Reflections on Radical Hospitality

Christian life can be described as a set of practices. For example, prayer, fasting, giving, worship, scripture study, witnessing to your faith, these are all practices. A practice is something you do, something you work at, so that you can get better. Micah is in band, learning to play the trumpet. For him to become a great trumpet player, Micah is going to have to practice. And no matter how good a trumpet player he will be, he will always have to practice. It is the same with becoming a Christian. We have to practice. And no matter how great a Christian we grow to be, we never stop practicing.
Doing Christian practices over time makes us into better Christians. We become better servants of Jesus Christ our Lord as we practice the Christian life daily and diligently, with the help of God’s grace.
Churches also have practices. The Christian life is not just an individual matter. It is also a communal matter. Not only are we to practice in order to become better individual Christians, we are also to practice being a better church, so that we can be a more effective body of Christ. These are examples of church practices: radical hospitality, passionate worship, intentional faith development, risk-taking mission and service, and extravagant generosity. A church that does these practices over time becomes a better church, a more effective and fruitful community of servants.
Today marks the beginning of a five week series on these five practices. The catalyst for this series is that as a district we are emphasizing these practices, using the insights of Bishop Robert Schnase in his book Cultivating Fruitfulness. When Charge Conference comes up in a few weeks, this will be the focus of our time together. So, this wasn’t just my idea, it’s a concerted effort by all the churches in our district to turn to this theme. It will be good for us as a reminder of what we are to be about doing, the purpose of our being a church. And we will discover over the next few weeks that, as a congregation, we are doing these things. These practices are not unfamiliar to us at all. My hope is that through this series we will be encouraged to keep doing what we are doing and improve what we are doing, so that we can stretch ourselves more and grow, to become more effective servants of Jesus Christ our Lord. To grow as a musician, what you practice needs to become more difficult so you can grow. So it is with our Christian practices, individually and collectively. We need to challenge ourselves in our practice so that we can grow and be effective. Hopefully this series will inspire you to stretch yourselves in your participation in these church practices, so that our church will grow and be more fruitful, by the grace of God.
The first practice we will reflect on is radical hospitality.
Imagine what it is like to enter a church as a stranger? You first have to find your way in the building. Where’s the bathroom? Where’s the sanctuary? You might wonder if there is anyone there you might know. You may wonder where would be a good place to sit, hoping you don’t take someone else’s seat. And you wonder what’s going to happen during the service. Will anyone say “hi” to me? You tend to be paying great attention to what’s going on around you to pick up non verbal cues, the body language of others, so you can tell whether you are welcome or being held at arms length. And, when you enter into a space for the first time you notice things that become unnoticeable as time goes by: the smell, the neatness of the space, the lighting, and the behaviors of the more colorful people that are present. Coming in to a strange place is a little confusing, lots of questions, a little uncertainty, it’s slightly uncomfortable.
Now think about how you might respond when you see this stranger enter into the sanctuary? How might you approach that person? It would seem that the best body language to have would be a smile, and not one of staring at and sizing up. Introducing yourself may be a good thing to do. And then maybe before asking questions like, “Who are you? Where are you from? Why are you here?” You could say, “Do you have any questions about the service or can I help you find anything?” It’s helpful for us to try to get into the shoes of a stranger, to imagine what we might be feeling or wondering about, so that when we have the opportunity to meet a stranger, anywhere, not just in church, then we can respond more effectively to what they need. Not to mention the biblical teaching that when we entertain strangers, we may be entertaining angels without knowing it.
But if you are like me, sometimes it is hard to even see strangers, or visitors. There have been a few Sundays where during joys and concerns, someone who has been ill a long time is present and asks to speak, and it’s the first time I notice they are here! It is surprising, when you become so familiar with a place and the people in it, that those you don’t come into immediate contact with become almost invisible. We have our regular seat. We participate in worship. We head out. And unless we are intentional about scanning the room, we can easily not know all who are here. Just look right past them. It’s a strange thing. Many people have said that the loneliest place can be in a city, surrounded by people you don’t know. People can walk right past each other all day long. It’s possible for us to look right past each other even in this worship space if we aren’t attentive. I know this from personal experience, because I’ve done it.
