Hospitality 101
March 9, 2008
Matthew 10: 12-16
Jesus calls his followers disciples. They are students. Students live in relation to the teacher. Jesus is a teacher of God. He is a theologian. He pushes, pulls, cajoles, invites, yells, screams, and tells parabolic stories, anything to get people’s attention about their own impressions of God. He also, as a teacher, lives his life as an example of this relationship with God. He is constantly inviting, denying, engaging and repelling people all based on what he believes about God and how those beliefs call him to be in this world. As Christians. As the followers or disciples of Christ, we are also called to live into this concept of student. How is it that we understand God? How is it that Faith meets living. Where does the practice reflect the understanding of the Holy, the Sacred, the Light, God? We as current disciples, we must look to the past and the ancient stories to find wisdom and meaning, pathways and obstacles that will help groom our faith, even today. Jesus also gives the disciples authority and sends them out, equipped as apostles, teachers of the faith. As he prepares them for their work and blesses them for going out he reminds them to follow the rules of Biblical hospitality with the story we heard today.
Our Administrative Council here at First, has asked us to understand and take on the practice of hospitality. We need to practice and witness to the work and word of Jesus by living into our call to hospitality. In order to do that, we must explore what the rules of Biblical Hospitality were.
Hospitality is the act of friendship shown to a visitor. It is the process of receiving outsiders and changing them from strangers to guests. However, it’s not a philosophy that we consider, it is an actual ritual with steps and responsibilities both parties of the time would understand.
First step is “Testing the Stranger” Strangers are unknowns. Strangers are risk factors. Strangers pose a threat to any community since they have the potential to be harmful. The first step is to test the stranger to see for yourself how they will fit and subscribe to the community norms. Will they be an asset or a hindrance…will they be open or closed…will they trample on the sacred or affirm the values of the community? These are all questions that provoke the stranger to be tested. It is good, our roots tell us, to know who it is you are welcoming in…Meet them, but find out quickly who they are, what their intentions are and understand how that will impact who we are and what our intentions are. This testing step is implied in the phrase “worthy house”. We must decide, is this house worthy of the love and light you bring? Worthy meaning, will they join us in our work of love and light. Everybody isn’t going to want to contribute. Everybody isn’t going to want to come along. Since we acknowledge this truth, it is very important to spend the most of your time with the folks who are open and who want to come along. So, figure out a way, create a way, invent a way to test, are these folks staying or not…Recognizing, if they stay, the have to be able to become one of us. If they are going to be one of us, they are going to have a vote. If we are giving them that power, they better be willing to support the tender work we have done together to date. If their intension is to invade, to “fix us”, to rescue us, to save us, this is not open, hospitable connection and it’s ok if they are repelled. It is OK as the teacher to dust yourself off and move on, for you can not teach if there are no students, go ahead, move on, it’s just the wrong time, wrong place, wrong teacher student match. Try again somewhere else. And, have peace about this process. Your peace is contagious and you have the authority to speak to this process, so make sure at all times you are coming from a place of peace. When the stranger has passed the test by answering your questions in a manner that reflects your beliefs and values, you invite them in and wash their feet. Through the washing of the feet, the relationship changes from host and stranger to host and guest.
The second step is “stranger as guest”. When, as a guest, you come upon a house, a house that offers to welcome you in, and you feel comfortable with what they have asked of you, you agree to enter. Upon entering, they welcome you by washing your feet. Without Dr. Scholls. Without Birkenstocks or tevas. Without socks. Without showers. You can imagine, here in Tucson, how good it must have felt to have your feet washed after a long journey. I’m sure your tired feet felt renewed and in fact that tender care of your tired, blistered, dry and dirty feet renewed your spirit. In this exchange of welcome, the guest was also instructed through the care of the act of the washing and tender care, to be the kind of guest that also is caring, respectful, trustworthy and kind. As a guest you followed a protocol and as a host you followed a protocol.
The third step came when it was time for the guest to leave. The guest would, based on the interactions in the second step would leave as friend or enemy. And, the host based on the guests actions in the second step would consider the guest a friend or enemy. It is considered the step of transformation, because upon leaving, you could potentially become part of the family always to be welcomed there again.
Hospitality was a serious business back in the day. There were no Super 8s or Embassy Suites. There had to be a protocol because people would inevitably show up around the water well and need a meal and a place to stay. Your family, your community had to understand what the rules were, what they would accept and what the consequences would be if mistakes were made. Their lives depended on it, their communities relied on it. There were plenty of rogue characters out there interested in conquering a village and wouldn’t think twice of taking a family down for a home base. Inviting someone into your home was necessary and dangerous. The Bible story about Sodom and Gomorrah was an issue of hospitality. It’s the prime example in the Sacred story not about gay and lesbian issues but it’s an example of inhospitality. When hospitality is not offered as a person of faith, the Sacred Story from today tells us, their will be a consequence.
Hospitality also is a discipline. It’s something that needs practice. It’s something that we have to learn to live. And, this work of hospitality, some will be receptive and some won’t. But, that’s not our work. Our work is to not take people’s response to our hospitality personally. Our work as people of faith is to be hospitable and to set up the protocol. And, we are to watch for people’s reaction to that hospitality. If they are open, we share, if they are closed we move on. It’s not a personal statement. It’s not an offense. We don’t have to hate them, gossip about them, take them on, we simply need to move on. Move on. It’s like shopping. We don’t go ballistic because we don’t like all the vegetables. We just move on. It’s forgotton. It’s not an ordeal. This discipline takes practice and it takes skill. Many ache in our world. Many are broken in our world. We must understand the protocol. We must practice hospitality, and we must also be willing to shake the dust off. This is part of being wise as serpants and gentle as doves.
We are a community of faith. We don’t have to live according to the rules of the empire. It’s not our call, empire. We are a people who get to begin again, throw away the pain from the past and enjoy a whole new tomorrow. We are those people. Welcome. Welcome to the community. From the moment you arrived, I hope you have felt refreshed, renewed, supported and included. It is our intention and we do it because we believe that is the very experience of God. Let us pray.