Sermon 29th August, 2010

Our Gospel today is all about hospitality and about what is important in the giving and receiving of hospitality.

Jesus urges those who are guests not to choose the best seats.

And he urges those who are hosts not to choose the guests who can repay them, but the people who actually need their generosity.

When we use the word ‘hospitality’ we tend to think about welcoming others to share a meal, to morning tea after church, perhaps to stay in our home for a holiday – and these things are very important to the life of any community. But we might want to think metaphorically as well as literally - about how hospitable we are to new ideas; to people whose views are very different from ours; and about how we feel about receiving from God and from others – remembering that it is often much more difficult to receive than to give. Are we hospitable to those who seek to give to us?

It is harder than we think, isn’t it? We all know that hospitality is important in our spiritual lives. We know that sharing is of the essence of Christian discipleship. We know that we ought not to distinguish between people on any grounds, but always look for the good in them, seeking to see them with the gentle eyes of Jesus’s love, and give to them and receive from them accordingly.

We know these things. But somehow it is not always so easy to practise them.

Pelagius defines the Christian as one ‘whose door is closed to no-one’ and ‘whose food is offered to all.’ No doubt we would all find that hard to live by, (whether we take it literally or metaphorically) and indeed there is a right need for boundaries that protect, as well as for the pulling down of walls that exclude. But which is a boundary and which is a wall? – and how do we prevent the one becoming the other?

Ray Simpson, who visited us here on the Peninsula some years ago from the Northumbria community, tells us that the community “pledge themselves to ‘availability’. To be available means that we are willing to give time, shelter or sustenance to anyone, if Christ inspires us. We do not do this upon demand: that would be to become a doormat, and would prevent us being available for God’s priorities, but we will be open to it, and we will always have an hospitable heart.” (Ray Simpson,’Exploring Celtic Spirtiuality’)

To have an hospitable heart – what does that mean? You might like to ponder that this week, and what it might mean in your place and situation. Part of what it means I believe is to always assume that the person we are looking at, or speaking with is made in the image of God, just like us. That something of the glory of God is reflected in them, no matter how obscure that glory may seem to be; and no matter how profoundly we disagree with them, or how much we dislike what they are doing or saying, we always retain a little ‘space’ in which we remind ourselves,’this is a child of God and to be honoured as such.’

The Christian writer Kathleen Norris writes:”In a world in which we are so easily labelled and polarised by our difference – man/woman, Protestant/Catholic, gay/straight, feminist/chauvinist (we could add black/white) -..hospitality is a model fo the kind of openness that we need if we are going to see and hear eachother at all….. (It) is at the centre of our Christian faith – the bread of the eucharist is called the ‘Host’ after all, and for good reason. Chruch hierarchies…become inhospitable whenever they forget they are not the centre.”
(Kathleen Norris,’The Cloister Walk p.179)

At the centre of course is God. And all our attempts at hospitality are a pale reflection of the hospitality that is at the heart of Godself. So you might like this week in your prayer to imagine yourself a guest at God’s table – as of course we are at every eucharist. Imagine yourself welcomed and invited in; given a place at the table; looked at with love and generosity. Such a meditation can be very moving, as we realise our total unworthiness to be there at all and the extraordinary love of God who receives us. Finding ourselves so welcomed, can soften our hearts as we seek to welcome and receive others into our lives and homes. For as the epistle reminds us, those who welcome strangers, welcome angels unawares – or in other words, God is always present in the stranger, whether or not we recognise that fact.

To welcome the stranger – whether in the form of an unfamiliar human being or an unfamiliar idea – requires courage; the kind of God-given courage that helps us to open our hearts and incline them to love. Yet,”God is among us. In a world where we see only in part and know even less, it is hard to spot God. …It is not important that we recognise God in the stranger; God is there whether we notice or not. We can just assume that fact and do the next thing – accept the stranger. What matters is that we stretch our hearts open and draw near to each other. It is the way of hospitality, the way of life, and…. the only way home.” (from Radical Hospitality
Homan and Pratt p233)

And so now in the spirit of that hospitality it is my great delight to welcome Denise Brown and Grant Killen to talk to us about Cursillo; may we welcome these strangers with their strange ideas with open hearts and minds.. Amen