 

Such emphasis on hospitality, care for strangers, has a long history going back to early writings in the Old Testament, back to the time soon after the children of Israel had escaped from cruel bondage as slaves in a foreign land.

 

One might have expected the response to the memory of such slavery to have been this: We will do to others what others have done to us. If we have been treated cruelly, we will treat others cruelly. But they heard a voice from God to the opposite – encapsulated in these words from the Book of Leviticus:

 

“When foreigners reside with you in your land, you shall not oppress them. They shall be to you as the citizens among you; you shall love the foreigners as yourself, for you were foreigners in the land of Egypt: I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt” – which means out of cruelty, out of indifference, out of the place where care is not shown for strangers.”

That belief – that God calls people to such radical hospitality – extended down in time and became a major theme in early Christian communities.

In his letter to Christians at Rome, Paul writes: “Pursue showing hospitality to strangers.”  “Pursue showing hospitality.”

The author of Hebrews writes: “Be not forgetful to welcome strangers: for thereby some have entertained angels unawares.”

 

According to the Pastoral Epistles in our New Testament, a requirement for anyone holding the office of bishop was showing hospitality – welcoming strangers.  Elders, wardens, vestry members, were to be lovers of extending hospitality. Imagine making that a requirement today!

But no passage in our New Testament has more to say about hospitality than that great scene of the Last Judgment painted by Jesus in a climactic parable in Matthew’s Gospel.

All the nations of the earth are portrayed gathered around God’s judgment throne.  Some are judged harshly; some are praised highly.  We, no doubt, remember some of the grounds for judgment, like when Jesus says, “I was hungry and you did/did not feed me.”  “I was thirsty and you did/did not give me something to drink,” when you did or did not do it to others. But do we remember, “I was a stranger and you did/did not welcome me.” “I was a stranger and you did/did not take me in.” 

Hospitality is not, then, just some nice thing to do.  It is what we are about as Christians.  For the way we treat others, the way we treat strangers, is the way we treat Jesus.

 

Right now, as I mentioned, our Vestry is exploring ways to show hospitality to people in our neighborhood, most of whom are strangers to us.

 

At its meeting last week, the Vestry focused on a different area: our practice of setting a fixed fee for church dinners, for our picnic, and other events.  The Vestry concluded that setting and collecting a fixed fee runs counter to radical hospitality. It says to struggling familes who cannot afford to come, “Pay first to get inside.”  It says to someone unemployed who is counting their pennies, “You have to pay what everyone else pays to eat with us.” It says to guests whom we invite, “You are not really our guest.”

 

So the Vestry passed a motion that henceforth there will be no one collecting money at the door for you to get inside, no one saying, “Eating with us will cost you this much.”  We will not be saying to guests we invite, “Pay up!”

 

We’ll simply have donation baskets around for people to give what they choose to give and are able to give.

 

We’ll see how it works out. 

 

I am confident it will work out. Those who have will give more for those who don’t have to eat at the same table.

 

Everything we do will work out when we trust God and love others, when we grow more and more into being a hospitable community of people who welcome others as Christ welcomed us.

 

What are you ideas about radical hospitality? The Vestry would love to learn from you.  Out in the hallway there’s a poster, should you wish to write down some ideas.  I promise that anything you say will be taken seriously as we work together to welcome as Christ welcomed us.