A Very Friendly Congregation...but What About Hospitality?

John 10.11-18 [Jesus said,]“I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. ¹²The hired hand, who is not the shepherd and does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and runs away—and the wolf snatches them and scatters them. ¹³The hired hand runs away because a hired hand does not care for the sheep. ¹⁴I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me, ¹⁵just as the Father knows me and I know the Father. And I lay down my life for the sheep. ¹⁶I have other sheep that do not belong to this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. So there will be one flock, one shepherd. ¹⁷For this reason the Father loves me, because I lay down my life in order to take it up again. ¹⁸No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it up again. I have received this command from my Father.” (NRSV)

This past week was the Rocky Mountain Synod Assembly.  Like most Synod Assemblies this one was held at a hotel in Colorado Springs.  This was the second year in a row we stayed at this particular hotel.  It is a very comfortable hotel the rooms are nice, clean, and the bed restful, but that is not the only reason we have come back to this hotel two years in a row.  They also do a wonderful job with meals.  As is typical with any group this size (550+) there are a number of special dietary needs, whether vegetarian, pescatarian, gluten free, or some other food allergy.    Despite the large number of meals that need to be served in a short period of time, the hotel staff goes out of its way to make sure all those special dietary needs are met.  Even when a request is made that is not related to diet, the staff does its best to accommodate the guest.  Rather than expect the guest to come into their hotel and conform to them, the hotel staff becomes like us.  In becoming like their guests they are able to offer vegetarian, pescatarian, or gluten-free meals.  They add extra recycling bins in the common areas, because we are a green church.  They make sure and have a union contract and pay an equitable wage to their employees, so we can use their facilities for our assembly.  In becoming like us they model for us what hospitality is all about.  Sure they are financially rewarded for their hospitality, but that doesn’t make them less hospitable. 

Hospitality was one of the marks of the early church.  Those early Christians practiced a radical hospitality that wasn’t about financial reward, but based on the understanding that each person has been created in God’s image.  It didn’t matter whether they were Jewish, Greek, Roman, or Samaritan; they were welcomed into the early church because they were beings who had been created in God’s Image.  Their value and worth to the community was based solely on that understanding, and not on their family, birthplace, or ethnicity.  

But then, approximately 1700 years ago we began to replace hospitality with friendliness.  Now there is nothing wrong with being friendly or being nice to people, but it is not the same as hospitality.  Being friendly to people is easy.  It is easy to shake someone’s hand.  It is easy to say “good morning” to someone who has just come in.  It is easy to engage someone in small talk, to talk about the weather, the NFL draft, how the baseball season is shaping up etc.  No matter how friendly we might image ourselves to be, friendliness is not hospitality.  We still expect people who come into our congregation to conform to us, to be like us. 

In that way, we have become like the hired hand.  The hired hand who leaves the sheep, because he doesn’t value them they same way he values himself.  To him they are just sheep who haven’t become like him and thus don’t need to be protected.  Our congregations treat people the same way.  Unless you are a charter member, or related to a charter member, or have lived in the town for generations, or come from the right ethnicity you are left on the outside, because we just don’t value them the same as ourselves. 

The good (here good is being used as an example to follow) shepherd however stays to defend the sheep and is even willing to lay down his life for the sheep.  He doesn’t care that they haven’t become like him.  They are God’s creatures and their value is based solely on that fact, and not on which family they are part of, or how long they have been a member of the flock, or where their ancestors came from.  The good shepherd values the sheep at least as highly as himself, becoming like them and that is the difference between friendliness and hospitality. 

Maybe it is time for us as a congregation and as a church to return to our roots, to return to a genuine practice of hospitality, where everyone is valued on the basis of being created in God’s image, and not on the tenure of their membership or their ethnicity.  John reminds us there are still other sheep who are not yet part of the flock.  It is real hospitality that will make possible the promise of other sheep coming into the flock, the promise of one united and universal flock. 

God's Uncomfortable Reign

Acts 4.32-35 Now the whole group of those who believed were of one heart and soul, and no one claimed private ownership of any possessions, but everything they owned was held in common. With great power the apostles gave their testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and great grace was upon them all. There was not a needy person among them, for as many as owned lands or houses sold them and brought the proceeds of what was sold. They laid it at the apostles’ feet, and it was distributed to each as any had need (NRSV).

I think one of the most difficult lessons for us to learn, especially as children, is to share.  Much of preschool and even kindergarten is focused on the lesson of sharing.  Whether it is genetic or a product of our environment there is something deep within us that makes it hard for us to share.  It is counter intuitive.  I am no different.  As a child, I hated sharing my toys with my younger brother, and not just because things would come back in worse shape than when borrowed.  There was a fear that if he was playing with my toys, then I was missing out.  Never mind that I wasn’t using them at the time or even planning using them at the time.  There is something about our human nature that makes it hard for us to share.

