Hospitality to Strangers
Scriptures: Genesis 18:1-15
Matthew 9:35-10:23
The last time I was here, I heard a very interesting story over coffee between services. It was about one of your former pastors. In the evenings, he would often take his dog out for a walk in the neighborhood, and while they were walking he would stop to chat with people they met, and to encourage them to come to church. And people would come, thanks to some friendly conversation and a dog.
This morning, I think the example this pastor set ties in very well with our reading from the gospel of Matthew in which Jesus sends the 12 apostles out walking to talk with the people of Judea. And I’ll tip my hand a little bit and give you the main point of the sermon right up front. I’d like you to reflect on this question: where and how is Jesus sending you to spread the word of God?
In the early days of the church, especially during the time that the gospel of Matthew was being written, churches were organized very differently from the way they are now. First of all, families were different. A household was often made up of a head of the household, brothers and sisters, nieces and nephews, married children, grandchildren, and servants. Christian churches back then were more like households than the churches we know with now. People lived together and took care of each other like in other households, but weren’t necessarily related to each other.
Along with the stationary households where people supported each other in their day-to-day lives, there were also wandering teachers, who would come to a new town for a few days, stay with local Christians, and preach about the kingdom of God. They carried nothing with them, and relied on the householders along the way. These were the people bringing the good news of God to the people, both to the ones who were already Christian and the ones they converted. If you read about the Apostle Paul’s journey, you’ll learn about the life one wandering teacher.
When we listen to this story, there is insight for us both as apostles—ones who are sent—and as householders receiving their good news.
First, we should notice that what motivates Jesus to send out the disciples is that he sees many people in need of their care. “They were like sheep without a shepherd,” the Scripture tells us, “harassed and helpless, and he was filled with compassion for them.” [inexact quote] The same is true today. For many young people, for example, it’s not uncommon to change homes every year or two, or to move to a different part of the country every three or four years. Many people spend so much time in front of the television that they don’t have time to make a meaningful connection with others, and our loneliness is pooling and expanding as each year goes by.
Jesus speaks about these people as a harvest, and that leads to our second piece of advice: Harvest what is ripe. Not everyone is in the right place in their lives to hear and accept a message of love and a call to discipleship, so don’t harp on people who aren’t ready.
The third bit of wisdom is this: offer everyone a blessing. If they welcome you, they’ll be blessed, but if they reject you, the blessing comes back to you. I’ve been in many situations where I felt like someone was working hard to convert me to something, and I felt like they were angry, which made me want to push away even harder. Instead, use a light touch—plan to bless people, and then let them make decisions for themselves.
Finally, Jesus counsels the disciples to heal and preach and perform miracles without expecting to be paid back. You have received freely from God, now it’s your turn to give freely. The work of evangelism is not about getting something from someone, or tricking them into something. At its heart, evangelism is about giving freely and openly of the blessings we ourselves have been given. Nothing more, and nothing less.
The instructions Jesus has for the householders are simpler, but still difficult. He is telling them to welcome these messengers, to support and care for them, and to be open to what God has to say through them! The consequences for disobedience are dire: Sodom and Gomorrah, which were destroyed in a rain of fire and hot sulfur, will have had it better than any householder who turns away a wandering teacher.
As we can see here, contrary to what you may have heard in the past about Sodom and Gomorrah, their chief crime was violent hostility toward strangers, and by extension to any new word of life coming from God. Let me review the story briefly: When angel messengers arrive in town bringing the warning that God is about to destroy it, the only person to welcome them in is a man named Lot. The town is already breaking the code of desert hospitality. In those days, not welcoming travelers could mean not just inconvenience, but death. Much worse, however, is that when night falls, the townspeople mob Lot’s house planning to brutally attack and humiliate the travelers. In the end, the angel messengers stop them, the town is destroyed and only Lot and his daughters escape.
Because the people of Sodom and Gomorrah were so wickedly abusive of any outsiders, they effectively condemned themselves to death at God’s hands. They attack the messengers who could have saved them and die a fiery death as a result. Clearly, none of us would ever commit such evil acts, but the story of Sodom and Gomorrah does raise a pointed question: Are we paying attention to the messengers God sends to us? Are we truly open to the word of God?
