August 28, 2022 – Twelfth Sunday after Pentecost (Proper 17)

So I have to admit that today’s readings didn’t seem to fit together to me at first. Sometimes there is an obvious theme that hits you over the head when you read the readings, and this week isn’t that week for me. We’ve got kings, prisoners, sharing and sacrificing, and a wedding banquet. But take a step back and read into those readings and you will notice a common theme – hospitality. It’s something we’ve talked about in our church time and again. In fact, I have heard stories of hospitality training and how the things we’ve tried here haven’t worked to draw others in. 

But the truth is that hospitality isn’t about drawing people in – it’s about welcoming those who come.

If you happened to yawn during the reading from Proverbs, you missed it. It’s just a single sentence, which I’ll repeat here: “Do not put yourself forward in the king’s presence or stand in the place of the great; for it is better to be told, ‘Come up here,’ than to be put lower in the presence of a noble” (Prv 25:6-7). We are told to lower ourselves to those we perceive around us so as not to stick out as trying to be more than we are. We are to humble ourselves so others feel comfortable. Think about that. If a homeless person suddenly showed up here, how would we react? Would we welcome them in and give them what we had in a measure of hospitality, or would we react with suspicion? 

Where are we tempted to control what happens around us? God cares about what we do: God feels the pain of the earth and those who suffer injustice. Our human behaviors that cause and sustain poverty, pain, and disenfranchisement also cause God pain. We love God best when we love God’s creatures.

Today’s reading from the Letter to the Hebrews (WHICH IS CH 13, VERSES 1-8, 15 & 16) highlights our relationships with one another. “Let mutual love continue. Give hospitality to all persons” (Heb 13:1-2). Who are these people who are in our midst? Could they be angels? Could the angels of our time be the homeless? Immigrant children? Those affected by racism or homophobia? As we struggle with vitriol in our world today, could it be that we need to just take a pause long enough to really listen and find the angels in our nature and the person with whom we’re disagreeing? Can we respond to others with whom we disagree while maintaining their dignity and still recognizing the holiness of them?

Luke’s words of Jesus regarding banquet guests are also applicable to our time and hospitality. Jesus calls us today to mindfulness and humility. We are just a part of a larger whole in which others matter just as much as we do. Those who are confident in the grace of God can  affirm their value in society and still advocate for their position without making others feel less than. If we trust that our lives are truly in God’s hands, we don’t see a need to be first or best or right. We don’t need to worry about criticism or even the diversity among us, because we will surround ourselves with others and welcome them with hospitality. In contrast to the ego-based behaviors that require some else to be second, less than, or wrong, we can exist in affirming our own value because we are blessed by God.

Friends, even on our best days, we are likely to be wrong about certain things. But we are also God’s beloved, constantly being re-created and re-formed by God, and so we can affirm our own beliefs and advocate for change without attacking our opponents. And even our opponents’ falsehoods may have some bit of truth in them. 

Today’s readings challenge us to look beyond ourselves to be open to the holiness of others. We are challenged to welcome the outsider and to be hospitable hosts when people arrive. We are confronted with the opportunity to see God in all things and all things in God, and to remember that God is God and we aren’t God. The readings call us to humility, especially where we are committed. They call us to hospitality, even when it is uncomfortable. Even as we aspire to make God’s reign come alive “on earth as it is in heaven”, we must recognize our own imperfection and limits.

Over and over Jesus opened his heart, spirit, and life to the stranger: lepers, prostitutes and tax collectors, the blind and lame, the poor and powerless, widows and orphans, the hungry and sick, Gentiles and foreigners, the lost and outcast, the weary and burdened, the ones on the edge, and the ones hanging on by a thread. No one was excluded. ALL were welcomed. Biblical hospitality, the kind Jesus offered and taught, means welcoming into our house and life the other, the one who is different from us, the stranger. For Jesus, hospitality extends beyond friends or brothers or relatives or rich neighbors. It’s about the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, those who are different from us and have no power, ability, or resources to reciprocate, pay back, take us out to dinner, or serve our interests. It leaves us feeling vulnerable and at risk. And for good reason. Jesus’ hospitality tells us to open the door even before we know who is there.

Hospitality does not begin with opening the door of our house. It begins with opening the door of our heart. Hospitality challenges each of us to face the ways we’ve closed and locked the doors of our hearts. Let’s start now unlocking and opening the door of our heart. What would that look like for you today? What locks need to be unlocked? What is one door to your heart that you could begin opening today?