Even as adults it is often hard for us to share.  That same fear we had of sharing as children still holds us.  But it doesn’t have to control us.  I can honestly say I have no problem sharing my things with my wife, Kim.  I trust her and I am more than willing to share my things with her openly and freely.  While my willingness to share with Kim, might make me sound (self) righteous, or look a little bit better than others, the reality is I know Kim wants nothing to do with most of my stuff.  It just doesn’t interest her, and she would have no need or desire to borrow my stuff.  It is incredibly easy to share your stuff with others, when you know they want nothing to do with it.  Whether as children or adults we just don’t like sharing.  It goes against our nature.  Even at a societal level we don’t like sharing. 

Maybe that is why this passage from Acts makes us more than just a little bit uncomfortable.  If it is of any consolation, we are not the only ones who are uncomfortable.  Many, throughout the history of Christianity, have tried to dismiss this passage from Acts; stating it is either an idealize fantasy that never happened or was tried early on but failed quickly.  As nice as it might be to dismiss this passage, neither of these options are valid.  We have recovered a number of early Christian texts from outside the Bible that show the Christian community continuing to share all possessions a century or more after Acts was written.  Which leaves us with the question of why. Why did the early Christian community think it necessary to share their possessions and distribute them according to need? 

The simple answer to this question is that those early Christians believed it was a part of their calling and identity as Christians.  They believed that Christians were called to follow Jesus, and, at least in part, the church is meant to be a reflection of God’s reign.  Central to God’s reign is that everyone has enough, so that there is “not a needy person among them.” (Acts appropriated this idea from Deuteronomy 15.4 and the Creations stories).  Unfortunately, when people look at the church they see an institution that looks less like a reflection, even dimly, of God’s reign and more like a reflection of the society around them.  We Christians, on the whole, are just as unwilling to share, just as unwilling to make sure none among us has need as the rest of society.  Now there is no difference between church and society.

So may be this text from Acts makes us uncomfortable, but that might be a good thing.  Being uncomfortable reminds us of what the church should be a reflection of God’s reign, even if only dimly.  Being uncomfortable also reminds us that God’s reign, often times, comes in very things that  makes us uncomfortable. 

Don't Worry...the Poor Have Refrigerators

“I give you a new commandment, that you love one another.  Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another” (John 13.34).   

“Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another” Jesus gives his followers this new commandment at the last supper. At first it sounds like a very safe commandment. But let’s face it, it is not always easy to love people, sometimes people make it difficult for us to love them.  I am sure we all know people, like that, who make themselves very difficult to love. Maybe it is the ‘black sheep’ of the family, the one who always manages to annoy the rest of the family during the holidays.  Or perhaps it is a boss or co-worker who is constantly trying to show everyone else up.  Or maybe it is someone we know, who for whatever reason is continuously getting under our skin.  As hard as it might be to love people like that, Jesus’ last commandment to his followers goes beyond just loving the annoying people in our lives. 

Jesus’ command isn’t just about liking or being nice to people, but about really and truly valuing them as human beings.  This is a much harder proposition, especially in our society.  How many times do we hear on TV, the Radio, or in a magazine or Newspaper, that we shouldn’t value or love someone?  We are constantly being told not to value or love the poor, after all they are just lazy, looking to take advantage of the system, or don’t know how to manage their funds.  One “news” channel even went so far as to argue the poor aren’t worth loving or valuing, because most of them have a refrigerator in their dwelling places.  Or how often are we told not to value or love immigrants, especially if undocumented, because they are coming to steal from us, or they might enhance our cultural and ethnic diversity.  Or told why we shouldn’t love or value liberals and progressives because they are only out to destroy the country.  I am sure we can all think of countless others who we are told not to value or love for whatever reason.  We are constantly being bombarded by messages telling us why we shouldn’t value and love others.  Unfortunately many of the people we are told not to value and love live on the margins of our society, people who are easy, for those of us in the majority, to devalue and not love. 

With the constant bombardment, no wonder why it is difficult for us to value and love others, especially those who are most unlike us.  But what does this mean for those of us who call ourselves Christians?  Many of us sense there is something wrong, but are less sure of the answer.  Maybe that is why we gather together on Maundy Thursday, and why so many do not.  We realize and hope that there is something more to Jesus’ commandment than just sentimentality.  On that Maundy Thursday night 2,000 years ago Jesus upset the structures of the world that continue to devalue people for the sake of the few. 

He did so by redefining what it means to be a leader, by washing his disciples’ feet.  While much has been made of the place of foot washing, what is often overlooked is whose feet he was washing.  We might consider the disciples to be the founders of the Church, but in their day they were nobodies, they were unclean, lazy, and uncouth.  They were Jews living in Roman occupied territory, who had some of the worst jobs possible in the hopes of surviving.  They were, in essence, the very people our society tells us not to value and love.  Yet it was their feet that Jesus washed, in so doing Jesus redefines how we value and love people.  No longer will the criteria of our society or theirs determine a person’s worth.  Instead we are to see all as being created in God’s image.  It might not seem like much has changed in the 2,000 years since Jesus’ last supper, but on that night Jesus challenged and changed the world.