Radical Hosptality Means Giving Up the Remote

Scripture: Genesis 18:1-8 and Hebrews 13:1-2

This morning we begin a five-week sermons series and a five-week, church-wide initiative on Five Practices of Fruitful Congregations put together by Robert Schnase, the bishop of the Missouri United Methodist Church. There are a variety of ways to invest yourself in this initiative. If you would like to read the bishop’s book on the five practices, you can check a copy out of our church library. If you have not received a copy of the daily devotional guide Cultivating Practices, I encourage you to do so in the church office after worship this morning and begin reading those devotions with those in your household. I invite you to join us starting this Wednesday at 5:30 p.m. for a time of learning, sharing, and thinking about what it means for us to live out each one of these practices in our lives.

In his book, Bishop Schnase identifies five characteristics that are consistently and persistently practiced in congregations that are vibrant, fruitful, and growing:

1. Radical Hospitality
2. Passionate Worship
3. Intentional Faith Development
4. Risk-Taking Mission and Services
5. Extravagant Generosity.

It is my hope that at the end of these five weeks we will all know these five practices by heart; we will be able to discuss them, and most importantly they will begin to consciously drive and motivate who we are as individual Christians and as a congregation.

We undertake this initiative not because there is any particular deficiency in our faith or in this congregation, but because as Christian people we are always striving to be more faithful and to more fully live out our faith in the world. So this morning we embark on a new phase of this Christian journey not knowing exactly where it will take us, knowing that there is no one size fits all way of living out these practices; rather, how we choose to be fruitful will be dictated by who we are, where we are, and the particular time in which we find ourselves.

The particular question we ask ourselves this morning is this: How do we show radical hospitality?

I want to invite you to stop for just a moment and think about the best, most incredible customer service experience you have ever had. This might be an experience talking to a customer service representative on the telephone. It might be attention you received from a host or the wait staff at a restaurant. I could be an interaction you had with an employee of a store or retail outlet. Think about the best customer service experience you have ever had – a time when your expectations were not just met but exceeded.

(Insert your own story here.)

Marguerite and I used to love to go to this Asian food buffet down in Springfield; it used to be called Kyojin, I think it has since changed its name to New China Buffet. We ate there because it was relatively inexpensive and the food was good for the price. They also had a sushi buffet attached to it where you could get some real basic sushi which we loved and ate way too much of. Each time we would go into the restaurant to eat, the owners would take just a moment to talk to us and get to know us. On occasion they would prepare for us a special plate of sushi that wasn’t otherwise available on the buffet. They made us feel important, valued, and special.

If we look in the eighteenth chapter of the Old Testament book of Genesis we find another story of radical hospitality in Abraham and Sarah who are the founders of the Jewish people. These first eight verses of chapter 18 are sometimes overlooked because the promise that comes after them is so incredible – that Abraham and Sarah will indeed be parents in spite of their barrenness and old age.

But this morning let’s look at what led up to the reception of God’s promise because without first practicing radical hospitality Sarah and Abraham might have missed that promise. So, let’s look quickly at five lessons that Abraham and Sarah teach us about radical hospitality:

