Our God is a loving, forgiving and welcoming God. But if we, as His people, are not forgiving, loving and welcoming in our congregations, how will people know those attributes of our God? I am concerned that we have become more and more isolated from one another. The less we know about the people around us the less we trust and the more we fear. How much fear can we endure and still function as loving, creative human beings? What is the long-term effect of living in that kind of anxiety? What will happen to the human community when we continue to isolate ourselves from one another, separate ourselves from community and live out of fear of other human beings?
The Church is called to create a safe place where people are encouraged to disarm themselves, lay aside their occupations and preoccupations and to listen with love to one another and to God. Hospitality is an atmosphere and no one can create it in a community except you. I am asking you today to create an atmosphere of hospitality that works against the fears that have become a part of the culture of our day and create a safe place where strangers may come and be known. Will you join me in that ministry?
When we have lived for a while, the walls of our lives become marked with the graffiti of many events: world events, family events, personal events as well as by our responses to them. Hospitality asks us to break down the walls of prejudice that encourages us to see others as inferior, different, dangerous and somehow unworthy of our time and consideration. What attitudes would you have to change in order for you to embrace one another? Hospitality is the virtue that allows us to break through the narrowness of our fears and open our lives to the rich influence of others. Hospitality is an attitude of the heart and I am pitching for a change in your life and in mine!
It is love in action. It doesn't have to be organized, or programmed or formulated. Hospitality is expressed in random acts of kindness. A young mother in an old car loaded down with four children pays the toll for the next five cars behind her. Can you imagine what those motorists thought as they were told "It's free today! Someone ahead of you paid your toll."
A teenager is scrubbing graffiti off a park bench that had been there for years. A homebound lady writes five notes per day to friends, acquaintances and strangers, extending random acts of kindness to people she doesn't even know. Love does not call for as much organization, structure, programming and planning as we would like to think. We need to Just do it! Hospitality is a characteristic of the real Christian community. 1 Peter 4:9, "Offer hospitality to one another without grumbling. "If we can not love the people we know, how can we think about loving strangers?
Hospitality is expanded into the neighborhood. Dr. Bob Goodrich was the Pastor of First United Methodist Church in Dallas Texas when President Kennedy was shot. With tears in his eyes the following Sunday he lamented to his congregation, "Lee Harvey Oswald lived only three blocks from our church, but so far as we know no one from our congregation ever called on him, or invited him to church, or expressed any interest at all in him, during that time. Do we have any responsibility for what just happened in our world?"
If we want a safer, more hospitable world, we might begin by building hospitality centers that are called churches who are as concerned for their communities as they are for themselves. Look around you and find someone in need. Help somebody today! Though it may be little, a neighborly deed or whatever, help someone today. Our Redeemer does a very good job welcoming people in worship. How about outside of the doors of our church? When worship ends and we exit the doors the service begins!
April is the month we celebrate the resurrection of Lord. What a great time to practice the teachings Jesus taught us while He walked the earth. Jesus did not leave us as orphans when He ascended into Heaven; He sent the third Person of the Trinity to remind us of everything He taught us. That Third Person of the Trinity is the Holy Spirit. We celebrate the ongoing presence of our Lord in the Person of the Holy Spirit. Our carrying on the ministry of Jesus is where the rubber meets the road in our Christian walk. He is risen!!! He is risen indeed!!!!!
Pastor Dave