Today is my Mom’s and my first Mother’s Day with Grace. And it is the first Mother’s Day in many years that Mom and I are spending Mother’s Day together. It has been an even longer time since our family has had three generations of females together on Mother’s Day. But when I was a child, Mom and I spent several Mother’s Days with Grandma.
Grace’s middle name is Frances, after my Mom’s mother. Some of you have heard me mention my Grandmother, Frances Gertrude Edmands Wright who grew up in Somerville and married a Methodist minister. We could tell you many stories about Grandma, some of them very funny. But I’ve been thinking mostly this week about her gift of hospitality since this is the theme of worship today.
Grandma loved to have guests to her home. A little like Hyacinth Bucket (Bouquet) in Keeping Up Appearances, Grandma was always inviting people into her home for something to eat. Now Grandma wasn’t much of a cook, but she would do her best to make elegant meals. Often these were rounded off by New England puddings; Indian, Suit and Grapenut being most common. Her favorite summertime cuisine for guests seemed to be tomato aspic and salmon loaf. We hope her guests liked this menu better than we did! She would set the table with her good china, polish the silver and prepare a little entertainment for after the meal. Grandma let her guests know she was delighted to see them when they arrived. What distinguished Grandma from Hyacinth is that her gift of hospitality went along with her gift of story telling and her gift of listening to the stories of her guests, so that they truly felt cherished and welcome. Before they left, Grandma offered her visitors her Guest Book, and asked that they write a little something in it. Now and then as she aged, she could pull it out and remember the many happy times when she had company in her home. Grandma’s gift of hospitality was a blessing, not only to her guest, but also to herself.
Hospitality is lifted up in scripture as a virtue. Abraham and Sarah first heard the long awaited news that they would become parents while they were tending to three unexpected visitors who came to supper. A widow who was facing starvation with her son, offered hospitality to Elijah and her containers of meal and oil lasted until the famine was over. Jesus always seemed to be visiting people in their homes, or inviting them to dinner and he urged his disciples to welcome the stranger as if they were welcoming him. Paul exhorted the Roman church to “extend hospitality to strangers.” In his list of qualities expected of a bishop, Paul includes hospitality in both 1st Timothy and Titus. And the first letter of Peter says, “Above all, maintain constant love for one another, for love covers a multitude of sins. Be hospitable to one another without complaining. Like good stewards of the manifold grace of God, serve one another with whatever gift each of you has received.” Hospitality combines several fruits of the spirit listed in Galatians; love, joy, peace, kindness, generosity and gentleness all come into play with true hospitality. It is a key ingredient to the Christian faith. We can see two reasons why when we turn to today’s scripture.
First, hospitality is one major vehicle for the good news of Jesus Christ to spread. In fact all through Acts we see that the Apostles depended upon hospitality of the communities they visited as they brought the Good News of Jesus to them. They continued to follow Jesus’ directions found in Luke 10, “Whatever house you enter first say, ‘Peace to this house!’ And if anyone is there who shares in peace, your peace will rest on that person; but if not, it will return to you. Remain in the same house, eating and drinking whatever they provide.”
Paul took three missionary journeys to spread the gospel and stayed in people’s homes all along the way. The first journey was focused on Asia Minor, an area we call Turkey today where some welcomed him and started small churches. As he started out on his second journey Paul thought he would return to these churches and see how they were doing. But late at night he heard the Spirit of Jesus, in the form of a Macedonian, inviting him to move beyond his comfort zone, into Europe. Being convinced that God was calling them Paul, Silas, Timothy and Luke crossed the Aegean Sea to Macedonia. As was their practice, they first looked for a community of Jews in Philippi, for the Jews of the Diaspora, such as Tabitha, were more likely to welcome fellow Jews. But the Jews in the distant land of Philippi were such a minority that it took a few days even to find it. Finally they took a walk to the river outside the city gate, and there they found the tiny congregation, perhaps not even big enough to make up a quorum of ten men. They may have been few, but their welcome was notable. Lydia welcomed the Apostles into her community and into her home and this led not only to her own baptism, but to the baptism of her whole household and the beginnings of the church in Philippi.
