We are in our last week of the series “One Family, Many Cultures,” and we have been focused on the many different cultures that exist within the body of the Christ. However, where does that leave us on this last Sunday? I think Bishop Robert Schnase says it best in “The 5 Practices of Fruitful Congregations,” when he states this,
“Vibrant, fruitful, growing congregations practice Radical Hospitality. Out of genuine love for Christ and for others, their laity and pastors take the initiative to invite, welcome, include, and support newcomers and help them grow in faith as they become part of the Body of Christ.”[1]
So, again I come back to the question, where does this leave us as a body of Christ? Truly the call is a call to radical hospitality. Radical means to affect the fundamental nature of something. So, combine the two things together, we are called to affect the very fundamental nature of things in this world, our communities, our church through the practice of hospitality.
How would Christ respond to this life of radical hospitality? I think two of the best examples are found in Luke 14:12-14 and Hebrews 13:2 they say this;
12 Then Jesus said to the person who had invited him, “When you host a lunch or dinner, don’t invite your friends, your brothers and sisters, your relatives, or rich neighbors. If you do, they will invite you in return and that will be your reward. 13 Instead, when you give a banquet, invite the poor, crippled, lame, and blind. 14 And you will be blessed because they can’t repay you. Instead, you will be repaid when the just are resurrected.”[2]
Hebrews 13:2 says, “Don’t neglect to open up your homes to guests, because by doing this some have been hosts to angels without knowing it.”[3]
I remember years ago in high school, not being able to go to a certain event because I was not invited to go. However, one of my best friends was invited and it really upset me that they got invited to this party. There is something to being on the outside and not being on the inside where all you get to do is look and see at everything going on. Imagine the look on a child’s face as they have the opportunity to cross the border of this country, leaving persecution, family, and finally finding freedom and hope only to be detained in a cage and then later sent back to trauma they tried to escape. But here is the call of the church, to practice this radical hospitality, to change the very fundamental nature of things. As Jesus says to invite people to the table ALL people no matter who they are. Yet, the church is still broken, yes even our United Methodist Church is still broken and some won’t even welcome a female pastor or a cross-cultural appointment because it is too radically different or maybe we as a church are not practicing radical hospitality.
You see Bishop Schnase says, “Radical Hospitality are not just friendly and courteous, passively receiving visitors warmly. Instead, they exhibit a restlessness because they realize so many people do not have a relationship to a faith community. They sense a calling and responsibility to pray, plan and work to invite others and to help them feel welcome and to support them in their faith journeys.”[4]
Are we truly a welcoming church? Do we welcome the stranger? Remember, “Don’t neglect to open up your homes to guests, because by doing this some have been hosts to angels without knowing it.”[5] I think our struggle in the church is that we can’t get past our cultural differences and instead look that all people need to be seen as people of God. People that are loved by God and people that need to be embraced by the church community through radical hospitality.
The problem is through our political environment and other exposures we have driven the church to be a place where hospitality only focuses on those who are familiar or are comfortable with. Ever since we have had school shootings, churches with shootings, and storming the Capital we have driven our churches to a place of fear instead of a place of openness and radical hospitality. Let’s be honest, how many times have you gone into a place and seen someone of a different ethnicity and maybe from a different culture that has been focused on in the news for causing strife and you questioned if they were up to something? Oh I am stepping on toes. We have to get to the root issue and wonder if our churches are truly a place of openness and welcome, a place or radical hospitality, or a place of judgement and racism.
Remember Bishop Schnase says that it is not just about being “just friendly and courteous, passively receiving visitors warmly.”[6] It is about seeing others as a possible angel in disguise and seeing this a way to serve God in a way that sees others as more than you are. So, where does this leave us as a body of Christ?
What kind of changes do we need to make? What kind of stance do we need to make in this world, community, the church? This kind of hospitality leaves us vulnerable and at risk. But even Jesus during a time when tax collectors and prostitutes were not welcome anywhere, were embraced. Maybe, vulnerability and risk are the steps we need to take as a church as a whole! Welcoming the stranger, the broken, the hurting, the struggling, the ones with issues, the ones that the world would say is just garbage and watch this… ones that look different than us. In that we are practicing hospitality that affects the very fundamental nature of things.
Here is what it says, I changed the verse: “Instead, when you give a banquet, invite the poor, crippled, lame, blind. (Bent, Broken, Lost, Least, Last, and Ones that don’t look like YOU) And you will be blessed because they can’t repay you. Instead, you will be repaid when the just are resurrected.”[7]
What is it going to take? Radical can only happen when our pride is broken. When we truly see ourselves as least and others as greater. The world doesn’t like that….but we are not of this world even as we are in this world.
I love what Michael K. Marsh says:
“Hospitality challenges us to face the ways we’ve closed the door of our heart to another and her or his needs. It challenges us to face the ways we support or benefit from systems that close the door to someone else and her or his needs. It begins not by opening the door of our house but by opening the door of our heart.”[8]
No matter what has happened in your life or in your church it is not too late to begin unlocking the door of our hearts and dismantling the fences that separate us. Where does your life need to start and where does the church need to start? What would God ask of you?
[2] Common English Bible. www.biblegateway.com
[3] Ibid.
[5] Hebrews 13:2
[6] Ibid.
[7] Common English Bible. www.biblegateway.com
[8] https://interruptingthesilence.com/2022/08/28/hospitality-to-strangers-a-sermon-on-hebrews-131-8-15-16-and-luke-141-7-14/
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