In today’s reading from Genesis, by stark contrast, Abraham gives us an example of perfect desert hospitality. He sees three strangers near his camp, and runs to them bowing and scraping, “Will you please do me the honor of being my guests?” “Will you please allow me to feed you?” When they consent he runs off again to make sure that the guests get the best possible food. He hand-chooses a perfect, tender calf to slaughter, and then tells Sarah to bake three cakes of bread out of approximately 20 quarts of flour. And the way the story tells it, all of this takes about ten minutes, although I find it hard to believe that a calf could be slaughtered and cooked whole in less than an hour. And I don’t think the leftovers would have fit in my refrigerator. At any rate, Abraham welcomes the guests extravagantly, as he was in the habit of doing, and on this occasion he gets a great blessing from them—the promise of a son. “We’ll be back next year,” they say, “and by that time Sarai your wife will be holding her own baby in her arms.”
Sarai is eavesdropping on the men. She laughs when she hears this. She’s an old woman who was never able to have children before. She went through menopause years ago, and even now she can feel in her bones that her death is coming closer. Would really be possible for her, old as she is, to be like a young woman again, heavy with a child, pink-cheeked and round, giving birth so late in her life? It seems improbable at best, crazy at worst.
But that is the news and the blessing from these strangers. It’s an unbelievable, crazy, almost embarrassing miracle—a baby. A longed for, hoped for, desperately wanted baby. What would that be like, to have lost hope, thinking it’s too late now, and to get the news that God is starting something new?
What if I told you that this congregation was going to have a baby? Not a literal baby, necessarily, but something new and unexpected and miraculous? Would you laugh like Sarah did? Well, I believe that this is the word that God has for this church today, June 12th, 2005: Start getting ready for the baby. Get your nurseries painted, get the baby clothes in order, get a new bassinette, and prepare yourselves for a lot of work and a lot of joy. Because the baby is coming. So start getting ready. Start getting ready for the baby.
The kingdom of God has come near. It is a kingdom where a woman who anyone would think is too old gets pregnant and has a baby. It is a kingdom where strangers come bearing strange and wonderful gifts. It is a kingdom of hope and healing, joy and love beyond our wildest imaginings and in spite of all evidence to the contrary. And it is near us now. So start getting ready. Thanks be to God! Thanks be to God, indeed!
Matthew 9:35-10:23
The last time I was here, I heard a very interesting story over coffee between services. It was about one of your former pastors. In the evenings, he would often take his dog out for a walk in the neighborhood, and while they were walking he would stop to chat with people they met, and to encourage them to come to church. And people would come, thanks to some friendly conversation and a dog.
This morning, I think the example this pastor set ties in very well with our reading from the gospel of Matthew in which Jesus sends the 12 apostles out walking to talk with the people of Judea. And I’ll tip my hand a little bit and give you the main point of the sermon right up front. I’d like you to reflect on this question: where and how is Jesus sending you to spread the word of God?
In the early days of the church, especially during the time that the gospel of Matthew was being written, churches were organized very differently from the way they are now. First of all, families were different. A household was often made up of a head of the household, brothers and sisters, nieces and nephews, married children, grandchildren, and servants. Christian churches back then were more like households than the churches we know with now. People lived together and took care of each other like in other households, but weren’t necessarily related to each other.
Along with the stationary households where people supported each other in their day-to-day lives, there were also wandering teachers, who would come to a new town for a few days, stay with local Christians, and preach about the kingdom of God. They carried nothing with them, and relied on the householders along the way. These were the people bringing the good news of God to the people, both to the ones who were already Christian and the ones they converted. If you read about the Apostle Paul’s journey, you’ll learn about the life one wandering teacher.
When we listen to this story, there is insight for us both as apostles—ones who are sent—and as householders receiving their good news.
First, we should notice that what motivates Jesus to send out the disciples is that he sees many people in need of their care. “They were like sheep without a shepherd,” the Scripture tells us, “harassed and helpless, and he was filled with compassion for them.” [inexact quote] The same is true today. For many young people, for example, it’s not uncommon to change homes every year or two, or to move to a different part of the country every three or four years. Many people spend so much time in front of the television that they don’t have time to make a meaningful connection with others, and our loneliness is pooling and expanding as each year goes by.
Jesus speaks about these people as a harvest, and that leads to our second piece of advice: Harvest what is ripe. Not everyone is in the right place in their lives to hear and accept a message of love and a call to discipleship, so don’t harp on people who aren’t ready.