While these stories show lead us to believe that it is easier to spread the gospel to non-Christians who practice hospitality, other scripture reminds us that the church also grows when Christians are hospitable. Just a few weeks ago Kevin reminded us about the daring hospitality of Ananias when the recently blinded and repentant Saul needed to be healed and trained up in the way of Jesus. Without Ananias’ welcome Paul’s conversion might never have been completed and he might not have gone on to invite so many others to follow Jesus. Recently American Christians are reawakening to the importance of hospitality in church growth. If you type the words “hospitality” and “evangelism” on Amazon’s web site you will find 35 titles including: Welcoming the Stranger, Widening the Welcome of your Church; Fireweed Evangelism: Christian Hospitality in a Multi-Faith World; God’s Welcome: Hospitality for a God-Hungry World.
In Five Practices of Fruitful Congregations Robert Schnase gives an example of radical hospitality. He tells of a young mother who visited a small congregation of mostly older adults one Sunday. As the pastor was getting to know her, this mom expressed feeling self-conscious whenever her baby started to fuss during worship. So the pastor
met with the congregation’s leaders and they decided that they valued having young people so highly that they had to do something to ease the discomfort. To show support for the young mom, they bought a comfortable, well-padded rocking chair and placed it just behind the last pew of the sanctuary. Word got around, and soon they had to have two more rocking chairs to accommodate the moms who found this congregation to be the friendliest around!
As a result the congregation has grown. “The secret has been an active hospitality that has become contagious throughout the congregation.”
Many visitors comment that we have a friendly congregation. But there still might be some steps we could take to improve our hospitality. For example, have you looked at the signs on our parking lot? They warn people of trespassing which may result in towing and fines and nothing says that the lot belongs to us. When I was arranging for guest preachers I had to let them know to ignore the signs, and assure them they were welcome to park there. We could do something to improve the welcome we give to any strangers driving to worship with us for the first time. What else can you think of that we could do to make sure that anyone who comes to worship with us is welcome? One practice that goes hand in hand with hospitality is invitation. Lydia not only invited Paul and his friends to her home, she “urged” them and perhaps had to convince them because Luke says that finally she “would take no refusal.”
A second reason that hospitality is a key Christian virtue may surprise us. We generally think of what we do for others when we practice hospitality. But radical hospitality doesn’t only affect the ones we welcome; it can deeply affect us as well. Look at Lydia. She was already part of a congregation. She attended the weekly gathering for prayer with the Jews of Philippi. She had moved to Philippi some years ago from Asia Minor, and she must have been a person of means because she ran her own business and was the head of a household. As a dealer of fabric only worn by the rich and famous of the Roman Empire, she probably rubbed elbows with them on a regular basis. Her life was good and I imagine that she wasn’t yearning for any big transformation. Yet true hospitality requires a posture of openness toward the other which can be life changing. Lydia didn’t just give to the visitors; she received what they had to give too. She listened to their stories. The Bible tells us “the Lord opened her heart to listen eagerly to what Paul said.” And as she soaked in the good news of Jesus, it moved her so that she was no longer satisfied with her life as it had been, she wanted to be transformed to a follower of Jesus, and she and her household were baptized.
When we truly practice hospitality we open ourselves up to change. My grandparents, and my parents and Uncles and Aunts welcomed many different kinds of people into their homes. I remember meeting people from all over the world, Puerto Rico, Micronesia, India and Ethiopia for the first time in the homes of my family. By their presence our understanding of the world was expanded. Because my family practiced hospitality I knew I could welcome the foreign college students back home with me on the weekends during the summers when I worked at a nearby camp. And because of the friendships we built through hospitality, I was invited to visit some of them when I traveled abroad to their hometowns. As an adult I have carried on the practice of hospitality in my home, volunteering to meet the guest speakers of my Camp Farthest Out at Logan and inviting them to stay with me for a few days before or after camp. Having this special time with them alone, they have listen and talked, offered wise counsel and prayed with me. One very tall fatherly friend from Australia helped me out when I was buying my car, by going with me to the dealer. Our lives can be enriched and blessed our faith can be deepened and God can lead us in new directions through the genuine hospitality we practice.
Hospitality is a wonderful gift from God. It is a tool for bringing about the kingdom of heaven. We can use this gift with joy, and nurture like a plant until it grows like a tree and the birds of the air come and make nests in its branches.
As we honor our mothers this day, and all the women who, like Lydia, have been generous with their gift of hospitality, let us remember the words from Hebrews that, “thereby some have entertained angels unawares.”
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