1. The guests appear to Abraham and Sarah at their home – their tent actually, but it is their place of residence. This is a place where Abraham and Sarah feel comfortable. Abraham is sitting there lounging. He is at home – literally and figuratively. These guests are coming into their home, their place of comfort, their place of security. In the same way guests who come to Pomme de Terre UMC are coming into our spiritual home: our place of comfort and security. So, radical hospitality occurs in places where we feel comfortable, places that we might otherwise claim as our own.
2. Sometimes these three visitors are identified as God and two of God's angels. Other times the three visitors have been understood an early appearance of the Trinity -- God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit. However, in the Old Testament whenever God appears to someone God usually announces God's arrival, it is obvious in the text that God is appearing. But that is not the case in this instance. Abraham does not know the identity of these guests and so this is not an attempt to please his divine visitor. Hospitality is extended to the unknown person who shows up unexpectedly. It is a reminder to us that we don't extend hospitality to those whom we know or recognize or deem to be important enough. We extend hospitality to those who show up in our midst whoever they are.
3. Abraham rushes and hurries about to serve the guests. He jumps up from where he has been lounging and runs out to meet the approaching visitors. He then, runs into the tent and asks Sarah, his wife, the quickly prepare bread. He runs to his servant and asks him to quickly slaughter a calf. There is an urgency to this task of welcoming. In the devotional book Cultivating Fruitfulness the bishop asks us what it would mean to adopt the attitude that "this Sunday is the only Sunday that matters"? This is a reminder for us here at Pomme de Terre United Methodist Church that when a guest walks through our doors, we only get one shot at connecting with her or him and making her or him feel welcome. In other words, be like Abraham and Sarah and their servant: practice radical hospitality now!
4. As we have alluded to already the response to the approaching guest is not Abraham's alone: it includes Sarah and their servants. Hospitality was the responsibility of everyone in the house. There are some in this congregation who are very committed to greeting and ushering, but we are all hospitality hosts.
5. Abraham and Sarah give the visitors the best. They kill the calf not the old bull that was going to die soon anyway. We should give the best of what we have and who we are to our guests as well. Our guests should get the best parking spots, the best seats in the sanctuary, the best invitations to Sunday School, the warmest greetings. We do this because we want them to feel, to experience the love of God at Pomme de Terre UMC. We do this because we want them to hear the gospel of Jesus Christ her at Pomme de Terre UMC.
   

In our house there is one sign, one symbol, one implement of absolute power. (Hold up the television remote for all to see.) This device will dictate whether I go home this afternoon and watch six hours of football or whether I go home this afternoon and watch six hours of Law and Order reruns.

I have heard hospitality described as inviting your neighbors over to dinner. You meet them at the door, invite them in, maybe serve them drinks and an appetizer. Then, you all go to the dining room table where you serve them a great meal followed by dessert and maybe a cup of coffee. After a little chit-chat you all stand up from the table and you usher your guests out the door and on their way home.

Radical hospitality is inviting your neighbors over to dinner. You meet them at the door, invite them in, maybe serve drinks and an appetizer. Then, you all go to the dining room table where you serve them a great meal followed by dessert and maybe a cup of coffee. After a little chit-chat you all stand up from the table and you usher your guests into the family room where you give them the nicest spots on the couch or even the most spot in you La-z-Boy Recliner. Then, you turn to your guests and you do the unthinkable: you hand them the remote control and say, "We are going to watch whatever you want to watch." Radical Hospitality!

The word which we translate as “angel” means messenger. To welcome guests as if they were angels means to recognize that they carry a message for us. They have something to tell us and to share with us. They have gifts, talents, insights that can make our community more complete and draw us closer to Christ. To welcome someone as an angel means that we might learn something from what they choose to watch.

In closing let me give you just one example of radical hospitality. Donna, our church secretary, is visiting family in Kansas City this weekend, but before she left I told her that if she wasn't in church on Sunday I would have to tell stories about her. Now, Donna is a really good secretary, but sometimes I have to wonder about her.

A week and a half ago when it was about 4 degrees outside I got a phone call from Donna about 9 a.m. She said, "Josh, I'm locked out!" I replied, "I'm feeding my son, but give me a minute to put him down and I'll be right over to unlock the church and let you in."

"No," she said. "I'm locked out of my house!"

"O.K.," I said. "Just drive over to the church, I'll let you in and when you husband gets back from hunting you can return home."

"No!" Donna said, "I can't because my car keys are locked in the house!"

"Well, I'll come pick you up then," I said.

"Don't bother. Jeannine is already on her way to get me. I just wanted to let you know I was running late."

Now, if you have ever spent time with Donna in the church office, you know that she likes to keep that office hot! It could be the middle of summer and she'd have the heater running. But if you have ever spent much time with Jeannine, you learn pretty quickly that she is cold blooded. She likes it cold in her car, in her house, at the church, in the office. But as she was going to pick up Donna, Jeannine turned the car heater on full blast and turned the seat warmers on so that Donna would be warm and comfortable when she got in the car and out of the cold. Jeannine ever brewed a cup of hot coffee for Donna. Radical Hospitality!

Jeannine sacrificed her own comfort so that Donna might be comfortable. We are called to do likewise in the church. Thanks be to God! Amen.