The third bit of wisdom is this: offer everyone a blessing. If they welcome you, they’ll be blessed, but if they reject you, the blessing comes back to you. I’ve been in many situations where I felt like someone was working hard to convert me to something, and I felt like they were angry, which made me want to push away even harder. Instead, use a light touch—plan to bless people, and then let them make decisions for themselves.
Finally, Jesus counsels the disciples to heal and preach and perform miracles without expecting to be paid back. You have received freely from God, now it’s your turn to give freely. The work of evangelism is not about getting something from someone, or tricking them into something. At its heart, evangelism is about giving freely and openly of the blessings we ourselves have been given. Nothing more, and nothing less.
The instructions Jesus has for the householders are simpler, but still difficult. He is telling them to welcome these messengers, to support and care for them, and to be open to what God has to say through them! The consequences for disobedience are dire: Sodom and Gomorrah, which were destroyed in a rain of fire and hot sulfur, will have had it better than any householder who turns away a wandering teacher.
As we can see here, contrary to what you may have heard in the past about Sodom and Gomorrah, their chief crime was violent hostility toward strangers, and by extension to any new word of life coming from God. Let me review the story briefly: When angel messengers arrive in town bringing the warning that God is about to destroy it, the only person to welcome them in is a man named Lot. The town is already breaking the code of desert hospitality. In those days, not welcoming travelers could mean not just inconvenience, but death. Much worse, however, is that when night falls, the townspeople mob Lot’s house planning to brutally attack and humiliate the travelers. In the end, the angel messengers stop them, the town is destroyed and only Lot and his daughters escape.
Because the people of Sodom and Gomorrah were so wickedly abusive of any outsiders, they effectively condemned themselves to death at God’s hands. They attack the messengers who could have saved them and die a fiery death as a result. Clearly, none of us would ever commit such evil acts, but the story of Sodom and Gomorrah does raise a pointed question: Are we paying attention to the messengers God sends to us? Are we truly open to the word of God?
In today’s reading from Genesis, by stark contrast, Abraham gives us an example of perfect desert hospitality. He sees three strangers near his camp, and runs to them bowing and scraping, “Will you please do me the honor of being my guests?” “Will you please allow me to feed you?” When they consent he runs off again to make sure that the guests get the best possible food. He hand-chooses a perfect, tender calf to slaughter, and then tells Sarah to bake three cakes of bread out of approximately 20 quarts of flour. And the way the story tells it, all of this takes about ten minutes, although I find it hard to believe that a calf could be slaughtered and cooked whole in less than an hour. And I don’t think the leftovers would have fit in my refrigerator. At any rate, Abraham welcomes the guests extravagantly, as he was in the habit of doing, and on this occasion he gets a great blessing from them—the promise of a son. “We’ll be back next year,” they say, “and by that time Sarai your wife will be holding her own baby in her arms.”
Sarai is eavesdropping on the men. She laughs when she hears this. She’s an old woman who was never able to have children before. She went through menopause years ago, and even now she can feel in her bones that her death is coming closer. Would really be possible for her, old as she is, to be like a young woman again, heavy with a child, pink-cheeked and round, giving birth so late in her life? It seems improbable at best, crazy at worst.
But that is the news and the blessing from these strangers. It’s an unbelievable, crazy, almost embarrassing miracle—a baby. A longed for, hoped for, desperately wanted baby. What would that be like, to have lost hope, thinking it’s too late now, and to get the news that God is starting something new?
What if I told you that this congregation was going to have a baby? Not a literal baby, necessarily, but something new and unexpected and miraculous? Would you laugh like Sarah did? Well, I believe that this is the word that God has for this church today, June 12th, 2005: Start getting ready for the baby. Get your nurseries painted, get the baby clothes in order, get a new bassinette, and prepare yourselves for a lot of work and a lot of joy. Because the baby is coming. So start getting ready. Start getting ready for the baby.
The kingdom of God has come near. It is a kingdom where a woman who anyone would think is too old gets pregnant and has a baby. It is a kingdom where strangers come bearing strange and wonderful gifts. It is a kingdom of hope and healing, joy and love beyond our wildest imaginings and in spite of all evidence to the contrary. And it is near us now. So start getting ready. Thanks be to God! Thanks be to God, indeed!
posted by Amy Sens at 6:01 AM
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