There’s something else that needs to be said about visitors to our church. Visitors come to our church because they are looking for something and they feel our church might have something they need. Depending on the person, it takes a lot of nerve to enter a church where no one knows you. That’s one reason why a vast majority of newcomers to a church come because someone invited them. People just showing up, of course, happens. Most people don’t have that kind of courage. If we want more people in our church, the main way that will happen is by you inviting someone to come with you.
What are visitors to our church looking for? Perhaps they are looking for answers to faith questions. Maybe they are looking for solace and peace in the midst of their stress filled life. Maybe they are lonely and are searching for a community where people will know their name and genuinely care about their welfare. Maybe they are here because something is stirring in their spirit. They feel that God is pulling them toward the church. And they have driven by this building for quite some time, and every time they drove by, they had this inner voice saying, “You need to visit there.” And finally, they make that visit. There are a number of reasons why someone visits a church. But it is not by accident. It’s not because they were wandering aimlessly down the sidewalk and thought to just stumble in on a Sunday morning. It’s safe to say every visitor of this church intended to be here.
So, visitors come here in need of something. They believe, or at least hope, that we have what they are looking for. Do we have it? Do we have the capacity to help them search for the answers to their faith questions? Do we provide that peace, a sanctuary, from the stresses of life? Can we be that community where a stranger’s name is known, and that person is cared for? Could it be that God actually leads people to us? Believe it or not, we have something that people are looking for. We do have something to offer. God does meet the needs of people through us.
But also, visitors have something that we need. They remind us that we are not here just for ourselves, but that we are a part of a wider community. They come with a fresh perspective, not burdened by the past troubles, issues, and history of this church. They have life experiences to share and new gifts to offer. Visitors add to the vitality of our community. Truly, when visitors come to us, we should see them as precious gifts sent from God.
The truth is, we need each other. We need the familiar and the stranger, those that have been dear friends for years and those who can become new friends, so that as a community we can be more whole, more diverse, more vibrant. We are less than we can become without new people among us. New people have need for spiritual community which we can offer. This is what hospitality, then, is about. It is about enabling interdependence, giving and receiving. We have something to offer the visitor. The visitor has something to offer us. Mutuality, interdependence, community, all of this is characteristic of a healthy and vital church. The practice of hospitality helps to nourish mutuality.
Hospitality as a Christian practice does not have to be limited to people who visit the church. Hospitality can be something that is offered to anyone out in the community. What happens when a new family moves into your neighborhood? Or you have a new co-worker? Or you find yourself having to interact with someone you don’t know?
In the end, radical hospitality is a matter of the heart. It is an attitude and behavior. It’s much more than simply being polite. It is how you look at the stranger. It is seeing the stranger not as a threat, but as a gift; not someone you need to keep at a distance, but someone you ought to get to know; not someone you have to do something for, but someone who has something you need. What is your attitude toward people you don’t know? How you answer that will go a long way in shaping how well you practice hospitality.
So, what can you do to be more hospitable? A healthy church is a church that practices radical hospitality. That practice is not about warm handshakes, coffee and cookies. It is not a program or the job of a committee or the ushers and greeters. It is an attitude. And each of us should have a similar attitude toward the stranger. What is your attitude toward strangers? How do you see them?
Let us pray. O God, when we look through the scriptures, we see how often you revealed yourself as a stranger. You were the three wayfarers that had a message for Abraham. You taught us that when we welcome the least of these, we welcome Jesus. You led Paul to teach that we should offer hospitality to strangers, for some have entertained angels unawares. We confess that we often are reserved toward the stranger. We are often shy and uncomfortable around people we don’t know or don’t look like us. Forgive us when we look past the stranger. Forgive us when we keep strangers at arm’s reach. Shape the attitude we have toward the stranger, that we might see them as the precious gift that they are, for we are all made in Your image, and we are all here for a reason, and we all have something to share. We offer this prayer in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, one God, now, and ever, and to the ages of ages. Amen.