Hospitality

Posted on Jul 11, 2010 in Sermons | Comments Off

Speaker: Andrew Brown
Key Passage: Luke 10: 30-37, Roman 12: 9-13
Date: 11 July 2010

As I look around I can see people from many different ‘neighbourhoods’ and backgrounds.  One thing about these combined services is that there is a whole lot of variety amongst us.

For start we have five main languages: English, Cantonese, Mandarin, Samoan, and Korean.  We represent many different nations, different ethnic groups, different villages, different suburbs, different social classes and different backgrounds.  Even amongst people who look the same we can be different.

For example, when I was learning Maori, they had words for ‘live in,’ ‘work in’ and to come from.  There was a word like “toku Kainga”, which spoke of your place of belonging, your ancestral roots, and your mountain.  The other day I was with three Europeans when we realised that we were all from the South Island, and not from Auckland originally!

But all this variety raises a big question -as Hamish Keith said in a recent art programme, “We all came here in different boats, but now we are all in the same boat.”  So how are we going to get on?  How do we get on as a nation and as Christians together when we are all normally proud of the different ‘neighbourhoods’ and traditions that we come from?

1. Jesus addressed this issue one day in a parable. It’s the lectionary reading for this Sunday.  When someone asked Him ‘who is my neighbour?  Who are the people I’m supposed to love and care for?”‘  He told them the story of the Good Samaritan in Luke 10:30-37.

(30) Jesus said: “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, when he fell into the hands of robbers.  This road was very steep, rugged and it was easy to ambush people on the bends. They stripped him of his clothes, beat him and went away, leaving him half dead.  (31) A priest who had been worshipping in Jerusalem happened to be going down the same road, and when he saw the man, he passed by on the other side.  (32) So too, a Levite, a Temple worker, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side.

(33) But a Samaritan, who was despised by the Jews as a half bred and a heretic, as he travelled, came where the man was; and when he saw him, he took pity on him.  (34) He went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine.  Then he put the man on his own donkey, took him to an inn and took care of him.

(35) The next day after looking after him he took out two silver coins and gave them to the innkeeper.  ‘Look after him,’ he said, ‘and when I return, I will reimburse you for any extra expense you may have.’

(36) Jesus “Which of these three do you think was a neighbour to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?”  (37) The expert in the law replied, “The one who had mercy on him.”  Jesus told him, “Go and do likewise.”

2. So we are faced with the question ‘who is my neighbour?’ and we must respond.

The thing is that we can be very proud of our churches and our traditions.  We can feel very secure in our cultures and our churches ways of doing things, but Jesus calls us to reach out to the strangers and newcomers amongst us.  He asks us to go beyond our comfort zones.

So how do we do this?

Well the young people told us earlier in their readings –through Hospitality.  Romans 12:13 says “Practice hospitality.”

Here are three suggestions on how you can do this:

1. Simply cross the room

Early last year we did a course by Bill Hybels called “Just cross the room…”  It was about how he can help people come to faith in Jesus.  He said the key is to just walk across the room and to greet someone new.

That can feel a little artificial thing, but you can make the right choices.  Instead of looking at the floor as you walk past someone, smile and greet them.  Instead of just reading the banners on the wall, turn and say hullo to the person beside you.  Or once you have said “Hullo’ then ask some questions like where are you from, and what do you do?  The Samaritan crossed the road and so can we cross a room.

2. Secondly invite a stranger at church for a meal. Invite them to a restaurant (Yum Char) or your house for sandwiches or a church meal, like an umu or hangi.

You might have to spend a bit more on money on food, but you were probably going anyway, and it’s important to do this because we have to invite newcomers not just into our churches, but into lives and our homes, and eventually into our hearts.

The Samaritan paid for the man’s food and bed.  He gave hospitality.  That’s what we can do.

3. Thirdly we must suspend our stereotypes long enough to get to know each other as people. We must get past our prejudices and appreciate the good in people.

E.g. The Samaritan had a battle with the Jews.  When a Samaritan village refused to welcome Jesus as a Jew his disciples said, “Lord, why don’t you nuke them?  Or call down fire from heaven and destroy them?”  The Jews would never dream that a Samaritan would treat a Jew like this, but he did!  Here was something the Jews could have learnt from him, and there is always something that we can learn from others.  Every tradition, every background, every person has something interesting and valuable that we can learn.

The Samaritan showed compassion to the Jew.  I wonder, what the world would look like if did that for each other?

C. The supreme example of hospitality of course is this one [Hold up wall hanging of Lord’s Supper]. In our prayer chapel we have a faded wall hanging.  It’s a Jewish scene set in medieval European style on a Pacific Island (?) medium.

In the middle we have Jesus:

1. God from heaven –who crossed the road (came to earth) to us

2. He is offering a meal to his disciples.  God and man are sat down at the same table.  It is symbolic of God offering us each eternal life.

3. But note the key things: your side of the table is open –open for folk like you and me, for the whole wide world, to come in!

Now I don’t know what Pastor James wants to say about The Lord’s Supper, but right at the heart of the Christian faith is God’s hospitality to us, so we must take Jesus words from the Parable of the Good Samaritan and “Go and do likewise” this week.